Over the course of the semester, I worked on making an FPS character controller that made the player feel like a nimble parkour expert.

I started by implementing basic features like crouching, sprinting, and mouse movement. Next came a script that could manage the various states the character could be in, like walking, sprinting, crouching, and sliding. I also built a gymnasium level to contain metrics I could reference later, and experiment with the character.

To make movement more exciting, I gave the player a gun to shoot certain destructible obstacles in their path. The pistol isn’t visible unless the player “draws” it by holding right click. After firing the gun, holstering it automatically starts reloading the magazine. This keeps things simple and keeps emphasis on the platforming, not shooting.

The demo level started with a large tower to give the player a goal visible from the entire level. Next came some tutorializing with low to none punishment for failure to let the player get a handle on the movement. The latter half of the level tests the player’s skill by having them chain jumps together and shooting, all while surrounded by lava!