I am happy to announce the release of "Aam Aadmi", a Bollywood action movie-inspired single player FPS. You play as an 'aam aadmi' - a common man living a peaceful life in modern day India - until now. Having his home defiled and his wife kidnapped by corrupt politicians and police officers, he embarks on a journey to dismember the corrupt system without any painkillers. Kick down doors and go guns blazing as you chew through hordes of enemies using a variety of unique, almost-certainly never-seen-before-in-a-video-game guns and of course, your go-to weapon for every occasion - sheer blunt force trauma.
The inspiration for this game comes from many places. Right off the bat the first thing that comes to mind is the indie FPS "Cop Bastard". I only played the demo, which was rather short, but it was really fun, and showed me how such an idea was not only feasible but also quite fun.
Cop Bastard wasn't the only inspiration. Similar games inspired by cinema such as "The Hong Kong Massacre", "Trepang2", "Robocop: Rogue City" (this one I haven't played yet, if "Aam Aadmi" does well i might use the revenue earned from it to buy it) and "Maximum Action". Robocop was key, since unlike in the rest of the games I mentioned, you aren't flying around and shooting bad gooners in bullet-time, but are like a force of nature yourself. You don't need cover or concealment, instead you are brazenly ploughing through enemies, kicking things so hard they explode. It is the perfect power-fantasy, I liked the idea the moment I saw it. This is the chief inspiration for the game's core gameplay loop: move slow and hit hard.
The game is rather short. I built it in a month. I can't help it; the idea struck me all of a sudden when I was at the gym, and now I wanted to play it immediately. Developmental hell is not preferable, and if I can avoid it to make a game I think I would enjoy, then I will. There's no other reason. And despite the many issues in the game, I can safely say that I enjoy playing the game that I have built, and actually wish I had more time and resources to build it even more, were it not for the sake of avoiding the common and deadly mistake of scope creep and letting developmental hell drag on for years instead of month. I'm sure if I did, then by the end of development I would have lost all love for the game along with any motivation for continuing game development.
That said, I do acknowledge the issues and the bugs, and I am actively working on them. Feedback from players, play testers and friends have allowed me to change and modify the game to a great degree, to the point that the game now looks very different when I look at the older gameplay recordings and screenshots. I am still addressing and fixing new issues as they pop up - as much as I can, at least - and the game will change a lot in the coming days, both in how it looks and plays.
Cheers,
maskedakshat