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WIP - rangerfall - fps grapple + spaceship combat

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by jcothran, Oct 1, 2014.

  1. jcothran

    jcothran

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2009
    Posts:
    19
    Hi all,

    Looking for feedback on a beginning sketch demo for a single player game with placeholder title 'rangerfall'. Started out with a first-person grappling hook mechanic and started adding space combat elements to it, currently set up as more of a trench run over terrain with two fleets cycling over the same ground in opposite directions.





    Gameplay goal: The current gameplay goal I'm developing towards(not done yet at the demo link) is action-oriented with the player choosing a side and influencing the ongoing tide of battle between the repeated trench run encounters. Teams increase their home score based on doing a trench run with some cargo some number of times, with slower/heavy ships running less runs with more cargo than faster/lighter ships with less cargo. If a ship is destroyed it drops its cargo which can be picked up again by either team(or player-positioned for pickup). If the opposing team's cargo is picked up it has to travel backwards the same amount it has progressed forwards. Ships periodically regenerate to some limit to sustain action.

    If looking to play the unity browser demo(5 MB) at the below links, controls are below:

    http://ratingsbay.com/unity/ranger.html

    Kong time/score
    http://www.kongregate.com/games/garcia1968/rangerfall-demo-3-1

    PC download links below for larger screen resolutions,etc. If interested in other game configurable options for playtesting, please mention in the feedback or send me a message.

    Windows
    https://github.com/garcia1968/rangerfall/raw/master/windows/rangerfall.zip

    Mac
    https://github.com/garcia1968/rangerfall/raw/master/mac/rangerfall.app.zip

    Linux
    https://github.com/garcia1968/rangerfall/raw/master/linux/rangerfall.zip

    #Controls
    press and hold 'E' or right-mouse click - grapple 'blocks'(large thin blocks on the field) - must be within range or aim cursor will flash white

    left-mouse click - fire lasers - if ship hit will get a confirm 'beep' - ships disappear after a certain amount of damage(more damage for bigger ships) - if player sitting on the terrain below firing up, lasers currently collide/explode with terrain - will probably disable firing from a still position to encourage player shooting while grappling/falling

    'C' - accelerate down

    tab - toggle cursor to restart game

    ==

    Currently ships attack the opposing team ships but no ships attack the player. The player can attack either teams ships. In a final version, the player would pick a side to fight on and be targeted/attacked by the other team.

    Was thinking to add additional weapon types like homing rockets and railgun/linedraw type beams. Will improve ship movement to avoid ships getting stuck on blocks,etc or more interesting/challenging flight behaviors. Currently there are 2 big, 3 medium and 4 small starting ships on each team using the same team model scaled(18 ships total) and will probably just change textures initially to differentiate these more but could always use different models. Similarly could vary terrain/obstacles/setting. Currently the bigger ships in the game get destroyed fairly quickly and will increase their health and defenses.

    Playtesting myself I mostly enjoy target practice on the smallest ships on their runs. I'm a programmer mainly, so using free models and assets where I can get them.

    Any feedback welcome and I'm currently wondering whether the beginning basic gameplay mechanics and/or goal is interesting/fun enough to develop further along the lines mentioned or what changes to the mechanics/goals you would suggest to make the game more interesting/fun.

    Thanks
    jcothran
     
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2014
  2. crag

    crag

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2013
    Posts:
    145
    For me, a great idea and the demo is already very fun!

    The only thing I could speak to would be game play and those would be personal preferences:

    For instance, grappling hook seems very slow and holding the grapple results in an orbit of the point of contact. I prefer to stick to the point of grapple. Second, I like it when devs add the ability to invert the mouse look, it just feels more natural to me when up and down look are inverted.

    Again, these are only opinions, keep on building, this is going to be great!
     
  3. jcothran

    jcothran

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2009
    Posts:
    19
    Thanks for the play and feedback!

    I can try adding an invert mouse look when I work up some control options and with the grapple speed and end condition, could always provide an experimental version with those parameters in the controls as well. If you'd like me to provide something like that for you to play around with more and provide feedback I can temporarily provide something like that.

    Modified the earlier links with a new version that has some better flight pathing, model skins and laser speed/size/sound/damage based on size ship small/medium/large. I'm still thinking to add more weapons like homing missiles, beams, turrets and balancing before getting into game goals - for the moment when I testing having the ships target me, it's just a constant swoosh of lasers, so thinking the player plays an opportunistic role getting kills than a directly confrontational one - maybe the player has an occasional homing missile to avoid,etc.

    Thanks again!
    jcothran