‘What’s that?’ I hear you cry – ‘There’s already a Gatling gun in the alpha!’
You’d be right of course, but it’s bothered me for a while that the Gatling gun in the alpha doesn’t really react much like a ‘proper’ Gatling gun. It’s far too ‘polite’ and doesn’t have the all-important ‘wind up’ effect where the speed of fire starts slow but increases to ridiculously fast as you keep the trigger held. I remember particularly enjoying the Gatling gun in the underrated ‘Bulletstorm‘.
I’m still keeping the ‘old’ Gatling gun but this will be renamed ‘Uzi 9mm’ which seems more fitting for the way it operates.
Actually coding the ‘new’ Gatling gun was pretty straightforward. As usual I spent most of the time tweaking explosions and the particle effects for the muzzle flash and the bullet trail. For the muzzle flash I’m using a new geometric shader type called ‘burst’ based on offset circles. I was particularly pleased with the bullet explosions and will probably re-use this effect elsewhere in the game (maybe on a much larger scale for some real ‘oomph).
The gun gradually gets faster and more inaccurate as you hold down the trigger. It also recoils pretty badly. I’ve opted for super-big bullets which I think kind-of work (I think they’re funny anyway) even if they’re ridiculously big.
The bullets are the first time I’ve used sprite rotation in the game. I was a bit worried this would look out of keeping with the visual style (as the rotation is done at ‘full’ res rather than the game’s pixel resolution) but it seems to work fine.
So I’m pretty much done with the ‘conventional’ weapons now – just have to add sound FX for this one, the flamethrower, R.P.G. and grenade launcher.
Dev Time: 1.5 days
Total Dev Time: approx 126.5 days
The Original Gatling Gun – Now Re-christened Uzi 9mm
New Geometric Shader – ‘Burst’
Repeat Fire Takes A While To Get Going
Does Jetboard Joust Now Qualify As A ‘Bullet Hell’ Game?
Some Gratuitous Gatling Action
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