Item Pick-ups!
GUNS, AMMO & HEALTH
First of all, I need to clarify that I didn't do these models myself. I've done my own textures and slightly edited the vertices to better fit my liking. Most of the stuff was originally made by Doctor_sci3nce and published of free use on Itch.io. Very awesome of him/her and it helped me quickly visualize what I was going for aesthetic-wise. I would very much like to re-do every model but right now I am focused on implementing the functionality and animation systems!
Nevertheless here is some of the bits and bobs I've been toying with the past weeks time.
Personally I tend to really like "gamey" aesthetics like oversized objects and such. Which goes hand-in-hand with my affection for retro gaming where these concepts very more prominent. So I sought out to learn more about this.
Like when I was creating the weapon animations, I went back into some of the games of my childhood among some newer indie releases- and saw how they did item pick-ups. This proved interesting.
Croteam's wonderchild Serious Sam has some very neat and "gamey" spin animations and a slight hover which I find very pleasing.
Zortch is a throwback shooter developed and published by Mutantleg- it is a very tasteful recreating of the mechanics of old with a very solid understanding of what makes this genre so good.
In Zortch pick-ups act more-or-less like you would expect these objects to do. Falling to the floor and being picked up by the player when colliding more akin to Doom.
The Beretta
This model was shown in the last update, but I will now go a little more into depth on the subject.
The Beretta M9 will be the first acquired firearm and will be useful till the very end. Sporting high accuracy and a high capacity magazine along with the ability to attach a silencer the M9 will prove a useful tool.
It runs off 9mm but in the game this will just be known as "Pistol ammo" which comes in two forms: Magazines and ammo boxes.
As mentioned, the Beretta has the ability to attach a silencer, which will be the pistols alt-fire.
This will allow the player to shoot enemies without alerting adjacent enemies within audible range.
The Super Shotgun
Next up is The Super Shotgun!
Firing two shells of 12g buckshot, it completely eviscerates anything in its path.
The Super Shotgun's alt-fire is the classical fire-both-barrels-at-once gimmick.
If it ain't broke..
With the high firepower that accompanies this weapon, I found it essential to balance out the power. This I've attempted to do by having the mag-equivalent pick-up for the shotgun as single shells.
But of cause there will also be more rare ammo boxes to find throughout the levels.
Keycards & Health
Reminiscent of build games like Duke Nukem, I wanted a keycard system rather than regular keys. Struggling to find the exact look I was going for, I quickly made some placeholders.
These come in the color variations you'd expect- red, green and blue keys.
Moving on to the health pick-ups, which I am still working out the components of. I like the old school and goofy floating hearts and what-not. Though I have decided to ground these objects a little more in reality. Continuing the practice of checking out what kind of models Doctor_sci3nce have published on his/her Itch.io I found some models that suit what I am going for.
Combining multiple of the models in the asset pack, I created a mock-up of what I'd imagined the health kit to look like.
This would be the biggest (non-secret) health pick-up in the game.
As you might notice the armor pick-ups are missing, this is due to me not being able to find a satisfying name for the armor. Let me explain.
In
David Szymanski's retro FPS DUSK the armor is represented by the "MORAL" which is increased when the Dusk Dude picks up treasure. This is due to the protagonist being a tressure hunter.
This is similar to Dukes ego, which contrasts to the more mundane names from Doom and Quake where its simply called armor. I find that naming aspects of a very well known system can serve with adding character to the game overall.
Whilst I haven't completely worked out what I want my armor to be called, I intend to come back to it once I've fleshed out the protagonist slightly.
That's it for now- Sean.