This project is inspired by the Companion Traversal talk at GDC 2023 by Salaar Kohari at Santa Monica Studios. It will be developed in Unreal Engine 5.2.
The goal of this project is to develop a spline based traversal system that an AI companion or enemies can utilize. On this traversal system, a Companion can either lead or follow the player. It will utilize Dijkstra’s Algorithm for pathing decisions. Additionally, walls will have a climbing graph that should be easy to edit by level designers. Level designers will be able to select the next and previous location on the path and the correct animation state. Each spline path will also contain a filter for what type of actor can travel on the path. This will be used to demonstrate how an enemy can traverse a section, but the filter prevents them from traversing another area that a companion and player can. The weights on each spline will update when an enemy traverses on it to ensure that the AI stays spread out rather than clumped.
Schedule
| Dates | |
| 5/22 – 5/28 | Project Setup Research Unreal Animation and AI Systems – Behavior Trees – State Machines – Sync Groups – Blend Spaces – Motion Warping Basic Player Movement Basic AI Follow |
| 5/29 – 6/4 | Plan and build graph system for climbing traversal |
| 6/5 – 6/11 | Finish climbing graph system Implement climbing movement (player) Start climbing animations |
| 6/12 – 6/18 | Add additional climbing animations Implement transition from ground to climbing graph |
| 6/19 – 6/25 | Nav Link System Setup spline navigation on ground |
| 6/26 – 7/2 | Dijkstra’s Algorithm |
| 7/3 – 7/9 | Companion Follow / Lead (Climb) |
| 7/10 – 7/16 | Companion Follow / Lead (Ground) |
| 7/17 – 7/23 | Basic enemy navigation using spline system |
| 7/24 – 7/30 | Padding week in case other work takes longer than expected. – Final improvements – Polish traversal and animations |