I Like Big Lasers

Hello. Welcome to The Blog: Irregular Update Edition.

I said back in April that I was going to try to do more small, frequent updates on my progress again. Then, I immediately fell down a rabbit hole writing about strategy game design. Whoops.

Anyways, this post is one of those updates I talked about.

At the end of April, I was finally able to finish up a lot of my more under-the-hood stuff on Doorways 9, as well as a bunch of the non-gamedev stuff that was getting in the way. I’m finally free to work on literally anything else – which, in this case, means levels and mechanics.

I’ve finally reached the part of the game where it begins trying to kill you in earnest – which automatically makes development a hell of a lot more fun. I’ve already got an idea of what I want this part to be, and I’ve been trying out some level layouts, mechanic variations, etc. to see what feels right.

The current thing I’m toying with is a “loading” screen, which doubles as an introduction to actual hazards: trap the player in a box, force them to learn how to dodge before letting them move forward. Simple!

I’ve been through several of these already, and I think I know which one I’m going to be sticking with. It’s probably going to end up like what’s in the diagram above. If you see anything worse-looking in later photos, don’t worry – that stuff isn’t long for this world 🙂

As part of this, I’ve also been working on the many ways of making my players die.

Now, death has been in the game for a long time already. Players have been able to get a game over since the start, and Ayanna has been able to deal damage on-contact since the Unity days.

That said, I’ve always had some very specific ideas in mind, as far as future murder methods go. I’ve never really mentioned them in detail, as I didn’t want to spoil anything unnecessarily.

But, I mean… c’mon. You’ve read the title of this thing, haven’t you?

The process of putting together abilities and projectiles has always been a ton of fun for me. It’s like the game design equivalent a marble run: assembling a bunch of pieces in a scene, hooking them up, and repeatedly running them to see how they go. Except the “marbles” are particle effects.

And the track is a targeted explosion.

I’ve actually got a lot of history with lasers, between my time on Monolithic and various other projects. They’re pretty cool, and almost immediately rewarding to make, so… why not?

For Doorways 9, I was specifically taking inspiration from the lasers in games like UNDERTALE – big, screen-wide beams that cut across the level while the player is trapped in a little box. I started out with a line, attached a little star-shaped particle to the firing end, and stuck it in a scene to test the vibe.

I liked the vibe. A lot.

Next: Animation. Attached a few scripts to control the size of the beam on startup and wind-down, hooked those to some timers, and boom! There’s a telegraphed attack.

The idea was that players could see the thin, wind-up beam in advance of the actual blast, and dodge it right at the last second. I added a couple charge-up sounds to the wind-up, too – just to make the timing a little clearer.

After that, all I had to do was take the beam (“AyannaLaser.tscn” as the kids call it) and insert it into one of my controllers. Spent some time making my evil eyeball line up her shots, lock in her target right before firing, and lo – death ray be upon ye!

In the coming weeks, I’m going to refine this stuff, and try to weave it into some of my existing enemy behaviors. By the end of the month, I’m aiming to have a few levels with an enemy that flies around the screen, messing with your UI and firing off death lasers. If I’m lucky, I might, might even have something worth releasing.

No promises 🙂

So in the meantime – keep an eye out! And thanks for reading!