Byte Vs. Gnomes has been getting less and less interesting as I’ve thought about it.
I’ve decided to bend the rules a bit. My game is titled “Protean Arrow” and it is “derived” from an old project. The old project was a half-page design document for a scrolling shmup featuring a space ship that could transform into three different modes via a Macross-style transformation mechanism.
Protean Arrow will be an arena shmup about a nanotech-based fighter craft that can shift between three forms. It will take place over a series of areas with procedurally created terrain, each with a boss. For this weekend, I will just be putting together one level.
I will be developing in ActionScript 3 using FlashPunk. I will make my graphics in Inkscape, sounds in as3sfxr, and probably no music for this weekend. (Eventually in LMMS, but for now I’ll leave that alone)
More about it after the break.
The protagonist is a space fighter pilot named Juliet Arrow whose squadron crash-landed on the planet Sapphire. Sapphire is inhabited by a handful of “races” of nanotechnology-based life forms. Arrow was the only one of the pilots in her squadron to survive the crash. Her wingmates’ bodies were completely destroyed when their ships’ power sources melted down. Arrow’s ship’s canopy broke off during re-entry and she was not caught in the explosion from her ship. As she lost consciousness, her body was absorbed by the resource collection system of the city of Deck, a city on the front of a war between the Sabre and Digger races. When Arrow came to, she found herself to have become a Sabre fighter craft, and thus her adventure began…
The core of the game is the three forms available to the player. The first, the “Gunner” mode, gives the player a charge-fire gun that can charge up over a few levels of power (Much like Megaman’s gun). The second, the “Blaster” mode, gives the player the ability to launch missiles that deal splash damage. The third mode, the “Splitter” mode, gives the player machine guns that, while not hit-scan, have projectiles that move very quickly.
I have a system in mind for how explosive, energy, and kinetic (Bullet) weapons will interact with energy shields and solid armor, but I’m still working that system out.
Missions will vary in objectives. Some will simply require you to kill several waves of baddies. Others will require you to destroy an important baddie structure. Still others will require you to defend a good guy structure. In the latter two cases (With the structures), the structure in question will make an effort to defend itself by building up a defence system over the course of the level.
Baddies, when killed, will be absorbed and processed into “Material” that the player can use to buy upgrades at the end of each level. The player will be able to increase their attack power, shield and armor strength, shield and armor regeneration, and some attributes specific to each weapon.
In missions with structures, the structures will get some resources as well. (Good guy structures will get the same amount as the player, baddie structures will get about half) Structures can use their resources to build various defence structures such as gun turrets, walls, and drone fighter “hangars” that deploy small fighter craft that help you. They will also be able to spend resources to repair themselves more quickly than they normally regenerate. These actions will all be controlled by AI, so the player can focus on fighting without managing a defence structure at the same time. Plus, I hate it when you need to defend something that doesn’t make any effort to defend itself.
Aside from all of that, I’ve got lots of ideas in my head, and I’m going to try to get to work on it.
it’s super ugly but the key things are almost all working, so I can get to prettying it and then making some actual levels (yeah, those are my priorities, screw you practical people, you’re no fun! 
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