Stop giving me attention and validation with all these comments you guys this is too much /)~(\So, no concept art this time around
because my unstable ass made me reinstall my system for fun like twenty times since I got this laptop but I couldn't really back up my stuff this time around and could not preserve my home partition either...not that I had much art there to begin with anyway admittedly, just some random low-value sketches, but lots of talking I guess.
Firstly, I'm once again convinced that Gun Francisco might just be
the name - it's much more...catchy? than anything else I've come up with so far, even if it has less 'deeper' meaning to it than W&W. Sure, it's just a lame pun, but it's a very ,,,'descriptive' one, so I'm okay with sticking to it.
Also it opens up the off-chance of this game creating a trio of roguelites with "Gun" in their names, and gun-themed locations in them (namely Tower of Guns and Enter the Gungeon), so while neither game is a
huge inspiration here (believe it or not, I haven't played either of those two, as much as I probably should), and that's honestly a pretty neat opportunity, even if it's unlikely as hell that it'll work out.
Secondly, something that most roguelites generally don't have to think about in the first place - to go with a 2D sidescroller perspective, or a 2D topdown one instead, a'la classic roguelikes (and
most roguelites)?
The idea for GunFran was almost always to be a 2D platformer-shooter, but I always wary how it would end up playing out in practice - 2D platformers can be pretty fun, don't get me wrong, especially when you throw shooting into the picture, but it always had the issue that, assuming that you go down the route of "full-on" random generation, the algorithm could pretty easily generate straight-up impossible platforming sections - or hell, they could be
possible under 'vanilla' gameplay rules (ie. player's default speed/jump height/count) but could become impossible under some conditions like the player having items that hamper their mobility - "well, then you just don't introduce items that do that!" - is one plausible answer, but it's one that rubs me the wrong way because it introduces a limitation in the design space for items/modifiers, which isn't exactly what I'd want. The other alternative
On top of that there is just the more 'down to earth' issue that, even when working with a prebuilt engine like Godot or Unity or whatever, trying to work with 2D platformer physics seems a bit more difficult, which is not something I'm a particular fan of, even though I do have two friends actually competent at programming willing to help yours truly out.
On top of that I just can't really imagine trying to tax any sane person with running, gunning, jumping
with two characters.
Also I have an easier time imagining some levels in a topdown space than a sidescrolling one.
(I accidentally sent this early, god damn it. Expect an edit with more content.)
Another thing that I've been thinking about, that is a bit more...abstract? High-level? Nebulous?
Pointless?...is the idea that I currently call the Four Flavors of the Apocalypse, and it's basically my take on the 'classic' difficulty settings, although this one is less of a 'difficulty' setting per se and more of an 'atmosphere' setting,
stolen from inspired by a Polish tabletop RPG called Neuroshima where the system was simply called "4 colors".
The basic idea is that you can choose to play with one of four optional settings that affect the gameplay to give it a more specific atmosphere and pace.
I'm torn between two namesets -
Glory, Hope, Pain and Despair is one,
Blood, Sweat, Tears and Prayers is another.
Glory/Blood is straight up Mad Max - you get to play with some of the biggest weapons in the game, but also have to face some of the toughest enemy variants. Tons of explosions and other forms of chaos, and overall a very fast pace, almost Nuclear Throne-like (not quite the same because I have a dislike towards NT, but still, it's certainly the closest comparison). Kill or get killed, yadda yadda.
(It's also the closest to how Gun Francisco was in its early iterations.)
(In Neuroshima, this is akin to Chromium.)Hope/Sweat is significantly slower than Glory/Blood - you won't get to kill things nearly as fast here, but you also won't die nearly as fast either. It's much more focused on you being defensive and resourceful, but big toys are still not unseen here either. Stealthy-ish gameplay becomes a bit more viable here since you will sometimes find yourself in situations where you just can't approach some enemies upfront. It's the most 'balanced' and 'varied' of the four gamemodes, and the closest to a 'default'.
Pain/Tears lowers the power level even further and presents a much more 'grim' setting where you are much more likely to die of starvation and/or disease/mutations than in upfront combat. Survival becomes the #1 priority, and engaging in combat will often turn out to be a poor idea. As such, you will have to take unusual approaches and use items/weapons that you would just toss aside as "meh" in the previous two settings - low-power but ammo-efficient weapons can be pretty crucial here.
Ah, Despair/Prayers. Why could it possibly be called like this? Well, the answer is simple - you only get to play with one of the characters, the other just dies at the start of the game. Otherwise this is fairly similar to Pain/Tears, but with an extra "mental health deteriorating over death of loved one" element (which I know would be pretty easy to fuck up the portrayal of).
Otherwise, good luck, bud. You're on your own. Literally.
This is pretty big though I will admit, and I am not
100% attached to that particular concept yet, it's juts something that my brain's been making me mull over lately, and I suppose that the more 'lightweight' implementation of that concept is to use these four 'themes' in mind when designing new content as a sort of 'initial base', similar to how Magic the Gathering designs its cards based on the three main types of players (the whole Timmy, Johnny, Spike thing).
Uh, I guess that's all I had in mind for now?
"Uh, why don't you actually start working instead of just coming up with more and more ideas though?" There's your answer I guess.
it's not an excuse I swear I wish I could have the executive functioning to do Proper Work but there is no arguing with my fucky brain