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[SeanNoonan]

"ND2"

"A retro first person shooter"

The game

A pseudo retro first person shooter with a focus on fast paced action and hand crafted level design. My points of reference are Quake, Goldeneye 007 and Time Crisis (with a sprinkling of Hotline Miami). Unlike a lot of these retro revival FPS titles, I plan to build the game in a contemporary setting, with just the right amount of exaggeration.

A friend and I worked on a prototype for the idea some time ago, but due to our work contracts we were unable to continue - here is a snippet of that prototype:





I'll be sure to update this post with any images and gifs.

A little background

Rather than follow up Jack B. Nimble with a sequel or another 2D pixel art game, I thought I'd instead tap into something that allows me to better use my experience from AAA game development. I work in Unreal Engine professionally, so it makes sense to also use it for my independent efforts.


Update 1

My first update basically saw me gutting the UE4 FPS sample and making it "feel" like something I'd want to play as well as building a small blockout of a level that would represent the types of spaces I plan on creating in the game.

Here's what I came up with after a day or two:




If you would like to read more about this update, pop over to the blog post for a full changelist and feature breakdown: http://noonan.design/updates/noonan-design-project-2-nd2/

[Lowbit]

I plan to build the game in a contemporary setting, with just the right amount of exaggeration.

Does that mean launching dummies all over the room is a feature, or are enemies going to react more like in the prototype? Both of them look really fun, but for different reasons.

[SeanNoonan]

My plan is to do a mix of the two. I really love shooting corpses, and it's pretty fun when they're still "animating". So I'll likely add a stagger mechanic to any enemies for a few seconds upon their death.

Update 2

The second update added some basic AI that allowed enemies to shoot and pathfind towards the player. Simple stuff, but it's the foundation of what general grunts will need.





More about this update can be found here: http://noonan.design/updates/nd2-update-2-ai/

[SeanNoonan]

Update 3

The third update fleshes out the level some and adds... DOORS!




I also added some pickups. I'm starting to get a feel for the game now





More about this update can be found here: http://noonan.design/updates/nd2-update-3-doors-and-pickups/

[SeanNoonan]

Update 4

I spent a little time trying out Unreal 4's Destructible Mesh tech, and while it worked perfectly well it doesn't fit the aesthetic I'm aiming for. Speaking of which, my current goal for 3D assets is something similar to Megaman Legends - I want the game to feel a little like 3D pixel art.





More about this update can be found here: http://noonan.design/updates/nd2-update-4-destructible-mesh/

[SeanNoonan]

Update 5

I spent the end of October and first week of November working on sprites for the enemy AI. I know it's early, but I want to get the style right and prove the art pipeline (I still plan on soloing this project).

First I took the old sprite (from the 2015 jam version) and got it rendering in engine as a billboard.





Then I added logic that would allow the billboard to project different sprites based on player position/enemy facing angle. I also took the opportunity to update the sprite a little to match a style I think would better fit the environment I have in mind.





Then I polished it up a bit and started working on a state machine for behaviour/animations... you can a bit of that (along with updated sprites) in the tweet below:

https://twitter.com/SeanNoonan/status/927375968548814849

I hope you guys like it - I'm always open to feedback. Next up, levels!

More about this update can be found here: http://noonan.design/updates/nd2-update-5-enemy-sprites/

[SeanNoonan]

Hadn't posted this - project is still being worked on from time to time...