Project Introduction

We have chosen to develop BTO in Unreal Engine because we believe it is the perfect engine with its unparalleled toolset for developing 3D games, such as the wealth of readily-available assets and intuitive third-person movement and camera controls. For our Environments we use Brushify along with Quixel Bridge and Mixer to bring each of our areas in the game together and in a seamless and unified way. For characters animations and facial animations for all in game and cinematics I have Character Creator 3, 3D X Change, and I Clone 7.

Players play the game as Andrew Jackson, who has access to an AI-infused futuristic suit, Named E.M.I.L.I, which grants Andrew a number of upgradeable abilities. These follow three main skill branches: stealth tech, battle tech, and defense tech. Players can choose to master one skill branch or evenly distribute abilities, resulting in many different ways to approach enemies and significant replayability. In addition to combat, BTO features puzzle rooms and a plethora of side quests, which reward the player with additional equipment and upgrades.

The level is set up in three main areas, the woods, the icy mountain range, and the volcanic mountain peak. Each area has different types of witches housed within. Sand witches are the smallest enemies in the game, Ice Witches float and dance within the air seducing their victims before they attack, and the Tree witches are the largest enemy in the game with thick bark skin and arms like tree trunks. As players progress through the level and open up new areas, the enemies are stronger. The Forests are filled with unique witch camps, in a varieties of shapes, sizes, and builds, with different bridge systems allowing players to gain access to new or secret areas. These camps house witch sorcerers who use dark magic to raise their army of smaller witches, scurrying around the camps. On the mountain ridge and ice cliffs are many alien structures attached to the mountain cliffs. These structures lead to caves systems throughout the mountain range. These cave systems house alien puzzles, rooms, technology, and secrets to find. The Alien puzzles are guarded by robotic drones or brute cybernetic knights. The puzzles range from simple match puzzles or Simon says style puzzles up to puzzles uniquely designed around the characters weapon attachments and upgradeable abilities. Using your boosted jump, corrosive shots to melt, or ice shots to freeze objects in order to solve the puzzle. These alien puzzle rooms reward the player with upgrades, xp and new areas to explore.

Beyond the Oaks is being developed for both PC and Console, thus the player inputs are designed specifically with both in mind. Using a Keyboard and mouse, BTO functions like most games in the third-person genre, players move the screen with the mouse, aim and shoot with the left and right mouse buttons, and all interactions, locomotion and different abilities are used with the keyboard inputs. With many different inputs, actions and abilities, we are limited with the amount of buttons on console controllers. We have solved this like many pc/console games by having the game controls set-up in a way that allows players to make multi-button inputs. This allows players to perform multiple actions or abilities with one button using single press, double press and combination with other buttons. With multi-button inputs we can have all of the many abilities still in a natural and intuitive place on the controller.

The menus are being made with two things in mind, the quick performing actions like switching weapons or finding your next objective, and the long form menus with more information, images, and descriptions. All of the menus are designed to fit the theme. For example, character bios in beyond the oaks are called data logs. In the Data-log Menu you can find every character you have met with a description about that character. For collectables, we have named this category Sigils. In here you can find any rare collectables you have discovered such as audio tapes, which build on our expansive lore, and items which give more detail to the world and story. The short-form Quick Menus are in-game, and do not pause any gameplay. Quick Menus include weapon wheel, mini map, as well as missions and objectives. With Beyond the oaks we are developing the quick menus to be a part of the suit, inspired by games such as Batman Arkham series and Dead space, where the character being played is opening a hologram or using a computer in-game, to show the menu. This keeps players immersed in the game, rather than snapping a player out of the game to a menu.

About Developer

Dragonflygames Studio (DFG), founded in 2017, is devoted to creating engaging and impactful stories through video games. Our studio is home to world renowned artists, programmers, 3D designers, and storytellers from the video game industry, all focused on bringing our projects to life. Dragonflygames is also known for our brand, with an online shop offering clothing and accessories for game players and developers. We offer clothing which looks and feels amazing and also protects our bodies, head to toe, from long hours in front of computers. With our products we often sponsor Game Jams, Events, and Conventions, local and abroad. We have our clothing in stores in Saskatoon, and pre covid we had been included in the Saskatoon Fringe Festival and SideWalk Sale. DFG is very involved with several Universities where we speak and offer mentorship sessions to students who are interested in entering the game development industry. We are very active in both the Canadian Game Devs and the Sask Game Devs Communities. Dragonflygames is sponsoring the 2022 Game Slice event in September with our various gaming gear. This year we will also be talking to Xbox and Playstation representatives and pitching Beyond the Oaks. We are always looking at ways to develop the most at our studio. This requires a lot of different equipment and technology. Some of these technologies we have purchased, software like Iclone. Iclone is a suite of technologies, which allows the team to create fully custom animations and facial animations all in house. Beyond the Oaks is intended to be a multi-media production using these technologies. We have already completed multiple graphic novels, and for one of the graphic novels, we received a grant through SkArts. Future goals for the studio are finishing production on BTO, starting a new IP in the animated movie space, opening a youth unreal engine beginners camp and course both in person and online, and to continue our advocacy and work with universities and partners.