New Alien Fan Game - "Into The Vents"

[Hudson]

Perhaps finding objects that all need to be used at only one terminal might be interesting as well.

[JokersWarPig]

Perhaps finding objects that all need to be used at only one terminal might be interesting as well.

Key-cards from bodies maybe? Collect the key-cards to open up a locked door outside of the vents. You open the door and escape you win

[Hudson]

Perhaps finding objects that all need to be used at only one terminal might be interesting as well.

Key-cards from bodies maybe? Collect the key-cards to open up a locked door outside of the vents. You open the door and escape you win

Key cards is straight out of Doom. I'd say more like tools or something. Maybe one key to open a locker with some kind of tool inside you need to repair the power to operate the switch.

Just feels far less repetitive.

(Also, I understand this is completely voluntary and a lot of work, so I'm just throwing it out there.)

[barker_s]

Perhaps finding objects that all need to be used at only one terminal might be interesting as well.

Good idea. Perhaps you could search for some fuses to repair the door-control mechanism. That's a nice iteration of the original concept and it'll be pretty easy to implement, so I think I'll add it as a second game mode.

I'm also considering two more changes at the moment:

• Differentiating xenomorph's roam and chase speed - he would creep slowly while roaming the vents, but he would pick up some speed when he sees the player,
  
• 
  Adding an ambush behavior - the xeno, instead of wandering all the time, would sometimes stop and wait for you to come by. He would be indetectible by the motion tracker while ambushing.

Thanks for the feedback guys and, as usual, keep it coming . I'll try to make that promised post about level architecture later tonight.

[Hudson]

Differentiating xenomorph's roam and chase speed - he would creep slowly while roaming the vents, but he would pick up some speed when he sees the player,
Adding an ambush behavior - the xeno, instead of wandering all the time, would sometimes stop and wait for you to come by. He would be indetectible by the motion tracker while ambushing.

Those are awesome ideas, especially the ambush one. It'd be cool for him to see you coming in one direction, but instead wait around a corner or something.

The idea of that is much scarier than a random encounter.

[barker_s]

Differentiating xenomorph's roam and chase speed - he would creep slowly while roaming the vents, but he would pick up some speed when he sees the player,
Adding an ambush behavior - the xeno, instead of wandering all the time, would sometimes stop and wait for you to come by. He would be indetectible by the motion tracker while ambushing.

Those are awesome ideas, especially the ambush one. It'd be cool for him to see you coming in one direction, but instead wait around a corner or something.

The idea of that is much scarier than a random encounter.

Ok, I've implemented those two features. He's not clever enough to anticipate player's movement - he just picks a spot and waits there for a while. As he waits though, he becomes invisible to your motion tracker, so you might be in for a nasty surprise .

Gotta get some sleep now, so that level architecture post will have to wait unil tommorow.

[Hudson]

I think that's really cool.

The other method would allow a player to sit and stare at a T junction. Statistically, the Alien would eventually cross in front eventually and the player could shoot it and run away.

It's a scarier idea for that to not be an option.

[barker_s]

Great news everyone! It looks that I might've found an artist willing to help with the project. Nothing is set in stone, of course, since he's just contacted me, but I'm hoping it'll turn out well . Meanwhile, check out the art on his cool blog - http://compulsoryart.blogspot.co.uk/ .

On the project-related note, today I've cleaned up and restructured Alien's AI code, as it was getting rather cumbersome to work with. I've also tweaked and fine-tuned it a bit to make the xeno less predictable.

Here's what can happen now:

I was being chased by the Alien, so I fired my flamethrower to slow him down, then took a turn left at the nearest junction. Then I stopped and turned around, pointing the weapon where, I thought, he would appear in a moment... but he didn't come for me, so I checked my motion tracker - nothing. 'Coast is clear' I thought, so I came back where I last met him and... he was still there, waiting for me motionless in an ambush. Hopefully this game will ruin some underwear when it comes out .

[Hudson]

That sounds pretty awesome. 

[Corporal Hicks]

Hopefully this game will ruin some underwear when it comes out .

You should get folk to post reaction videos.  BTW when the game is ready and everything, I'll get this all front paged for you.

[barker_s]

Thanks Hicks . The game's basically feature-complete, I just need to implement the menus, story screens and victory/death scenes as well as tweak a few things (although I believe I'll have to get some playtesters first to provide feedback) and I'll be set. Of course we need new graphics too, but hopefully the new artist will take care of it (guy's got some talent I gotta say) .

And yeah, reaction videos are something I'm really looking forward to .

[Xeno-fanatic]

Am I the only one that thinks that one more weapon should be added? Perhaps a knife or broken off piece of pipe? Would weapon misfiring be an option? After all, handbuilt weapons are not very reliable...

[barker_s]

Hey Xeno-fanatic, thanks for your input. While more weapons are always an option (though multitude of weapon is not the focus of this game), melee weapons in AvP games have always irked me. I mean, if you're close enough to the Alien that you can hit it with a pipe or a knife, it's also close enough to rip you to shreds with tail, claws and teeth... not to mention that it's got an exoskeleton and acid for blood, and humans are squishy .

We've not decided yet if the flamethrower is handbuilt, or millitary-grade, but misfiring might be a little too much either way. I mean, there's already very little fuel in it and the player doesn't know exactly how much is left, so that'll take care of 'unreliability factor' . I'll keep that suggestion in mind, in case we decide to implement difficulty levels .

On the other news, I shall be visiting my family today, so do not expect life-changing updates until at least 2 days .

[Xeno-fanatic]

Perhaps for another weapon you might implement a shock prod of sorts. Just something to scare off or mildly injure the Xenomorph.

[Hudson]

Doing things that would "scare off" an Alien would just plain ruin any tension. No human should ever be able to bludgeon a Xenomorph (AvP 2010, ACM) with a pipe or intimidate it without using some kind of firearm.