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[bleeks]

Here's a couple new screenshots for screenshot Saturday.

New Cave and new enemy.

[bleeks]

 For inspiration I like to watch some videos of similar style games while I do dev stuff. I was watching some stuff on the old Blaster Master games today and also the new ones which look great, I've realized our game is going to be a lot different feeling.

 Though I got my inspiration from the Blaster Master series for GunnSwitch, I first thought of  making GunnSwitch after seeing the bad egg in the series, Blaster Master 2 for the Sega Genesis. Its a bad game overall but a couple aspects of it stood out to me.

 Blaster Master 2 has pilot sections that were not over head dungeons but zoomed in side scrolling gameplay with more of a run and gun look and feel to it. I also liked the look of the tank rotating on ramps and slopes and rotating as you jumped in the air to even out your shot projection. So thats where I started from, having a zoomed in character when out of the tank and a tank that rides over ramps and slopes smoothly, I one upped that one by having three separate wheel sections that rotate and move independently which gives a cool feel and look I think.

Thats all I really got from Blaster Master 2, the cool parts lol
As for being like classic Blaster Master style gameplay it will be lighter on the metroidvania style mazes gameplay and more like a Wonderboy MonsterLand/Shantae style open world that is explorable but mixed with run and gun action stages.




 

[bleeks]

Hey, long time no post.

Finally got to a point where I can connect all the levels in one world map area together so its starting to feel more like an actual game with some fun mechanics. Fine tuning the weapons now, fixing old stuff and polishing things up as I go.

Playing with parallax scrolling backgrounds and foregrounds and having fun tinkering with that stuff..

My favorite thing about indie dev is being able to work on a variety of things if I get stuck on something or get bored with another thing theres so many other things I can work on that progresses the development either way..

I think thats why its hard for indie devs to "finish" a game as the final push is forcing yourself to work on stuff that may feel more laborious or like work. By that time though you just gotta push through..

Heres a new screen of the Crystal Caves

[bleeks]

Happy Saturday



Gunn Switch will feature some fun physics objects and interactions (Not pictured here lol) but related to it. These rock blasts can be very dangerous for enemies and creatures and who knows what else. I want to add more interactions between the player, the environment the NPCSs and enemies to make this world feel alive and the action more emergent.

Had an epiphany today about how I want to market GunnSwitch when that time comes, probably in a couple years I hope. Good to start thinking about it early I think.

I cant sell my game on just, its "like Blaster Master" or its "Metroidvania" or whatever or just on its features alone. Or that its indie, they are good things to know about my game but to really give my game a chance to stand out in the sea of games out there I need to communicate it in a more interesting way.

I have to convey what makes it special and im still figuring out what that is and how to express it. The more my ideas get refined and I get further in the process Ill be able to better understand what Im creating here and why.

[bleeks]

Here is a scene I'm working on where these enemy soldiers are holding hostages. Just as you get there to save the day, a swarm of giant spiky yellow slugs pop up out of the ground, chaos ensues...bad for the enemy, at least I'm safe in a tank hahaha...poor slugs

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Here is a quick update on that scene.

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Here are some clouds that Ive been working on. They have parallax scrolling and reflections.

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Today I want to talk about one of the gameplay systems I am developing for GunnSwitch.

I like to call it the "funky momentum system"

In GunnSwitch, the terrain will feature many slopes and ramps that you can ride or jump off while driving your tank.

What makes it funky is that this tank will pick up a silly amount of gravitational speed as you soar in the air.

What kind of air time you get depends on the timing of the jump and the angle of the slope your tank is riding on.

Here comes the fun part. If your tank hits a jump through platform while your tank is angled and you keep holding the direction down, the tank will glide on/grind on the platform. Now while you hold the direction down and jump again, you pick up more speed and jump further.

On top of this, you can also grapple a platform above you while grinding and get a big boost jump too. Its hard to explain but its something thats very unique about GunnSwitchs movement systems.

Its fun to chain a couple of jumps and grinds together, crushing enemy soldiers and knocking crates and barrels into the air.

Its a tank that jumps and grinds like a skateboarder, its ridiculous I'm aware, but its also fun!

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Here is a look at one of our stage lay outs at 5 % scale zoomed out. Looks like an ant farm. Lots of nooks and crannies for Gunn to jump out of the tank and explore, to find secrets, and there's hostages to be saved and lots of butts to be kicked.

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A zoomed in look at some explosions, they are dynamic, if the explosion impact zone is moving (ie. the red barrels) so will the explosion spread.

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These pesky bugs will give chase in the caves, be careful to not be caught by the swarms. In your tank these critters are harmless though.

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Some times when building something you have to break it down a few times and start over until you get it just right.
At least it is when you are a green and an inconsistent dev like myself.

Big lessons learned lately in my game dev journey.

I have rewritten my games events for some of the controls of the game and now the controls are so much smoother.

I scrapped my enemy soldiers movements systems totally.

I started over from scratch with them because I had things working but they were written in a way where I had no flexibility in controlling their AI among other small issues that I had with their animations and collision detection.

I have had to go back too many times with my game to fix and patch bad "code" (Event Sheets in Construct 3)
I just got fed up with it and had to bite the bullet.

Its great though as now that I've accepted that some things are not up to par, I'm learning how to make things better and actually learning some good game design practices.

I am loving the results so far, my enemies will have more life to them now.

[bleeks]

Yesterday I spent 12 hours just cleaning up and polishing the first Cave area. Its not even that big of a stage but it was my first official stage that I made for the game around 6 years ago. There were so many little blemishes, things you don't notice until you zoom in really good.

Tip for new devs: Take it slow, be clean and careful the first time when implementing your graphics and other details. Do it right the first time, then later polish it up again. Polishing it will be much easier if the stage layout is clean and precise.

- I changed the light rays I had, made them sharper and sexier looking.

- Reworked all my light sources

-Fixed BG tiles that were messed up or just plain wrongly placed

- Rearranged foreground and background assets

-Redid my stage end cutscene

- and many more small fixes

Reason Im doing all this again is because I was rushing, not experienced and a little bit delusional. Let people see your game, whether on the internet or just local friends and family and tell them to be brutally honest.

What we think looks good or right may not be so good because we are so used to seeing it so many times we become blind to very apparent things.

Anyways here is a new screen.

Cheers