Day 2/3/4 - The core gameplay
What i worked on ?
Well, three days without a devlog. It's quite complicated to spare time for a jam when you are developping two other games as well but it's quite challenging. The last days, i worked on the core gameplay & the visual identity. I shared some WIP on twitter.
The core gameplay is quite simple. A mix between a metroidvania and a point & click. You play as a gentleman bounty hunter. You receive contracts directly on your ship monitor. You select the one you want to accomplish and here we go. The levels are procedurally generated but the objective of a mission are selected in list of four (assassinate, drop, loot & protect). I thought of hostage mission too but i think that it'll be too much work in only one month in order to manage a challenging mission on a procedurally generated level. Oh, and the game is 2D side scroller.
During a mission, you can move, crouch (enter a stealth mode), fire with your gun, attack with your sword & interact with objects. A small particularity, when you kill an enemy with your gun, he is vaporized. So the projectile will continue to the next enemy.So, if you manage to weaken an entire enemy squad, you can kill them all with a single shot.
The important part is the interaction with objects. You have an inventory that allow you to keep four object. Like in a point & click, you can use them on other object in order to combine them. For example, you can combine an explosive and a door in order to get a trapped door. This open new perspective of progression. Sometimes, killing everything is not the right answer. Plus, interact with object allow the player to discover new places and, of course, some rewards. Those new places will open new ways in order to accomplish the mission and ease the progression of the player.
When the player is killed, the game is over and he must start from the beggining. Hopefully, he can keep ont thing from his previous character. A piece of equipment or some cash. But only one.
At the end of each mission, you return to a space station/bar. Here, you can chill, get informations about contracts and upgrade your stuff.
What's now ?
Code the first prototype ! All the core rules are on the paper, let's make a first playable prototype now. This game is heavy. I think i will not finish it with all the features. But i will try by iterating from a basic version. For the first prototype, we will find :
- A loaded level (not procedurally generated)
- A player (a square. Maybe a red square ...)
- Some basic physics (gravity & simple collision)
- The ability to shoot (because it's fun).
And that's it for the very first prototype. I think i will not work on it today (another project is on the list). But as soon as i will make some progress, You will find them on twitter.
See ya !