Project Landsword

Nice! I knew something felt off in the recordings. I guess it's just an OS compatibility thing since on my end I don't see an FPS boost, instead the cursor movement just becomes smoothed out a lot. 

Hope it's not playing at twice the speed it should be though, seen a few people early on have the game seemingly running at 2x speed on certain setups.

Thank you for playing. The railgun is indeed way more powerful than any of the other weapons, it's going to be most likely an end game weapon since I don't think there's many ways to balance it.

Movement felt a bit... slow(?) for the control scheme. I'm not sure what the exact adjective is but it felt a little off in some way. Maybe the boost wasn't doing enough for my taste?

I've been somewhat torn on the normal movement speed. For more open levels I can understand it feeling slow, but for tighter maps like the third mission, the slower speed makes it easier to maneuver through buildings/terrain. The boost will be upgradeable eventually, so you'll have a longer and faster overdrive.

Extremely promising and I hope to see more!

Thank you!

Thanks for letting me know this. I had assumed the notification would go out automatically that it was updated, but it seems I was mistaken.

Thanks for the video, looks pretty smooth. I guess the delays are probably a mix of the compression and OBS as you said. For example the reloading sound of the railgun stops before it fills up all the way and clicks, really small stuff like that, but again the game appears to be running fine. Glad the new targeting reticule also feels good to use, the old one really needed to be replaced.

When I eventually add a proper settings menu, I'll be sure to have a few options to tweak the colors of indicators and the reticules. I had hoped to have it in this build, but I ended up focusing my efforts on fixing bugs and adding  extra details. Epilepsy warning may be needed as well, thanks.

Did you try using the alternate v-sync method by the way? Someone else tried this with the first build by changing the settings .ini and it moved the FPS cap to 144, though you may need to have another program to clamp it down 60 as it'll be running at twice the speed: https://itch.io/post/9847210

Are we allowed to commission slash draw art of protagonist girl?

Absolutely!

And if sooo... Any big no nos?

I don't want to police what people do with commissions/fan-art, so not really. I would love to see the drawing if you do commission someone though, fanart (even if explicit) is always appreciated.

hi could i try out the demo? the project looks really cool 

At the moment the download for the demo is unavailable as I'd like to focus on improving the game with the feedback provided for this current build. Please check back at another time, thank you.

For the most part, but if it's something fun and really mixes the gameplay up I'll throw it in even if it's a little unrealistic. I'm thinking the player will gain access to some "experimental" weaponry from arms companies that are eager to see them tested out in the field.

Thank you for playing and the feedback!

I’ve seen a few notes on the overdrive, I think that there’s room for a unique mechanic tied to it. What if you can select to shunt the extra power into a different system, slowing down your sprint but giving a different advantage. For example, a passive or active cloak; passive being a visual cloak that stops enemies from detecting you, but lets radar guided weapons still find you, Active cloaking being a jammer device that lets them know where you are, but makes missiles go haywire and reduces their general accuracy.

Changing the power for different systems on the mech is an interesting way of managing it that I hadn't thought of. It might be a bit too much for some players to keep track of though, I feel like the game would have to pause to account for the player switching between separate functions. I like the concept though.

I also have some secondary weapon ideas. Different missile types, unguided rocket bursts, a fully guided missile that requires you to lock on, bunker busters that go through buildings and explode. I also have seen the mortar idea, but I think an orbital weapon that detaches your camera for a short range, and allows you to fire tungsten rods from space would be cool. Also maybe an emp?

There will be different missile types, I'm working on them right now actually. Missiles that go through buildings to skewer enemies is also a very cool idea, thanks for that. As for EMP, I think that'll be mostly relegated to grenades since I feel it could get a bit OP if the player can disable any/most threats in their way with a primary weapon. Orbital strike also sounds cool.

Ammo types? Explosive, flechette, incendiary. That might negate some weapon types though, but it would give ballistic weapons like the auto cannon more flair.

I've thought hard about having changeable ammo types, but I think I'm going to relegate it to just specific weapons having their own specific ammo, otherwise as you said it could end up negating some of the weapons. A weapon with massive flechette rounds will definitely be added, I'd like to be able to nail flesh targets together.

I think the stealth mechanic could be greatly enhanced by giving certain enemies(like the tanks) directional armor, which is what I thought the third missions prompt of flanking meant. It would help some missions make you choose stealth over guns blazing. 

Directional armor on enemies has been on my to-do-list for a long time, I regret not getting it done sooner. It'd really enhance ambushing enemies as you said.

I assume there will be different mission types, but I had the idea that you are given a picture of a car, and you have to blow up that one target. However, the car is driving towards a bunker, and there are multiple enemy units in the way. A kind of interception mission. 

Cool idea! I could see that being fun. Maybe for a mission with a train instead of a car as well.

(P.S, I completely understand if this is a personal labor of love, but you did mention customization sprite work issues; I would love to help if I can, I have a background in game design and animation. I am not a professional. I am a pixel mech enthusiast. Regardless of whether you accept my offer, I wish you all the best of luck, this is literally one of my favorite games now, even though it’s not even done yet.)

That's very kind, thank you. At the moment I am focusing primarily on getting system work done, but at another time I may need a dedicated character artist or technical designer for some of the more miscellaneous things that need to be concepted and implemented.

I don't know about the overdrive. I really like this idea, but as the boost is currently basically useless you would just always relegate the power to that different system. If it would be implemented this way, that ought to be accompanied by changes to the enemies, etc, to make the boost more useful. Then it would be a real decision between running around guns blazing or carefully ambushing enemies.

While cool, the tungsten rods would be really uneconomical in-universe. They provide no more explosive power than regular bombs/missiles (delivered via plane or missile) and cost a metric ton of money (tungsten is hella expensive), so in-universe they'd probably just use regular air to surface missiles (unless, for some reason, tungsten costs like 5 dollars per ton or something). At least, that's my opinion, but Mezz is always open to do what he wants, it's his game, and after all, the rule of  cool is the only one that matters.

Thank you for playing and all of these suggestions, I appreciate that a lot!

I hope I'm not too overbearing, and that I don't come across as someone who demands you do what I want, I just like to put forth my ideas as food for thought.

Not at all!

The Sunbeam: A laser weapon with a continuous beam. My idea was to make you keep the beam on the enemy for a few seconds before they die, but that of course leaves you open to attacks. Maybe a way to balance the weapon, especially considering the ideas I have for the ammo, I don't know.

That's how I intend the laser to work for the most part. A no-delay instant hit weapon that hits the first thing in its path and creates fires.

The Energy Repeater: A laser with a non-continuous beam, akin to "laser bolts". I imagine it as a slow firing (slower than the auto cannon but faster than the railgun) heavy machine gun of sorts, which does more damage than the auto cannon.

Interesting, but I'm worried it might be too similar to the railgun despite being faster. Ideally all the weapons should be pretty unique and not a "less good version of a better one".

I see three ways of making an ammo system. One way would be to say they use batteries, which would make it compatible with the existing ammo system, but the second idea is a thermal management system. This will be something I expand on when I get to the engine overdrive.

Personally I'm not a fan of weapons in games that overheat and you have to wait for them to cool down, I feel it tends to kill the flow of gameplay. But I get that it's a common way to add balance to otherwise OP weapons.

The last option would be to give them infinite ammo, though that'd be a bit OP without proper balancing.

Indeed. I don't see the player having infinite ammo outside of cheats since I'd like the ammo scavenging to be a part of the gameplay.

The Railgun: I imagine the Railgun shooting metal slugs that don't explode on impact. It would be able to shoot through buildings, just like you already hinted at in the comments, and I've thought about maybe making you able to see further than normal in a small cone of vision, though I think that coupled with the fact it can shoot through buildings would make it pretty OP. Maybe an option would be to balance it out with a low amount of ammo, long reload times and a max amount of buildings it can shoot through (maybe like 3 to 5?).

This is pretty much how I imagined it'd work, perhaps with a laser beam similar to the missiles that shows the player how many buildings it'll go through. I'd really like to emphasize shooting through buildings to hit enemies honestly. Part of the reason everything is destroyable is to encourage players to obliterate a city block to hit an enemy on the other side.

Additionally, it would be pretty cool if you could shoot through multiple mechs when they're lined up.

Absolutely, that's a must.

The Tank/Artillery cannon: Another idea I've seen in the comments. I've thought about how to differentiate it from the Railgun and the missiles, and my idea was to make it have a firing arc. So instead of hitting whatever is in the way of the shells, it requires precise aiming so the shells hit. This could also encourage a stealth playstyle, considering the fact you can fire upon enemies from behind buildings and you can't just spray and pray once a huge horde of enemies comes your way (like I did more than I'd like to admit).

I thought about having a mortar weapon, but I ended up adding grenades which sort of limit the need for that now. Also they can be pretty OP for the reasons you've stated.

I also read some suggestions on a third weapon/gadget, and I had some ideas for that as well:
Mine layer: A simple device to lay mines. Detonate once a mech drives on top of them.
Bomb layer: Lays/shoots bombs which can be activated by the player.
EMP Grenade Launcher: Launches EMPs in an arc (like the artillery cannon) which can disable mechs so you can ambush them.

All three of those have been planned for awhile actually. Only a few weeks ago did I manage to actually write a working arc curve code, so the player now can have different grenade types to strike enemies from way afar.

To help balance it, I'm also working on C-RAM turrets and other enemies that can shoot them down before they actually hit.

As some commentors have already suggested, being able to customise the mech (even if it's just for looks) would be really cool. An idea I've read somewhere is to make you able to make trade-offs, for example getting more armour for less speed. This may be implemented in a "space" mechanic, where each upgrade takes "space" on the mech. For example, thick armour would take up a lot more physical space than thinner armour, thus allowing you less ammunition storage and smaller engines. This would also not require any more art, so it's basically a win-win (I forgot about the coding required, ignore that.

I've been thinking a lot about this since I want to have an actual hangar for selecting weapons and parts, but I still have yet to fully decide on whether or not I want the handling to be modifiable. I admit I'm also a bit lazy and don't want to spend weeks designing different parts to swap out and change the player's sprite, so customization for now will be quite limited I'm afraid.

My main issue is the engine overdrive system. I barely use it and, additionally, even when you completely empty the bar, nothing happens. When I tried it out I expected I would explode the mech or at least take some damage. But this didn't happen. I'd like to suggest adding such a system.

The acceleration should probably be increased at this point, I admit it feels a bit too slow. It's most useful I think on the second level when you're being closed in on and need to cruise between gaps of the enemy grubs, but otherwise it's not very handy unless you save it up all the way. Part of the reason for this is I didn't want the player to be able to escape enemies instantly. Making the boost too fast or too long will allow them to get away from combat/trouble pretty expediently, so the limited boost was to sort of prevent that. I'll need to tweak it more.

This could then also tie into the laser weaponry. The laser weaponry heats up the engines, and once the engines are too hot, you are unable to fire for some time and take some damage (1 to 3, you'd need to test what feels most balanced). Not firing for a while will cool down the engines.

Interesting idea, but I also don't want to punish the player for holding down the boost. I just feel that's not a fun mechanic honestly, especially if they're already low on health and retreating from enemy fire.

To make the overdrive more useful, I'd maybe also add faster enemies which would catch up to you if you don't use the overdrive. That's the only idea I could come up.

Totally. I think there'll be some scout cars or fast attack vehicles that come really fast towards them.

I'd love it if the player mech dropped in using a dropship (like you already hinted at in the comments) or like a drop from orbit à la Titanfall.

I'd like to have different intros for different levels instead of just the fade in, would be more immersive.

I know you are thinking about attack helicopters, and I have some questions:

How will we be able to fight the helicopters? If using bullets, what about if the helicopter hovers above a building, which bullets cannot pass? Will we need to specifically lock onto the helicopter using missiles, or will we be just able to blind fire and take them out using the radius of the explosion?

My idea for now is if the player is mousing over flying enemies directly, they'll fire off "airborne" bullets that can't collide with anything on the ground (see the C-RAM gif for reference). Same with also missiles, if you lock a flying target they'll fly over buildings or maybe move in an arc instead.

The tanks do not seem to move at all. This may just be a problem with my version, but they remain stationary until I shoot at them. Then they start moving. This made Level 3 way too easy.

They actually do move, but only if the player is not visible to them. Once they spot them they'll open fire, but if they can't see them they'll proceed to the last known position. Ideally I want every enemy to have a unique behavior/movement pattern so the player can memorize them.

I'd also love to see more variety in biological enemies? Maybe some huge arachnoids, or even plants that have overtaken old decrepit mechs!

Mechs overtaken by old fungus is a pretty cool idea honestly. I have plans to add an area with abandoned buildings covered from a sandstorm, I could see that fitting in.

I'd love to see some more variety in levels:
- Megastructure (A huge building on Mars, not something in space) Construction site
- Industrial District
- Maybe even a finished Megastructure?
- Forest/Jungle
- Skyscraper? (Depending on the size of it)
- A Venice-inspired map using the assets from Mission 3

I'll keep all of these in mind. Would definitely like to do a forest/jungle level, I'm already working on having water implemented. I'd like to also overhaul the city in some ways, some better buildings might be nice.

This part is just my opinion, to be honest. But I really love the name "project Landsword". Now that it's engrained in my mind I can't imagine any other name. I'd definitely keep it.

Glad you like the name. Honestly, I still haven't been able to come up with anything better. Some people love it, while others have told me pretty openly they hate it and think it's awful. But don't worry, I won't settle for something awful like "Mech Assaulters"

I definitely forgot something, so I may expand this, but I'd be really interested what you think about some of these ideas. They're definitely not all original, but maybe you've made some progress since the last time you talked about them. I really do love this game, and I really want it to succeed. More people need to know this exists!

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback a lot.

Thanks for playing! I don't think I'll be doing a full voice over since that'd require a decent sized budget and finding VAs, but I imagine it would certainly make it feel more authentic to those old Sega games.

It's meant to sound sort of like an old 80s/90s future soldier program. There was Land Warrior and the Future Force Warrior program meant to test new infantry technology, and there were various military studies like Project Camelot. Britain also had a now replaced designation system for their military projects called the Rainbow Codes. Blue Steel for example was a nuclear standoff missile and Green Mace was an anti-aircraft gun.

So "Project Landsword" in this universe would most likely refer to the player mech's development program.

And also the flamethrower seems to be aiming a bit off target. I don't really se the point of keeping its offset from the body because its the main weapon.

Maybe it would be better to make it slightly turn towards the cursor?

Same thing with autocannon:

And maybe even minigun:

But rockets seem OK:

Those fountain objects are not going to make it into the final build. They were made for the placeholder level in the second mission, and I made them explode into a ton of debris since they can damage the enemies. In hindsight there's probably way too many. I'm working on optimizing the game's particles even further though, and the next build should be twice as efficient as the current one on older systems.

I mean, is there going to be a campaign with a story or something more straightforward like Nuclear Throne or Counter Strike (in case there would be multiplayer)?

I want there to be a linear campaign with a story and hand-crafted levels. I don't want random generation for any of the stages since I think the game's design at its core must have manually placed enemies and structures. Multiplayer would be cool, but it's very difficult to do in GM:S. Not impossible by any means, but I'd need external help.

Currently I have attack helicopters planned and enemy mechs with rockets that can move in large arcs. There's also a dropship I've been working on that will carry the player into some levels and maybe also be used by enemies to land reinforcements. Bosses would be cool for each area, but I need to think about it a bit more.

<3

Her name is Val.

Thank you for the kind words! More missions and customization will come soon.

- It would be amazing if enemies telegraphed their attacks, when you're raining hell it's near impossible to see enemy projectiles incoming, best course of action is seemingly to strafe in and out of cover while firing. If that's intended that's totally cool, but some sort of flashing vision cone or a red eye-flash when they're about to fire could be awesome.

I've since slowed the enemy bullets down by about 15% so they're easier to dodge when it gets insane. I think I'll have their bullets be a slightly different hue so it's easier to tell who is firing at who. I'm not sure about flashing vision cones, but I'll try maybe having a faint beep/radio chirp when they see you.

- (Maybe) Some sort of repair boxes on the map could be really useful and give more gameplay options. Very sparse though, as not to trivialise taking damage

Will do. I had considered maybe repair shops on the map like gas stations that you could drive and park at, but I realize some crates would just fit better with the ammo ones.

- A faint laser for aiming in addition to the crosshair (toggleable in settings maybe?) would be so goddamn useful, it's easy to lose the crosshair when things get heated. Would make things more intuitive imo.

Can do! I'm seeing if I can modify the crosshair to be more visible as well.

- Quality of life things like being able to skip menu animations by clicking/pressing keyboard keys would be really nice, I love the animations but sometimes I just want to rush through menus:) also I'd love for the settings to persist between game sessions, it's kind of a pain to have to wait for the startup animation, go into the settings and redo resolution and sound settings every time haha. Don't want to make it out as a bigger issue than it is tho, purely QoL if you have time

Yeah, currently there is no .ini saving. A lot of people also want it to start in fullscreen, I really need to implement that soon. I'll be redoing all of the menus as well, probably need separate tabs for different settings and reconfiguring controls and such.

Overall though this game is sick, such a neat little package with a surprising amount of depth and emergent gameplay. All I can really say is good luck, I'm hyped to see where you take the project! Also I'd love to be able to acquire new mechs/maybe pick colours >:)

Thank you again for playing and the feedback! I'm still torn on whether or not I'll have different mechs you can play as as opposed to just swapping parts on the quadtank, but we'll see!

Can't imagine what the process would be like to port this to a Vita. Not sure if it can even handle all of the particle effects and DirectX shaders. It would be cool to see though, might look into it once I finish the game. Thanks for playing!

Nice to hear it's possible to run it on an SD!

Note to the developer: The game is not very playable when controlling with the joysticks. In addition to being very sensitive, the cursor moves too far away from the player, making it hard to judge in which direction the tank is aiming.

I don't own a deck myself nor originally intended for it to be played on one, so I'm afraid there's nothing I can really do on my end to improve this. There's no built-in functions in GM:S for this kind of thing as well since it's an old engine, but I could try and maybe add a mouse sensitivity/camera speed slider.

Things get so chaotic that it becomes impossible to identify and track where the player is or where the enemies are. Sometimes, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly where the cursor is.it gets so disorienting.

I'll see if I can improve the readability of the aim/cursor soon.

I personally am a huge fan of such games, would probably be first in line to get a copy as soon as it's out. Hope the feedback helps. best of luck.

Thank you so much!

Thanks for playing and writing this honest feedback, I appreciate it greatly.

If you want to do the former, boost the movement speed of the mech - even when not dashing - let the player plow through buildings, remove the ammo mechanic for the primary weapons, and widen the streets so it’s easier to move around without hitting your head against a building constantly. 

The current city level is a test for the most part. I'm not sure I'm going to leave it as an actual stage in the game, it's mostly there to serve as a tech demo. I agree the roads could be a little bit wider, but I think the claustrophobia adds to some of the gameplay style I developed. Originally it was much wider and open - I ended up downsizing it three times since it just felt too empty and enemies didn't really pose as much of a threat to the player.

As for the ammo, it's just my preference but I like that the player actually runs out and has to find reloads. I think with the firing rate of some of the guns and the level of destruction they can do, giving the player unlimited ammo would make them too powerful and have less of a reason to play strategically.

 Also, make enemies occasionally (say, a 5% chance per armor layer missing) drop repair pickups and ammo pickups. Then the (seemingly) endless hordes of enemies become something you can actually enjoy fighting instead of just a slow inevitable grinding down of your resources and health.

Similarly, I also felt that because the player's health is so limited it adds a level of tension to the combat, especially nearing the end of a mission if you're really low. It makes you have to care about what you're doing and not always run into things Rambo style. That said, I agree and I'll try to implement armor upgrades and pickups on some levels. I understand that the low health can make things pretty frustrating when there's a lot of enemies.

On the other hand, if you’re going for more of a stealth-focused gameplay style, you NEED to fix the enemy AI behavior. They spawn way out in the corners of the map and then seem to automatically know where you are and head in your direction long before they’re even visible on your main screen.

I realize this isn't immediately clear to the player but when you blow up buildings specifically, enemies on patrol will actually head to the area to check out what's happening. You can even bait them like this by blowing things up and waiting for them to come looking around and then ambush every one. In the city mission they have about a 10% chance of spawning with the last known player's position loaded, so only a few should really be looking in your immediate area.

Give the enemy mechs a visible vision cone ala Metal Gear Solid so you can get them from the side and behind and ambush them.

Can do.

Also, reduce the spawn rate and maximum spawn count, since this play style would be less about taking out hordes of enemies and more about sneakily ambushing and killing enemies Hotline Miami-style. This doesn’t sound as personally fun to me, but it would at least be a way to do the “tactical stealth” concept properly.

I'm thinking missions will vary quite a bit. Ideally I'd like to do both horde stuff and stealth depending on the area you're in with the game's world. Really I'm trying to keep things as fresh as possible since I think if every mission was like the three in this demo, the game would get repetitive very fast even with more weapons and upgrades.

The cursor/crosshairs for targeting are really hard to see in a firefight. They blend into the explosions and motion way too easily, especially since they’re RED and your HUD turns RED when you take damage and enemies light up with a RED outline when they spot you. 

Yeah I've seen some other people having trouble with the reticule too, I'm going to probably change it to be white with black outlines for better readability.

Also darken the environments a touch - bright grey-white streets and buildings, bright white and orange explosions, bright orange and red fires, they all make it hard to focus on the crosshairs.

There'll be darker environments too, maybe even some night time missions (depending on how badly it affects game performance.)

On the topic of weapons, maybe I’m just not privy to the underlying mechanics, but I can’t tell much of a difference between the Autocannon and the Rotary Cannon.

Originally the rotary cannon was single fire and pretty bad, but now it's dual fire like the autocannon. The rotary cannon has a higher firing rate, maximum ammo, and a larger bullet spread, but also faster ammo depletion and half the damage on impact. It's better for crowd control on lower HP enemies like mechs and grubs on mission 2.

My advice would be to replace one of them with either a melee weapon, like a sword or katana, or with a slow-firing, high-damage, sniper rifle-like Railgun. Or add both!

There'll be a sniper-like railgun, high energy laser, and also a "pilebunker" which will basically serve as a really close range 1-hit kill dash weapon, kind of like a knife.

Also, do the missiles have lock on? I don’t think they do, but sometimes the enemies would develop a red box around them that made it LOOK like I was locking on. I’m actually inclined to believe that was intended to convey to me that the enemies were aware of my presence and going into attack/alert mode

If you hold the right mouse button it'll draw a laser line and if you mouse over an enemy while holding it (you need to have clear line of sight) it'll lock onto them and show the red square. You can lock onto as many as 15 enemies with it, and when you let go of the right mouse button it should launch a salvo.

 I couldn’t tell a meaningful difference between attack/alert enemies and unaware enemies, so maybe instead of a red box, the enemies should physically change somehow to indicate they’re alert and coming after you. Like having panels open up to make them look more spiky and aggressive. Assuming that even matters and you don’t decide to retool to more of a fast-paced shooter like the first suggestion.

You mentioned MGS earlier; they actually do make a little ! when they see you, but it's very tiny - about 8 pixels in size. I think I'll eventually add a sound effect like a radio chirp to indicate that you've been sighted.

I like the idea of panels opening up or lights though, that sounds pretty cool.

That’s all I can think of for now; I hope these ideas are helpful for you! They’re just my opinion, and you’re free to take or leave them. This game certainly has promise, and I’d love to see it refined and rebalanced as a complete game someday!

This was great, thank you again for your in depth critique and feedback, it's very helpful and I'll definitely take it into account. I hope to make the final game much more refined and rebalanced as you said!

Thanks for playing!

Would love to see some laser beam weapon or a railgun. Maybe different kinds of secondary missiles.

All of that is planned, particularly a railgun and laser weapon.

I have a very low end pc so... it kinda slows down a bit in the more cluttered places, but i suspect its more of a gpu problem of mine given how gm handles drawing a lot of objects. 

Could you tell me which area in specific it began to lag the hardest, if possible? I assume it's the second level as some of the structures like the fountains are a bit redundant with their size and tend to slow down on my computer as well. I don't think there's anything wrong with your GPU, I'm not even sure if GM:S uses GPUs to draw anything.

Goooood shit really!!! I loved it

<3

Hey, glad to hear that!

1) it is necessary to make the player's technique more readable, relative to the color scheme of the environment

Understood, I'll see what I can do to improve that.

2) add support for non-standard screen resolutions

This one will absolutely be added when I can, it's just a very tedious thing to program as I have to factor in a bunch of things with Game Maker's application surface resizing and I also don't have a way to fully test whether it works on all monitor sizes. Nonetheless, it's an absolute necessity and I'll have it done when I can.

PS: maybe I'll try to launch it on steam deck a little later

I'm not too confident it'll run on a Steam deck, but it'd be an interesting experiment to see if it does! Thanks.