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[All information/screenshots are of a WIP build and are subject to change before the final version. Nothing shown below is final.]
Introducing:
The game is a Top Down Arcade Action Shooter (or shoot'em up) with RPG elements thrown in for good measure...more on this later.
Gameplay:
CORE is about strategy and co-op play. The main objective is to defend the Core at all costs from an onslaught of attacks.
You do this by moving around the map and shooting at various targets (default controls are WASD + mouse) as they try to take you out and destroy the Core. If you successfully defend the Core for a round, you will be given skill points to learn new abilities.
Skills Category:
There are a total of 27 skills in the game, 9 under each category. A player can have learn up to 9 skills from any of the categories (allowing for some interesting combinations). The three main areas are:
Aggressive,
These skills are all about destroying your enemy with as much firepower as possible.
Example Skills: Scatter Shot Toggle (3 way shooting), Fusion Blast (AoE instant destroy), and Amplify (doubles attack power).
Enhancement,
These skills help make yourself and other party members stronger. They also include abilities that can manipulate the battlefield into your favor.
Example Skills: Teleport, Stun Bomb (stun enemies), Overload (double max energy storage).
Preservation,
These skills are for those who like to keep everyone alive rather than destroying countless baddies. Also has various 'remote' abilities to cause indirect damage.
Example Skills: Healing Stream Emitter (heal area), Summon (revive a dead player), Anti-Matter Emitter (damage area).
Not only can you gain skills, but also enhance your 'orb' to have stronger firepower, strengthened shields or higher capacity energy storage. And to add onto that, you can even elect to convert skills you learned into 'elite' versions, which are more powerful and/or less costly to use.
Enemies:
As the Core gets larger, the number of enemies (and type) will begin to increase. Since attacks come from all angles, it will require a skilled team of players (or an extremely good solo player) in order to really hold off the ever increasing army. The type of enemies will range from the simple kamikaze to the more elaborate frigate class gunships. Each requiring their own strategy (or combo of strategies) to take down.
Mulitplayer:
If you haven't figured it out yet, this game is designed for the multiplayer experience. Although their is a single player mode (for those who wish to solo the experience) the game truly shines for groups. Since a player can only amass 9 skills of their choice, more players will allow for greater diversity of strategies.
Right now the game has 5 player online support (the screenshots are from online tests) and lan using TCP or UDP. The player limitation is actually due to the size of the screen rather than the amount of data flow (for those comparing to my previous post).
Story:
[Will get to at a later date]
Conclusion:
This may seem like a rushed explanation...because, it was =P. If you have any questions, post away and I'll try to clear up anything. The hopeful release date is planned for my birthday (the wiser of the bunch will know when this is ;) ). Whether I actually hit this date is another story (going from a part-time to full-time job has removed some of my programming time) but I will try to have something available by that time. I also plan to continue (tho, more irregularly now) keep updates on my progress so that you Eo guys have something to look forward to.
I'll now leave you with a few screenshots. At some point, I'll try to get something in the form of a movie/animation so you can see it in action (which is where it looks the best).
~Brandon
