Hello,
after working for several months on a game inspired by the first(!) real 3D Shooter in the 90s (guess which one) I felt I have come far enough to request some feedback from fellow developers and game aficionados.
The game is called Six Degrees To Freedom and is setup in the year 2113 and features a hero who introduces himself to us in the following way:
"Maybe this would be easier than I had imagined. I knew that I was lying to myself as soon as this thought hit my conscious mind.
If only I had studied harder.
You see I had graduated from the cybernetics and neural networking division of the university with barely a pass. My compatriots were all off to Starship headquarters, or the prestigious planets, Veluma and Trattoria, whilst I had been commissioned to join the prison company, Illicitus, on the planet Nabokos. Not the worst assignment for a third-rate robotic neural scientist I thought at the time.
But the last few days on this hell-hole had changed my opinion somewhat. I had to escape – failure meant death."
The demo (http://www.7druids.com/6D2F_1LevelDemo_1.0_Setup.exe, uninstall via normal System settings/Software management in Windows), lets you play Chapter 10 (out of 32 in the final version). Each chapter (or level) will put you in a mysterious cave system where there is only one exit to escape. On your way you will encounter several enemies attempting to stop you. Stuart McKenzie-Walker, author of the novel “Cool Hand Puke”, enhanced the playing experience with a nice little short story that is fed to you every level. Your objective is to find 2 keys in order to open the exit of each cave system. Also look out for a secret chamber and try to open it. It will contain at least one weapon upgrade. Don’t forget to try a little helper called 6D2F that will guide you to the exit in case you got lost (key T).
You can play the same chapter again and again and the cave will be generated differently each time. Also your enemies vary to some extent but of course this is still early in the game play so don’t expect too much.
What you need to know: Click on the “Demo Chapter 10” text in the menu and start playing. The game is played with keyboard and mouse. Keyboard bindings are listed in the help screen (F5) and the game can be paused with ESC. The only way to configure the game to your taste can be found under Options (invert mouse Y-axis or not). All keyboard bindings are named for an EN keyboard layout so please use your non-EN key for each of them accordingly (for example: keyboard binding is Z for flying upwards which relates to key Y on a German keyboard layout). Make your life easier by using the mini map (M) and breadcrumbs (B) while navigating.
I’m not able to provide you with a Webplayer-Demo since my game heavily relies on Multi-Threading and this is not compatible with the Unity Webplayer game engine. So the demo is for PC only at the moment and should be available for Mac as well in the future. A mobile version is likely even though I’m still uncertain on how to do the steering on a touch screen… I’ve experimented a bit and it is crude still.
Obviously the game is not finished yet: What is missing at least is some event based music, GUI artwork stuff, more particle effects etc. Besides I’m sure you will encounter various bugs and deficiencies. Please be so kind and let me know about it. Any feedback is welcome. What I would value most is to hear from you what you think is motivating to play this game and what isn’t since there are different challenges for the player (navigation, fly&fight, puzzles).
The full game will feature 16 different enemy classes, 8 primary and 4 secondary weapon each with different capabilities, lots of enemy AI, ship upgrades and an ever changing cave system. Based on your input I would love to go Beta with it during the next 4 weeks.
Cheers,
Ben
