EnergyShooter (working title): an Arcadey FPS (with playable demo)

[Steven-1]

Hi people,
3 years ago I started making a game in my spare time, but unfortunately I stopped working on it only a couple of months later.
I never really showed it to a lot of people, but I always kinda liked it,
so lately I started wondering if I should work on it again, and turn it into a real game.

It’s an Arcadey FPS, where you shoot energy-beams (and other things) with your bare hands, and fight tons of robots.
I haven’t really named it yet, so I just call it EnergyShooter for now. (I really don’t like that title but I can’t think of a better fitting one)
(The only other title I have is “Shadow of the Fenix”, while I think that’s a better title, I also think it doesn’t fit with the game)

So what I would really like, is if people could play what I’ve made so far, and tell me what they think of it.
Most importantly, about the way the player character moves and fights, basically how the combat feels.

I’ve made a demo which you can play, it contains a single arena, where you fight a ton of robots, and 1 semi-boss. (which is actually not the robot in the screenshot on top, he’s a boss fight too, but he’s not in this demo, perhaps I’ll upload another demo with him later)

The demo is ofcourse a webbuild, but I never actually made the game with that intention.

If you play it, I suggest you try to get to know the controls before you try fighting the enemies, as there’s no tutorial or anything yet. (it is a wip after all)

So here’s some info:
(I’ll try to keep it short)
Attacks:
The default attack/weapon is a beam that pushes you backwards, which you can (and should) use to move around (most often, to move out of harms way), and (sort off) fly around. You can also shoot this beam backwards to fly in the direction you’re looking at.
The second attack is a gravity bomb, but I’m gonna let you see for yourself how that works.
The 3th attack are homing fireballs, but there actually not very useful in this demo.
All these attacks use up energy, but it regenerates quickly over time, you can also charge to regenerate energy faster.
Controls:
WASD to move
Mouse to aim
LMB: shoot (forward)
RMB: shoot (backwards, only with the default beam attack/weapon)
MMB (scroll): change attack
1-2-3: select attack
Q: switch to the previously used attack
SPACE: jump
T: Charge Energy (starts slow, so only useful if you intend to charge for more than a second)
HUD:
Blue bar (top most): Health bar
White bar: Energy bar (but not an edible one)
Leftmost Icon (in the circle): display your selected attack, if it’s the default beam, the size of the circle displays how strong it is.

Ok, here’s the demo:
http://tiny.cc/energyshooter

You immediately start in the center of the arena, where it says, “Press E to activate”, but I would insist you wait with that and first try the controls, and move/fly around a bit in the empty arena. (when you want to start the arena battle, simply return to the center of the arena, then press E).

When you die, the game automatically resets, and the same happens when you’re victorious.

I would really appreciate it if a lot of people could play it and if I could get some honest and usefull feedback.
Thanks for checking it out!

[Steven-1]

I noticed there’s a bug in the latest version(s) of the Unity webplayer, which causes all webbuilds to be displayed as development builds.

If you download the supposed latest one on the unity site (which is an older version than the one you get when installing Unity), you don’t have this bug.

The problem with having this bug in the case of the demo I made, is that it spams a ton of errors apparently, which seem harmless (as the game runs correctly) but they are a big annoyance.
Edit: fixed

[Steven-1]

I fixed the error (was only 1 error, that is apparantly only shown in Unity version newer than the old one I was using).
So now, even if you have the unity player that always shows it as development build, there is no hindrance from errors or other logs or anything.

I noticed however that you have to sign-in on google to access the demo, I’ll see if I can fix that.
(If anyone can tell me how to? it would be much appreciated)

I would really appreciate if people could play it and give me some (any) feedback.

[Jamster]

Nice game, I’m only have a trackpad so it’s kinda hard to play for me (but it was never going to be easy!)

The only problem I had was that the 1-2-3 change attack buttons didn’t seem to work for me, I had to use Q to change weapons…

On a lighternote: the artwork is really nice and it all fits well with the game and the animations are really smooth as well and look good for me

I look forward to seeing more levels

[Steven-1]

a trackpad? (that’s the same as a touchpad, right?) That must’ve been impossible?

Ah yes, I think the 123 are only on numpad, if I remember correctly, have to fix that
That artwork is definately not final, but I like it partially. I noticed however that I have trouble creating a SF enviornment, so I might change the style a bit to make it more simple.
Everything you see however is 3 years old, so I might be better at it now.

thanks for the reply :),
do let me know if you’ve tried it with a mouse, that’s how it was meant to be played

[Jamster]

After playing it with a mouse!

I still found it nearly impossible Maybe I’m just crap at it but I found the rotation of the player was a little wierd, Could be my mouse but it was very hard to be accurate…

123 on numpad works as you said but it’s a little anoying to change weapon via it as you have to move your whole hand!

Also last thing, fireballs dont damage you but everything else does!

I like the game, it’s a cool combination of SciFi and magic in kind of a Ratchet and Clank style The physics with the magic are really nice as is the effeccts as I said

Keep at it, it’s goign to be really good

[Steven-1]

The few people that I’ve seen play it also had difficulties playing it, but they seem to be playing it a lot different from the way I play it; they tend to stand still while shooting, but it’s more effective to run around the entire time (and jump while you shoot so you fly away from your enemies), to play it well it’s more about fleeing/dodging than aiming properly.

Some tips that may help:

• Most often you want to back away from whatever you’re shooting at, simply jump when you start shooting to fly backwards. If you don’t want to back away, simply make sure you’re grounded, your beams don’t push you back when your standing on the ground.
• When using the beam, don’t shoot in short bursts, try to let your beam power up (the icon grows) before shooting, and then shoot for a while (if possible) (it retains its power for as long as you’re shooting), it’s more effective that way.
• Try to not empty your energy entirely, it’s often useful to have some remaining, in case you need to make a hasty retreat.
• If you do have emptied you’re energy, but there’s some distance between you and your enemies, you can charge your energy t quickly have a full bar of energy again. It’s also often useful to do this when you’re flying away, cause you can’t walk when charging, but you do keep your velocity(+gravity).
• The gravity bomb is actually super useful (or OP) against big swarms of enemies, you can clear all those bombbots quickly using it.
• You don’t want these bombbots to surround you entirely, so what I do at the start is let them come a bit closer, then fly up to let them all combine in one massive blob of bombbots.

About the rotation, what do you mean exactly? Perhaps the fact that mouse-movement is reduced while shooting? I never really was quite sure whether that was a good idea, it doesn’t really seem to bother me, but maybe I’m just way to used to my own game.
It could also be that the way I made it reduce mouse-movement only works well for a mouse with sensitivity set the way mine is set, I should look into that.

Well, one thing is sure, the game shouldn’t start with this battle, there should definitely be some stuff before that lets the player get accustomed to the way moving and shooting works.

And yes, I’ll fix the number keys, it was ofcourse never my intention to only have it be on numpad, was just a mistake.
I mostly use the scroll and the Q-button to switch weapons though.

Fireballs indeed don’t damage the player, is that a problem? I thought it could get annoying if the opponent you’re locked on gets behind you and your fireballs fly in your face, but maybe I should just let it damage you? (but perhaps make it try to avoid the player?)

And thanks, Ratchet&Clank always was part of the inspiration/what I was trying to go for, I’ve never really played much “real” shooters, I was always more of a ratchet&clank and Jak&Daxter fan.

thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it.