Shadows of Synthia Windows, XSX, PS5 game

Looking through the images and previous articles I've posted, I realized that there are quite a few changes that are implemented right now that never saw the light of day on the Internet. In this article, I aim to fix that and (hopefully) give a clearer view of where this prototype is sitting right now and the direction going forward.

Naturally, the bestest-possible-way for you to see that is to watch the little video I put together below:

In the rest of the article, I'll explain in further detail what's changed and where we're going next.

Weapon Upgrades & Shredder Rounds

Shadows of Synthia will feature a simple upgrade/loadout system: The player can select which two weapons they will spawn with, one passive upgrade, one Physical weapon upgrade, and one Ether weapon upgrade. The passive upgrade applies to the character as a whole (more resistant to Ether-based attacks, faster dodge roll, etc.), the Physical upgrade applies to Physical attacks, and the Ether upgrade applies to Ether attacks.

For those who don't know, this game features two separate firing modes that can be switched between freely: Physical Firing Mode and Ether Firing Mode. Each of these has its pros and cons.

Ether Firing Mode boosts damage output and fire rate, and gives semi-auto weapons access to special "charged ether bullets", but it makes the character easier to see and expends Mana (a much scarcer resource than regular bullets). Physical Firing Mode does less damage, but makes you significantly less visible while moving around and has upgrades associated with it that make it desirable in certain situations... one of those being Shredder Rounds.

When you reduce an opponent's health to 0, they go into a downed state. While downed, they can still crawl around, be revived by a friendly teammate, or self-revive after a few seconds. Normally, the only exception to this is if you get a headshot kill. However, with Shredder Rounds, you get four more zones you can hit to instantly kill an opponent:

Hitting a kill-shot on any of these limbs with Shredder Rounds equipped will break them, instantly killing the opponent, without giving them a chance to enter the downed state. It will also reward bonus points, though not quite as much as a headshot would give. Why points and playing well might be important to a player are something we'll likely be covering much further down the line :)

Movement Updates

The goal of movement in this game is to feel flexible. If you've seen any of the older DevLogs where I was first implementing cover movement, you know it's very Gears-inspired in terms of sliding, moving out of cover, vaulting over cover, and so on. I've spent a lot of time fiddling with the camera movement and speed values to try to get things feeling smooth, and I'm not done yet... but it's a vast improvement over what I had initially.

Ideally, I want the movement system to be something that is easy enough to execute that anyone can use it to gain a defensive edge, regardless of their skill level. But also hard enough to execute multiple different moves in quick succession that skilled players will be able to use it to effectively navigate those 1v2s and 1v3s and get some satisfying multikills.

In addition to polishing up what I'd already implemented before, I've also added the ability for players to swap weapons and reload while rolling, moving out of cover, and vaulting cover while sliding (you will not be able to swap/reload while vaulting from idle).

Ether Firing Mode Updates

I've had this finished even since before I left on my hiatus, I just never posted any update for it, which is crazy... but yes, when you charge up a semi-automatic weapon while in Ether Firing Mode, there are some new visual and auditory cues to help both you and your opponents know what's going on. Charged bullets are very powerful (the charged handgun bullet is a one-hit headshot for example), so it's important that it's clear to everyone when someone has their weapon charged.

A few details I may not have mentioned on how it feels from a gameplay perspective... once you've charged, you can't uncharge, you have to fire it. Even if you try to switch modes while charged, it will automatically shoot the bullet, so you have to commit. Different weapons will charge at different speeds and have different charged shot properties. The shotgun, for example, charges slower than the handgun and fires a huge, slower-moving shot that can insta-kill if the opponent's health is low enough.

Crosshair Feedback Updates

My general design philosophy with crosshairs is "do enough for me that I can understand what's going on without having to think about it... but also stay out of my way". So I'm sure this will continue to evolve as time goes on, but as you can see in the video, the basic features are in there: color changing, recoil feedback, a bar to show the charge time in Ether Firing Mode, and low ammo indicators. Trying to make things clear, without it being obnoxious.

I've reworked the shotgun crosshair, too. Cosmetically, I just made it simpler... a circle with a dot instead of the broken rectangle thing I had before. It's easier to see the spread of the weapon this way. Another cool thing about it is it shows you the optimal shotgun range; if the circle can be completely contained inside the head of your opponent, you're in optimal range (no damage falloff) and you can get a one-shot headshot. Anywhere outside of that, and the falloff increases super fast.

I am also planning on adding a "reload time" bar. It's easier to tell with the audio when your reload is complete (you haven't heard the audio yet, but it exists!), but a visual cue would be nice as well. It is on my list of to-do's before the game exits the prototyping phase.

Conclusion and Future Plans

I have a lot of the fundamental gameplay logic finished for this game. Cover works, shooting works, movement works, net code works, etc. I now have a veritable laundry list of secondary features to implement and existing features to push into their final state... expect miscellaneous groups of updates as things continue to get polished and pieced together bit by bit.

I really appreciate anyone who's following even this early in development! My goal is first and foremost to make a game that I would enjoy playing. If I can do that, then surely (hopefully. possibly. maybe.) others will also enjoy it :)

Until next time...