Programming a 666,000 IQ Monster for my game!

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Check out my Link Tree, with links to my game Choo-Choo Charles, and my other socials!
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In this indie horror game devlog, full time game dev Two Star Games (Gavin Eisenbeisz) shows how to make a video game that is incredibly scary, horrifying, cursed, and is probably the scariest game ever. I'll be programming artificial intelligence AI. See behind the scenes in Unreal Engine 4 Blender and Gimp, as I make this game. This horror game has an evil spider train. Like in resident evil, replaced Mr. X mod, or in skyrim and other popular best video games. Choo Choo Charles for life. Also, some people think the game is called Choo Choo Charlies, but that's incorrect.
#GameDev #ChooChooCharles #UE4 #UnrealEngine

[Hephaestus_God]

Maybe not have it always try to attack you every 5-10 min.

Instead, make Charles have a detection bubble. If you are in it's range (a large range) during the time it activates, then he will try to seek you out. Otherwise, he won't and will continue to roam freely.

This way the attacks feel more random and sporadic thus giving more of a fright. The worst part of horror games is having a scary enemy not be scary anymore because you see it 24/7

[sparrowanimates]

I think an expression change when Charles spots you would be scary. Imagine you see some monster searching around for you, it looks kinda bored or neutral. Then it sees you and it grins.

[sungerbobchair]

You should add a system where weapons (especially the machine gun) can overheat so that it makes you want to stay further away and not make noise when around Charles. Also, i think that you should be able to find ammo and upgrades for your weapons so that you have more to explore. Something for Charles, i think that his headlight should change colour depending on certain things that happen, like when he’s hunting/chasing you it should be red, when he’s looking around for you it should be orange, and when he’s not doing anything it stays the normal yellow. It would also be cool if you could find fuel or have to cut down small trees with an axe you could find to fuel your train, which makes noise and means Charles might be able to find you so you have to take fuel usage into account. Just a few ideas, hope you see this and the game looks great so far!!

EDIT: A lot of people in the replies were saying certain aspects of my comment would be too hard, so here’s a few more ideas i’ve thought up. I had the thought of making it so there is difficulty levels, with the harder difficulty including more challenges. Practice difficulty, Charles is slower and takes way longer to detect you, his attacks do less damage, way more scrap around the map, unlimited ammo, no gun overheat, and cost for upgrades is reduced. This mode means players can get a feel for the game without it being too harsh on their first go around. Easy difficulty, More scrap, it takes Charles longer to detect you, he doesn’t hear you as often and unlimited ammo. Normal, Regular detection rate, he hears you more often, and guns overheat but still have unlimited ammo, Normal amount of scrap, Medium difficulty, Charles detects you more often, guns overheat faster and hears more often. Hard difficulty, Charles detects you nearly immediately if you walk near or around him, guns overheat very quickly if you constantly shoot them (burst recommended), and limited ammo. Nightmare difficulty, Charles is faster, can see you from far away, guns overheat from consistent shooting, even more limited ammo (50 rounds for the machine gun, 100 “rounds” for the flamethrower, 20 rockets for the RPG, and 50 rounds for Bob). This means that players can choose how hard they want the game to be without being hindered by certain things.

EDIT 2: One of the commenters below this comment mentioned an idea similar to this, so credit to them! A cool thing to add would be distractions/decoys so that Charles won’t be attracted to you and will instead attack the decoy.

[SKLong]

I think adding an animal or something occasionally to the track when Charles is not chasing would be cool, like to force you to use the horn and run the risk of alerting Charles or just tanking the hit.

[marge]

Ok I've got an idea but when Choo-Choo Charles is repairing himself after being knocked down to half health I think there should be like places he stays at like a cave or something that have a ton of scrap in them but you also run the risk of meeting Charles there without having your train. Idk could be cool?

[cara-seyun]

Idea: you can find ‘husks’ around the map, like dead versions of Charles, but they could still move when you try to loot them and alert Charles, or Charles could disguise himself as a husk to lure you closer

[chaosfire]

I think there should be moments where Charles' spider legs retract and he runs on the track like a normal train. You could have things like him ramming the players train or even acting as a form of camouflage for like...an abandoned train yard or something.

[sneakaboo]

I love that the train doesn’t have doors, the fact that it’s so open keeps the player from feeling safe while inside

[phoenix]

Terrifying Suggestion: Charlies sets traps for the player using scrap as bait when he doesn't run into them after awhile. Stalking nearby or within earshot.

[t-rex]

Maybe Charles shouldn't have a visible health bar, I find it more terrifying when I *don't* know how close I am to killing the creature chasing me.

[zeemo]

Recommendations: Make Charles walk a bit slower and not look like he's running when he's on the hunt for you.
Maybe a loud sort of screeching/growling noise when Charles has noticed you to get your heart going.
Make maybe a massive and or big tree, old train station, train junk yard, decrepit cave (recommended in the replies) somewhere in the map (Maybe the middle) which is Charles nest and there is lots of scrap around there or something like that.
Make it a bit foggier/darker.
Have some abit of scary ambient noise maybe something like creaking Croaking or just weird noises

[whack]

It would be funny if Charles reacted to the train horn with his own much louder train horn

[Brutalyte]

So this might be hard to implement, but perhaps you could have Charles recognize certain attack patterns and adjust his method of attack. Like moving from side to side to try and didge, breaking line of sight to avoid incoming fire, trying to get ahead of the train or pulling up alongside it where you can't shoot and forcing you to slow down or brake to get Charles to reorient himself and start lagging behind again, going into a rage state and just roaring through attacks for a few seconds, or even breaking off his attack entirely if you find some way to abuse the system and he can't get any hits in for a while. Little things to throw you off, and so Charles doesn't look completely braindead when chasing the train.

[ghostshadow]

You should give Charles a presence when he’s not chasing you so like maybe he’ll make a loud sound like a horn blowing just so the player knows a approximate location

[AdrianW]

im glad this came up on reccomended now i can watch the development of this monstrosity that is on my wish list

[PikaPetey]

Man I know how hard programming behaviors is and trying to synch them through a network. Basically my AI consited of Pulling Random Integers, then checking that against a expanding list of behaviors, if the conditions of that behavior matched to required condition. The AI would execute that behavior for a certain amount of time before checking a random integer again. It did not lead to smart AI. I got AI about as good as watching squirrels doing squirrel stuff in a park.

[CthonicSoulChicken]

I think Charles should have a place he runs back to to heal after he's taken enough damage. Like a haunted, derelict train station or something. With a creep spider web/tunnel/nest inside. Perhaps the place if his demonic origin. After he heals, he can then return to hunt the player. Also--npc trains that coexist with the player would be awesome. So there are other trains Charles can hunt and afford you the opportunity to see what Chatles can do.

[Zetr]

I'm extremely impressed with this game, and especially the video format you use to log your development is extremely entertaining. As a hobbyist game developer on the side, this is all so relatable 😂 Hope you'll get some great breakthroughs with unique ideas in future development :D

[DimmuDeer]

And the award for "taken out of context" goes to...
*"So it basically executes your children from left to right."*

[Flopsaurus]

From the perspective of someone who just started trying to make a game, it's way more encouraging seeing failures than successes. Thank you for showing how much of a struggle it is. Your game looks ridiculous, and I love it.