Hello everyone and welcome to the inaugural devlog for OmniGun, a Roguelike physics FPS with a focus on ammo variety and enemy interactivity. We are going to take a look at the damage and status system and announce the upcoming playtest starting on August 1st.
The story so far
OmniGun started as a simple experiment: what if every enemy reacted to damage like a real physical object? Shoot them and they flinch. Hit their legs and they trip. Sever a limb and their whole behavior changes. That idea spiraled from an initial tech demo to an entire game.
Layered on top of this dynamic physics damage system is a status tracker that allows status effects. Electrical stuns, being frozen solid, growing, shrinking, and gravity modification are possible and can be combined for exotic take towns and survival strategies.
Stun - stun energy builds up to a stun threshold which locks enemies up, jolting with electricity until it wears off.
Cold - Ice weapons slow enemies down as their temperature drops. Freeze them solid and they'll shatter on death.
Growth/Shrinking - modifying an enemy's scale changes its resistance to damage and damage output. If the scale gets pushed to far the unit can burst from growing too large or pop out of existence if shrunk too small.
Gravity - if gravity is lowered enough bipedal enemies can no longer touch the ground and float helplessly until gravity is restored. If gravity gets too strong in the positive or negative directions the unit is crushed to death.
Severing - An enemy with severed legs will crawl towards the player or try to kick them if their arms are missing. A decapitated bot would try to seek the player for a few seconds before it collapses to its death.
The core goal is to make combat and damage as interactive as possible and in the pipeline are enemy behavior modifying statuses like blindness and hacking. If there is anything I'm missing that you want to see added let me know!
Call for playtesters
Official playtests are kicking off on August 1st and will run through the launch of the marketing demo. The game is in an alpha state so your participation is vital in identifying bugs and refining balance. The sign up is live now and everyone will be added when the playtest goes live so sign up now to get in as soon as possible! Visit the store page here and click Request Access on the Join the Playtest box to enroll. 