Since the Seattle Indies Expo at the start of September, I've been hard at work on the core systems of Auto Fire. This has been in anticipation of showing the game again, this time at the Roguelike Celebration in San Francisco this past weekend.
These folks are all about player choice, so I wanted to make sure I was able to show off different playstyles, and show that the player's choice of car really matters. That's already the case with the weapon and equipment loadout slots on each chassis, but now there are special abilities baked right in.
Speed Perks
The first vehicular ability is the speed perk, which activates a passive ability whenever you are driving at 60 MPH or over. These were created for each of the three base cars for different effects:
- Ram Blast: The Stallion has a speed perk that triggers an explosion whenever it collides at high speed.
- Hyperfocus: The driver of a Panther gains weapon accuracy at high speed and a higher chance of critical hits.
- Jet Wash: The Cricket leaves a wake behind it that stuns both pedestrians and vehicles, which will careen into obstacles if stunned at the right time.
Special Maneuvers
Each vehicle also has a special move as part of their intrinsic capabilities, providing the player an emergency action they can trigger for major effect. This does cost valuable gas, however, so use it with care!
- Ram Piston: The Stallion's special maneuver launches forward and bashes through the selected target, knocking it aside.
- Jet Thruster: The Panther has a special move that thrusts the car ahead at max speed, leaving behind a trail of fire.
- Bootlegger: Special maneuver that launches forward and spins the car around, ending with a large stunning pulse.
Updated Gameplay
- Vehicles now consume gas and ordnance as needed by weaponry and equipment. Gathering resources in the field is necessary for survival, although not all weapons require ordnance... and running out of gas will limit your options but not leave you marooned.
- Collisions are now more dynamic, where the heavier or faster vehicle shoves the other aside. This makes ramming much more satisfying because you can just keep trucking onto the next one if you want.
- Controller input has been enhanced to feel better and have better feedback in the UI.
UI and Visuals
- The speedometer and the grip meter has been moved to the bottom center because they are significant aspects to the
- Finally, the Fog of War has had an upgrade. Because sightlines are limited, there is always a part of the screen that is obscured in some way. It was time to make that feel less muddy.
Onward
The Roguelike Celebration is a gathering of developers and enthusiasts, and is always an informative and entertaining time... the best conference of the year by far. It was awesome to have an opportunity to show them Auto Fire and get their feedback.
The feedback was great, but it was just as inspiring to show off the new features added over the past month.
So, there's much to do both in response to all the feedback and just to get the game to full-feature status. The January Kickstarter is only 13 weeks away... so I'm looking forward to a productive October!