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[Ripityom]

Summary

Chronotic is a topdown shooter action rogue-lite with sci-fi setting, plenty cool weapons and gadgets to solve various situations and the time-only-moves-when-you-do mechanic of Superhot. I decided to add that to the mix because I think it's gonna work well with rogulite genre by replacing the turn-based combat and giving you plenty time to plan your next move.


Gameplay (22. 04. 2020)

[Ripityom]

After a week I already have a very simple level generation, a basic enemy AI that shoots you on sight or goes to your last seen location and also have the time mechanics implemented.
Currently you can't win the game, but can get killed

I haven't made up my mind about the line of sight, some found it annoying, but without that the game felt too easy as you could plan cleaning a room before entering it, or even aim at enemies as you walk in...

A short video:




Also if you'd like to try it out here is a build for windows (you can turn line of sight on or off):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IrRwx4Vxbpr8F1ARq4zcJjKjWy75FYqb&fbclid=IwAR2wlh59fjozqpy3MyXHZ0xYJMte_sA5vXqV8eVsRBHCY9qLhCj_b0QjWpQ

I'm trying out different line of sight implementations, in this one you see the level layout out of sight, but not the enemies:

[Ripityom]

I experimented a lot on the visuals and the line of sight implementations. As it became obvious that not seeing anything out of sight (not even level layout) makes a more interesting gameplay I had to make up for the huge black areas on the screen by making the environment itself bright and vivid. This simplified visual will also help the players read the situation much more easily.

[KPas]

As it became obvious that not seeing anything out of sight (not even level layout) makes a more interesting gameplay [...]

For me it's quite encouraging to read that. I share that view regarding my own project. Keep it up!

[Ripityom]

Hi, thanks for the feedback! Teleglitch is a huge inspiration for me as well, glad to see more devs share the same views

[Ripityom]

I changed the way bullets look and also added some blood splatter if a character is hit:

[Ripityom]

I added openable / auto closing doors that the player and the enemies cannot see or shoot through. At the moment every door can be opened but I plan to add doors that are only openable after acquiring the key for it.

[brainwipe]

I also like the black with the super-bold graphics and hiding most of the level. It does mean that you will need to find some other way to direct the player in the future but I think that's not too hard to solve.

This looks like a great idea! Have sub'd. Keep it up!

[Ripityom]

Thanks for the kind words!
My plan is to have some sort of decals on the floor, something like the the ones on the wall of black mesa:

[brainwipe]

Yeah, that would be perfect. Like they have in some hospitals - coloured lines and footprints on the floors to take you to the relevant department.

[Ripityom]

I added a turret enemy that shoots rockets at the player.
Also created a simple health bar and some med kits can be found in some rooms that restore one heart.

[KPas]

If I'm right, the rockets can kill you with splash damage. So you have to keep that in mind and stay away from potential targets. Nice!

[Ripityom]

That's right. Also when armed with a rocket launcher you can get multiple enemies if planning the impact position right. Additionally in the future I plan on having a skill / gadget that spawns a wall that units can go and see throught but bullets cannot pass, so if you spawn it in front of a rocket shooting enemy just the momenet before they shoot they will be blown up by their own rocket. Also maybe rockets will be shootable by regular bullets as well, so you can blow up a rocket mid-air.

[Ripityom]

I modified the implementation of projectiles a little so now they can collide with each other.

As a results two bullets can "cancel" each other out:





..or you can shoot a rocket mid-air:





If you time it right you can destroy the turret with it's own rocket!

[Ripityom]

Turns out I implemented a feature accidentally: the force from an exploding rocket can deflect other rockets, I can't wait to see what crazy gameplay comes out of this :D

[Ripityom]

A completely rewrote the AI from state machine based to behaviour tree based implementation.

Also I implemented a sound / hearing system so enemies can not only see but hear you as well.
For now only gunshots make sound from AI point of view, but not only the ones that the player did, but enemies as well, so if you start shooting in a room you have to be prepared to run into company on your way out...

[TonyManfredonia]

Neat art style! The colors really pop with the black exterior.

[Ripityom]

Neat art style! The colors really pop with the black exterior.

Thanks!

[Ripityom]

I restructured most of the player movement related code to prepare for the implementation of the various usable items and skills.
The first ability that I added is dashing. The plan is that it will be available from the start, however the player can upgrade it during the game.
It will be most useful if you don't want to alarm guards by shooting or you are simply out of ammo, so you want to get close and melee enemies (melee not implemented yet).

[Ripityom]

I implemented fire rate for the player and added a cursor that displays the cooldown progress.
Also I finally found a way to implement different states for the player input. For example by default the player is walking / shooting, then if presses shift then instead of shooting the mouse is used to select the direction of the dash, and also how I can show / hide the cursor or other visuals depending on the player action in progress.

Also it turned out that the performance issues caused by large amount of enemies were not caused by rendering but by the ragdoll rigidbodies not being properly disabled why they are still alive, so I could remove the custom logic that was showing or hiding enemy meshes depending on if the player can see them.