I finished another jam, this time making oneshot!

What Is It⌗

It’s a little arena-y shooter thing, I guess? 2-4 people jump around in a little room and try to shoot each other. Everyone only gets one bullet before having to scramble for another one.

What Went Right⌗

Finished! It’s done, and playable, and doesn’t seem to blow up! Kudos, me.

Simple! I stuck to the bounds of the theme, once again bolstered by a technical, rather than creative, limitation.

What Maybe Kinda Didn’t Go Great⌗

Music! Specifically, the lack thereof. This is usually one of the things I leave until the very end, and in this case, it bit me a little. I had a few beats going, but most of it was pretty godawful. Here, no music was far better than the noise I was making

Stages! Because of the limitations of the jam (5 assets, no more) I wanted to set up a bunch of different levels on just one Tiled map, using camera position to set whatever ‘stage’ is presently in use. That would’ve taken more UI and more smarts around picking that stage, though, so it got punted as well.

Playtesting! Man, this really didn’t happen. Turns out, making a multiplayer game is hard if you’re not throwing it at people to poke at. For all I know, this is actually pretty fun, but I haven’t found out yet.

Juice! I know, I know, this is kind of falling out of fashion, but it really could do with a bit more zazz. Maybe particles that fly out when you jump, or screenshake when you zap a fool. Something! It could use a lot more stuff filling in the cracks.

Final Thoughts⌗

This one’s kinda tricky.

I think I liked the idea way more before I started fiddling with it. It started out as a kind of dual-stick shooter with only one stick: aiming was based on the direction of travel. I wasn’t sure that this’d be all that much fun to play, as it seemed like you’d be jousting, or something along those lines. You end up hoping to be pointed in the right direction, and that didn’t sound too fun.

Instead, you’re just kind of hoping to have a clear horizontal line of sight with an enemy when you pew pew a laser. I don’t know if that’s better, but it seems a lot simpler in terms of demands on the player. Different maps would likely help a lot in this situation, as would bigger maps. If I end up spinning more on this, it’ll be one of the first things I try, along with a lot of playtesting.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with it. Moving feels kinda goofy and fun, at least playing on a keyboard. Gamepad might be way more frustrating.

I’m glad I did it, which is probably a good sign!