Gunlocked 2 News

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[h2]Kickstarting Something Better: Or When Good Enough isn't Good Enough[/h2]

Why Kickstarter? I’ve gotten that question (and some ruder variations) a few times since announcing Gunlocked 2. If you follow my games, you know a few things are constants: My games are self-funded, have short development times, deliver on their promises, and they’re good enough.

Pictured: A collection of games I've released over the years, some under different banners

It can be easy to infinitely toil away trying to make art perfect. Add in the complexities of programming and the endless search for more optimum code, and infinity gets a +1. They say “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good” but I used to say don’t let it be the enemy of “good enough.”

It can be helpful to aim for good enough. I wouldn’t have released 7 games and 1 expansion over the past 8 years if I aimed for anything more than good enough. It was both a mantra to avoid burn out, and a means to an underfunded end. I was giving myself permission to make imperfect art, so that I could make art at all.

Developing games is expensive. It’s probably the art form with the fewest shortcuts. There are a lot of shortcuts to making bad games, but not a lot to making good games, or in my case, good enough games. It takes focus, and sustained passion. It takes imagination because for huge stretches of time you’re working with abstract concepts that have no manifest results. And most of all it takes time, and time is money.

So “good enough” let me shave off 4 frames and 6 colors from each enemy animation. It let me settle for the same laser sound I used in my last game. It let me use my 1st or 2nd draft of the tutorial, instead of the 4th or 5th. And it was all in service of the idea that if I released some good enough games, I’d make enough money to finally have the time and resources to make a great game.

Pictured: A comparison of boss designs in Gunlocked 1 (above) vs Gunlocked 2 (below)

But that mentality had a hidden cost. It slowly sapped my passion and distracted me from why I wanted to make games in the first place. It turned releasing projects into a means to an end (rent). I was forced to always look ahead, instead of savoring what I was working on in the moment. Don't get me wrong, I was still making games I wanted to make, with mechanics that I thought were fun. But the benefit was that I only ever made good enough money to make more good enough games, and never games of the quality that inspired me to make games in the first place.

Metal Slug made me fall in love with pixel art, and Mega Man 2 made me fall in love with game design. But I’ve never aspired to make games that lived up to those benchmarks before, even though I've wanted to since I was young. I’m 40 years old, and I’ve been dreaming of making games since I was 4. There hasn’t been a perfect time, to put everything I have into what I’m working on, in 36 years. Now is good enough, and with Kickstarter funding I can make something great.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3492830/Gunlocked_2/
Support the Gunlocked 2 Kickstarter. Become a part of the game! Almost 20% Funded already!

The roguelike genre is all about making choices. What kind of character will you play as? What types of upgrades will you equip? Which door will you open, and what will you do differently when said door explodes in your face?

But, you might note, there are no doors in space. No rooms, no winding labyrinths, and no toilets for miles. You should have used the restroom before you left for war. So how does one blend a vertical scrolling shoot ‘em up in the wide expanse of space with a genre all about confined rooms and exploding doors?


The answer is gates. Thesaurus.com tells me it’s a loose synonym for door, and that’s good enough for me! These gates happen to be of the warp variety. Warp Gates bookend each chapter of your battle against The Swarm and offer you multiple opportunities to choose where you travel, who you fight, and what rewards you get. Take on tougher challenges to earn rare rewards, or take the easy path, repair your ship, and risk falling behind later on. Each action packed segment seamlessly blends into the next as you make light-speed jumps, in real time, to the next deadly skirmish, showering you in loot as you arrive.


Said loot is another core element of the dungeon crawl experience. The original Gunlocked offered a variety of random upgrades drawn from a single pool. Level up in any area, as any character, and draw from the same selection of upgrades. Gunlocked 2 makes who you fight and where you fight them a factor in the kinds of upgrades you can find. Some destinations might even offer helpful allies with unique skills to further customize your build.


As you start to put together your exploding laser cannons or vampire drone army, you’ll want to seek out the locations, enemies, and non-player characters (NPCs) that offer you the best chance at crafting the perfect arsenal. Seasoned veterans can use the earned knowledge of what drops where and from whom to paint a beautiful picture of death across the starry night, and it won’t even cost an ear. Your life, maybe.


The best roguelikes encourage (i.e. kill) you to make different choices every time. But once you’ve mastered the art of making choices, you’ll still have to put your equipment to good (i.e. deadly) use. Gunlocked 2 ups the action with an active dodge ability called “Phase Shifting.” What kind of action-roguelike would it be without a dodge roll?


When you phase shift, your ship becomes temporarily invulnerable, capable of passing through enemies and projectiles without harm. It will be instrumental in keeping your carefully tuned ship in one piece. You wouldn’t want all that effort spent crafting the perfect build to go to waste, and be lost forever when you die.

Remember, a good roguelike tries to kill you. And Gunlocked 2 is a very good roguelike.