
gameplay:
current (minimal / pre-alpha):
- primarily arcade/action-focused two-stick shooter
- roguelike-style FOV lighting on subterranean levels
- multi-world universe
- levels, worlds, and universe are procedurally-generated
- each world is several level deep, with each level concentrically layered on top of the levels below it
- world navigation is gated through traversability of world links (undecided if this will be through some kind of items or keys or just checking to see if you've blown up all the robots) (probably the latter bc thats simpler)
- bots are all randomly generated - variation is only cosmetic r/n
- local/splitscreen multiplayer - very simple competitive deathmatch-style game mode
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This is something I've been working on lately that is based off
an earlier project. That project had stalled on figuring out a good progression mechanic and I ended up moving on to
another project. The code still works, though. I just needed to figure out a way to make it
fun.
I thought it would be cool to have this cube world exist within this bigger universe, and also to have subterranean levels that are kinda roguelikeish, and then have the player run around in that. On top of this, I semi-randomly decided to just implement a Robotron-ish twin-stick shooter game with robots.
And also try to add some kind of a backstory to the thing, to put everything into context: the cube-shaped worlds are efficiently-produced space hab modules with malfunctioning robots that are trying to kill you.
The original idea was to make something more along the lines of an exploration game or some kind of adventure or action-adventure game. Seeing as I don't really have 2-5 years to spend on building out such a massive game, I opted to make something more arcade-y.
I would like to keep the procedural-generation elements to make a roguelike twin-stick shooter set in this playspace of multi-layered cube-shaped worlds that are all connected to each other via portals.
Adding the bots, shooting, and screenshake has made this a pretty fun thing to play around with already.
Bugs popping up everywhere tho as I repurpose 2-3-year-old code to do things it was not designed to do before. Tracking those down, zapping them.
Also I just added some audio to the game (thanks,
Nickelpunk!). Now just fixing bugs to hopefully get to something I can show either to Steam:Greenlight or just throw up on itch.io.
The AI still needs a lot of work. Multiplayer would be pretty awesome, if I (or someone) could get around to doing that. Folks playtesting the early builds have been giving me lots of great feedback, most of which is either sitting in my notebook or is in some list in the game's Trello board.
The level geometry was done by a contractor who would later tell me they are not actually that great at modular geometry (thanks for the heads up). Just fixing it will probably be cheaper in the end, but I will have to get around to doing that (which is sort of why i hired a contractor to do those in the first place

) So there's that.
That aside, the core gameplay is mostly there. I've got the player shooting robots, robots taking damage and dying, and the player dying when they get hit (nerfed for now, until other bugs are worked out). Various bugs to track down and fix before adding any more cool stuff. I'm a little hesitant to do a release just yet, or even showing a choppy GIF that does no justice to the game's framerate, but I did want to show a little something of what the game looks like right now. Maybe later I will make a proper video to show off the framerate a little better.
Judging by the reactions I've been getting just by rattling off "twin stick shooter roguelike metroidvania" in conversation, though, I think the core bits should be pretty fun on their own. Still not entirely sure how I plan to release this thing..
Anyway, I guess I'll be on here a little more often now
