Gennady News

Have you ever had moments in games when you had to take a leap of faith into the void beyond the screen, hoping you wouldn't land on something sharp? 'Danger Sense' is designed to help in such situations. It’s a system that assists players with spatial awareness by marking dangerous areas out of sight in real-time.



We wrote a script that attaches to every trap and enemy, whether it’s a huge pit, spikes, or a creature. The script projects the dangerous object onto the camera's edge, and if it’s out of the player's sight, a ‘red warning’ appears in the appropriate spot. Moreover, if the object is temporarily covered by a falling bio-block or platform that can be stood on, the system won’t mark this segment as a threat.



This way, the player always knows where they can safely land after a jump and who’s spitting caustic slurry above their head.



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It's been a long time since we've been in touch, but we haven't been sitting idle. We were carefully working out the combat system for our first “weapon” of furious fists.



Honestly, on paper, the development of the combat system looked simple: character hits, mob flies off. But we encountered a lot of pitfalls. From how a character should hit depending on the combo accumulated, to how to make it possible to hit on the move and not get accidentally slapped.



Furious Fists has a combo system that changes the characteristics of the punches in each stage. Each stage has its own damage, range, and attack frequency. The final combo punch sends the character forward like a mini-burst. And there are also air kicks. And all of these actions can be performed while on the move.



Almost immediately we realized that the attack range in the stitched animation is too short. In such dynamics it is very difficult to accurately fit the fist to the alien face. So we decided to increase the attack range, and to accompany this action with an appropriate animation.



Initially, the stages of combos were gained not only during the mess with mobs, but also when destroying bio-blocks. But we eventually abandoned this solution, because the final combo attack, in all this green madness, it was impossible to track. And often there was a situation in which the character flew forward under the press, to certain death, without caution.

Where am I?

How hard should the mob fly off on hit? How long should it stay stunned? Do all mobs bounce back the same way, or are there some that are more resilient? And should every hit bounce back with the same amount of force? And so from the question “how hard does a mob bounce” we had a carload and a small cart of questions, each of which needed an answer. What we did as a result: some attacks, including the dash, repel mobs more strongly. At the same time, each mob has its own weight, which affects how far it will fly away after the blow.

Weight comparisons between the Hard Worker and Tvar

All these nuances can be perfectly observed in the moment when the character, without stopping, goes and hands out smacks to the right and left.



We agonized for a very long time with the combo system on the furious fists, and the result feels comfortable. It's easy to get used to. The next “weapon” we're going to start working on is a damn unstable blaster. This is the one that the development will really go easy on. There's just a character taking a shot, and the projectile goes flying. Doesn't it?

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Gennady features many classic game mechanics that we've tweaked to fit our vision. This is felt in everything from level design to individual game systems. We've always loved it when something new and different is brought into the mundane tropes of game development. In this develog, we're going to share with you a mechanic that basically came out of an old, but universally loved game. In which you just have to shoot ducks.

[h2]A fatal shooting gallery[/h2]

As the run progresses, the player accumulates full pockets underpants of all sorts of junk. And although death in the game - a fairly common phenomenon, it's a shame when all this hard-won good simply disappears. And that's where the fatal shooting gallery comes in! The idea is quite simple and, as mentioned above, comes from the game Duck Hunter.

Intermediate iteration fatal shooting gallery

After dying, the player is given the opportunity to return a certain amount of junk that he managed to collect during the run. After shooting a certain number of items in the shooting gallery, the player starts his next run with them. The cards fall at random amplitude and at different speeds. All these parameters we can adjust to smoothly customize the difficulty of this mini-game.

We hope this mechanic will help players save useful items and not get too down on themselves after accidentally dying in a long run. And yes, fatal shooting gallery is the working title, because it essentially starts when the character is already dead. But Postmortem shooting gallery sounds even worse. Do you have any better ideas?

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This is not exactly a devlogs. It's more like a small look at how it all started and what we've come to.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Gennady has been in development for more than three years now. During these years our small team has grown, we completely moved the game from one engine to another, and changed the focus from the mobile segment to PC.



It's also been a year since we started the Gennady page on Steam. During this time we almost passed the 1000 wishlist mark, and managed to screw up Steam Next Fest 2023 by going too early.

Pretty soon, the demo version of the game will be released, and behind it, early access. It's time to take a look at the fresh gameplay trailer!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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We continue to describe the dark and alien world of Gennady. We will tell you about how the work on artifacts goes and why they are needed at all.



[h2]Roguelike or Rogue-lite?[/h2]

No, we are not going to argue what the true difference between these two concepts is. It is important to understand only that we are trying to create a certain mixture between a platformer and a roguelike. Artifacts help us in this.

How do similar mechanics work in other games? "Artifacts" enhance weapon stats, character characteristics, completely change certain game mechanics or give you new ones. Our artifacts do the same thing. The only difference is that we're trying to emphasize not just beating up a bunch of enemies, but platforming as well.



We developed dozens of artifact concepts and divided them into three categories of rarity, depending on their impact on gameplay. Artifacts that are tied to existing mechanics and change only numerical values were not difficult to add, such as increasing the duration of a temporary shield. Another thing is when an artifact adds completely new game mechanics like instant revival after death.

So far, all artifacts can be purchased for larvae from the junk dealer Sho. But we're leaning more and more towards the idea that some artifacts will only be obtainable from unique in-game events, like completing challenge rooms.

Entrance to challenge room

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

In addition to artifacts that can be bought, we also develop improvements for the character and his weapons. You can get them for free in Zina's trade zones.



Improvements, unlike artifacts, are more tied to how and how fast a character moves in the game space. Dash enhancements (the basic mechanics of movement) are exactly what Zina gives. Also enhancements are the only way to, enhance (sorry) your weapon, be it a fist, blaster, or old squirrel extract.

[h2]Choose your frienemies wisely[/h2]

Let's tell you a little bit about frienemies. These are not simple artifacts that you can buy from a merchant. Each of them drastically changes certain game mechanics, giving both a strong bonus and a negative effect. Frienemy can only be picked up at the very beginning of a run, and for a unique meta-currency that is mined during the run.



Frienemies are currently in the concept stage, as their effect on gameplay is much higher than normal artifacts, it will take a lot of time to work out and balance each frienemy.

[h2]And remember[/h2]

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