Making a game inspired by Far Cry 2

[ThePhotoshop]

Hello, long-time listener, first-time poster. I'm the Australian Editor of GameSpot and you may have heard me on the podcast before as the guy who wrote about Pug the Unclean.

 

In my spare time I'm working on a prototype platformer inspired by the fire propagation in Far Cry 2. It's being done in GameMaker.

 

 

I would love to get some high-level systems feedback, or any general thoughts you have on the thing.

 

Download link is here: http://sneakybastards.net/wildfire.zip

 

It has a basic tutorial, and after that there's one test level to play around in.

 

Cheers!

[ThePhotoshop]

I just realised this should have maybe been posted in the Game Dev subforum, sorry!

[Blambo]

I'll recommend that you export your game as a single exe, unless there are external files you don't want to include in the zip for some reason.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I just played around in it, it seems like a pretty fun concept to mess around in.

 

Main thoughts for things to do. The guards are pretty inactive at the moment, they should have different abilities of some sort, things that could counter you or have to be dealt with in different ways than just spreading fire everywhere.

I haven't played Farcry 2 yet, so this may be a moot point, but it seems like there's little downside to spraying fire everywhere. It improves your ability to move around and is the main way to kill off enemies. The health loss never really seemed to matter to me.

Conversely, blowing smoke was rarely needed. It seems like an oddly tactical maneuver for a system that doesn't require more than a brute force spammed attack.

 

Maybe it's just how you did it in the tutorial, but I think it would be helped more if the goal was different to just destroying everyone. If the idea was to progress through with as little disturbance as possible, that incentives a more sparse and clever use of fire to get around and scare guards without alerting them more. Likewise the smoke becomes more useful when it's a covert way of diverting enemies around.

 

Also I know it's early, but it definitely seems like the AI behaviour will matter, if you can get them to react in interesting ways it will help the system a lot.

 

I like the idea though, it's a pretty odd set of interactions. Most games don't require you to set up events that will indirectly influence an enemy even though the enemy is approaching you directly. Keep us up to date in the game dev subforum!

[TangoCharlie]

I have a Mac, so unless I'm mistaken I won't be able to give this a shot, but based on the screenshot and the comment above, there's this:

 

If the game's 2D from the side, that makes it hard to get around the fire. It hits the ground and spreads out, so you're going to have to deal with navigating around the fire and it's going to be tough unless you can give it some LBP-style 2.5D depth, maybe.

 

However, if you were working in 3D (which we'll ignore unless otherwise asked) or using top-down 2D (or isometric), all of a sudden Our Hero has the ability to navigate around the patches of fire. Add in a "wind" mechanic (simulated or cheated) and you can set fires and use the smoke's direction to your advantage. How? I dunno, that's up to you.

 

I realize that switching from side-scrolling to top-down/isometric would be a pretty severe change, but if you're pivoting on the fire propagation system… maybe it's worth it?

 

(This is awesome, I love FC2, I'm excited to see this develop!)

[ThePhotoshop]

Any chance a mod could move this into the Game Dev subforum? Or should I just start a new thread?

 

The latest build is here: http://sneakybastards.net/wildfire.zip

 

Changelog in the CONTROLS.txt, also here:

 

- Health no longer regenerates automatically. You must find water to return to full health.

- Smokejumping has been temporarily removed.

- You can no longer jump over enemies to avoid them.

- Currently, the only way to be hidden is to crouch in grass by holding 'S'.

[ThePhotoshop]

A new build is up at http://sneakybastards.net/wildfire.zip with a bunch of big tweaks:

 

- You can hide in unburnt grass
- Enemies can't see you through smoke
- Enemies don't catch on fire instantly, but will run away from fire
- You can drop a smoke bomb!

 

I am worried this has made the game a little too easy, though. Feedback on that super appreciated!

 

Here is a sweet Vine showing how you can emerge out of fire and terrorise enemies: https://vine.co/v/O6i0JrDBijp

[Joewintergreen]

Oh hey Dan! I only just saw this.

 

Shall try the new build when I get a mo.