4-Players Shared Screen Prototype, Main Menu Flow

I'm still stuck in menu/input hell, but an end is in sight (a thought I've had at least three times before, but this time I'm really, really sure!)

So, let's get to it!

4-Players Shared Screen Prototype

Starting with this topic, because that's what I'm showing off in the video, above!

I've always planned to have local multiplayer in the game, and until now it has been split-screen only: However, I'm afraid that won't work well for 4 players, because the screens end up pretty tiny and hard to read...

I only have my keyboard and 2 extra controllers lying around, at the moment – just pretend there's a fourth player.

Essentially, I have three options:

• Leave it the way it is, with split-screen multiplayer, up to 4 players
• Remove the 4-player mode, entirely, and limit multiplayer to 2 players
• Have a 2-player split-screen mode, and a 4-player shared screen mode

What you can see in the video is me prototyping option 3! And it's been going... okay.

I'm not a huge fan of the way it plays, honestly, and I reckon that fully implementing a mode like this is more effort than it may prove to be worth: The camera needs completely new behavior and I'll have to re-implement large chunks of the HUD and player UI. That's work!

So, looking at this, I'm thinking I should just either scratch the 4-player mode, or give the 4-way split screen another chance. Maybe I just need to try it out on a large TV, to see that it actually works pretty okay! (After all, I have played a lot of split-screen Rocket League with colleagues, on the company TV... so I know it can work.)

Realistically, hardly anyone is going to play this with 3 more players, locally, anyway; so I probably shouldn't put too much thought into it. But it sure would be nice to have this option, i.e. to play the game with friends at a conventions, or such.

Main Menu Flow

You thought I was done talking about menus and game controller inputs? Wrong!

I have re-worked large parts of how the main menu works. And here's an interesting difference to how it worked before: There is a dedicated option to play single-player!

Before, if you wanted to play single-player, you'd just start a local multiplayer game, be the only player to join, and start the game.

Now, if you want to play single-player, you select the single-player mode and the game will automatically "join" the main player, before you start the game.

"Literally what's the difference," you may ask. This is where it gets exciting! ...well, not really, but bear with me. Oh, and also, download this 33mb GIF:

A player switching between 2 different controllers and the keyboard to control the character, in single-player mode. Decide, already!

The answer is automatic input scheme switching! In local multiplayer, each players gets one mode of input. Such as keyboard and mouse, or a single game controller: Each is reserved for one player only. But when you are playing single-player, you want to play with whatever input device is connected!

So when you select single-player mode, the game makes sure you can switch from keyboard to game controller, on the fly, and it will update the control hints, etc. – convenient!

Generally, I'm finally happy now with how the input, main menu and player management works!

That's it for now, and thanks for your support!