We are getting close to release so I thought I would do a quick post showing how a typical run through the game works.
On a highlevel the game loop is: Select your tools -> Select amount of Waves - > Play -> Repeat
Lets go through each step one by one.
TOOLS
You start out in your house with which acts as your hub. Other than being able to see your rescued babies crawl around it’s here you buy/select guns and tools. You start out with a simple Assault Rifle but can unlock 10 (at release) unique weapons that each have their own playstyle. This aspect was important to me, I could easily make 5 different variation of the same gun to boost numbers, but what’s the point? So each weapon feel and play differently. E.g. the Sniper requires you to keep distance and pick your shot, while the Rapid P forces you in close to constantly build your slowmotion and DPS enemies down. Unlocked weapons stay unlocked.
You can also buy temporary upgrades (that resets on death or win) such as freeze or enlarged bullets. There’s also a thing called Schrodingers Box that’s basically your difficulty select. It’s a mysterious box that changes different values in your run (e.g. enemy HP, bullet damage, slowmotion gain) but gives your more loot.
WAVES
When you are ready, you go to your car and select the amount of waves you want to do. You can select one to three and a wave is basically a level. Each wave gives boosts enemy difficulty but has a bigger chance to spawn a baby by the end. Going through 3 waves also has a chance to spawn one of the bosses. If you are lucky each wave can spawn a baby, if you are unlucky it wont. Only the third and boss waves are guaranteed to spawn a baby to rescue.
The further along you go the more HP enemies get but also some enemies can turn into uber variations which makes them stronger and more resilient.
PLAY
Before you get to play the game creates the level. It does it by creating a layout by connecting selecting different rooms from 4 different categories and then connecting them with pathways. Rooms can enter and exit from all directions so the same room can have everything from 1 to 4 entrances/exits.
The second step is to select a game mode for the Wave. Currently there are 3 different ones.
-Elimination
The simplest one where you are tasked with eliminating all enemies found in the level. You win when the last enemy falls.
-Safe Invasion
Somewhere in the level there’s a special safe that requires 3 keys. You need to find keys carried by enemies and then open the safe. You don’t need to actually kill all enemies and can dash around them if you have enough keys on you.
-Zone Defence
Three zones spawn around the level that you need to take over. You do this by standing in them, doing this alerts nearby enemies though and also spawns in new grunts. When you conquer the last one you are done.
REPEAT
If you only selected one Wave you go back to the hub and can do it all over again, but if you selected more you get an power-up (these are instance based so they reset on win/death). These power-ups are varied but can add explosions to your bullets, make them bounce or add a glas bubble around you for defence.
And that’s the core loop. By killing enemies you get more money which allows you to unlock more weapons and then you can start experimenting with tools, difficulty and playstyles.
If want more information, feel free to shoot me a question either here in the comments or Twitter @ShotgunAnaconda.