Hi Everyone,
First the really big news.. Following a successful Greenlight Campaign I've decided to take Dusters to IndieGoGo.
I'm looking for cold, hard cash to give to warm, fuzzy artists, musicians and marketing experts to make Dusters the best game it can be.
I'm a programmer and a designer first, and even then I still feel the strain. When you add marketing, art, sound and UI design into the mix it can become overwhelming. I don't want the quality of the final product to suffer, and I also don't want to still be working on this when I'm 50! I want you guys to be playing and having fun much sooner than that!
The indieGoGo should, hopefully, inject some funding which I can invest directly into raising the production values of Dusters to a new level. Wish us luck!
The next bit is all the progress we've made in development - hoo boy!
New Weapons and Items
Firstly, we've been working on expending the list of available in game items, so that we can really test the new crafting system.
We've added some of the real staples of shooting games, so we can get the "feel" of the weaponry just right.
Rocket Launcher - A lumbering attack, but devastating against large groups.
AutoLaser - a rapid firing, and accurate weapon which suffers from heat management issues.
Cannon - A high damage, high accuracy weapon which penetrates right through enemies even killing the target behind. Let down by a very low fire rate.
A little demo of the Rocket Launcher in Action:
All of these items are craftable from the very start of the game, once you gather enough metal. The final version of the game will include tech 2 versions of these weapons, the blueprints for which can be obtained by infiltration missions or completing special events.
The second set of exciting items we have added it the special weapons branch. These fit into a special slot in your vehicle and are accessible as a special fire mode, independent of your primary weapon.
Currently in game is
The EMP Bomb - Fires an EMP blast in a radius around your vehicle which disables lightly armored targets for a few moments.
The Rocket Drone - A drone aircraft that orbits your vehicle and attacks lightly armored targets with high explosives.
There are few other items like a new vehicle hull - the Strkyer - and we have plans for many many more! but I'm sure you'll agree, lets get the real "feel" of the combat just right, then we can start adding guns that shoot lightning. :)
New Enemies
Ever seen that bit in the very last matrix film, when the power armored humans desperately fight off swarms of AI sentinels? Well we REALLY liked that part of the movie. :)
The swarm attacks sectors you have captured for yourself! Destroy them before the wipe you off the map!
General Gameplay Improvements
We've added all kinds of things to reinforce the core gameplay:
- Objective system. Whilst cruising on the surface, you'll get notifications and waypoints for all points of interest. Color coded according to urgency :)
- Added new sound effects and Music
- The armory has LOADS of improvements. You can now change your vehicle color, added tooltips to provide a items description and statistics, plus added extra UI elements for maximum vehicle loadout weight and total replacement cost (y'know in case you explode :P)
I'm really excited with the progress of Dusters, development is proceeding at pace, the Greenlight campaign was a success and hopefully now with some extra funding from generous contributors from IndieGoGo we can begin to really raise the production values to the next level.
Thanks for reading, I look forward to answering your questions in the comment section.
Cheers!
Ross Edgar.
