Tactical Bullet Hell Shooter

Development Log of Improvements

I have been working on this game since the beginning of the lock-down in March. It was a simple idea. Produce a multiplayer bullet hell game where players can dodge bullets, shoot a variety of guns, and use items with various tactical advantages. With that goal in mind, I began to work on the mechanics of the game. Taking inspiration from the many first-person tactical shooters and even some battle royals that are currently on the market. 

I worked on the movement, guns, items, and mechanics of using them all, for a few months. I worked on the art direction and workflow to produce the art. I still haven't figured it out but I have one character thus far, that still needs work.

I continued to tweak the mechanics, add more guns and more items to the game. I added a reload mechanic that allows you to reload fast if you happen to succeed in the mini-game.

I began work on the A.I. for the game. Currently, I have only created version 0.1 of the A.I. and it is not very smart or fun to play against.

• Mechanics
  • Reload: 
    • The reload mechanic has been turned into a mini-game. Reloading usually takes 3 seconds. The idea is to offer a chance to reload faster than your opponent. When you reload a bar appears and you have two chances to click when the bar is within the success area of the bar. if you miss the reload take 3 seconds if you succeed the animation speeds up to complete the reload quicker.
    • the reload mechanic seems to be a little punishing and I want it to feel rewarding and not punishing. Possible solutions are to make the reload animation complete more quickly.
  • Vision:
    • There is a vision cone mechanic in the game that only allows players to see their targets when they are in the field of vision. It also narrows the further you move your mouse away from the character. 
• Controls :
  • I have not totally settled on the final controls of the game. I will appreciate the feedback. I have added the mechanic where you can look further by moving your mouse away from your character.
• Items :
  • Only a few items have been approved and included in the game. More Items will be added over time.
• Weapons :
  • Only a few weapons have been approved and included in the game. More weapons will be added over time. 
  • A Weapon Creation Tool has been created. This allows for weapons to be created and tested in-game. This is a development tool and is not intended to be in the final game.
• Loadouts:
  • Loadouts are premade weapon lists that each player can carry into the game. 
• Game Structure :
  • I updated the structure of matches. Game flow is important to keep players engaged. I have decided to use the beacon to respawn the player. These beacons are supposed to be destructible in order to provide a win condition for opponents. If a team's players are all dead and they are not able to respawn then they lose. else the team with the most beacons and players alive win after a predefined time limit.
• Menu and UI
  • I have added animations to the menus bringing them more to life and providing some polish. However, all menus are not complete and some may eventually be removed.
  • Mode Select Menu: This menu is mostly completed. The Multiplayer Menu has been disabled for now.
  • Respawn Menu: This menu appears when your character dies. It allows you to choose a loadout and spawn to any available beacon.
  • Settings Menu: This menu has been created but is incomplete.
  • Campaign Menu: This menu has been created but only one level is available to play.
  • Secrets: Menus that are associated with the game secrets have been created however they have been disabled.
• Save and Load Game :
  • This feature is yet to be added and this is a critical feature for the game.
  • I need to decide what data need to be stored and loaded to accomplish some of the critical feature needed to make the game operate as intended.
• Multiplayer:
  • Progress on multiplayer is on hold until we can figure out the main game mechanics and also secure funding to support the multiplayer experience. 
• Accessibility
  • The ability to set your own keybindings was added to the settings menu.

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