Hey!
We've put together this dev diary to go over our thought process for the weapons within the game, how they came to be and their role within the world of Sprawl.
Lore-Driven Weapon Design in Sprawl
We’ve gone to great lengths to give the world of SPRAWL Zero a lot of depth. There’s an entire history of the world that we use as scaffolding to contextualize why things look and feel a certain way.
The Sprawl itself is the last city-state on earth, where every remaining culture has migrated to seek stability. I think it's important that the downstream effects of that are showcased in the visual language on display. Many idiosyncratic elements slammed together. This is reflected in the enemies you’ll encounter.
In SPRAWL Zero, there are two main factions:
The NCO, known as “The Junta”:
The military police state created as a result of the union of corporate power and post-democratic government.
The Imago Dei:
An anarcho-primitivist cult who believe the only way to ensure humanity's survival is through a return to a pre-industrial society, and that mankind's continued push to assert dominance over the rule of nature has caused the collapse we now face.
It’s only natural that these factions have tools that reflect their ideologies.
The Junta will often use high-tech weapons, including several experimental ones that have devastating effects on enemy insurgents. Aesthetically, their arsenal also reflects their technical prowess.
You’ll find they share the same design language, with blockier metal shapes contrasting softer rounded plastics. They are also generally much stronger than Imago Dei equipment.
Ballistic weapons will pair well with your Bullet Time augment, as bullets automatically magnetize to nearby enemies while it's active.
The Gosen G12, for example, is a pump-action shotgun that will 'supercombine' into an explosive round if all pellets from a fired shell manage to connect. This makes it by far the most devastating weapon in the early game.
To contrast this, we have the Imago Dei, who have a much scrappier roster.
You’ll notice the naming standards for them are colloquial, the reason being that most Imago Dei firearms are forged by the smiths of their order rather than being standardized corporate products. They are fashioned from discarded manufacturing tools, archaic relics of the old world, and much older weapon platforms that predate GenSig technology.
The result is a weaker arsenal with poorer accuracy. That is not to say that higher rarity rebel gear isn't formidable in its own right. The Penetrator, for example, will immediately execute most lower-tier enemies.
An Unconventional Weapon and Its Combat Niche
Designing firearms as disposable, single-use items lets us ensure every weapon feels distinctly powerful. Since you aren't balancing a permanent roster that the player holds simultaneously, the spectrum of available equipment can be wildly different.
One of my favorites is the Imago Dei Deimos.
This is a shotgun that fires a devastating cone of cleansing holy fire, and anything caught in its crosshairs will take burn damage. Once enough is inflicted, your enemy ignites.
The Philosophy Behind Weapon Feel in Sprawl Zero
We set out to make every weapon in this game feel powerful.
That more often than not has very little to do with how much damage the gun actually does, but instead has everything to do with how stylish the animations are, how compelling the design is, and how impactful the sounds are. So much effort has gone into making our models stand out, and we're really excited for everyone to get a chance to get hands-on with some of our roster very, very soon.
Everything in SPRAWL Zero really feels like it packs a punch.
We’re going against the grain with sound design. We are going back to big sounds that have strong character. It feels like a lot of modern audio is too concerned with being as smooth as possible, where everything sounds like someone is stirring a jar of peanut butter. SPRAWL Zero will have you considering putting on some headphones instead of blasting your TV, or you might get the cops called on you.
The Origins of Enemy Gun Theft Mechanic
One of our favorite features of 2000s games is just the sheer variety of weapons that exist. In many games of that era, we got to experience a microcosm of that. Kill a Jackal in Halo 2 and take his beam rifle.
Well, unless he happens to be two miles away, and by the time you get there, you end up in a hallway where you’re going to opt for a shotgun.
So we went with this approach in order to really double down on that core aspect of weapon variety. This allows players to constantly have a new tool at their disposal or forces them to adapt with whatever happens to be within range. It makes everything feel much more dynamic, and downstream gives the player some really interesting choices to make during combat.
Do you opt to target the Redeemer in the middle of a large fight to get your hands on his Penetrator early?
Or
will you carve your way through the wave of Dregs flanking you by targeting a Legionnaire and taking his Deimos?
The Team's Favorite Gun
I’ve been yapping enough here, lets ask some of the team;
Micheal Markie - “Megatech A8, shotgun jumping is still really fun, and using it in bullet time makes all of the pellets converge, and it looks like something out of a really crazy anime.”
Hannah Crawford - “Mitsurugi F1B, this was one of the first weapons we added and I feel very attached to it. Love the scope!”
Amber Brautigan - “I personally love the Locust It's basically a giant grenade shotgun. Shit slaps.”
That’s it for now everyone, thanks for reading and I’ll catch ya next time with some more behind the scenes looks into SPRAWL zero.
- Carlos (REVEL)