NAME: GRADIENT RUN
GENRE: Shoot-'em-up
PLAYERS: 1
PLATFORM: PC, web
TAG LINE: #GotQuarter
RELEASE DATE: April 26, 2015 (phase 1), July 31, 2015 (phase 2)
What if you had to fend off aliens in Pacman's maze while dodging asteroids? The real question is: Got Quarter?
I'm bringing 6 coin-op games from the Golden Age of arcades (plus one modern console as inspiration) to C2 and a PC near you.
SUMMARY: Blast through a series of battlefield mazes as an endless gamut of enemies rush at you. Dodge (or destroy) giant asteroids careening all over the maze to slam into you. Your mission is to destroy each enemy base before waves of alien forces overtake you for good. Decimate the opposition - even capture them to use as friendly-fire - with upgradeable weapons! With an original, dynamic soundtrack and 3D-stylized graphics, Gradient Run will be a game you won't want to step away from.
QUICK LIST of FEATURES
- Old school Golden Age coin-op gaming meets new-school mash-up frantic action
- Battle it out against waves of alien forces in Pacman-inspired mazes
- Upgrade your weapons in three categories: rapid fire, burst, and directional shots
- Asteroids
- Capture enemy units and use them against each other as your own wingmen
- Charge up your shots and destroy large groups of invaders
- Lots of asteroids
- Dynamic soundtrack that's never quite the same each time you play
- Game conditions affect the music
- 3D pre-rendered graphics
- HUGE asteroids!
View full image
Version 3 of the player's ship
Gradient Run is as an ambitious entry to the Construct 2 Coin-Op Game Jam (#construct2coinop). Drawing inspiration from seven games (yes, seven...first it was three...then five...now seven). The goal is to survive escalating waves of various 3D pre-rendered (think: Donkey Kong Country Trilogy) enemies in maze-like environments and destroy four crystals in each round. And in each round, the enemies become more numerous, faster, and generally more gregarious (translation: annoying) than before.
Like any good shoot-'em-up, you'll only start with your little pea-shooter of a weapon and have a few options to upgrade. These include rapid-fire, charge shot, and even some wingmen, and a couple others. Oh, and the asteroids come out to play, too. Yeah, I'm tossing that in there, as well.
Quicklist of features and the games I'm adapting each one from...
- ASTEROIDS - Controls and the asteroids floating across the maze.
- GALAGA - Capture enemy units to use a forced wingmen against the opposition.
- PACMAN - Level design.
- XEVIOUS - Borrowing the air-to-surface attack and adapting as a surface-to-air attack against the asteroids beyond the maze walls.
- R-TYPE - Charged shots to blast away large groups of enemies
- GRADIUS - Similar to the delayed power-up system of Gradius, players will collect pellets dropped by enemies to build up to the next level of weaponry depending on the colored pellet collected.
- GEOMETRY WARS - All the fast-paced hyperventilating action!
The game will feature original music by my talented brother, Ryan Miller, and original 3D art by Emily Eason (herself very talented while also being very new to the world of 3D modeling and, even more so, video game art).
BELOW in the comments are further updates.
Welcome to my world, friends. Welcome!