Demo Release - Game Mechanics
Project Salamander (Working Title) » Devlog
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:
- 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.
- 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)
- 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.
Get Project Salamander (Working Title)
Download NowName your own price
Project Salamander (Working Title)
Fast Paced Bullet Hell
Status | In development |
Author | 124sangaming |
Genre | Shooter |
Tags | Bullet Hell, Shoot 'Em Up |
More posts
- Real Time Control Prompt Update8 days ago
- Dev Progress - Miniboss11 days ago
- Left a Mark on Wplace19 days ago
- Working on Background42 days ago
- Oops51 days ago
- Stage 1 Boss WIP52 days ago
- Sarah's New Portrait58 days ago
- Dynamic Projectiles72 days ago
- My Future Plan after v0.385 days ago
- Demo v0.3 - Cutscene & Weapon Unlock85 days ago
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.