I've been reading the suggestions in the comments and thought I'd also throw in my two cents, as I've really come to like the game over the few hours I've played it. In general, this supposed to be a compendium of some ideas I like, taken from the comments along with some of my own ideas. 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.
I'll try to structure it a bit, but I'm the worst at writing, so forgive me for that.
1. Weapons:
I've read in the comments you plan to implement some new weapons, notably a railgun and laser weapons. I've given it some thought and I've come up with a few ideas.
The laser weaponry goes first:
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.
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.
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. The last option would be to give them infinite ammo, though that'd be a bit OP without proper balancing.
Now the kinetic weaponry:
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?). Additionally, it would be pretty cool if you could shoot through multiple mechs when they're lined up.
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 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.
A laser designator: Obviously inspired by Tripsyy, calling in an orbital/aerial bombardment, NPC reinforcements, supply drops, etc. Could also function as a main weapon if the cooldown is short/if using the laser designator to give the NPC reinforcements commands.
2. The Mech
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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
3. Enemies
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?
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.
I'd also love to see more variety in biological enemies? Maybe some huge arachnoids, or even plants that have overtaken old decrepit mechs!
4. Missions
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
5. Name
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.
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 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 for replying! I can (for the most part) totally understand why or why you did not decide to include something. I guess the only two things I'm "disappointed" (not really, I'm too happy that this game even exists to be truly disappointed) about is the artillery cannon, but I think the grenades are a neat replacement/stand-in, and the engine overdrive system. If there aren't going to be real consequences for emptying the boost, I would at least add a bit of screen shake or something like that, so it at least feels like that isn't too good for the mech. Though that of course could confuse players into thinking it actually damages their mech, because I definitely would think that if the screen shakes.
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.
When I approached them from behind cover they seemed to not move at all. This becomes a problem because the tanks are never able to see you. I managed to ambush them and I didn't get hit by a tank once. It's probably something broken on my game though, I'll download it again and see if that fixes it.
Well, all in all I have to say (again) that this game is really awesome, and I wish there was more of it/like it. I can't wait to see what the future holds for this game. Thanks for reading.
When I approached them from behind cover they seemed to not move at all.
If they haven't seen you, they should remain on guard indefinitely. If you blow up a building they'll also rotate to point in the general direction.
This becomes a problem because the tanks are never able to see you. I managed to ambush them and I didn't get hit by a tank once. It's probably something broken on my game though, I'll download it again and see if that fixes it.
That's very strange, do they even react at all? They should turn to fire at you if you hit them or come between their 120 degree cone of vision/where the turret is facing.
Well, all in all I have to say (again) that this game is really awesome, and I wish there was more of it/like it. I can't wait to see what the future holds for this game. Thanks for reading.
I downloaded the game again and that seems to magically have fixed it??? I don't know how, but they do now function as described. Now that they actually react they are fearsome opponents.
I do have one question: Will there ever be plans for modding? Like, in 3 years, when the game is on version V.4.2.7? Or do you plan to not make it modable at all? Or is that hard to say at the moment, because it could change in the future?
Glad to hear it's fixed now, perhaps something went wrong with unzipping.
As for mods - it's hard to say at the moment since the game is so early. I'm not too sure on what to do to actually prepare the game for modding honestly. That said, I'm open to the idea of it, and I'm sure people would have fun modding their own mechs and pilot portraits and what not.
Absolutely amazing game! I am so impressed by the gameplay and style. your audio is also really well suited, though the silence near the end of the missions is kind of off-putting.
I'm always impressed by the 2.5d, and I'm starting to notice why Gamemaker is popular. (how the hell did you do this?!?!) especially with the mech legs and the buildings collapsing!?!? Its absolutely fucking ridiculous. and also the bullet cases?!?
Its also interesting how the enemy's don't seem to head their shots, so strafing seems to be extra viable compared to peaking out of cover.
Also I LOVE that you can shoot through the buildings. it really adds to the covering and sneak attacks. GOD I love the design.
I will say I was kind of confused when I ran out of ammo, I didn't know there was ammo boxes at the time. I kind of assumed there was a melee with the boost for when you ran out of ammo? died I guess, the main level didn't introduce it as good as the second.
also, your destruction is amazing. did you seriously add in tire marks when a car gets pushed by an explosion!?
opening the game menu is a little silent, maybe some hum when it opens?
I will say I was kinda disappointed by the sprint, I didnt really notice what it did. maybe some extra tire marks + tire squeal?
Also, weird bug. if you die while your windows unfocused you get a abnormal death screen where you get repeating audio (pitched down white noise) and cant see your mechs corpse
I'm working on a VR mech game (all my itch stuff is ancient for it). and have unfortunately had little time to clean up my UI. your designs are a awesome inspiration and I love them so much <3. This game has definitely reminded me how far I have to go before its where I want it to be. (seriously those fucking buildings)
and your game design handles mech's so amazingly, those explosions had my jaw dropped at times. I'm definitely going to implement some of these mechanics when I can. I think mech games still have a lot of potential and this is a great example of filling it.
I would love to know what references + inspiration you had while designing this! I definitely see a lot of Metal gear, Signalis, maybe a little armored core hiding somewhere?
And also how this game was developed overtime, I can see tire marks, fire, smoke ect. getting used all over the place. those little visual cues repeating to add to the fun of destruction, its such a good study.
the silence near the end of the missions is kind of off-putting.
Sorry about that, sometimes the ambient audio cuts out due to too many sounds happening at once. I need to have a proper audio controller that checks if it's not playing and restarts it.
I'm always impressed by the 2.5d, and I'm starting to notice why Gamemaker is popular. (how the hell did you do this?!?!) especially with the mech legs and the buildings collapsing!?!? Its absolutely fucking ridiculous. and also the bullet cases?!?
A lot of coding tricks and pulling out all the smoke and mirrors I can lol.
Its also interesting how the enemy's don't seem to head their shots, so strafing seems to be extra viable compared to peaking out of cover. Also I LOVE that you can shoot through the buildings. it really adds to the covering and sneak attacks. GOD I love the design.
Glad you like that aspect with the buildings, that was my goal from the start.
I will say I was kind of confused when I ran out of ammo, I didn't know there was ammo boxes at the time. I kind of assumed there was a melee with the boost for when you ran out of ammo? died I guess, the main level didn't introduce it as good as the second.
I'm thinking about implementing a close range melee or a semi-automatic sort of emergency-use gun that has an atrocious fire rate and poor damage so the player isn't entirely defenseless.
also, your destruction is amazing. did you seriously add in tire marks when a car gets pushed by an explosion!?
Yes!
opening the game menu is a little silent, maybe some hum when it opens?
Will do. Eventually I'll probably fade the level music down a bit when I have some.
I will say I was kinda disappointed by the sprint, I didnt really notice what it did. maybe some extra tire marks + tire squeal?
Yeah, it's not very impressive. I'll be making it more exciting soon.
Also, weird bug. if you die while your windows unfocused you get a abnormal death screen where you get repeating audio (pitched down white noise) and cant see your mechs corpse
Seen that happen on someone's stream, I need to figure out how to patch that issue.
I'm working on a VR mech game (all my itch stuff is ancient for it). and have unfortunately had little time to clean up my UI. your designs are a awesome inspiration and I love them so much <3. This game has definitely reminded me how far I have to go before its where I want it to be. (seriously those fucking buildings)
Nice! Glad to hear that.
I would love to know what references + inspiration you had while designing this! I definitely see a lot of Metal gear, Signalis, maybe a little armored core hiding somewhere?
A lot of different things honestly. My inspirations do include Metal Gear and Armored Core, but there's a lot of other things as well. I try not to pull from one specific inspiration when I can.
And also how this game was developed overtime, I can see tire marks, fire, smoke ect. getting used all over the place. those little visual cues repeating to add to the fun of destruction, its such a good study.
love it! the mech and the pilot both are really sexyattractivepositively arousing unique and something i'd love to see more of. should we expect updates or roadmaps on a regular basis or is this simply intended to be an on and off project?
There's a lot of things I want to implement, but actual updates to the demo will probably be infrequent since I think it's better to receive feedback on major updates that modify the game dramatically instead of small incremental changes. If all goes well there may be a new demo out with a lot of new features in a month or two, hopefully.
This really great. The basic mechanics are solid. It just needs more levels and a bit of narrative. Keep it simple and finish it soon so we can buy it. :)
Loved the demo. Reminded me very much of Brigador, and in turn the old Battletech isometric twin-stick shooter on Sega Genesis/Master System. If at some point you could get Japanese voice actors to do the dialogue, it would be an amazing GitS/Patlabor/That Kind of Thing homage. Yep, I'd buy this.
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.
Giving the game a suitable localized name was one of my first thoughts actually. Literal translation of Landsword would sound a little silly in Russian, and the only relatively suitable name that came to my mind is "Проект "Меченосец"". If anyone else speaks Russian here, feel free to suggest your names.
"Объект" might suit as well, but with a letter "М" (меч, sword) instead of a number. Giving a specific number is okay too as long as it is mentioned somewhere in the story.
Yeah, hence why I still consider it a placeholder name. I imagine trying to translate "Landsword" to other languages is just going to come out as something vague like "Sword of the Land" or "Land of Swords". I'll have to think on it more, I'd like to avoid a generic sounding title honestly.
Landsword sounds cool, if it gets localised you can probs just localise "Project" but keep it as Landsword. Like a brand name, wherever you go Apple is always just "Apple". You could even have Landsword be the last name of the lead researcher or something haha, "Dr. Landsword"
I don't really see her as a test pilot since these quadmechs would be operated by a few different maneuver warfare units, one of which she'd be a part of. It also might be a newer generation of mech but it's no super prototype or anything like that (those will come later, possibly)
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?
I was undecided as to whether or not the player should have separate weapons for left and right, I thought it'd be neat if they'd have to account for the offset for each one. Next build I'll patch it so the single-fire weapons fire exactly at the cursor though, I see how that can be annoying.
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.
Yes, it's the sprite stacking loop that is easily the most intensive thing in the entire game. This is why sprite stacking is not a commonly seen method in games, it's inherently an unoptimized method of drawing things even using a shader, but I am pulling out all the stops that I can to optimize the effect because I want to use it regardless of its inefficiency. building_parent is what every single building object is connected to for the most part, they all execute that code block with the calculations and I refrain from using the two drawing scripts you found because calling scripts is more intensive than doing it in each object manually. The reason your FPS jumps up by 40% is it's simply drawing far fewer sprites when you set the For loop to 4 and thus calls the draw_sprite_ext command less. For some taller buildings which are around 30-50 sprites I plan on cutting them down and increasing their skew angle to save some CPU.
Perspective must be calculated every single frame because the camera is tied to the view, so pre-rendering each building is unfortunately not an option.
P.S. You can keep tinkering but please do not post images of the full code, the source code is not public.
It seems like most of what you are saying is that you gain optimizations by, well... removing details from the game. I'd generally agree that running multiple sprite operations per frame is inefficient, but in this context it's also a creative solution to the problems coming from trying to make a 2.5D game in a 2D engine.
If I was doing this in Unity, I would just throw a pixel shader on a 3D scene and call it a day, but that seems to defeat the purpose of doing fun pixel artsy stuff by hand, which seems to be the dev's intention and driving motivation.
Most efficient ≠ artistic intention and engine limitations
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.
Airstrikes from fixed-wing airpower such as fighter aircraft might also be cool. Both as a tactical aid or potentially as an enemy force. Perhaps one of the weapons could simply be a laser designation device for allied airpower.
Side note, I tried to recreate the lingering particle effects glitch by playing the game windowed in its native resolution and I basically just had a short battle with a mech, redeployed, and the effects were still there.
Did the particle effects fade out, or were they stuck motionless in their position and not disappearing? If it's the former, it should be a very easy fix on the next build, if it's the latter I'll need to look into it further.
I like the laser designator idea by the way. Maybe one or two missions will have friendly mechs that fight alongside the player.
Okay, that's not a good sign. Never had this problem, but something might not be clearing correctly on exit which could lead to a potential memory leak. I'll look into this further, thanks for the heads up.
Hey dude, this game is phenomenal in so many ways, the art direction in regards to vehicle and UI design is so well done. I think the game's in a good spot difficulty-wise, I was initially struggling especially with mission 3 but when I started to get a feel for the stealth mechanics it became really engaging, all I want now is more missions and customisation:))
Couple of points of feedback if you're up for reading them:
- 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.
- (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
- 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.
- 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
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 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!
I realize I'm giving a lot of feedback but I think the only mech should be the quadtank. I have no clue who the pilot is but I envisioned her as maybe quite emotionally attached to this piece of hardware in particular.
I appreciate all your feedback! I didn't think too much about her feelings towards the mech, but I could definitely see her having an attachment to it as she's also part of one of the few squadrons that operates that type specifically.
Thinking a bit more about different playable mecs, I'm probably not going to do that since I think it'd be hard to get them all to feel unique and interesting, especially with having changeable weapons already. In the unlikely event that I do end up going that route though, there most likely won't be any unique parts to unlock for each one since doing it for all of them would be a ton of work and probably not worth it.
Thanks for replying! Soldiers I knew in real life who operated armored vehicles had a deep attachment to their respective weapon system. I think the quad-tank is very unique! I certainly can easily imagine it demolishing mecha from other fictional works.
This is a good point, I do really like the design of the main mech it's awesome. Maybe the option to add/remove hull armour in return for more/less speed/acceleration could be a nice way to change up playstyles without needing assets for different mechs, might be redundant though, the simplicity of just needing to choose the weapon is nice.
Colour customisation would definitely be very welcome though! :)
At the moment I'm thinking of having different engine types for better boost and acceleration, as well as armor/protection kits that have varying systems (i.e. APS that automatically tries to shoot down enemy missiles, mine protection, etc) in addition to the different primary and seconddary weapons + a third defensive/offensive weapon (smoke or EMP grenades for disabling enemies)
Thanks for replying dude, keep up the awesome work! In regards to enemies telegraphing I like the chirp idea. As a better visual indicator, how about a laser that comes like a half second before an enemy's about to fire similar to the hypothetical player's laser? it would have the multi-use of 1) telegraphing an attack 2) giving a visual indicator of where the enemy's actually aiming 3) making it easier to get the hang of evading, as you'll be able to see the behaviour of the enemy's point of aim (it would also give an indicator for when off-screen enemies are about to fire, I got sniped by a tank from off-screen one time lol).
I like the idea of changing the projectile colour, maybe just change player autocannon tracers to be red like the rotary cannon though? that would kinda keep player and enemy tracers consistent colour-wise. I trust your judgement with it though, my bad for throwing walls of text at you :)
I like the laser idea. There's going to be automated turrets that are stationary which could use those, but I was also thinking of having semi-stealth enemies that are much harder to see with camouflage that try and ambush the player. Those would definitely need to have something like that to show the player they're about to get struck.
(it would also give an indicator for when off-screen enemies are about to fire, I got sniped by a tank from off-screen one time lol).
Haha, that's the trade off with the tank enemies - they're slow and easy to run away from unlike the mechs, but they have far better optics and can see you from afar.
I like the idea of changing the projectile colour, maybe just change player autocannon tracers to be red like the rotary cannon though? that would kinda keep player and enemy tracers consistent colour-wise.
Maybe, I'll experiment with it more once I have the bullet collision code rewritten (needs to be optimized). I'd like there to be a noticeable difference between weapon types and calibers as stated on the icons (the minigun is 20mm and the autocannon 25mm)
I trust your judgement with it though, my bad for throwing walls of text at you :)
Not at all! I appreciate your feedback as always, it's very important to me to hear what other people think about it and would like to see.
I played a little of the game, but I reaaly liked it! Nice mech designs, reminds me a lot of those old school designs from the 80s and 90s, wich is awesome by the way. Also I noticed that the native resolution of the game is 960 x 540, these is the same resolution of the PS VITA, any chance of the game come to the console as a port? I know that the comunity would love and support a project like that, I have a Vita myself and Im impressed with how many games are still coming to the console, officially, independently developed or ported by the community.
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!
PS VITA is quite powerfull for its time it supports up to DirectX 10.1 and DirectX 11 I think, informations foud here and here. The console has a 4-core Arm Cortex-A9 CPU with 512MB of RAM and a 4-core PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU with 128MB of VRAM. RAM and VRAM are not shared and both are 64bit, if I'm not mistaken, today it is posible to safely run the CPU at 500 MHz and the GPU at 233 MHZ. Unity up to late 2018 version is also suported and more recently the comunity ported Godot game engine so games made with it can also run on the console.
Curently there is a lot of good available information regarding the development of games for the console, the best source is Vita SDK. The more recently games ported that I think are awesome to ever run on the console, and good examples of what the comunity has achieved are, Hollow Knight, Cuphead and Blasphemous.
Great game! I'm happy to note that the game is playable on Steam Deck!
For those who are intrested, Make sure you set the Proton layer to Experimental, or else the game crashes as soon as you enter the game after the menu screen.
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.
Also, see if the camera can be managed better. It’s completely unplayable if someone is playing on a small screen like the Steam Deck. 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.
If someone is playing on a big monitor from close range, it gets some what manageable, otherwise, it’s almost unplayable.
If you are looking for any reference on how this can be managed, I would recommend that you take a look at a game called "Kill The Crows." I understand that you must be in the initial stages of development. Nevertheless, I would love to see you expand on this and get it out as a full commercial release.
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.
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.
The game’s equal parts frustrating and interesting. I can see two main development paths for it depending on whether you want to lean more heavily into the bullet hell shmup aspects or the stealth and cover aspects.
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. This would make the game play more like a Smash TV-style twinstick shooter, but with the addition of using buildings for cover. And no, it wouldn’t matter that the mech destroys buildings it moves through, because the mech still has relatively low health, so you still want to use buildings for cover, so you’d only want to crash through buildings to duck and dodge and not just to wander around between firefights. 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.
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. 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. 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.
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. Maybe let the player customize the HUD/crosshair colors, maybe just decide on multiple colors that stand out from each other and the environment better. Even just a black or white outline for the crosshairs would make them stand out way better. 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.
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. The Thermal Launcher is at least clearly different, being essentially a flamethrower with a funny name, but the other two both seem to just be rapid-firing machine guns. 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!
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, but 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.
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!
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!
I could perhaps have different difficulty modes and on easy it'd show them on the radar. I don't intend to have them on the actual battlefield like headlights, I agree that'd be too easy.
I know military aircraft like the F-22 or F-15 have Missile Warning Receiver or RADAR Warning Receiver that notifies the pilot with an audio cue if they're being pinged/detected by RADAR waves. Maybe something similar could be applied?
This is just a GREAT game. Great graphics, music and gameplay. Reminds me of the cult anime of the 90s. It's already very enjoyable to play. I can't wait for customization and more levels. I think p2p would look interesting too. I'll definitely buy this on PC and it would also be cool to have controller support or if it was available on Nintendo Switch.
From the gameplay, I would like to see two more things:
- Weapons like a tank cannon or something similar. With a long reload and high projectile speed. A gauss cannon, for example, or just a tank cannon. This would open up such sniper gameplay.
- Different types of accelerators in the game. The one that is currently available by pressing the shift button is an accelerator with medium speed and medium energy reserve. I would like another type of accelerator that allows you to dodge: high speed, but a small energy reserve.
Glad you liked it, thank you for playing and the ideas!
Reminds me of the cult anime of the 90s.
That was indeed a lot of the inspiration, it'll be much more apparent once I get cutscenes in.
I think p2p would look interesting too.
Multiplayer would be a lot of fun but also very difficult for me to program on my own. I'll need to recruit some people to help with the networking code, it's something I have almost no experience with.
- Weapons like a tank cannon or something similar. With a long reload and high projectile speed. A gauss cannon, for example, or just a tank cannon. This would open up such sniper gameplay.
I'm thinking there will be a chargeable railgun weapon that can go through a dozen buildings on screen. An actual tank cannon and shotgun is planned as well, though I'll need to figure out how to balance them with the other weapons.
- Different types of accelerators in the game. The one that is currently available by pressing the shift button is an accelerator with medium speed and medium energy reserve. I would like another type of accelerator that allows you to dodge: high speed, but a small energy reserve.
Definitely going to have different engines with various boost levels - I like the sound of "accelerator", I might just call it that. Eventually there'll be water in levels, so it might help to also have ones with different performances for different kinds of terrain.
Good game honestly, very fast. Would love to see some laser beam weapon or a railgun. Maybe different kinds of secondary missiles. The art is beautiful. 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. Goooood shit really!!! I loved it
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.
Yeah, in the second level it lagged a lot but i dont think is an issue knowing the level is a test one. In the third it also lagged, i assume its the amount of objects drawn in screen that cause the issue. When i mess with gm i ussually have to keep an eye on the amount of instances of objects and what they are doing step by step otherwise my potato pc gets a little anxious. I tend to just opt to deactivate everything thats out of sigth and is not doing something important .I believe gm uses directX, at least gm8.1, the oooold one i mean. Aaaaand also i reaaaallly like the pixel art in the game, its very good, particulary the buildings.
Good day. A couple of thoughts after completing three demo levels.
It is often difficult to distinguish one object from another when combat gets intense. Might be worth increasing visibility for player's mech and opponents, maybe tweak the color scheme.
Although performance is generally okay for a demo version, frame rate still drops sometimes, even in the alternative sync mode. A little work on optimization is definitely necessary. Additional visual settings (primarily more screen resolutions) will be appreciated too.
If my understanding is correct, at this point the game only features a female pilot. Some players might want to play as a male pilot, so it might be nice to add one further in development.
Also, if you consider adding more languages, I might help you with the Russian version in particular.
It is often difficult to distinguish one object from another when combat gets intense. Might be worth increasing visibility for player's mech and opponents, maybe tweak the color scheme.
Visibility will be improved, I think some additional indicators will help.
Although performance is generally okay for a demo version, frame rate still drops sometimes, even in the alternative sync mode. A little work on optimization is definitely necessary. Additional visual settings (primarily more screen resolutions) will be appreciated too.
Right now I am working on a patch that will make the game run way smoother in combat and also fix the minigun complaints. I'm running this on a very low end laptop myself so I understand the complaints. Update might be out in a few days or so.Update now live!
If my understanding is correct, at this point the game only features a female pilot. Some players might want to play as a male pilot, so it might be nice to add one further in development.
There will be other characters, maybe different pilots you play in different areas of the game.
Also, if you consider adding more languages, I might help you with the Russian version in particular.
I do want to have localization settings in when possible, but it will probably be done when the game is finished so I don't have to keep editing script files for each language. Will definitely have a Russian, Japanese, and Spanish language setting.
I'd have to puchase a Macintosh computer to make a dedicated build with GM. If possible though, maybe you could find a Mac version of a virtual machine and load Linux/Windows on it to try it for now. I know that's a lot of work and very far from ideal, but I don't have an ability to make a Mac version currently, sorry!
well. using port proton with steam proton 8.05 game works fine.
I will add a few wishes on my own: 1) it is necessary to make the player's technique more readable, relative to the color scheme of the environment 2) add support for non-standard screen resolutions
PS: maybe I'll try to launch it on steam deck a little later
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.
Seems it's once again the DirectX drivers not being installed or up to date, sorry! No idea how this would be fixed on a Steam deck. I wonder if I could bundle an official DirectX driver with the game so people don't have to go looking for it.
I've read through most posts so I guess everyone knows rotary cannon was kinda lacking lol, glad it's getting some love.
Performance wise, it runs extremely smooth on my potato, but the default options almost ruined it with low frames, making the game run at like half speed. Alternate sync instantly fixed my issues. It seems none of the settings properly save and I had to change to fullscreen every time I run the game, thankfully it does read from the ini file to always have alt sync on.
I showed this to a dev friend and he was very impressed, but he did comment that it felt like a tech demo. With some further objectives and (potentially) a procedural game mode, I can see myself spending hundreds of hours on this at least.
Difficulty felt a bit inconsistent at times: on the same level, enemy spawns, I believe, seem somewhat random, at least for certain enemies (mostly the mechs on mission 1). Mission 2 is very WIP, but I do love the overwhelming bug forces and how it felt like a change of pace from the mechs. Mission 3's beginning can be extremely hectic and I wish there were more situations like that: enemies surrounding you from all directions and aggro'ing the player, but as soon as I move away to a safe position and start taking out enemies, this sense of thrill is somewhat lost. I understand it's likely the intention to make it somewhat stealth-focused, but the hectic dogfighting is so much fun. It reminds me a bit of the Synthetik 2 situation, where enemies used to struggle with aggro and can be easily taken out from a distance, splitting the engagements to many tiny parts of the map where enemies are grouped up, instead of a more fluid experience where player is constantly under pressure. Personally I prefer when enemies come in bigger groups from many directions to really force me to be somewhat strategic and take them out effectively, instead of them showing up one by one which can be easily solved by a missile salvo + gun burst, allowing me to play it safe and wait. Similarly, tanks can be super threatening when mixed with mechs, and I love how deadly they can be!
Finally, big fan of the simple and arcadey movement, maaaybe overdrive felt a little weak overall without much noticeable effect, but considering the planned future upgrades, it might be okay. Running out of energy needs clearer visual and sound cues though. I also prefer showing enemy positions around the player instead of the cursor so it's easier to tell and not as demanding on my eyes.
Apologies for the text wall, this is my kind of game and I'm so glad to have discovered it so soon ;D
Seems a ton of people are finding this game from that one video, I only wish it had better FPS haha.
I've read through most posts so I guess everyone knows rotary cannon was kinda lacking lol, glad it's getting some love.
Poor rotary cannon! I still love it even if it's basically playing on hard mode. Will receive a major buff next build.
Performance wise, it runs extremely smooth on my potato, but the default options almost ruined it with low frames, making the game run at like half speed.
Good to hear! Sorry that it was running at half speed on default. It runs well on my own potato and I don't have to use any of the V-sync settings, but I realize people's rigs vary greatly so I implemented those options. I was worried from watching people's streams and let's plays that the game isn't optimized enough, but it seems like it's mostly the recording software that makes it chug.
Alternate sync instantly fixed my issues. It seems none of the settings properly save and I had to change to fullscreen every time I run the game, thankfully it does read from the ini file to always have alt sync on.
There actually shouldn't be any .ini files saving, it's strange that alt-sync is remembered. I guess that must be an internal Game Maker thing. Both the main menu and options menu are very quick placeholders thrown together in two days for a jam. It'll be replaced with proper ones that save your settings as soon as I can. Had I known so many people would be playing it I would've worked way harder to polish that aspect, sorry.
I showed this to a dev friend and he was very impressed, but he did comment that it felt like a tech demo. With some further objectives and (potentially) a procedural game mode, I can see myself spending hundreds of hours on this at least.
It's definitely a tech demo... for now. I hope to have more missions and hopefully a proper campaign in, assuming things won't be downscoped.
Difficulty felt a bit inconsistent at times: on the same level, enemy spawns, I believe, seem somewhat random, at least for certain enemies (mostly the mechs on mission 1)
Mission 1 does have randomized spawners in each corner that go off at different times. It's to keep it fresh each playthrough. But I see how it can cause the difficultly to ramp up hard sometimes, especially depending on where you go in the city.
Mission 3's beginning can be extremely hectic and I wish there were more situations like that: enemies surrounding you from all directions and aggro'ing the player, but as soon as I move away to a safe position and start taking out enemies, this sense of thrill is somewhat lost. I understand it's likely the intention to make it somewhat stealth-focused, but the hectic dogfighting is so much fun. It reminds me a bit of the Synthetik 2 situation, where enemies used to struggle with aggro and can be easily taken out from a distance, splitting the engagements to many tiny parts of the map where enemies are grouped up, instead of a more fluid experience where player is constantly under pressure.
I have to say it's been super interesting seeing how greatly people's experience and preference vary. Some people say it's way too easy and they beat every level on the first try, others like you figure out pretty quickly that enemies have a cone of vision and you can actually use cover to ambush them and play strategically, dodging missiles and wiping out formations. Meanwhile some other people haven't been able to finish even the first mission or figure out how to turn off screenshake and change the resolution, c'mon it's literally in the single settings menu.
I'm with you in that I think tight street fighting and being surrounded is exhilarating. I love how tense it can get especially when you're low on armor, which is why I intentionally didn't put any health pickups on the map.
Personally I prefer when enemies come in bigger groups from many directions to really force me to be somewhat strategic and take them out effectively, instead of them showing up one by one which can be easily solved by a missile salvo + gun burst, allowing me to play it safe and wait. Similarly, tanks can be super threatening when mixed with mechs, and I love how deadly they can be!
I have plans for a lot more different enemy types to mix it up and put a monkey wrench in the long distance/missile spam. I'm thinking every enemy should have a clear and choreographed behavior, like the noticeable difference between the mech and tank enemies. Oh, glad you liked the tanks by the way! They can really filter more casual players lol.
Finally, big fan of the simple and arcadey movement, maaaybe overdrive felt a little weak overall without much noticeable effect, but considering the planned future upgrades, it might be okay. Running out of energy needs clearer visual and sound cues though.
Yeah the current state of the overdrive function in this case would be your starting level boost. A lot of people have suggested that you should be able to boost into enemies to damage them, I think that'd be a fun upgrade. Appreciate you also pointing out the overdrive needs a better indicator, I'll have the box turn red like the armor indicator and maybe put a quick beep sound if it hits 0/80. Thanks!
I also prefer showing enemy positions around the player instead of the cursor so it's easier to tell and not as demanding on my eyes.
I can probably put that as a setting in the options to toggle, along with being able to turn off the camera smoothing which some people find nauseating.
Apologies for the text wall, this is my kind of game and I'm so glad to have discovered it so soon ;D
Not at all! Thank you for the in depth comment, kind words, and feedback! I will use your suggestions to improve it!
(Sorry about your previous comment disappearing, I was experimenting with the different board layout and it seems I cannot have both.)
The issue with the particles not clearing on redeploy will be fixed in another patch. Also the protagonist and other art on the page will return in color. Thank you again.
And yes thank you for feedback on both! In love with the protagonist, she's very pretty. Very excited about this game. I've been play-testing this game basically daily and I record footage so let me know if you want me to recreate any gameplay parameters for bug-fixing.
The only other glitch I've encountered was that sometimes when I try to launch missiles they seem to not fire at all. For reference I play with V-SYNC on at 1920x1080.
Glad to hear that. Drawing characters isn't something I'm very experienced with, so I'm glad she came out appealing!
Very excited about this game. I've been play-testing this game basically daily and I record footage so let me know if you want me to recreate any gameplay parameters for bug-fixing.
I'd be interested in seeing the particle issue recreated, if possible. I had a friend show me a glitch occur where smoke trails from exploded enemies would just be frozen if they alt-tabbed back into the game, they also played on 1920x1080 but with V-sync off I think. Might need to look into having the game detect whether or not the player is focused on the window, right now the default game engine code is handling all of that.
The only other glitch I've encountered was that sometimes when I try to launch missiles they seem to not fire at all. For reference I play with V-SYNC on at 1920x1080.
Hmm, interesting glitch. Are you using the lock-on or just trying to blind fire them? There used to be an old glitch where they wouldn't fire if you held the right mouse button for exactly 15 frames as that was the time it checked whether or not to start drawing the laser line, but I have since fixed that on update V.05 and 5.1 which I put up a few days ago. Will try playing with V-sync on when I can to see if I can recreate that.
Oh, if I may ask you one more thing - how's the FPS? I tried to optimize it a lot if you're playing on 5.1; there should be far less lag during heavy combat if you were having any. Thank you again!
OK I'll try and recreate the particle issue today. I'll host the videos on YouTube. I'll keep the same conditions for gameplay on (1920x1080 with V-SYNC on).
Here's a link to the missile glitch I described earlier. It's around four minutes and thirty seconds.
I'll set up an FPS count when I play next time. It was pretty good. I am playing with an Intel i5 (10th Generation) on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX-3060.
Already tons of fun in this early stage, shooting feels great. Rotary feels the best of all weapons but it also seems the weakest?
Just needs a lot of unlockables and I'll be hooked for hours. Dash, jump, shield, smoke grenades, stealth, deployable minefield, sidegrades and upgrades :]
I see the tracks from lion eats tonight are back, they fit great here.
And lastly the artstyle is very nice, especially that last pic on the game page. What are those, tactical abs? I'm on board
A bangin' soundtrack to match would be great but I can always put something on myself in the background
Already tons of fun in this early stage, shooting feels great. Rotary feels the best of all weapons but it also seems the weakest?
Cheers for playing! Rotary cannon is pretty poor indeed; I admit I kind of nerfed it compared to an older build since it basically made the autocannon unnecessary, but in hindsight it's much too weak now. I'm solving this problem by making it dual fire like the autocannon, next build it'll be way more fun to use.
Just needs a lot of unlockables and I'll be hooked for hours. Dash, jump, shield, smoke grenades, stealth, deployable minefield, sidegrades and upgrades :]
There's going to be more weapons and unlockables, including grenades with maybe different types (EMP, smoke, thermite, etc)
I see the tracks from lion eats tonight are back, they fit great here.
Glad you noticed the track effects are from TLET, I ended up reusing them since their code was already perfect, haha.
What are those, tactical abs?
They sure are!
A bangin' soundtrack to match would be great but I can always put something on myself in the background
Indeed, a lot of people have been asking for a soundtrack to go with it. I've composed a few tracks myself such as the main menu and mission end tune, but I'll probably need to recruit some real composers since music isn't something I have a lot of experience with. Thanks again for playing and the feedback, it's much appreciated!
I'm kinda surprised that although its clear that the project is on the very early stage of development it has already pretty good core gameplay and excellent gunporn! Seriously it's very important for shooter game make shooting fun. Most games with guns just don't have this feeling and you're already achieved it! I like the action here is already more than in Brigador. And your art style is very cool! Hope you'll finish the game so looking forward for its further development!
Thank you for playing and your kind words! I'm glad you find the shooting satisfying. I spent a lot of time trying to get it to feel right and put as much destruction detail in as I could. There'll be more to come soon, hopefully!
GREAT game, one small issue players sometimes get trapped easily in the 2nd mission, it would be a great mechanic to barge through the horde or jump or stomp over them, also adding more use to shift would be nice.
Love the idea of charging through hordes, will definitely see if I can add that in. Second mission will be overhauled entirely too, it's just a placeholder level for now.
Hello, found this from your youtube video being suggested, looks cool, I am however having this error upon starting a mission:___________________________________________
Hey, sorry about that! Are you using Linux/Wine? This is a known compatibility issue that I think can be solved by compiling a Linux build of the game, but at the moment I don't have a setup to do that. My apologies.
Okay, I researched this specific error in Game Maker, it seems to be related to your graphics card drivers or DirectX. From what I can tell looking at other people with this same problem, it should just be an issue with DirectX not being up to date, so try updating that and if that doesn't work try maybe your graphics card driver. That should hopefully fix it.
Maybe see if you can find a different emulator to run it for now, perhaps you can find one that says it's designed to handle newer DirectX compatible shaders. From what I've found looking at support forums, Linux OS reads them slightly different from Windows which is what causes the error.
Sorry to the Linux users here, again I don't have the ability to compile a dedicated build at the moment.
Thermal projector is OP and chain gun is just useless (damage to low and fire rate is to high, ammo ends very fast). In other sides game is awesome. Waiting for complete version. Sorry for my english
Agreed, the rotary cannon needs a buff. It works best at close quarters combat in the first level when you have the enemy mechs close to each other, but against heavy enemies like tanks it's pretty bad. Thanks for the feedback!
Just played through all 3 missions ( haven't beaten the 2nd yet ) and this was really damn good
Love everything about this, although I think the rubble left over from the destroyed buildings makes it hard to actually see enemies sometimes. I think either the rubble or the enemies should have a different colour pallete
Same in the second level where it became kinda hard to see the worms among all the blood. I guess in a way this atleast teaches a player to keep moving, but I think it's still worth noting
Either way, this is a fantastic base for more. Can't wait to see what else you do with this
I didn't use shift much in the demo version, perhaps the developer could consider the mecha can damage enemy by impact and take less damage from enemy impact when using shift. This effect could appear in the direction of move as a shield.
There will be upgrades for the boost and engine. Will definitely have an ability to damage enemies by slamming into them or reducing damage when boosting; currently I'm working on implementing a proper hangar for that. Thanks for playing!
Really cool! Digging the art style and aesthetic a lot. How did you make the sprite stacks for all the "models" in the game? Voxels converted to slices? Either way cool stuff!
A mixture of voxels converted to slices, conventional 3D models downscaled to voxels, and sometimes hand drawing each of the slices. Thanks for playing!
Glad to hear people with older hardware can run this. I'm working hard on trying to get resolution resizing working, something is messing it up. I apologize you and other people had to play it in such a small resolution.
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I've been reading the suggestions in the comments and thought I'd also throw in my two cents, as I've really come to like the game over the few hours I've played it. In general, this supposed to be a compendium of some ideas I like, taken from the comments along with some of my own ideas. 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.
I'll try to structure it a bit, but I'm the worst at writing, so forgive me for that.
1. Weapons:
I've read in the comments you plan to implement some new weapons, notably a railgun and laser weapons. I've given it some thought and I've come up with a few ideas.
The laser weaponry goes first:
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.
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.
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. The last option would be to give them infinite ammo, though that'd be a bit OP without proper balancing.
Now the kinetic weaponry:
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?). Additionally, it would be pretty cool if you could shoot through multiple mechs when they're lined up.
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 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.
A laser designator: Obviously inspired by Tripsyy, calling in an orbital/aerial bombardment, NPC reinforcements, supply drops, etc. Could also function as a main weapon if the cooldown is short/if using the laser designator to give the NPC reinforcements commands.
2. The Mech
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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
3. Enemies
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?
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.
I'd also love to see more variety in biological enemies? Maybe some huge arachnoids, or even plants that have overtaken old decrepit mechs!
4. Missions
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
5. Name
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.
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 for playing and all of these suggestions, I appreciate that a lot!
Not at all!
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.
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".
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.
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.
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.
Absolutely, that's a must.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Totally. I think there'll be some scout cars or fast attack vehicles that come really fast towards them.
I'd like to have different intros for different levels instead of just the fade in, would be more immersive.
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.
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.
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'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.
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"
Thank you! I appreciate the feedback a lot.
Thank you for replying! I can (for the most part) totally understand why or why you did not decide to include something. I guess the only two things I'm "disappointed" (not really, I'm too happy that this game even exists to be truly disappointed) about is the artillery cannon, but I think the grenades are a neat replacement/stand-in, and the engine overdrive system. If there aren't going to be real consequences for emptying the boost, I would at least add a bit of screen shake or something like that, so it at least feels like that isn't too good for the mech. Though that of course could confuse players into thinking it actually damages their mech, because I definitely would think that if the screen shakes.
When I approached them from behind cover they seemed to not move at all. This becomes a problem because the tanks are never able to see you. I managed to ambush them and I didn't get hit by a tank once. It's probably something broken on my game though, I'll download it again and see if that fixes it.
Well, all in all I have to say (again) that this game is really awesome, and I wish there was more of it/like it. I can't wait to see what the future holds for this game. Thanks for reading.
If they haven't seen you, they should remain on guard indefinitely. If you blow up a building they'll also rotate to point in the general direction.
That's very strange, do they even react at all? They should turn to fire at you if you hit them or come between their 120 degree cone of vision/where the turret is facing.
Thanks again!
I downloaded the game again and that seems to magically have fixed it??? I don't know how, but they do now function as described. Now that they actually react they are fearsome opponents.
I do have one question: Will there ever be plans for modding? Like, in 3 years, when the game is on version V.4.2.7? Or do you plan to not make it modable at all? Or is that hard to say at the moment, because it could change in the future?
Thanks, hope you have a good day!
Glad to hear it's fixed now, perhaps something went wrong with unzipping.
As for mods - it's hard to say at the moment since the game is so early. I'm not too sure on what to do to actually prepare the game for modding honestly. That said, I'm open to the idea of it, and I'm sure people would have fun modding their own mechs and pilot portraits and what not.
Absolutely amazing game! I am so impressed by the gameplay and style. your audio is also really well suited, though the silence near the end of the missions is kind of off-putting.
I'm always impressed by the 2.5d, and I'm starting to notice why Gamemaker is popular. (how the hell did you do this?!?!) especially with the mech legs and the buildings collapsing!?!? Its absolutely fucking ridiculous. and also the bullet cases?!?
Its also interesting how the enemy's don't seem to head their shots, so strafing seems to be extra viable compared to peaking out of cover.
Also I LOVE that you can shoot through the buildings. it really adds to the covering and sneak attacks. GOD I love the design.
I will say I was kind of confused when I ran out of ammo, I didn't know there was ammo boxes at the time. I kind of assumed there was a melee with the boost for when you ran out of ammo? died I guess, the main level didn't introduce it as good as the second.
also, your destruction is amazing. did you seriously add in tire marks when a car gets pushed by an explosion!?
opening the game menu is a little silent, maybe some hum when it opens?
I will say I was kinda disappointed by the sprint, I didnt really notice what it did. maybe some extra tire marks + tire squeal?
Also, weird bug. if you die while your windows unfocused you get a abnormal death screen where you get repeating audio (pitched down white noise) and cant see your mechs corpse
I'm working on a VR mech game (all my itch stuff is ancient for it). and have unfortunately had little time to clean up my UI. your designs are a awesome inspiration and I love them so much <3. This game has definitely reminded me how far I have to go before its where I want it to be. (seriously those fucking buildings)
and your game design handles mech's so amazingly, those explosions had my jaw dropped at times. I'm definitely going to implement some of these mechanics when I can. I think mech games still have a lot of potential and this is a great example of filling it.
I would love to know what references + inspiration you had while designing this! I definitely see a lot of Metal gear, Signalis, maybe a little armored core hiding somewhere?
And also how this game was developed overtime, I can see tire marks, fire, smoke ect. getting used all over the place. those little visual cues repeating to add to the fun of destruction, its such a good study.
Thanks for playing!
Sorry about that, sometimes the ambient audio cuts out due to too many sounds happening at once. I need to have a proper audio controller that checks if it's not playing and restarts it.
A lot of coding tricks and pulling out all the smoke and mirrors I can lol.
Glad you like that aspect with the buildings, that was my goal from the start.
I'm thinking about implementing a close range melee or a semi-automatic sort of emergency-use gun that has an atrocious fire rate and poor damage so the player isn't entirely defenseless.
Yes!
Will do. Eventually I'll probably fade the level music down a bit when I have some.
Yeah, it's not very impressive. I'll be making it more exciting soon.
Seen that happen on someone's stream, I need to figure out how to patch that issue.
Nice! Glad to hear that.
A lot of different things honestly. My inspirations do include Metal Gear and Armored Core, but there's a lot of other things as well. I try not to pull from one specific inspiration when I can.
Cheers!
love it! the mech and the pilot both are really
sexyattractivepositively arousingunique and something i'd love to see more of. should we expect updates or roadmaps on a regular basis or is this simply intended to be an on and off project?Thanks for playing, and glad you like the pilot!
There's a lot of things I want to implement, but actual updates to the demo will probably be infrequent since I think it's better to receive feedback on major updates that modify the game dramatically instead of small incremental changes. If all goes well there may be a new demo out with a lot of new features in a month or two, hopefully.
This really great. The basic mechanics are solid. It just needs more levels and a bit of narrative. Keep it simple and finish it soon so we can buy it. :)
Thank you! I hope to implement more of that soon.
Loved the demo. Reminded me very much of Brigador, and in turn the old Battletech isometric twin-stick shooter on Sega Genesis/Master System. If at some point you could get Japanese voice actors to do the dialogue, it would be an amazing GitS/Patlabor/That Kind of Thing homage. Yep, I'd buy this.
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.
Hypothetically, if there was VA, did you imagine an English speaking or Japanese speaking cast?
I imagined English voice cast since I don't speak Japanese. That said, having separate dubs for each language would be nice.
I actually like the name Project Landsword. How did you come up with it?
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.
Giving the game a suitable localized name was one of my first thoughts actually. Literal translation of Landsword would sound a little silly in Russian, and the only relatively suitable name that came to my mind is "Проект "Меченосец"". If anyone else speaks Russian here, feel free to suggest your names.
You could localize it thematically by name. Don't the Russians name their weapon prototypes "Obiekt[Number]"?
"Объект" might suit as well, but with a letter "М" (меч, sword) instead of a number. Giving a specific number is okay too as long as it is mentioned somewhere in the story.
Yeah, hence why I still consider it a placeholder name. I imagine trying to translate "Landsword" to other languages is just going to come out as something vague like "Sword of the Land" or "Land of Swords". I'll have to think on it more, I'd like to avoid a generic sounding title honestly.
Landsword sounds cool, if it gets localised you can probs just localise "Project" but keep it as Landsword. Like a brand name, wherever you go Apple is always just "Apple". You could even have Landsword be the last name of the lead researcher or something haha, "Dr. Landsword"
That makes me wonder if Val is a test pilot or if she is has some experience in a maneuver warfare unit?
I don't really see her as a test pilot since these quadmechs would be operated by a few different maneuver warfare units, one of which she'd be a part of. It also might be a newer generation of mech but it's no super prototype or anything like that (those will come later, possibly)
this is so fucking cool!!! would love a campaign to go with it - excellent art and vibes, really fun gameplay.
Thanks for playing! I hope to have a full campaign in it with side missions and other content.
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:
I was undecided as to whether or not the player should have separate weapons for left and right, I thought it'd be neat if they'd have to account for the offset for each one. Next build I'll patch it so the single-fire weapons fire exactly at the cursor though, I see how that can be annoying.
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 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.
Yes, it's the sprite stacking loop that is easily the most intensive thing in the entire game. This is why sprite stacking is not a commonly seen method in games, it's inherently an unoptimized method of drawing things even using a shader, but I am pulling out all the stops that I can to optimize the effect because I want to use it regardless of its inefficiency. building_parent is what every single building object is connected to for the most part, they all execute that code block with the calculations and I refrain from using the two drawing scripts you found because calling scripts is more intensive than doing it in each object manually. The reason your FPS jumps up by 40% is it's simply drawing far fewer sprites when you set the For loop to 4 and thus calls the draw_sprite_ext command less. For some taller buildings which are around 30-50 sprites I plan on cutting them down and increasing their skew angle to save some CPU.
Perspective must be calculated every single frame because the camera is tied to the view, so pre-rendering each building is unfortunately not an option.
P.S. You can keep tinkering but please do not post images of the full code, the source code is not public.
Hey you could hide the posted source code by switching to the forum system again haha. (I'm joking).
It seems like most of what you are saying is that you gain optimizations by, well... removing details from the game. I'd generally agree that running multiple sprite operations per frame is inefficient, but in this context it's also a creative solution to the problems coming from trying to make a 2.5D game in a 2D engine.
If I was doing this in Unity, I would just throw a pixel shader on a 3D scene and call it a day, but that seems to defeat the purpose of doing fun pixel artsy stuff by hand, which seems to be the dev's intention and driving motivation.
Most efficient ≠ artistic intention and engine limitations
Will there be any flying enemies in the game like drones and attack helicopters? Any boss fight levels?
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.
Airstrikes from fixed-wing airpower such as fighter aircraft might also be cool. Both as a tactical aid or potentially as an enemy force. Perhaps one of the weapons could simply be a laser designation device for allied airpower.
Side note, I tried to recreate the lingering particle effects glitch by playing the game windowed in its native resolution and I basically just had a short battle with a mech, redeployed, and the effects were still there.
Did the particle effects fade out, or were they stuck motionless in their position and not disappearing? If it's the former, it should be a very easy fix on the next build, if it's the latter I'll need to look into it further.
I like the laser designator idea by the way. Maybe one or two missions will have friendly mechs that fight alongside the player.
They were motionless. When I backed into the main menu they also were there oddly enough.
Okay, that's not a good sign. Never had this problem, but something might not be clearing correctly on exit which could lead to a potential memory leak. I'll look into this further, thanks for the heads up.
She's back! I don't even know her name but I love her.
<3
Her name is Val.
Her suit really brings out her best features.
Hey dude, this game is phenomenal in so many ways, the art direction in regards to vehicle and UI design is so well done. I think the game's in a good spot difficulty-wise, I was initially struggling especially with mission 3 but when I started to get a feel for the stealth mechanics it became really engaging, all I want now is more missions and customisation:))
Couple of points of feedback if you're up for reading them:
- 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.
- (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
- 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.
- 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
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 for the kind words! More missions and customization will come soon.
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.
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.
Can do! I'm seeing if I can modify the crosshair to be more visible as well.
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.
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!
I realize I'm giving a lot of feedback but I think the only mech should be the quadtank. I have no clue who the pilot is but I envisioned her as maybe quite emotionally attached to this piece of hardware in particular.
I appreciate all your feedback! I didn't think too much about her feelings towards the mech, but I could definitely see her having an attachment to it as she's also part of one of the few squadrons that operates that type specifically.
Thinking a bit more about different playable mecs, I'm probably not going to do that since I think it'd be hard to get them all to feel unique and interesting, especially with having changeable weapons already. In the unlikely event that I do end up going that route though, there most likely won't be any unique parts to unlock for each one since doing it for all of them would be a ton of work and probably not worth it.
Thanks for replying! Soldiers I knew in real life who operated armored vehicles had a deep attachment to their respective weapon system. I think the quad-tank is very unique! I certainly can easily imagine it demolishing mecha from other fictional works.
For sure, I imagine it's hard not to get attached considering how much time they spend working with and maintaining them.
This is a good point, I do really like the design of the main mech it's awesome. Maybe the option to add/remove hull armour in return for more/less speed/acceleration could be a nice way to change up playstyles without needing assets for different mechs, might be redundant though, the simplicity of just needing to choose the weapon is nice.
Colour customisation would definitely be very welcome though! :)
At the moment I'm thinking of having different engine types for better boost and acceleration, as well as armor/protection kits that have varying systems (i.e. APS that automatically tries to shoot down enemy missiles, mine protection, etc) in addition to the different primary and seconddary weapons + a third defensive/offensive weapon (smoke or EMP grenades for disabling enemies)
Thanks for replying dude, keep up the awesome work! In regards to enemies telegraphing I like the chirp idea. As a better visual indicator, how about a laser that comes like a half second before an enemy's about to fire similar to the hypothetical player's laser? it would have the multi-use of 1) telegraphing an attack 2) giving a visual indicator of where the enemy's actually aiming 3) making it easier to get the hang of evading, as you'll be able to see the behaviour of the enemy's point of aim (it would also give an indicator for when off-screen enemies are about to fire, I got sniped by a tank from off-screen one time lol).
I like the idea of changing the projectile colour, maybe just change player autocannon tracers to be red like the rotary cannon though? that would kinda keep player and enemy tracers consistent colour-wise. I trust your judgement with it though, my bad for throwing walls of text at you :)
I like the laser idea. There's going to be automated turrets that are stationary which could use those, but I was also thinking of having semi-stealth enemies that are much harder to see with camouflage that try and ambush the player. Those would definitely need to have something like that to show the player they're about to get struck.
Haha, that's the trade off with the tank enemies - they're slow and easy to run away from unlike the mechs, but they have far better optics and can see you from afar.
Maybe, I'll experiment with it more once I have the bullet collision code rewritten (needs to be optimized). I'd like there to be a noticeable difference between weapon types and calibers as stated on the icons (the minigun is 20mm and the autocannon 25mm)
Not at all! I appreciate your feedback as always, it's very important to me to hear what other people think about it and would like to see.
I played a little of the game, but I reaaly liked it! Nice mech designs, reminds me a lot of those old school designs from the 80s and 90s, wich is awesome by the way. Also I noticed that the native resolution of the game is 960 x 540, these is the same resolution of the PS VITA, any chance of the game come to the console as a port? I know that the comunity would love and support a project like that, I have a Vita myself and Im impressed with how many games are still coming to the console, officially, independently developed or ported by the community.
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!
PS VITA is quite powerfull for its time it supports up to DirectX 10.1 and DirectX 11 I think, informations foud here and here. The console has a 4-core Arm Cortex-A9 CPU with 512MB of RAM and a 4-core PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU with 128MB of VRAM. RAM and VRAM are not shared and both are 64bit, if I'm not mistaken, today it is posible to safely run the CPU at 500 MHz and the GPU at 233 MHZ. Unity up to late 2018 version is also suported and more recently the comunity ported Godot game engine so games made with it can also run on the console.
Curently there is a lot of good available information regarding the development of games for the console, the best source is Vita SDK. The more recently games ported that I think are awesome to ever run on the console, and good examples of what the comunity has achieved are, Hollow Knight, Cuphead and Blasphemous.
Thanks for replying!
Keep the great work!
Great game! I'm happy to note that the game is playable on Steam Deck!
For those who are intrested, Make sure you set the Proton layer to Experimental, or else the game crashes as soon as you enter the game after the menu screen.
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.
Also, see if the camera can be managed better. It’s completely unplayable if someone is playing on a small screen like the Steam Deck. 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.
If someone is playing on a big monitor from close range, it gets some what manageable, otherwise, it’s almost unplayable.
If you are looking for any reference on how this can be managed, I would recommend that you take a look at a game called "Kill The Crows." I understand that you must be in the initial stages of development. Nevertheless, I would love to see you expand on this and get it out as a full commercial release.
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.
Nice to hear it's possible to run it on an SD!
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.
I'll see if I can improve the readability of the aim/cursor soon.
Thank you so much!
it's my pleaseure, Best of luck :)
The game’s equal parts frustrating and interesting. I can see two main development paths for it depending on whether you want to lean more heavily into the bullet hell shmup aspects or the stealth and cover aspects.
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. This would make the game play more like a Smash TV-style twinstick shooter, but with the addition of using buildings for cover. And no, it wouldn’t matter that the mech destroys buildings it moves through, because the mech still has relatively low health, so you still want to use buildings for cover, so you’d only want to crash through buildings to duck and dodge and not just to wander around between firefights. 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.
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. 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. 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.
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. Maybe let the player customize the HUD/crosshair colors, maybe just decide on multiple colors that stand out from each other and the environment better. Even just a black or white outline for the crosshairs would make them stand out way better. 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.
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. The Thermal Launcher is at least clearly different, being essentially a flamethrower with a funny name, but the other two both seem to just be rapid-firing machine guns. 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!
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, but 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.
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!
Thanks for playing and writing this honest feedback, I appreciate it greatly.
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.
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.
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.
Can do.
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.
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.
There'll be darker environments too, maybe even some night time missions (depending on how badly it affects game performance.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
I actually don't like the idea of a visible vision cone. It makes the difficulty too accessible in my opinion.
I could perhaps have different difficulty modes and on easy it'd show them on the radar. I don't intend to have them on the actual battlefield like headlights, I agree that'd be too easy.
I know military aircraft like the F-22 or F-15 have Missile Warning Receiver or RADAR Warning Receiver that notifies the pilot with an audio cue if they're being pinged/detected by RADAR waves. Maybe something similar could be applied?
Will look into it!
This is just a GREAT game. Great graphics, music and gameplay. Reminds me of the cult anime of the 90s. It's already very enjoyable to play. I can't wait for customization and more levels. I think p2p would look interesting too. I'll definitely buy this on PC and it would also be cool to have controller support or if it was available on Nintendo Switch.
From the gameplay, I would like to see two more things:
- Weapons like a tank cannon or something similar. With a long reload and high projectile speed. A gauss cannon, for example, or just a tank cannon. This would open up such sniper gameplay.
- Different types of accelerators in the game. The one that is currently available by pressing the shift button is an accelerator with medium speed and medium energy reserve. I would like another type of accelerator that allows you to dodge: high speed, but a small energy reserve.
Glad you liked it, thank you for playing and the ideas!
That was indeed a lot of the inspiration, it'll be much more apparent once I get cutscenes in.
Multiplayer would be a lot of fun but also very difficult for me to program on my own. I'll need to recruit some people to help with the networking code, it's something I have almost no experience with.
I'm thinking there will be a chargeable railgun weapon that can go through a dozen buildings on screen. An actual tank cannon and shotgun is planned as well, though I'll need to figure out how to balance them with the other weapons.
Definitely going to have different engines with various boost levels - I like the sound of "accelerator", I might just call it that. Eventually there'll be water in levels, so it might help to also have ones with different performances for different kinds of terrain.
Good game honestly, very fast. Would love to see some laser beam weapon or a railgun. Maybe different kinds of secondary missiles. The art is beautiful. 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. Goooood shit really!!! I loved it
Thanks for playing!
All of that is planned, particularly a railgun and laser weapon.
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.
<3
Yeah, in the second level it lagged a lot but i dont think is an issue knowing the level is a test one. In the third it also lagged, i assume its the amount of objects drawn in screen that cause the issue. When i mess with gm i ussually have to keep an eye on the amount of instances of objects and what they are doing step by step otherwise my potato pc gets a little anxious. I tend to just opt to deactivate everything thats out of sigth and is not doing something important .I believe gm uses directX, at least gm8.1, the oooold one i mean. Aaaaand also i reaaaallly like the pixel art in the game, its very good, particulary the buildings.
Game is fun time
Good day. A couple of thoughts after completing three demo levels.
It is often difficult to distinguish one object from another when combat gets intense. Might be worth increasing visibility for player's mech and opponents, maybe tweak the color scheme.
Although performance is generally okay for a demo version, frame rate still drops sometimes, even in the alternative sync mode. A little work on optimization is definitely necessary. Additional visual settings (primarily more screen resolutions) will be appreciated too.
If my understanding is correct, at this point the game only features a female pilot. Some players might want to play as a male pilot, so it might be nice to add one further in development.
Also, if you consider adding more languages, I might help you with the Russian version in particular.
Hello. Thank you for playing.
Visibility will be improved, I think some additional indicators will help.
Right now I am working on a patch that will make the game run way smoother in combat and also fix the minigun complaints. I'm running this on a very low end laptop myself so I understand the complaints.
Update might be out in a few days or so.Update now live!There will be other characters, maybe different pilots you play in different areas of the game.
I do want to have localization settings in when possible, but it will probably be done when the game is finished so I don't have to keep editing script files for each language. Will definitely have a Russian, Japanese, and Spanish language setting.
No idea how much work it is, but *raises hand* one mac player here that would love to play this!
I'd have to puchase a Macintosh computer to make a dedicated build with GM. If possible though, maybe you could find a Mac version of a virtual machine and load Linux/Windows on it to try it for now. I know that's a lot of work and very far from ideal, but I don't have an ability to make a Mac version currently, sorry!
Hello o/ . im linux user.
well. using port proton with steam proton 8.05 game works fine.
I will add a few wishes on my own:
1) it is necessary to make the player's technique more readable, relative to the color scheme of the environment
2) add support for non-standard screen resolutions
PS: maybe I'll try to launch it on steam deck a little later
Hey, glad to hear that!
Understood, I'll see what I can do to improve that.
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.
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.
Hello Commander. o7. I launched the steam deck on a clean version of proton 8.0-5. Actually, here is a screenshot, after launch mission:
Seems it's once again the DirectX drivers not being installed or up to date, sorry! No idea how this would be fixed on a Steam deck. I wonder if I could bundle an official DirectX driver with the game so people don't have to go looking for it.
a little later I will try to find time for a comprehensive study of the problem
This game speaks to me... Thanks to YT algorithm!
I've read through most posts so I guess everyone knows rotary cannon was kinda lacking lol, glad it's getting some love.
Performance wise, it runs extremely smooth on my potato, but the default options almost ruined it with low frames, making the game run at like half speed. Alternate sync instantly fixed my issues. It seems none of the settings properly save and I had to change to fullscreen every time I run the game, thankfully it does read from the ini file to always have alt sync on.
I showed this to a dev friend and he was very impressed, but he did comment that it felt like a tech demo. With some further objectives and (potentially) a procedural game mode, I can see myself spending hundreds of hours on this at least.
Difficulty felt a bit inconsistent at times: on the same level, enemy spawns, I believe, seem somewhat random, at least for certain enemies (mostly the mechs on mission 1). Mission 2 is very WIP, but I do love the overwhelming bug forces and how it felt like a change of pace from the mechs. Mission 3's beginning can be extremely hectic and I wish there were more situations like that: enemies surrounding you from all directions and aggro'ing the player, but as soon as I move away to a safe position and start taking out enemies, this sense of thrill is somewhat lost. I understand it's likely the intention to make it somewhat stealth-focused, but the hectic dogfighting is so much fun. It reminds me a bit of the Synthetik 2 situation, where enemies used to struggle with aggro and can be easily taken out from a distance, splitting the engagements to many tiny parts of the map where enemies are grouped up, instead of a more fluid experience where player is constantly under pressure. Personally I prefer when enemies come in bigger groups from many directions to really force me to be somewhat strategic and take them out effectively, instead of them showing up one by one which can be easily solved by a missile salvo + gun burst, allowing me to play it safe and wait. Similarly, tanks can be super threatening when mixed with mechs, and I love how deadly they can be!
Finally, big fan of the simple and arcadey movement, maaaybe overdrive felt a little weak overall without much noticeable effect, but considering the planned future upgrades, it might be okay. Running out of energy needs clearer visual and sound cues though. I also prefer showing enemy positions around the player instead of the cursor so it's easier to tell and not as demanding on my eyes.
Apologies for the text wall, this is my kind of game and I'm so glad to have discovered it so soon ;D
Seems a ton of people are finding this game from that one video, I only wish it had better FPS haha.
Poor rotary cannon! I still love it even if it's basically playing on hard mode. Will receive a major buff next build.
Good to hear! Sorry that it was running at half speed on default. It runs well on my own potato and I don't have to use any of the V-sync settings, but I realize people's rigs vary greatly so I implemented those options. I was worried from watching people's streams and let's plays that the game isn't optimized enough, but it seems like it's mostly the recording software that makes it chug.
There actually shouldn't be any .ini files saving, it's strange that alt-sync is remembered. I guess that must be an internal Game Maker thing. Both the main menu and options menu are very quick placeholders thrown together in two days for a jam. It'll be replaced with proper ones that save your settings as soon as I can.
Had I known so many people would be playing it I would've worked way harder to polish that aspect, sorry.It's definitely a tech demo... for now. I hope to have more missions and hopefully a proper campaign in, assuming things won't be downscoped.
Mission 1 does have randomized spawners in each corner that go off at different times. It's to keep it fresh each playthrough. But I see how it can cause the difficultly to ramp up hard sometimes, especially depending on where you go in the city.
I have to say it's been super interesting seeing how greatly people's experience and preference vary. Some people say it's way too easy and they beat every level on the first try, others like you figure out pretty quickly that enemies have a cone of vision and you can actually use cover to ambush them and play strategically, dodging missiles and wiping out formations. Meanwhile some other people haven't been able to finish even the first mission
or figure out how to turn off screenshake and change the resolution, c'mon it's literally in the single settings menu.I'm with you in that I think tight street fighting and being surrounded is exhilarating. I love how tense it can get especially when you're low on armor, which is why I intentionally didn't put any health pickups on the map.
I have plans for a lot more different enemy types to mix it up and put a monkey wrench in the long distance/missile spam. I'm thinking every enemy should have a clear and choreographed behavior, like the noticeable difference between the mech and tank enemies. Oh, glad you liked the tanks by the way!
They can really filter more casual players lol.Yeah the current state of the overdrive function in this case would be your starting level boost. A lot of people have suggested that you should be able to boost into enemies to damage them, I think that'd be a fun upgrade. Appreciate you also pointing out the overdrive needs a better indicator, I'll have the box turn red like the armor indicator and maybe put a quick beep sound if it hits 0/80. Thanks!
I can probably put that as a setting in the options to toggle, along with being able to turn off the camera smoothing which some people find nauseating.
Not at all! Thank you for the in depth comment, kind words, and feedback! I will use your suggestions to improve it!
あなたのアートスタイルが気に入りました、特に自機のデザインは素晴らしいです！
それと、フィールドの作りの細かさにも驚かされました。
プレイ中気になったのは敵の視認性が少し悪めな事ですね、これは敵に枠を付けるなどで改善できそうです。
日本語でのコメント失礼いたしました。
プレーとコメントをありがとう！
視界が改善されるべきだという意見には賛成です。敵が見えやすいようにHUDの要素を追加してみます。
日本語でコメントを書いてくれてありがとう。とても感謝しています！
I love you for this. Ever watch Patlabor?
Cheers! I've seen all three films and the original anime, love Patlabor.
(Sorry about your previous comment disappearing, I was experimenting with the different board layout and it seems I cannot have both.)
The issue with the particles not clearing on redeploy will be fixed in another patch. Also the protagonist and other art on the page will return in color. Thank you again.
Don't worry about it, I totally understand.
And yes thank you for feedback on both! In love with the protagonist, she's very pretty. Very excited about this game. I've been play-testing this game basically daily and I record footage so let me know if you want me to recreate any gameplay parameters for bug-fixing.
The only other glitch I've encountered was that sometimes when I try to launch missiles they seem to not fire at all. For reference I play with V-SYNC on at 1920x1080.
Glad to hear that. Drawing characters isn't something I'm very experienced with, so I'm glad she came out appealing!
I'd be interested in seeing the particle issue recreated, if possible. I had a friend show me a glitch occur where smoke trails from exploded enemies would just be frozen if they alt-tabbed back into the game, they also played on 1920x1080 but with V-sync off I think. Might need to look into having the game detect whether or not the player is focused on the window, right now the default game engine code is handling all of that.
Hmm, interesting glitch. Are you using the lock-on or just trying to blind fire them? There used to be an old glitch where they wouldn't fire if you held the right mouse button for exactly 15 frames as that was the time it checked whether or not to start drawing the laser line, but I have since fixed that on update V.05 and 5.1 which I put up a few days ago. Will try playing with V-sync on when I can to see if I can recreate that.
Oh, if I may ask you one more thing - how's the FPS? I tried to optimize it a lot if you're playing on 5.1; there should be far less lag during heavy combat if you were having any. Thank you again!
OK I'll try and recreate the particle issue today. I'll host the videos on YouTube. I'll keep the same conditions for gameplay on (1920x1080 with V-SYNC on).
Here's a link to the missile glitch I described earlier. It's around four minutes and thirty seconds.
I'll set up an FPS count when I play next time. It was pretty good. I am playing with an Intel i5 (10th Generation) on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX-3060.
Cheers for the video, it's very helpful. I just saw the glitch in action, I've added it to my to-do-list of things to fix.
Sweet!
Thanks!
Already tons of fun in this early stage, shooting feels great. Rotary feels the best of all weapons but it also seems the weakest?
Just needs a lot of unlockables and I'll be hooked for hours. Dash, jump, shield, smoke grenades, stealth, deployable minefield, sidegrades and upgrades :]
I see the tracks from lion eats tonight are back, they fit great here.
And lastly the artstyle is very nice, especially that last pic on the game page. What are those, tactical abs? I'm on board
A bangin' soundtrack to match would be great but I can always put something on myself in the background
Cheers for playing! Rotary cannon is pretty poor indeed; I admit I kind of nerfed it compared to an older build since it basically made the autocannon unnecessary, but in hindsight it's much too weak now. I'm solving this problem by making it dual fire like the autocannon, next build it'll be way more fun to use.
There's going to be more weapons and unlockables, including grenades with maybe different types (EMP, smoke, thermite, etc)
Glad you noticed the track effects are from TLET, I ended up reusing them since their code was already perfect, haha.
They sure are!
Indeed, a lot of people have been asking for a soundtrack to go with it. I've composed a few tracks myself such as the main menu and mission end tune, but I'll probably need to recruit some real composers since music isn't something I have a lot of experience with. Thanks again for playing and the feedback, it's much appreciated!
I'm kinda surprised that although its clear that the project is on the very early stage of development it has already pretty good core gameplay and excellent gunporn! Seriously it's very important for shooter game make shooting fun. Most games with guns just don't have this feeling and you're already achieved it! I like the action here is already more than in Brigador. And your art style is very cool! Hope you'll finish the game so looking forward for its further development!
Thank you for playing and your kind words! I'm glad you find the shooting satisfying. I spent a lot of time trying to get it to feel right and put as much destruction detail in as I could. There'll be more to come soon, hopefully!
BTW I set this girl as my desktop image on the phone. That's how I liked your art style. ^_^
<3
I believe this project already have a solid foundation. Can't wait to see more content in missions or build.
Thank you for playing! There will be much more to come.
GREAT game, one small issue players sometimes get trapped easily in the 2nd mission, it would be a great mechanic to barge through the horde or jump or stomp over them, also adding more use to shift would be nice.
Love the idea of charging through hordes, will definitely see if I can add that in. Second mission will be overhauled entirely too, it's just a placeholder level for now.
Keep up the amazing work!
Hello, found this from your youtube video being suggested, looks cool, I am however having this error upon starting a mission:___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in Vertex Shader compilation
ShaderName: shd_outline_old
D3DXCompile failed - result
at gml_Object_o_player_Draw_0
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Object_o_player_Draw_0 (line -1)
Hey, sorry about that! Are you using Linux/Wine? This is a known compatibility issue that I think can be solved by compiling a Linux build of the game, but at the moment I don't have a setup to do that. My apologies.
Im actually using windows 10, im on integrated graphics on my dell 7414, stock except upgraded to 32gb of ram.
Okay, I researched this specific error in Game Maker, it seems to be related to your graphics card drivers or DirectX. From what I can tell looking at other people with this same problem, it should just be an issue with DirectX not being up to date, so try updating that and if that doesn't work try maybe your graphics card driver. That should hopefully fix it.
I actually am using wine, and it gives the same error, is there a way to fix it?
Maybe see if you can find a different emulator to run it for now, perhaps you can find one that says it's designed to handle newer DirectX compatible shaders. From what I've found looking at support forums, Linux OS reads them slightly different from Windows which is what causes the error.
Sorry to the Linux users here, again I don't have the ability to compile a dedicated build at the moment.
Man the combat feelss soo good! this is an incredible work of art!
Thank you, glad you liked it!
really cool game
Thanks, more to come!
Thermal projector is OP and chain gun is just useless (damage to low and fire rate is to high, ammo ends very fast). In other sides game is awesome. Waiting for complete version. Sorry for my english
Agreed, the rotary cannon needs a buff. It works best at close quarters combat in the first level when you have the enemy mechs close to each other, but against heavy enemies like tanks it's pretty bad. Thanks for the feedback!
Just played through all 3 missions ( haven't beaten the 2nd yet ) and this was really damn good
Love everything about this, although I think the rubble left over from the destroyed buildings makes it hard to actually see enemies sometimes. I think either the rubble or the enemies should have a different colour pallete
Same in the second level where it became kinda hard to see the worms among all the blood. I guess in a way this atleast teaches a player to keep moving, but I think it's still worth noting
Either way, this is a fantastic base for more. Can't wait to see what else you do with this
Thank you for playing!
Second level will be redone completely. I'll see if I can improve the readability further in the next build.
Good game.
I didn't use shift much in the demo version, perhaps the developer could consider the mecha can damage enemy by impact and take less damage from enemy impact when using shift. This effect could appear in the direction of move as a shield.
There will be upgrades for the boost and engine. Will definitely have an ability to damage enemies by slamming into them or reducing damage when boosting; currently I'm working on implementing a proper hangar for that. Thanks for playing!
Really cool! Digging the art style and aesthetic a lot. How did you make the sprite stacks for all the "models" in the game? Voxels converted to slices? Either way cool stuff!
A mixture of voxels converted to slices, conventional 3D models downscaled to voxels, and sometimes hand drawing each of the slices. Thanks for playing!
No more downloads? :’(
It's up again!
Wow! Thank you! Game is amazing already!
Awesome destruction, fun combat, good work! excited to see you continue with this! thank you mezz!
Can't wait for a finished game
Thanks for playing!
Great sound effects and UI! Took me straight back to 80s anime.
Glad you like it and noticed the 80s anime inspiration! The ricochet sounds are straight from Patlabor and Gundam.
This game got so much potential !
Oh, it runs on mine 32 bits potato, nice.Mine only complaint is that everything being beige makes it hard to see thing on the small window
Glad to hear people with older hardware can run this. I'm working hard on trying to get resolution resizing working, something is messing it up. I apologize you and other people had to play it in such a small resolution.