Wiz-Herd Spell System

Wiz-Herd is an up to 4 person multiplayer game where you and your friends customize your dogs and pick 3 of the 9 available spells to go and play a series of 5 minigames that all involve herding sheep. This game was made by a group of 5 over the course of 4 months (and counting) and part of my role was developing and coding the spell system in Unreal 5.

Overview

This system allows us developers to dynamically add spells to the list of available spells and have easy access to them when they are being cast by the player. It uses an actor component as the manager, then each spell is it's own actor to help streamline the process of making the spells work in the multiplayer scenario.

Trailer

Demo out now on Steam:https://store.steampowered.com/app/3631040/WizHerd/

Concept

The central part of our game design for this project was the idea of having options to customize your dog before taking on a series of minigames or "challenges". There are 3 cosmetic changes you can make that don't affect gameplay, but you also have the ability to choose 3 spells to bring with you through the series of minigames. The 3 spells the player chooses to take will affect their playstyle as they go through each different minigame and was one of the main focuses of our development for this game.

The Spells

Before going into the system behind the spells, allow me to quickly describe each spell.

Wind Spell

Pushes Dogs and Sheeps away from you in a cone facing the direction you are moving.
Despawns after a few seconds.
Consists of just 1 actor attached to the rotation of the player. Has an associated VFX.

Block Spell

Spawns a wall behind you that acts as a barrier to both Dogs and Sheep.
Despawns after a few seconds.
Consists of just 1 actor detached from the player.

Charm Spell

Causes you to attract sheep instead of scare sheep away for a few seconds.
Despawns after a few seconds.
Consists of just 1 actor that follows the player's movement. Has an associated VFX.

Confuse Spell

Causes nearby Dogs to have their controls inverted for a short time.
First actor is the area of effect (AoE) that spawns for a second then despawns. Has an associated VFX.
Secondary actor attaches to each Dog hit and applies a VFX and then despawns after a few seconds to remove the confusion.

Speed Up Spell

Causes your Dog to run faster for a short time.
Consists of just 1 actor that attaches to the casting Dog that despawns upon the spell ending.

Slow Down Spell

Causes nearby Dogs to have their speed halved for a short time.
First actor is the AoE that spawns and despawns after a second. Has an associated VFX.
Secondary actor attaches to each dog hit and applies a VFX and the slow down effect. Despawns once the effect timer is done.

Landmine Spell

Spawns a landmine that when stepped on by a Sheep or Dog will cause all nearby to get pushed backa distance.
1 Actor that spawns at the casting Dog's location and stays until it gets triggered.

Stun Spell

Causes all nearby Dogs to the caster to get stunned for a few seconds preventing them from moving.
First actor is the AoE that spawns and despawns after a second. Has an associated VFX.
Secondary actor attaches to each dog hit and applies a VFX and the slow down effect. Despawns once the effect timer is done.

Giant Spell

Causes the player's Dog to grow larger, making their hitbox larger for relevant spells but also makes Sheeps run away from you in a larger radius.
Spawns 1 Actor that acts purely as a timer for the spell and changes the size variable on the casting Dog. Despawns after a few seconds.

The System

The system recieves the stored data from the player concerning which spells they have selected and the current spell being cast. When the button is pressed to cast a spell, the player then calls the spell manager component. In the spell manager component, it takes the cast spell and the current player and/or player location then routes into the currect spell function that will spawn the spell actor to perform the actual effects of the spell. The spell manager also thenr eturns the spell duration to the player so duplicate spells can't be cast till the end of the spell duration. When a spell actor is spawned it will perform it's functions then despawn itself after the spell duration ends. Some spells will affect other players/sheeps so the relevant spells will spawn a secondary actor to attach to said actors with a lifespan for things like spell fx or when the actor despawns reseting the attacthed player/sheep.