So the current plan that I’m working on as a first person Metroidvania.
I would very much like boomer shooters style mechanics, but the obvious problem with that is rocket jumping
I’m leaning into this idea that the game starts off as a more modern shooter with sprint and reload and iron sites and head shots, but as you power up it becomes trivial.
Sort of shifting genres as the game progresses.
One solution for the rocket jump problem is to simply not have jumps be a concern.
But I’m also wanting to increase mobility and have a lot of mobility gameplay.
For example, I would like bunny, hopping to be the fastest means of movement and give the player from the very start to hold down melee in the air to do a drop kick that if done on surfaces will make them face the other way and give them a speed boost and jump.
Sort of a built-in wall jump.
Play testing this it’s immediately apparent that there is a lot of potential in this since I’m using a physics based player control controller.
It’s going to be a speed runners dream.
I’m pretty happy with how everything is, and I think I’m willing to make the sacrifice of making verticality not really be a key.
Probably most keys will be one way doors and boss rooms, with lots of double back passages to unlock.
All of it feels pretty good and I spent a lot of time tweaking it.
My main concern is I feel like I’m approaching an identity crisis.
It’s not a modern shooter like Titan Fall, and it’s not a boomer shooter like Quake.
I feel like there’s some genuine gold here, but I feel like people are gonna be repulsed playing it until they get the groove.
So just to give a little slice of what it would feel like, I foresee players having three different modes they switch in their brain.
Shooting, scrambling, and speed running.
Every weapon will have an iron sight that slows you down, but it’s gonna be more of an alt fire than just better accuracy. The rocket launcher will huck grenades from the hip and rockets while iron sighted.
Iron sites slow the player down, and slows down things done with the offhand which I won’t even get into because it’s way too complicated to explain.
Just know that player will have a dedicated grappling hook/gravity gun that works as both, but they can’t do it while iron sighting.
That’s probably the biggest thing.
So yeah, the player could be firing from the hip and moving fairly fast, doing iron sites to really pin down an attack, or just completely breaking the game and getting insane speeds.
Three clean distinct modes that they can jump between very fast.
And in my plate testing, it feels very good.
But I feel like I’m going to be fighting uphill battle with people that don’t initially get it and immediately dismissing it. Especially reviewers. And you know how that goes, once an opinions out there that’s kind of solidified.
Any suggestions?
Should I lean into modern mechanics?
Should I lean into boomer mechanics?
Should I disregard standards and roll the dice?
