Endless-Shooter Thread

Hi everyone!

FINAL Build: DOWNLOAD

I'm very new to game development, but after learning the basics I decided to make my first own game. Being my first game I wasn't aiming for something revolutionary, but more like something simple and straight forward. After a few days of "processing" I settled on an endless runner combined with a TPS shooter. I'm not entirely sure how it's gonna turn out, so I'm about to spend the next few weeks on prototyping the game using blueprints in Unreal 4.

One things I'm sure about is the art style. I always wanted to make a low poly with realistic lighting/reflections styled game. To visualise this I made a quick scene and added some HUD in Photoshop.

The character is just a placeholder (from Unreal's starter content) to see the scale and the camera position.

I also added a wind effect to the bushes and a low poly water shader which I still have to work on.



I started on the "programming" part as well but it's rather unfinished so that is for the next update

That's it for today, I hope you like it!

Any suggestion, feedback, comment is welcome!

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Edited by: Szalage

Looking good so far

Hi everyone!

I'm back with some update on the project. I was quite busy during the last 2 weeks but I managed to work on the game a bit.

I have been working on the "endless" part of the game, which is basically a randomly generated course made out of pre-made blocks.

As you can see every time you die, it's completely different:

The level also cleans up behind itself so there is only a few blocks in the scene at a time.

Also implemented a very basic shooting behaviour which I still have to polish so that's for the next update along with some targets.


Any suggestion, feedback, comment is welcome!

Hmmm.... nice start. Oh does character die on touching that gray blockade?

Yes, that's idea The gray blockade is a placeholder for now, it's going to be replaced by a mine, a trap or something like that.

Nice concept, does character interact with water too? may be sparingly add water in between roads...

No, It doesn't interact but thanks for the idea, I'll look into it

Sure,keep it up

Looks promising! The barriers need some variety I think.

Variety in placement, shape or something else? I already planned to add different kind of obstacles (more vertical, smaller, bigger... etc). Thanks!

Looks pretty solid! Looking forward to play your game!

Thank you!

Hey guys!

I'm back with some updates today! As I mentioned in the last update post, I worked on the shooting, the enemies and tweaked the camera movement. I also added a distance counter and a "best" function saving your best distance so far. Here is a quick gameplay preview (Added a different particle effect since I made the video):

If you like what you see, you can download it here and try it out. Move with A and D, Jump with space, Look around with mouse and shoot with Left click. Keep in mind that it's in a very early stage and things are subject to change!

My plans for next time is to tweak/adjust the core gameplay, add my own player mesh/animation, start to dress up the level and just improve the game overall as much as I can.

Again, feel free to comment on anything!

Edited by: Szalage

I was able to score 511m However I feel like the game jumps right into the action too fast without much time to get familiar. Also I would disable the gravity on the projectiles, right now I find myself better off avoiding the enemy projectiles instead of trying to destroy them. Other than that I think you got a fun prototype and I'm looking forward to see level get dressed up!

PS Any insights on how to get the level to bend and snap like this?

Thanks! Noted both of your suggestions

About the level: Every bend, decline, straight piece, etc.. is a pre-made block. Every block is a blueprint and they have an attach point component. So what I do is just randomly spawn a block on the attach point of the previous block.

Hey guys! Rather small update this time, I had a very busy week. I made a "Start screen" with some explanation on the controls. Also, I tweaked some very minor things here and there.

This is of course just a placeholder, I'm planing to do a proper menu.

Tips, tricks, comments are more than welcome!

Thank you!

Hello everyone!

Another week, another update. First version of the character which I'm probably gonna change a lot, I switched the base character, so I have something more fitting to the style. Also added some simple animations for running and jumping.

Next week, I'm going to work on the level blocks. Change the placeholder geometry and add some props (randomly generated of course ). I also received some valuable feedback on the gameplay which I'm going to test.

Any suggestion, feedback, comment is welcome!

Hello everyone! I'm back with the weekly updates, a bit earlier this time. As I mentioned last week I made a new character and animation. I made this character for an other project but I thought why not reuse it since it fits the style of the game.

Also worked on the randomly placed meshes. I made a first, very simple version of it which randomly places static meshes in a radius with random scale and rotation from an array of meshes.

C&C welcome!

Quick update on the latest build. You can download it from the first post

Edited by: Szalage

Cool character! However I think you could make the In Air animation less static.

Thanks for the tip! I also have to give it a gun and make it look at where I shoot

Hey guys!

Not much for this week however I still managed to do some smaller things. I made the first block that is in the style of the game. I made it just to get familiar with workflow and the shape of the blocks. It'll certainly undergo some changes but this is what I have in mind roughly.

Made some progress on the random meshes blueprint as well. I made it so they follow the terrain as I drag them across it.

See you next week!

Hello everyone!

An other week, an other update, this time a bit bigger.

Last week I made the first level block, which I continued this week with some extra pieces. I made a left, right, up, down and a "bridge" block. After some test playing and feedback I'm already planning to make them wider and much more interesting

I also started on the Menu with a very simple main menu with a start game and a quit button.

Also added a some cosmetics to the in game HUD. I already received some feedback about it which I haven't applied yet.

Worked a bit on the character as well. To add some more fun to the game I switched the exploding death to a rag doll.

Finally, I started to dress up the level a little bit with some bushes and grass.

I received some very valuable feedback regarding the whole style, especially the colours. I'll try to adjust it so it has a more appealing overall look.

You can download the latest build here or at the first post

Edited by: Szalage

Nice to see the game coming along. I think the ragdoll was a cool addon and makes more sense, however the jumping still feels very t-posey. Regarding the style I would opt for a more cartoony font and add some simple UI graphics. Otherwise good going!

Thanks for the feedback! Adjusted the jumping animation as well as the font as you suggested

Hello everyone!

This week I mainly worked on the menus and the UI. I made it so the best distance resets when the game is closed so making a "high score" system is the next step.

Added a "death screen" with some information on it and a Pause screen with an option to go back to the main menu.

I also added an extra block with some water to be avoided.

I think that's it for this week, next step will be to change the enemy placeholders to proper meshes, add the high score feature and tweak the game overall.

Comments welcome!

Edited by: Szalage

This is excellent. That blueprint to drag items across terrain is really neat.

Thanks! The unreal example projects helped me greatly with it

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely look into it!

Seems very promising, will be sure to follow the development.

Hi guys!

Probably this is going to be the last update, although I might add some more content later. In the last 2 weeks I really pushed to get the game done. I added a global best score, enemy meshes, some sounds and other minor features. I had a lot of fun and learnt a lot while making this game. I hope you have fun too!


You can download the final build from the first post.

#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% / 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 0.85; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; top: 1052px; left: 20px;">Save

#bd081c no-repeat scroll 3px 50% / 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 0.85; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; top: 1052px; left: 20px;">Save

Edited by: Szalage

Cool, low-poly art style! I'm going to try the demo and post some more feedback

Okay, I normally do not like these kinds of games. I like to have control of where I'm going, and one of my favorite aspects of gaming is exploring, so your game did not appeal to me at first.

However, after playing it a bit, and getting a hang of the controls, I did find myself enjoying it.

First, I was impressed by the style of the graphics. Low-poly stuff has always intrigued me.

I thought the action was very smooth, and the controls were very nicely balanced.

I usually get very frustrated with this kind of game (I'm thinking of Tomb Runner, or Flappy Bird) and I do not spend much time playing or caring about them. However, your game allowed shooting, which made it feel like I had some control over things. Also, instead of simple frustration, I felt it was fun even when I died.

I really like the generative terrains, and how each play-through is unique.

Recommendations:

1. I would like to see the dangers added somewhat incrementally. I noticed that the longer you survived, the faster, thus more challenging it became, but I would like to have gotten a better grasp of the running aspect before the shooting began. Maybe the bears could show up after a certain distance was coverned, just a thought.

2. Dying was fun, but could be more fun. I think maybe having the game go into slow motion, and possibly low-grav mode upon the player's death, would make dying more fun to experience. This is right out of Unreal Tournament by the way, as I remember the joy of being sniped (occasionally) and watching my character go flying and tumbling around for a bit.

3. Faster restart. I'm sure it takes time to rebuild the next level, so this might not be possible, but I found the wait a little long. Not crazy-long or anything, but if you are adding a wait time, then I would recommend shortening it.

4. Upgrades. Maybe I didn't get far enough, but it might be cool to get a better gun, or space jump boots, or a shield, etc... anything to offer the player something to look forward to.

Overall fun and well made!

Hey! Thank you very much for trying my game and giving some feedback, I appreciate it a lot!

Great recommendations, I'll try to apply them and see how it works About the slow restart, I noticed it too but sadly I cannot really do anything about. I don't have any delay on it, it's just how long it takes to generate the level. I'll look through the blueprints to see if I can make it more efficient and faster.

Good point on the upgrades, I'll figure out something to add that fits.

Edited by: Szalage