Plan for Jared Coliadis

The Vengeance of Mr. Grumbles Game in a Day 12: Augmentation

The Vengeance of Mr. Grumbles
Game in a Day 12: Augmentation

I had just purchased T2D about a month ago and have been fiddling with it ever since. As soon as I read the topic for this month's GID, I immediately remembered this game concept that I came up with about 6 months prior that involves augmentation. I think it was originally going to be used in a HL2 mod that some of my friends were going to make but never got around to.

2 hours into development, a basic level and movement code working


The original concept was to be used in a game where you were a machine that can adapt to be as optimized as possible, ala Matrix. The system was originally also supposed to be completely automated so the player character automatically adjusts to the player's playing style. There was also supposed to be only one weapon which modifies along with the other skills.

The modification took place through either repetitive use to a certain related skill, or through other types of ratios or rewards. All of these had the idea that when one area becomes stronger, the others similar to it will become weaker. Yeah, it was pretty ambitious.

4 hours into development, the first weapon and the general shooting code is made


Basically, there is a system of 4 triangles: The central triangle represents the total amount to resources to distribute and each point is another category which each has another triangle that has 3 sub-categories. The overall distribution for each of the three triangles (Offense, Defense, and "Technical Skill", which is basically "Other") can be manually adjusted, but each of the sub-categories are only adjusted by use of the related skill. I don't think that made much sense. This system is sort of explained in the intro to Mr. Grumbles, but I literally whipped that up in the last 25 minutes of development.

But anyway, the actual game is a mostly mouse controlled top-down shooter. You are Mr. Grumbles, a color-changing and grumbly man who is taking vengeance for...something. In fact, very little is known about Mr. Grumbles, except that he is color-changing, grumbly, and there are a lot of red smirking versions of him out to kill him.

Mr. Grumbles changes color according to his mood, and his mood can be adjusted by the player. If he turns red (O or up), he gets aggressive and his weapons can become more powerful, fire faster, and/or have a boosted range. If Mr. Grumbles gets defensive (D or left), he turns blue. You see, Mr. Grumbles also can occasionaly reflect things thrown at him, can dodge them entirely, or can even absorb projectiles shot at him and can make him even more potentially mood-changing. Finally, if Mr. Grumbles gets in a concentrated mood (T or right), he turns green and will be able to run faster, take less damage, and even control missiles better.

13 Hours in...tweaking the DOT system...it's still a bit flawed in the final release, but works "well enough" i suppose.


Speaking of missiles, Mr. Grumbles has 3 weapons to seek his vengeance. His basic rifle (1) does about what a rifle does. It has the best rate of fire, the weakest damage, and mediumish range. While initially not that impressive, if Mr. Grumbles gets especially aggressive and he has been shooting enough, the rifle can fire amazingly fast and powerful. The previously mentioned missiles (2) are controlled by the mouse after fired and are a bit easier to control when he has better concentration. In fact, the more missiles he fires, the better he can become at controlling them. Missiles also can have an incredible range when controlled well. Lastly, Mr. Grumbles also has a Grenade launcher (3) at his disposal. On top of being intimidating, it also fires clusters once detonated. When Mr. Grumbles gets furious enough, even more clusters can appear.

Finished...for now


I did end up starting on this on Friday continuing into Saturday, due to both time constraints and wanting to start on it, so basically it was the same as working Saturday/Sunday. There are still some glaring bugs, and there is no real way to win, but I think I'll be working on it more in the future. Also, the art is my own, but the particles are modified versions of ones that come with T2D. I left the demodatablocks in and tried to relocate it at the last second, but there was a problem with it for some reason. Because of this, the demodatablocks are included, mostly for no reason.

...and so, I'm proud to present: The Vengeance of Mr. Grumbles.