Dear Unreal community and fellow developers,
We recently submitted our game Recourse to Steam Greenlight:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=483257730
The game is the product of a two-men operation with my brother handling the design and myself handling the programming. The entire game was created with blueprint scripting with the exception of a small piece of C++ code copied and pasted from the forums to allow the second player to enter and exit seamlessly.
Here are the trailer and some gameplay videos from the game with our Greenlight page description following them. We would kindly request you to watch them at your leisure and provide us with your feedback as this is our first game and we would very much appreciate your suggestions and recommendations.
If you can, please consider voting for our game on Greenlight. Please do not shy away from casting a “No” vote if you think it’s not your kind of game and would not like to see it on your library. We believe in backing each other as developers but we also believe that it must be done in full honesty so each of us can see where there is room for improvement and enable each other to create the best version of our games.
Btw, feel free to ask how any gameplay element featured in our game (mobility, deployables, enemies etc.) was scripted in blueprints. I promise to do my best to explain them on my free time. It’s the least I can do considering how much I learned from the forums and the AnswerHub.
Trailer:
Puzzle Mode Gameplay / Showcase: (The map theme is Tropic. This one takes it a bit slow to introduce the gameplay elements.)
**Escort Mission Mode Gameplay ** (The map theme is Arctic)
**Wave Defense Mode Gameplay ** (The map theme is Forest. This focuses more on the puzzle-solving side of this map than wave-defending, since it’s a demo reel after all)
DESCRIPTION
Recourse is a casual puzzle/action game that is played in arena style levels and revolves around puzzle solving in addition to completing a few game mode dependent objectives. The players can use their mobility, various deployable tools, environmental hazards and physics objects to solve the puzzles or counter enemies.
The game is almost fully complete (as it can be seen in the gameplay videos) aside from the planned addition of more levels and can be shortly released upon being Greenlit. With that being said, we are very keen to hear comments and suggestions from the community. This is our first game, so we are open to all ideas on how to improve the gameplay, visuals, sounds and the like.
Regarding the system requirements; we plan to provide full scalability and not lock any options to allow players to enjoy the game however they like and run it on lower end or older machines. The game was entirely developed in Unreal Engine 4, so it inevitably requires some minimum system specifications but we intend to allow players to go as low or high as possible.
** Game Modes: **
There are three game modes in Recourse. We provide full gameplay videos for each mode here to give the players an accurate idea on what the game is about.
- ** Puzzle Mode: ** The goal is to solve semi-sequenced puzzles and reach the final checkpoint.
- ** Escort Mission Mode: ** Battle against AI enemies to collect points and deposit them to the wagon which you must escort to the finish line to complete the level.
- ** Wave Defense Mode: ** AI enemies grow tougher with each wave. You can stay as long as you wish or solve your way to the final checkpoint and end the level when ready.
** Key Gameplay Features: **
- ** Variety-oriented physics and circuitry based puzzle-solving mechanics: ** Multiple deployables and environmental hazards that can be used to solve the puzzles or counter enemy AI. You will also do some button pushing to proceed in the levels. Puzzle items are connected with cables indicating the solving direction for player convenience.
- ** Colour-coded objects: ** Blue is for the player, orange is for the enemies. Yellow objects are neutral and they would affect the players and enemies alike.
- ** High mobility: ** Dash, double-jump and grapple to freely and quickly move around the world. We differentiate from many puzzle games by allowing rapid movement across the map unless the puzzles specifically require you to follow a certain sequence.
- ** Drop-in/drop-out split screen co-op: ** The second player can join or leave the game at anytime by the press of a single button in any game mode. The gameplay continues without interruption. The scores for co-op games are saved separately than single player ones.
- ** Score tracking for individual stats: ** Every score item is saved individually, meaning that the players can focus on beating specific goals while replaying a level. For example, you can focus on collecting the secret items instead of trying to beat the current best time. Only the beaten scores would be updated.
- ** Six level themes: ** Tropic, desert, forest, arctic, space and brainy (this one is for the hard-core puzzle game fans). Each category is planned to have multiple puzzle solving levels in addition to two escort mission and wave defense levels.
- ** Environmental Hazards: ** Spikes, moving lasers, neutral and enemy deployables etc. are all sprinkled around the levels to keep things interesting.
- ** Multiple Enemy Types: ** 5 enemies with distinct attacks, speeds, healths and damage levels.
** Deployable Tools: **
As of the latest build, there are seven deployables that can be picked up around the levels and launched forward as long as the player has enough resources. These deployables explode upon impact with enemy bots during their flight and can only be placed on flat surfaces. You can combine the effects of deployables with each other and the environment to strengthen your attacks or simply spam around enough of them to get the job done. The types of deployables are:
- ** Incinerator: ** Burns enemies and heats up thermometers to activate them.
- ** Impactor: ** Screws itself to the ground/floor and launches characters and physics objects in the air. Highly effective in launching enemies toward ceiling hazards or simply cause them falling damage. They can also break apart frozen objects.
- ** Laser: ** Damages characters and activates lenses.
- ** Circular Saw: ** Damages characters and destroys crates or other wooden objects blocking the way.
- ** Tesla Coil: ** A ranged tool that damages characters with electric arcs and also activates wall plugs.
- ** Twister: ** Elevates and hurls characters around and activates fans.
- ** Vortex: ** Catches characters and freezes them at its centre. Can be used to turn slippery enemies into easy targets or pin them against environmental hazards.