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[mrinalmech]

Introduction

Hi, welcome to the devlog for our game Global Steel. Global Steel is a combination of two things very dear to our hearts.

The first is the animated series of the eighties - He Man, Centurions, Thundercats etc.



The second is the run and gunner sidescroller genre of games popular in the early 90s - Contra, Gunstar Heroes etc.



What we decided to do was combine the tropes of 80s animated series with the gameplay of a run and gun shooter (updated of course with modern day conventions). What we are doing is creating an entire new universe using the tropes and cliches of 80s cartoons which might have been a hypothetical show airing in the 80s.

Visual Style

To remain faithful to our chosen 80s aesthetics we are doing hand drawn frame by frame animation, similar to how it was done back in the 80s. We are also mimicking the techniques used in that era to remain true to that style.


Features

Secret Headquarters Base

In the tradition of all good 80s cartoons (Centurions, M.A.S.K, GI Joe etc) you have a base where you can choose missions, upgrade your team and view trophies/achievements as well as replay past missions.



Unique Team Members

The majority of 80s cartoon shows were team shows were each member of the team used to have slightly different abilities. This trope lends well to gameplay as unique team members lead to game variety. We will be creating such varied playable characters each with their own upgrade tree for variability and replayability.



More information

We will be updating the devlog with regular information but you can also follow us on FB and Twitter as well as IndieDB to get the latest news and progress.

FB - https://www.facebook.com/macondostudios , https://www.facebook.com/globalsteelgame/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/macondostudios , https://twitter.com/globalsteelgame
IndieDB - http://www.indiedb.com/games/american-steel

[Julien]

Good luck !
That's a good idea to start at devlog asap

[mrinalmech]

Implemented the character controls along with 8-directional aiming/shooting.

Have asked my artist to work on animations so I can use them instead of the placeholder Contra sprites I'm using now. Art style is still not finalized but we are leaning heavily towards an 80's animated series style (think he-man/centurions/visionaries etc). Give in your suggestions on what things you would like to see in the game and what makes a run and gun shooter great.

Possible Art Style:

[alvarop]

Good luck. I'm in 100% for that art-style.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

[Schoq]

honestly the design looks close enough for a lawsuit to me. All the distinguishing traits are there.

[Schoq]

Not wrong per se, it's just that if you're gonna put ©©©©©©©©© all over a design it should probably be something original

Arm canon
Suit is blue and cyan interspersed exactly like many megaman designs
Helmet shape
Even the white gloved version just makes it really reminiscent of megaman X

I don't care about derivative designs as such, I just don't think this deviates enough to be safe in case you attract attention from the wrong legal team

[woodsmoke]

Also the sexy undies.

[mrinalmech]

The idle animation of our first player character (There will be two or three - selectable pre-mission). Since we wish to emulate the animated series of the 80s, we are trying to adhere as much as possible to the animation style of the 80s - hence the slightly uneven shaky lines.

[mrinalmech]

We wanted to have a base between missions where you could upgrade your player characters as well as choose missions. Since we are going with an 80s theme the base design adheres to the designs found in the animated series of that time period. So plenty of chrome and painted backgrounds.

This is the mission selection screen.


This is the upgrade screen. The different characters will be on the pedestal like structure and you can select between them to upgrade them.



Transitioning between the screens is seamless to provide an authentic experience.

[mrinalmech]

Done quite a bit of animations for the first guy. Here is a gif

[FK in the Coffee]

Is that Archer?

[mrinalmech]

yeah. using it as a placeholder. will replace with the character's face.

[FK in the Coffee]

I already dig the sort of classic Hanna-Barbera vibe you've got going with the aesthetics!

[mrinalmech]

Yeah. Late 70s, Early 80s animation series is kind of our visual aesthetic benchmark.

[mrinalmech]

Working on a boss fight now - a boss 'gauntlet' actually where you fight a sequence of bosses. Got inspired by the last stretch of Shovel Knight where you do a similar thing. This boss fight will basically be in Dracula's castle where you fight an assortment of vampires inspired by pop culture before squaring it against Dracula himself. Kind of weird and out there but hey, it's the 80s.

Basically you will be fighting the boss in the middle while the others cheer him/her on from the sidelines. After the current boss is defeated a new boss jumps into the fray.

[mrinalmech]

Added some animated fire to the torches to give a sense of atmosphere.

Also the composer completed the music for this level. I think it sounds great as it combines both the 80s synthpop sound I was looking for and combines it with this eerie vibe which harkens back to old Castlevania music which goes in line with this vampire theme.

Here, have a listen.

https://soundcloud.com/macondogames/transylvanian-rhapsody

[mrinalmech]

A look into the character design process.

First the artists draw the basic character design on paper with pencil.



Then the artist with my input colors it and creates a model sheet.



Then it is animated and put in game.

[gunswordfist]

Implemented the character controls along with 8-directional aiming/shooting.

Have asked my artist to work on animations so I can use them instead of the placeholder Contra sprites I'm using now. Art style is still not finalized but we are leaning heavily towards an 80's animated series style (think he-man/centurions/visionaries etc). Give in your suggestions on what things you would like to see in the game and what makes a run and gun shooter great.

Gameplay:




Possible Art Style:

In! It's my favorite control scheme for shoot em ups.

[mrinalmech]

Our green guy was feeling lonely all by himself so gave him a friend. So now we've got co-op which is a staple of run and gunners plus a bit of variety as the characters will play a bit differently (also a third guy will be added to the left).

It also ties in to the 80's culture of teams (MASK, Centurions, GI Joe etc). The guy in the green will be the standard "leader" archetype while the red guy is more of the rogue-ish Wolverine/Batman character. The third guy will prolly be the jovial happy-go-lucky type.