What mechanics would you put into this?

[Sammi3]

I'm making a Spaghetti Western game but I am struggling to think of interesting mechanics to add to the game to make the enemies more interesting. So far my main mechanic is deadeye and I intend for it to be the main mechanic of the game that can be upgraded by the player:

Obviously, there would be different kinds of guns for the player to choose and different enemies. But that's where I find it difficult, what can differ between the enemies that doesn't just make it a "You shoot me, I shoot you"? I mean, it is a shooter but I feel that it will feel like it's missing something if that's all you do.

If I go on the route of having different enemy types, what types of enemies do you envision in a game like this? I've thought of normal police and sheriffs to where the sheriff would have a more powerful weapon and be able to take more hits. I haven't thought of much after... maybe rattlesnakes to keep with the old west theme...?

If you want to play it to get a feel for it or check out more screenshots, this is the WIP topic: https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.php?threads/the-n-word.1333/

 

[Widget]

Have dynamite appear occasionally which you can shoot to either light the fuse and have a delayed explosion or shoot the sticks directly and cause an immediate one? Maybe include enemies which throw them too.

Perhaps a way for the player to gain health is to shoot cacti then move close to it. Y'know, since cacti have tons of water in them.

 

[fxokz]

maybe make it so that the player gains an ability to roll to evade bullets. like a dash.. enemies could also do it maybe?

or for the enemies you could maybe make them flee when theyre on low health or isolated from other enemies.

 

[Kransky]

You could make some enemies with the specific goal of getting a rope around you, to restrict your movement for the other members of his posse. Possibly forcing you to focus your deadeye ability on that particular enemy, or just where they're gripping the rope. You could also consider enemies that fire cannons towards you, who won't come out from behind the cannon fire until you end up getting too close to them.
I'd also second adding the ability to roll. I think combining a roll ability with deadeye could lead to some really cool "I can't believe I just survived that" gameplay moments.

 

[RangerX]

From a design standpoint, your game is having 2 main gameplay aspects: Movement and shooting. This is where you need to concentrate.
Mobs are there to challenge the player in the use of its abilities. The player is going to have fun because he learns to master what he can do and the mobs will contribute to that feeling of mastery by challenging the player's abilities.

So what is it that your player can do? By studying your player, you can easily tell what enemies you can have. I will give you examples:

The player can walk...
- a Mob who walks same speed you be a mild treat
- a Mob who runs near you or until reaching you would be an immediate treat (therefore the player would need kill them before others)
- a Mob that slides on you when near would tell the player "I can't avoid this by passing near it", this would affect yet again the order of killing
- a Mob that uses melee attacks would also be a treat from far AND close.
- Mobs that combines the previous suggestions.

And then there's the shooting aspect...
- a Mob with a simple slow single shot. Mild treat
- a Mob with a fast simple shot.
- a Mob with a homing shot.
- a Mob with a "melee shot", ex: flamethrower
- Now imagine mobs with double shots, triple shots.
- A very dangerous one could be an area shot. A mob that throws a bomb and there's a range of damage around it.

Now imagine mixing the 2 aspects....


See? in my opinion that's how you design enemies. You always think about the player and its abilities and you create mobs that challenges every aspect of your player's capacity. Now if you can create a nice difficulty curve through the game, it will end up very fun!

 

[Cloaked Games]

I like the bomb ideas. Maybe consider adding destructible barricades. Also, horses, that let enemies and/or yourself move faster.

 

[Sammi3]

maybe make it so that the player gains an ability to roll to evade bullets. like a dash.. enemies could also do it maybe?

or for the enemies you could maybe make them flee when theyre on low health or isolated from other enemies.

You could make some enemies with the specific goal of getting a rope around you, to restrict your movement for the other members of his posse. Possibly forcing you to focus your deadeye ability on that particular enemy, or just where they're gripping the rope. You could also consider enemies that fire cannons towards you, who won't come out from behind the cannon fire until you end up getting too close to them.
I'd also second adding the ability to roll. I think combining a roll ability with deadeye could lead to some really cool "I can't believe I just survived that" gameplay moments.

Yeah I really like the roll idea I can immediately think of fun and interesting ways that could work out

From a design standpoint, your game is having 2 main gameplay aspects: Movement and shooting. This is where you need to concentrate.
Mobs are there to challenge the player in the use of its abilities. The player is going to have fun because he learns to master what he can do and the mobs will contribute to that feeling of mastery by challenging the player's abilities.

So what is it that your player can do? By studying your player, you can easily tell what enemies you can have. I will give you examples:

The player can walk...
- a Mob who walks same speed you be a mild treat
- a Mob who runs near you or until reaching you would be an immediate treat (therefore the player would need kill them before others)
- a Mob that slides on you when near would tell the player "I can't avoid this by passing near it", this would affect yet again the order of killing
- a Mob that uses melee attacks would also be a treat from far AND close.
- Mobs that combines the previous suggestions.

And then there's the shooting aspect...
- a Mob with a simple slow single shot. Mild treat
- a Mob with a fast simple shot.
- a Mob with a homing shot.
- a Mob with a "melee shot", ex: flamethrower
- Now imagine mobs with double shots, triple shots.
- A very dangerous one could be an area shot. A mob that throws a bomb and there's a range of damage around it.

Now imagine mixing the 2 aspects....


See? in my opinion that's how you design enemies. You always think about the player and its abilities and you create mobs that challenges every aspect of your player's capacity. Now if you can create a nice difficulty curve through the game, it will end up very fun!

I am really rubbish at design so this helped me a lot and I am certainly gonna use this template for future games. Plus it gave me some interesting ideas I can do straight away. Thanks!

I like the bomb ideas. Maybe consider adding destructible barricades. Also, horses, that let enemies and/or yourself move faster.

I thought about horses, it depends on how well I can animate that and not make it feel awkward gameplay wise. If I use bombs then I'll probably make the terrain destructible

 

[Yokcos]

In terms of enemy types, consider somebody with a shield and very slow turning speed. You must get behind them to kill them.

Does your game currently contain a triple machinegun? If not, is there any reason why not?

 

[Sammi3]

In terms of enemy types, consider somebody with a shield and very slow turning speed. You must get behind them to kill them.

Does your game currently contain a triple machinegun? If not, is there any reason why not?

What kinds of shields did they have in the old west? I still want it to be relevant to the time period. Which is why I need enemies relevant to the old west. I can't use the same sprites for all the enemies as that would be boring. I already have thought of having ordinary enemies differ from sheriffs but what else could I add onto that?

I have a gatling gun but maybe I'll add something with a triple barrel.

 

[Yokcos]

I dunno, I'm not a historian. A sheet of metal or something?

 

[graviax]

Make a magazine for the player's gun (6 bullet for example)
Make the bullet deal more damage while decreasing the fire rate (1 or two shot for every common enemie)
Make a roll that can be cast to reset the delay on firing and also make it so you can reload while rolling.
The roll itself don't need invicibility frame.
PS : and also add a "far west true legend" difficulty setting ( one hit kill for the player)
PPS : sorry for my bad english

 

[Dengar]

I dunno, I'm not a historian. A sheet of metal or something?

what if they hid behind a barrel? have them timed so every so often they'd peek around the side and if they see the player then they'll take a shot atm.

could use the same idea to have shoot outs inside of stores, thatd be fun. the ability to hide behind things, but you have to have lots of action when a bullet missed, suchas things on the wall breaking and making a mess.
and ontop of that idea, have a mob with somekind of machine gun that he has to re-load. so player hides behind barrel and mob sprays everything around him with bullets until he has to re-load then the player can jump out and shoot.

destructible terrain would be fun.

 

[Yal]

I wouldn't go so far as to suggest destructible terrain, but having breakable decoration objects spawn everywhere could be a nice touch to make the levels feel more lively, and maybe add a bit of emergent gameplay. Rainwater barrels could be used as pretty much indestructible cover (and get less and less bulletproof once the water starts leaking out), cacti would have less chance to stop bullets and would damage enemies (or you!) that are flung into it by recoil/knockback attacks, and indoor areas with tables that can be kicked over for cover a la Enter The Gungeon could add a nice touch of strategy.

 

[Sammi3]

Make a magazine for the player's gun (6 bullet for example)
Make the bullet deal more damage while decreasing the fire rate (1 or two shot for every common enemie)
Make a roll that can be cast to reset the delay on firing and also make it so you can reload while rolling.
The roll itself don't need invicibility frame.
PS : and also add a "far west true legend" difficulty setting ( one hit kill for the player)
PPS : sorry for my bad english

Your English was solid mate. Don't worry. I do plan on having magazines for the guns to make it more realistic (for the enemies too). I like the idea of increasing the damage it does, I'll experiment with that and see how it goes and I certainly will try the 'far west true legend' thing, that would really add some replayability. Thank you so much for these ideas.

what if they hid behind a barrel? have them timed so every so often they'd peek around the side and if they see the player then they'll take a shot atm.

could use the same idea to have shoot outs inside of stores, thatd be fun. the ability to hide behind things, but you have to have lots of action when a bullet missed, suchas things on the wall breaking and making a mess.
and ontop of that idea, have a mob with somekind of machine gun that he has to re-load. so player hides behind barrel and mob sprays everything around him with bullets until he has to re-load then the player can jump out and shoot.

destructible terrain would be fun.

I really like that machine gun idea. I'll test it out but to my knowledge, there weren't any automatic guns in the old west but I might just add that to make it more interesting.

I wouldn't go so far as to suggest destructible terrain, but having breakable decoration objects spawn everywhere could be a nice touch to make the levels feel more lively, and maybe add a bit of emergent gameplay. Rainwater barrels could be used as pretty much indestructible cover (and get less and less bulletproof once the water starts leaking out), cacti would have less chance to stop bullets and would damage enemies (or you!) that are flung into it by recoil/knockback attacks, and indoor areas with tables that can be kicked over for cover a la Enter The Gungeon could add a nice touch of strategy.

Yeah I've been really thinking about emergent gameplay. I was about to put cacti just as a decoration but letting them hurt the player and enemies would be really cool. I think I'm gonna start making assets for indoor levels because I really like the idea of indoor battles.

Thanks everyone. I'll try put some of this stuff in to test it out and see how it helps the gameplay

 

[Sammi3]

Hello guys, I added some blood effects and a few cacti in the game. But I wanted to ask, does this camera view (more zoomed in) seem better or worse than the previous zoom level? Or should I make two builds for you guys to test it out?
New Camera:

Spoiler

Old Camera

Spoiler

 

[Lumenflower]

Every spaghetti western has a bullet ricochet! You could have certain objects around the level which bullets will bounce off if you shoot them, allowing you to hit enemies behind corners.

 

[zircher]

[rambling] Definitely go with six shots and a reload time (or switch to a second pistol before reloading), have an enemy that throws horseshoes (slower than bullets, they maybe even curve), add blowing tumbleweeds that impede your movement, add gusts of dust that block the enemy's line of sight and/or hides them. Have a travelling sun and a night fight mode when the sun sets. Indians with arrows and later fire arrows, slow moving rattle snakes, innocent bystanders like kids or the school teacher. [or saucy pixelated saloon girls]

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I prefer the more zoomed out view since you can have more things going on and be more strategic in your movement and shooting.

 

[DyingSilence]

You can also turn it into twisted take on Danmaku.

 

[ConsolCWBY]

What kinds of shields did they have in the old west? I still want it to be relevant to the time period.

From an actual Spaghetti Western:
A Fistfull Of Pasta ,erm, Dollars.
(as seen in Back To The Future II)

A game based on these types of movies should have a modicum of nods to those movies. A front-boiler-plated boss would be interesting, for example, as it would set the player in the position of the antagonist from that film instead of the protagonist. A classic enemy type is Bounty Hunter, Desperato, Soldiers, Posses, etc. What would set them apart - off the top of my head - would be crack-shot, cover-seeking, fire-power, and mounted (speed), respectively for the examples I gave. The most important thing is how each enemy type feels to the player and the overall design. (Like it's fun to shootup a bunch of cover, but the design doesn't include a real cover system - don't do it. etc.)