Shop Portal System
Design document for NRR shop room portal system
Info
Design
Initially, portals served as simple jump points between locations. However, we're introducing a new concept: temporary portals that transport the player to special areas. These areas will offer various interactive elements like the shop, NPCs, health, and ammo.
To help players differentiate, portals will now be colour-coded. For example, purple portals might lead to teleport locations, while green portals could take you to a shop area. When basic portals transform into these new shop portals, a Niagara effect and sound effects will activate. This alerts the player that they have a limited time to use these specific portals before they disappear.


Implementation
This idea can be further pushed by creating additional portal types with unique colours and effects. For example, new portals could transport the player to mini-game events or even various levels. Maintaining a flexible and easily replicable functionality for these portals will significantly accelerate future development and allow for a wide range of new ideas to be implemented efficiently.
Functionality
The core interaction with portals remains familiar: players will still press 'E' when near a portal to teleport. However, we're introducing a new layer of dynamic functionality. To transform a basic portal into a shop portal, a variable timer will decide the frequency of these changes. This variable can be randomised for variety and potentially influenced by future player upgrades.
We plan to implement different states for portals, allowing them to have varying functions based on their current state. This approach will make it easy to replicate and expand portal functionalities with more states as needed.
Once a player overlaps with a shop portal and presses 'E', they'll be teleported to a designated shop area. This operates similarly to how the boss room functions, placing the player at a specific spawn point within the shop environment.
Further Development
Building upon the current development plan for shop portals, the next step in evolving this mechanic could involve allowing the player to unlock or purchase the ability to change a portal to their liking through the shop. For instance, defeating an enemy might unlock a portal to a previously inaccessible area. To activate this, the player would approach the portal and use the acquired item. This action would trigger the distinct changing sound effects and Niagara visual effects, clearly signalling that the portal's function has transformed.
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