Gunhead March dev log: PAX East, 'Factory' level style, new logo
We will be at PAX East in the IndieMegabooth showing Gunhead! Along with our other game Wytchwood. All the development team will be there at booth 14071:
We are ALMOST at the point of having all the art complete in the game, and should be done with art production within the next 2 months. After that we still have a lot of work to do in terms of programming the bosses, and polishing existing systems (there are a lot of weapons/enemies...).
We won't be doing a early access release, but will be doing beta testing. Once we're ready to start letting players try it and give us feedback, we'll start a Discord and start handing out builds. Then release should be shortly after
The last 'ship style' added to the game was the 'Factory':
This is specifically on the more maze-like generated enemy ships - with a lot of moving platforms and parts. These ships are more likely to contain hazards, drone factories, jammer systems, and more complex enemies.
Along with that we've changed our logo (at top of this post) and updated all of our current Steam graphics. Here is the old logo to compare. We felt the old logo focused too much on the bullet / military graphics, while the AI cyber brain is really the core of the game.
Let us know if your media / content creator, and want us to set a specific time to check out the game at PAX East by emailing contact (at) alientrap.com
Thanks for following these updates!
- Lee
Gunhead November Dev log! Loadouts and Research
It has been a while since our last dev log update! We've been working on some additional weapons and items (over 50 now), and putting together the full campaign and getting some of the unlockable systems in place.
Part of that is the Research and Loadout Screen:
When you pickup a new weapon/item in the enemy ships it gets added to your 'Research Console'. You obtain research points from beating large bosses and accomplishing mission objectives, which can they be used to research weapons/items so they can be purchased with the Loadout Computer:
Unlike Cryptark when you find a weapon on a enemy ship it'll stay with you until you die - so the Loadout computer is to buy additional weapons or items between missions. Anything researched and unlocked will also stay between campaigns.
We've been experimenting with a LOT of weapon/item options. Some of which will be found on enemy ships (and then can be researched), while others will only be unlocked once enough other weapons are found/researched.
Tractor Beam - A gravity-gun style weapon taken from Cryptark, grab your enemies from the air and fling them at each other:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6UaZpm3luU
Nail Shotgun - Painkiller inspired shotgun that nails enemies against the wall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqqfBWnwee0
Repulser Shield - Push all enemy drones away with a air blast:
https://twitter.com/banjoduarte/status/1034796475866202121
Vortex Grenade - A 'black hole' style grenade which pushes drones together, for easy destroying:
https://twitter.com/banjoduarte/status/1030838267896184837
Drunk Rockets - Chaotic rockets that are good for clearing out large mobs of enemies:
https://twitter.com/banjoduarte/status/1027549501999833088
Snake Gun - Shoots in a wave snake pattern:
https://twitter.com/banjoduarte/status/1024293383404118017
A lot of the recent time has been finishing our final level styles - including 'Wrecked' ships which are basically Gunhead's Splelunky 'dark' levels:
https://twitter.com/banjoduarte/status/1037336096504463363
They will always have a 'radar jamming' system that is good to take out first, and feature more hazards and slow moving drones.
Hopefully we can post about a private beta soon! Thanks!
- Lee
Gunhead July Dev Log - PAX10, Mission Generation and objectives, VR Test
Hello again!
For the past month we've been focused on getting Gunhead ready to show at PAX West, since it got accepted into the PAX10:
http://west.paxsite.com/indie
We were really surprised to get into this! We’ve always submitted our games to PAX10 and never got a game in so early in development (the build we sent them was a pretty old demo of the game). So we are happy to get some external validation that the game is actually very fun.
Some of the things we are working on include:
Refining how procedural generation algorithms work for adding enemies/systems to ships:
Ship Salaged UI for after a ship is beaten:
End stats shown after failing (similar stats shown after beating the campaign):
And we are working on bringing Cryptark’s Mission Objectives system to Gunhead. These are bonus objectives you can go for to get additional bonus money.
And finally completely unrelated to PAX, we spent a few hours trying out a VR version of Gunhead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUM4d1rJedg&feature=youtu.be
It is definitely fun - and I think we know a good way to handle locomotion for this (not just teleporting). After testing this we decided that if we did make a VR version it would need to be its own tailored experience - a large amount of the game would need to be adjusted, and doing it now would negatively affect the desktop/non-VR version we want to focus on. So if we do make a VR version it will only be after the game is released.
If you haven’t yet you can wishlist Gunhead on Steam to keep up to date on development! It’ll also help us gauge interest in the game from players - and help with our release:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/704000/GUNHEAD
thanks!
- Lee
Gunhead dev update! Our campaign plans / bosses
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).
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
