Gun Shy Game

Well, since I released the little Fleet Zero game, I've been working on a slightly larger game I call Gun Shy.

I'm writing levels, now, so it's playable. But the graphics are still mostly placeholders, so it'll be a few days, yet.

I concentrated on following my own advice about development, and so far my own advice seems to be doing well. :D

Gun Shy is a game where you play a mechanic desperately putting down portable sentry turrets, which automatically fire at the closest enemy. The game features waves and waves of aliens (currently "yellow and pink triangles", but aliens soon enough) getting mowed down by your autofire.

The game features an interesting energy management situation - aliens you kill increase the size of any given energy deposit. Really big aliens leave a new energy deposit, as well. Your cannons need to be on top of an energy deposit, and drain it with each shot. So it's not just "set up your defenses and leave them", because your defenses will eventually run out of juice. You have to place your defenses to herd aliens into a "kill zone" that will increase your future energy supplies over there, so that you'll have a nice supply when you need to migrate.

Plus, you have to weigh how much firepower to bring against any given area. Too little, you'll die. Too much, you'll waste energy.

It also features semi-automated helpers who shoot aliens, put down mines, and so forth. They improve with each kill they make, but if they die, they restart at base minimum. So how much risk you want to dump on them is a gamble. It actually has a surprising range of play for such a simple game.

Oh, and it is the bloodiest game I have ever made. I don't know of any released games with this much sheer blood. It's not gory - no intestines or flying heads - but man does it have a lot of blood.

Because they spray so much blood, I made the aliens make a "pop!" sound when they die. It's very amusing.