Hello everyone! Now that we are done showing our Gunhead demo at SXSW / GDC, and are working on the main campaign, we'd thought we'd update everyone on our plans.
We started development on Gunhead because we wanted to expand on a lot of the ideas of Cryptark - the mix of high level strategy and moment to moment action - but create a experience that was more streamlined and action based (less resource management / trade off decisions).
We originally thought we'd move away from the roguelike genre to a more typical single player campaign - but after experimenting a lot with the mechanics of the game we decided the roguelike structure works best with how ships / scenarios are procedurally generated.
Here is a example of the start of the campaign (all dialog is placeholder!)
https://youtu.be/xsJlLtR4a3g
Unlike Cryptark, when your player dies the run will be over, and a typical run to the beat the game (reach the end boss) should take about 2 hours (there will be a option to keep going after beating the end boss however).
Campaign will start by warping into the first ship. You'll see a map of the generated enemy ship and the systems on it. From here you develop a plan of attack, and buy weapons/items needed for your plan.
You'll start the campaign with a complete loadout, and find weapons/items in the enemy ships (from weapon pick up spots). Unlike Cryptark, you are not buying your whole loadout between each ship. You'll keep the weapons you used / found from the last mission, and have the option to buy new ones. We want there to be less trade off type decision making - but still give the option to buy/customize your loadout in case you need something to accomplish your plan.
Preview of weapon stations found in ships to swap weapons / items:
https://youtu.be/6PO9CFlwIpw?t=4s
Gunhead will also have a heavy focus on bosses - large enemies that will replace the core in some ships. Bosses right now include the Juggernaut (giant flying enemy shown at end of Gunhead trailer), Arachnix (giant spider that lays eggs), Mechrazor, Slithor (giant flying snake), Observer (giant long legged brain with an eye), and Nigguarth (giant squid tentacle monster).
Slithor snake:
https://youtu.be/6KSYGBC_YBc
Mechrazer mech:
https://gfycat.com/PassionateClearBlackfish
Follow us on twitter to see some of our other boss prototypes (like a early version of the squid - https://twitter.com/banjoduarte/status/960976709662093313 , or long legged brain - https://twitter.com/Alientrap/status/1002219045477928960 )
We hope to finish a beta of Gunhead this year (and give Cryptark player's early access) - with a release on Steam / console early next year.
Also ALL of our games are on sale this week - so if you haven't got Cryptark now is the chance:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/344740?beta=1
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/565/Alientrap_Collection/
Let us know any thoughts / comments! thanks!
- Lee