While looking through some old GameMaker projects, I came across a fun little coop game I made some time ago. It's a tough tactical side scroller, where death comes easily if you make a wrong move. You've got good equipment and the enemies aren't smart, but they are quick to launch ambushes and have numbers on their side.
NOTE: I am aware the game is not in fact 8 Bit in any sense of the term, but I still think it's a cool name. You can download it from the Games page.
NOTE: I am aware the game is not in fact 8 Bit in any sense of the term, but I still think it's a cool name. You can download it from the Games page.
It imported perfectly, despite being from an older version of GameMaker (sometimes there are particular terms in the GM code that need changing) and everything basically worked from the start. The gameplay is very simple - you just need to advance across the map and reach the other side. Each commando in the team has a primary weapon and two additional items, and the controls are just up/down/left/right, and three action buttons. One fires your main weapon, the third activates whatever tool you're carrying, and the second button will either switch weapon (if your secondary item is a different weapon) or it will throw any grenades you have as a secondary item.
The maps are manually created, with different height levels forming the basic landscape - the commandos just climb up and drop down levels, rather than jumping - while climbing or falling you can't move left or right or take any other action, so you need to be careful when you do it. Then rocks and other details are added to the ground - these are the source of potential threats: rocks can conceal various rebel soldiers, from gunmen to swordsmen who charge you, while rough ground might hide a bouncing mine, which will spring up and scatter lethal pellets all around - as you can see in the screenshot above (orange is about to die, since green was carrying the energy shield you need to properly protect yourself from that kind of mine).
There's no way to tell which of these features might spawn a threat, so you always have to stay on your toes (though you can identify what type of danger might appear based on the appearance), and you can't clear them except by advancing past them. The distance any enemy/mine is triggered is also random, so sometimes overly hopeful rebels will leap out with their swords when you've got plenty of time to shoot them down, but other times you might be almost on top of a rock before an enemy appears.
Also placed by the designer are various heavy weapon points, which may spawn a static gun. These fire long bursts, and have a shield which prevents small arms fire from killing the operator. You either need to use height levels to get behind them, or use explosives like grenades. They are also the main source of heavy bullets for the rebels.
There are two 'levels' of bullet in the game, light and heavy. Heavy bullets will destroy light bullets when they contact them, and do more damage (though all characters currently die from one hit of any kind, one map has bunkers with doors that are more quickly destroyed with heavy bullets). The standard weapon of the commandos is an assault rifle which fires a burst of three heavy bullets. Used correctly, this means you can actually advance towards a light machinegun, destroying their bullets with your own, before running past the shield and shooting the gunner.
It was actually this assault rifle which inspired the rest of the game - I wanted to try making a weapon which just felt satisfying to use, and I think I succeeded. Once you hit the fire button, you can't move until all three shots are fired. Each shot pushes the gun back in your character's hands, and the chunky heavy bullets are a stark contrast to the thin laser lines of the light bullets. The game is lacking sounds currently - probably the biggest issue outside of the general lack of content.
There's no way to tell which of these features might spawn a threat, so you always have to stay on your toes (though you can identify what type of danger might appear based on the appearance), and you can't clear them except by advancing past them. The distance any enemy/mine is triggered is also random, so sometimes overly hopeful rebels will leap out with their swords when you've got plenty of time to shoot them down, but other times you might be almost on top of a rock before an enemy appears.
Also placed by the designer are various heavy weapon points, which may spawn a static gun. These fire long bursts, and have a shield which prevents small arms fire from killing the operator. You either need to use height levels to get behind them, or use explosives like grenades. They are also the main source of heavy bullets for the rebels.
There are two 'levels' of bullet in the game, light and heavy. Heavy bullets will destroy light bullets when they contact them, and do more damage (though all characters currently die from one hit of any kind, one map has bunkers with doors that are more quickly destroyed with heavy bullets). The standard weapon of the commandos is an assault rifle which fires a burst of three heavy bullets. Used correctly, this means you can actually advance towards a light machinegun, destroying their bullets with your own, before running past the shield and shooting the gunner.
It was actually this assault rifle which inspired the rest of the game - I wanted to try making a weapon which just felt satisfying to use, and I think I succeeded. Once you hit the fire button, you can't move until all three shots are fired. Each shot pushes the gun back in your character's hands, and the chunky heavy bullets are a stark contrast to the thin laser lines of the light bullets. The game is lacking sounds currently - probably the biggest issue outside of the general lack of content.
Every event, from different weapons firing to specific types of mine triggering should have their own distinct sounds. Ultimately, as I see it, the fun in the game would come from learning how to handle a wide variety of different situations - recognizing the cues (like sounds) and taking the correct action. Taken individually, these challenges should be easy - static guns can be flanked, you can protect yourself from mine shrapnel by throwing up an energy shield, and charging rebels can just be shot. But when you throw these all together, things get trickier. When you're advancing towards a patch of ground that could contain rebels, mines, or both, you might find yourself putting up the energy shield in the face of a gunman who shoots you down, or firing an assault rifle burst moments before mine shards rip through your body.
In addition, each challenge requires particular tools - without an energy shield, mines are pretty much impossible to deal with, for instance. Sometimes static guns will be protecting positions where you can't flank them with height, so you better hope you brought some grenades or a LAW. This encourages co-op play - it is possible to play the game alone, moving each soldier one at a time, but playing co-op allows smarter operations. One commando with a heavy assault rifle can suppress the bullets from a light machinegun, allowing another commando to move forward and throw a grenade, or one commando takes shield duty, watching only for mines, and trusting their buddy to shoot any enemies that pop out, hopefully reducing panicky mistakes.
In addition, each challenge requires particular tools - without an energy shield, mines are pretty much impossible to deal with, for instance. Sometimes static guns will be protecting positions where you can't flank them with height, so you better hope you brought some grenades or a LAW. This encourages co-op play - it is possible to play the game alone, moving each soldier one at a time, but playing co-op allows smarter operations. One commando with a heavy assault rifle can suppress the bullets from a light machinegun, allowing another commando to move forward and throw a grenade, or one commando takes shield duty, watching only for mines, and trusting their buddy to shoot any enemies that pop out, hopefully reducing panicky mistakes.
Ideally, players will also need to learn details about how to use their weapons and gear both effectively and safely. In the above image, green is on a different level to avoid the backblast from the rocket launcher, but actually ends up killed by shrapnel from the rocket burst. If I'd been playing co-op, they would have been able to drop down and deploy an energy shield to protect both themselves and orange from any shrapnel. The energy shield is instant to deploy, but there's a short delay before you can take it down. It will protect you from any amount of shrapnel, but only one light bullet, and heavy bullets go right through. Bullets from your allies will also destroy energy shields - so your teammates need to watch their fire.
Continuing work on the game would basically involve adding more threat types, and more equipment to deal with them. Also necessary would be more detailed mission objectives - perhaps sometimes you need to recover intelligence from a base, so you can't use explosive weapons too indiscriminately, or you need to place demo charges at specific locations. You could even consider a defensive mission type, allowing the commandos to bring some of their own traps.
It took a bit of work to tidy up for even this basic release - adding a main menu, fixing a really odd control scheme where the buttons used to be based on different action types rather than linking to the equipment slots, and including even the basic win and fail states. But I think it's already fun to play, and the missions pack a fair bit of tension while still being quick to play.
Continuing work on the game would basically involve adding more threat types, and more equipment to deal with them. Also necessary would be more detailed mission objectives - perhaps sometimes you need to recover intelligence from a base, so you can't use explosive weapons too indiscriminately, or you need to place demo charges at specific locations. You could even consider a defensive mission type, allowing the commandos to bring some of their own traps.
It took a bit of work to tidy up for even this basic release - adding a main menu, fixing a really odd control scheme where the buttons used to be based on different action types rather than linking to the equipment slots, and including even the basic win and fail states. But I think it's already fun to play, and the missions pack a fair bit of tension while still being quick to play.
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