Demo Release - Game Mechanics

About

If you wish to understand the mechanics of Project Salamander a bit further, you're in the right place!

Player Controls

• Directional Input: Moves the player character.
• Fire Weapon 1/Fire Weapon 2: Fire normal weapon
• Fire Special Weapon: More powerful attacks with unique mechanics and cooldowns. Example:
  • Sword: A melee attack that lets the player dash toward an enemy, dealing damage and granting invincibility frames (iframes) upon a successful hit. Has a cooldown of 1.3 seconds upon pressing the button.
• Dash:
  • Consumes Boost Gauge to initiate and maintain dashing.
  • Increases movement speed but reduces turning ability.
  • Makes the player invulnerable to enemy beam projectiles and lasers.
  • Generates afterimage which can be used for grazing enemy projectiles.
  • Ends when the Boost Gauge is fully depleted.
• Activate Overdrive:
  • Replaces the traditional bomb system seen in most bullet hell games.
  • Temporarily empowers the player with special enhancements.
• Switch Target:
  • The player's current target is displayed on the UI.
  • Attacks will be directed at the active target.
  • Players can switch targets at any time.

Grazing

Player can graze enemy projectiles by:

• Dash through beam-type projectiles and lasers
• Let enemy projectiles hit one of the player's afterimages generated from dashing
• Let enemy projectiles pass through player's vicinity without getting hit

Overdrive Meter increases whenever a projectile is grazed. A projectile can only be grazed once.

Overdrive System

• Building Overdrive Meter:
  • The meter fills when the player hits an enemy or grazes enemy projectiles.
  • Requires at least 50% to activate.
  • Activation at 100% provides additional bonuses.
• Activation Effects:
  • Grants brief iframes upon activation by default.
  • Replenishes the Boost Gauge.
  • Boosts damage dealt by 1.2x
  • If activated at 100%, grants a longer duration and extended iframes.
• Overdrive Depletion:
  • Begins draining immediately after activation.
  • Ends when the Overdrive Meter is empty.
  • Taking a hit during Overdrive does not reduce HP but immediately ends Overdrive by default
• Overdrive Bonus:
  
  • When Overdrive ends, player receives bonus score based on their performance during Overdrive (more about this later)

Overdrive Types

The player selects one Overdrive before starting a stage:

1. Accelerating Overdrive:
   • Slows down everything except the player.
   • Generates afterimage outside of dashing and prolongs afterimage duration from 0.35s to 1s.
   • Increases animation speed of most actions.
   • Does not provide iframe upon activation.
2. Blazing Overdrive:
   • Allows animation cancelling of weapon attacks, enabling much higher fire rates
   • Further boosts damage output of auto fire weapons (like Machine Gun)
   • Halves charge time of charging weapons (like Beam Cannon)
3. Covering Overdrive:
   • Lasts longer than other Overdrives.
   • Upon activation, creates a shockwave that deals damage to enemies and clears all projectiles in a radius .
   • If activated at 100%, creates a larger shockwave and deals more damage.
   • Taking a hit during Covering Overdrive does not immediately end it but instead reduces the remaining Overdrive Meter slightly.

Scoring System

Enemy Destruction

• Defeating an enemy rewards score based on enemy type.

Dealing Damage

• Score is rewarded proportionally to the amount of actual damage the player deals to enemies.

Combo System

• The combo counter increases as the player deals damage (actual damage dealt is counted), and the UI displays the player's current combo damage.
  
• The counter resets if the player does not hit an enemy in time. The counter also resets if the player takes damage.
• The score multiplier increases with higher combo damage, up to a maximum 3x bonus at 10,000 combo damage.
• The combo score multiplier affects score gained from enemy destruction, dealing damage and Overdrive Bonus.
• At the end of the stage, the player is granted additional score based on the highest combo damage achieved.

Overdrive Bonus

• Bonus score is rewarded at the end of Overdrive based on its type and the player's performance. The score is ranked from S to C, with different performance metrics for each Overdrive type (values are tentative).

Overdrive Performance Rankings:

• Accelerating: Graze through enemy projectiles
  • S: 15+ projectiles; A: 10-14 projectiles; B: 5-9 projectiles; C: 0-4 projectiles.
• Blazing: Deal damage or defeat enemies
  • S: 2,400+ damage or 6+ enemies; A: 1,600-2,399damage or 4-5 enemies; B: 800-1,599 damage or 2-3 enemies; C: 0-799 damage or 0-1 enemies.
• Covering: Clear projectiles and hit enemies with the shockwave from activating Overdrive
  • S: 24+ targets; A: 16-23 targets; B: 8-15 targets; C: 0-7 targets.

Score Rewards by Rank:

• S: 5,000 points
• A: 2,500 points
• B: 1,500 points
• C: No bonus
• If the player remains unharmed throughout the Overdrive duration, the Overdrive Bonus is increased by 1.5x.
• Affected by the combo score multiplier.

Stage Completion Bonus

• Survival Bonus: Extra score is awarded based on remaining HP. No HP loss grants additional 20% bonus to this score.
• Time Bonus: Faster completion results in a higher score bonus.
• Combo Bonus: Reward bonus score equal to twice the highest combo damage achieved during the stage.