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[Xonatron]

Infinite Ammo, an arcade-style retro FPS by Xona Games.

Infinite Ammo, Global Game Jam 2017 version.

Description:

Our first FPS (First Person Shooter) and our Global Game Jam 2017 entry.

Web:

xona.com/infiniteammo

Inspirations:

• Contra (NES)
• Super-C (NES)
• Raiden (Arcade)
• Raiden II (Arcade)
• Thunder Force 2 (Genesis)
• Doom (PC)
• Doom 2 (PC)
• Unreal Tournament (1999) (PC)
• Serious Sam (PC)
• Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (PC)
• coin-op arcades of the 80's
• our own "Xona style" games (intense retro)

Specifically, the game will have Contra and Super-C style action, with infinite ammo and one-gun-at-a-time action. You can only hold one weapon, and you lose your weapon upon switch, just like Contra and Super-C. The gameplay will be fast arcade-style action found in Doom and Doom 2, which Serious Sam somewhat bled off of. The levels will be designed as large arena-style areas, inspired by scenarios in Serious Sam and Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. The weapons will each shoot plasma-like projectiles in various forms, inspired by the massive firepower in Raiden and Raiden II. Already envisioned is a 3D spread shot (that my brother invented in his Space Harrier Clone), a 3D hunter (inspired by Thunder Force 2), and more...

Aspirations:

We wish to explore bullet hell game mechanics in an FPS setting. The closest example of this style of gameplay I can think of is the attack of many imps in the original Doom. Imagine a game focused on this style of attack, and this is (somewhat) our objective.

The ultimate objective is to have 100% non-stop arcade-style action.

Development:

Infinite Ammo development started during Global Game Jam 2017, on January 20th, 2017. The theme was, "waves". The idea we spawned from the theme was to have waves of enemies ("wave 1", "wave 2", etc.) that attack within an arena-style FPS setting.

Music:

The music is a placeholder, by Christopher Getman / Mazedude (web, twitter), remix of the "Into Sandy's City" theme from Doom 2 by Bobby Prince: https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR00754

Textures:

The textures are placeholders, from the original Doom (1993). The pixelated style is going to remain.

Engine / Tech:

• Unity
• C#
• Microsoft Visual Studio

We are using Unity/C#. For the first time, we are not using our own proprietary game engine. This will be interesting. I am curious what I can do with Unity. I was equally interested in using Unreal Engine/C++, however I had a head start in C# with XNA and with Unity/C# as I now (recently) help deliver game development courses that focus on Unity.

[AnaGuillenFdez]

It would have been cool to see some gameplay, but besides of that, the infinite ammo gun seems to work smoothly, and it is well modeled too. The references you give are good, this game can be very addictive, although the only way to know it is to have a prototype.

Keep the hard work

[Xonatron]

AnaGuillenFdez,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

My next move at the Global Game Jam was to create enemies, and hence gameplay. The bright glowing red cube was a last minute enemy, and then I ran out of time! The GGJ17 plan was to commence development, and continue developing the game over the next 3 months. I am satisfied with this beginning. Game jams are great for getting things started.

My next goal is to have enemies and gameplay, as well as more distinguished characteristics between the weapons.

(P.S. Much thanks to Wayne Muise of MudMonger Games for modelling the weapon.)

[Mahn]

I like it, the quick and fluid movement reminds me a lot of Quake III, which IMO is a good thing, we don't have enough retro FPSs Looking forward to see what comes out of this, best of luck!

[Xonatron]

Mahn,

I love that you picked up on that. That is great news to me. It confirms I am hitting my gameplay goals, and that people care about it! As I develop gameplay, others will hopefully pick up on it to. As it stands, faster speed may not mean anything to the average gamer. To me, it is filled with intense gameplay possibilities!

Thank you for the luck!

[Mahn]

Glad to hear it's intentional! For me it's a pretty major thing, it pretty much defines the entire game. Both Quake III Arena and Half-Life are fine FPSs, but they play wildly different due to the different gameplay pace. Definitely digging that you are leaning more towards a fast-paced gameplay.

[Xonatron]

Mahn,

It was most intentional! I know *exactly* what you mean; the speed defines the game. I am happy people are feeling this. There is a video that captures my feelings of modern casualized games vs. retro arcade-style games; If you watch, be sure to catch the comparison piece at the end:





I feel that games are less empowering today. A core philosophy we have at Xona Games is to empower the player. We want the player to feel in control of their destiny and greatness. We wish to give players ample room to explore their skills and kick as much ass as possible. Arcade-style mechanics produce this ability the most, perhaps because they are not restrained by realism.

And Half-Life is a find FPS, I agree; It is just a different thing!

[Xonatron]

No visual news, but progress on my project setup relating to source control and backups. It is important to set things correctly from the get-go, or I will tend to put it off forever.

GitHub Repository:

I finally got my project setup with a GitHub repository.

Here in, I will be using source control for all my projects. It had been so long since I set it up for Score Rush Extended I had forgotten how.

Here are some notes I made on an alternative way of setting up a new already-existing project on GitHub, after running into some issues with the standard method:

Another Way to Create a GitHub Repository
http://xona.com/2017/02/04.html

[Xonatron]

No visual update again, however two pieces of news:

Music:

Proud to announce that Dragon Music has joined forces with Xona Games once again, to provide the audio of Infinite Ammo. Dragon Music performed the OST for our PlayStation 4 release, Score Rush Extended.

Highlights of the new OST score is coming soon!

Coding:

Nothing to show, but structural work has been done on the coding. I am new to Unity so only after the Global Game Jam (2017) did I start to feel how a Unity game should be structured internally. I am still learning, but using empty game objects is starting to make a lot of sense to me. I am traditionally use to creating our own game engines from scratch, so the Unity way of things is a completely new feel. I am impressed with Unity so far.

[Codebread]

I've been considering switching to Unity for our next project as well (moving from creating my own engine) to save some time. I'll have to see how well it works out for you; hopefully it speeds things up considerably without making anything more difficult to create.

[Xonatron]

Codebread,

I know exactly what you mean. If I get this done, it will be my first game accomplished using an engine other than our own. I also wish to repeat this with the Unreal Engine too. It would be great practice. I am still interested in coding my own engines too. I guess it all depends on the game which is best to use.