Machine Instinct - Action Side-Scroller Game

Community Showcase Game Development
1

Hey guys!
After a long but a really fun learning process of Unreal Engine 4 I can finally show some work-in-progress prototype for the little game I’ve been developing in my free time.

“Machine Instinct” is a challenging side-scrolling survival/score-chasing single-level action game set in a Dark Sci-Fi setting inspired by early/mid 90s era films and video-games.

YOUR GOAL: Hold your position at the “H”-point, destroy anything that approaches you and survive as long as you can while taking advantage of the weaponry/upgrades and resources of the platform. Compete with your friends or against the players on Steam for precious seconds and a better time score! Test your reflexes and determination!

I’m very grateful to Unreal Engine for the Blueprint System that allowed me, a non-programmer to make a functioning game prototype! I created designs/3D models/textures using pretty much the same workflow I utilize for most of my 3D design work and programmed the logic of the game using Blueprints learning about it mostly from UE4 Youtube channel. Some of the effects I created from scratch using Cascade and some purchased at the Marketplace. Andrei Orehov did the Rigging/Animation for characters and some effects as well, with some of the robot animations originated from Motion Capture and some created by Andrei from scratch. I made the robotic characters as pre-rendered sprites which also helped to create the style and feel I was going for. Alexandr Bulgarov composed the soundtrack.

Gameplay Features so far:

  • Face 9 vicious enemy robot types
  • Use 360-degree gyro-stabilized dual-shot plasma rifle with built-in overcharge mode and high-frequency grenades against your enemies
  • Earn $ and collect Sky Plasma Units to acquire vital upgrades: Missile Launcher, EMP Drone and Jet Pack
  • Make yourself hard to kill by enabling Translocator teleport device and purchase additional Health Points
  • Survive long enough and pick up Mecha Werewolf Transformation mode to unleash hell on your enemies!

The current plan is to release “Machine Instinct” for PC through Steam. The game is still in its rough prototype stage and there is a ton of things to fix, improve and add such as a better camera, some animations, UI, lighting, etc.
Below is a gameplay test, to learn more about the game please go to https://www.machineinstinct.game/

Thank you!

4

Hey guys, here are some updates!

Still lots of things to improve ( Current Robodog animations and background are temporary) but here are some updates I recorded while in testing mode ( Meaning enemies spawn only when press a hotkey specific to each enemy):

  • New Camera
  • Material with dissolve effect added to exploding parts for these enemies: Archangel, Praetorian, Stiffneck, Trashbot
  • H-crawler smokes when walking and emits short circuit electric effect when initiating the suicide run
  • Archangel smoke and fire effects when damaged - Archangel throws grenades when in close range
  • Archangel shooting cycle break fixed(need to apply the same principle to all other enemies)
  • Archangel explodes in multiple parts with physic applied when killed - Trashbot explodes when killed with missile
  • Stiffneck explodes when killed with missile
  • Collisions fixed for exploded parts for Archangel, Praetorian, Stiffneck, Sentinel
  • Sentinel Tower sets on fire when critically damaged
  • Bullet hit impact sound got a Pitch/Volume modulation cue for randomness - Buffbot and Crossbot start to smoke and fire when damaged
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Very excited to share the news that an incredible artist/designer/art-director Jama Jurabaev has joined “Machine Instinct” project! Check out the new video!

With just a few paint-over concepts Jama already inspired a more refined feel of the game’s lighting/mood that gave the environment a needed sense of depth and also a much better read. He also suggested a bunch of cool ideas to implement in the game, both in terms of gameplay and visuals (one of which was adding a flamethrower you can see in this video – yay!). I’m still working on recreating it all in Unreal Engine but I’m pleased already to show this progress so far. The project has been an insane learning curve for me outside of CG realm, I’m currently working on improving gameplay+ refining game mechanics, fixing the bugs, adding death screen, etc. and can’t wait to show new update soon!

In case you missed previous posts, “Machine Instinct” is a 90’s inspired side scroller robo-survival action game where the player gets to control a weaponized robodog capable of transforming into a mecha werewolf and the goal is to hold the so called “H-point” position as long as possible to gain a better score while taking advantage of various weapons/upgrades throughout the level.

The general story&setting: Hostile Ai’s are taking over the Sky Grid platform attempting to disrupt the production of Sky Plasma Units. Advanced tactical quadruped robot codenamed WARDOG is deployed to defend the sky platform and to deal with countless waves of enemy robots.