[GZDoom] Snap the Sentinel (v2.4) ~ EPISODE 1

[TehRealSalt]

 

Me and my friends have made a full standalone IWAD as an entry for 7DFPS, a game jam. I'm extremely proud of what we created together!
We now want to keep it going and extend the game into a full set of 5 episodes.
 

The current release contains 8 full levels + 2 boss stages, different level routes for Normal & Hard, really cool FM synth music, even full coop & deathmatch support if you're willing to put up with GZDoom's netcode. All assets were made from scratch!

 

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Credits:
TehRealSalt: Programming, graphics, game design, level design, character design
SeventhSentinel: Music, sound effects, level design, voice acting
Jeck Jims: 3D models & animation
VelocitOni: Character design, graphics, voice acting
Chengi: Logo design, graphics

 

Download + more info: https://tehrealsalt.itch.io/snap-the-sentinel

Requires latest GZDoom. I recommend OpenGL or Vulkan, but GLES and SoftPoly both work well enough to play.

Edited July 11, 2022 by TehRealSalt
Yeah another new version number

[Gez]

Looks cool! From the screenshot it looks like the player character has a bit of a Rayman thing going on...

[taufan99]

Played through Level 1 and currently on Level 2. I love what I'm playing so far, such a unique TC.

[TehRealSalt]

I uploaded a simple trailer, it's in the first post now.

[TehRealSalt]

Version 1.1 has been released! Most notable changes are presentation polish, multiplayer polish, Level 4 polish, and save points.

Full changelog is here: https://tehrealsalt.itch.io/snap-the-sentinel/devlog/207870/v11-some-more-polish

[TehRealSalt]

Yet another patch, v1.2, this one is much smaller. Adds drop shadows under lots of objects, and several bug-fixes. Buuut the real reason for this patch was to lock off Hard Mode until you beat the game, because, after watching several first impressions, I don't think it's obvious enough that it's a remixed campaign that assumes familiarity with Normal, rather than Ultra-Violence-style "more monsters". Ah well. :p

Full changelog: https://tehrealsalt.itch.io/snap-the-sentinel/devlog/208753/v12-release

[Death Egg]

Looks really cool, but is there/could there be a slider to adjust the flashing effect for when you fire a weapon? It's kinda hard on my eyes.

[TehRealSalt]

re: Death Egg -- it slipped my mind to reply, but the latest version of the game implemented a toggle, and the default was just lowered in general in a patch. I was trying to make the flashing match software a little better, but realized later I went a bit overboard when I did another direct comparison.

Mostly this year I've been focusing my other project, but I started getting interest in Snap development again, so we'll be fleshing out Snap's 7DFPS build further, and turning it into a fully featured "shareware" episode. Pretty much all of the content in the 7DFPS build will be doubled, and all of the existing content will be polished up.
 

What's currently being done for the update:

• 3 new weapon types
• 2 new enemy types
• 5 more levels, with one of them being a new mini-boss. Added to the existing level total, the full episode will contain 10 stages.
• Fleshed out story (some simplistic but interactive in-game cutscenes)
• More polish on the existing levels (Level 4 will be hit with a 2nd pass)
• Rebalanced existing enemies & mechanics (Hitlag, shoot & kick at the same time, less damage-spongey enemies)
• Complete rework of the Very Rude difficulty (no more basic fast monster speed value changes, instead adds completely new enemy behaviors)
• Even more jams by Sev
• New multiplayer modes

A few screenshots of the update's content (albeit slightly out of date):

Spoiler

 

(Technical issues made this video come out a bit blurry. Sorry! I've already fixed the issue for next time.)

 

More recently is the new Invasion mode, a little pet project of mine. This will be a set of Coop specific stages, in which you will defend a core from an onslaught of Ocean's robots. Each stage will have 2 separate missions, one Normal and one Hard. Additionally, some robots may come with a "modifier", as indicated by special particles on them, which adjusts their properties. The mode is designed primarily for 2 players, but the difficulty scales up to accommodate all 8.
 

You might also notice a few new things in this video. The most obvious from the start is the jumbotron at the bottom of the screen. This is to both add some more information to the screen, and to make the existing messages prettier and less janky.
 

Additionally, there's also a new mechanic: the Septacrash. When the 7-Star meter on your HUD is full, you'll be able to unleash a powerful blast that demolishes everything around you. It's slow to charge, so you'll want to be careful to not waste it.

Edited September 2, 2021 by TehRealSalt
Embed more of the content

[msx2plus]

oh shit, how am i only just now seeing this! super fucking cool!!!

[TehRealSalt]

 

In the next update, Versus mode will be undergoing a lot of tweaks to make it more fun. To go into lots of detail:

 

Spoiler

Weapons
 

Previously, ? Canisters would give you a random weapon instantly. Now, it spins a roulette over your weapon box. Simply press fire to time your new weapon choice. The roulette starts off slow, and with limited variety, but the longer the match goes, the available types change, and it'll spin faster and faster.

This change is meant to remove the frustration of such a large random element from the mode by instead putting it in the hands of the player. However, it still keeps the excitement from the variety of weapons you could get that the pure random weapon used to have.
 

Powerups
 

Passive powerups used to be delivered via Star Canisters, which simply gave you a random powerup instantly when picking it up. Now, they're delivered via Powerup Copters! Periodically, one will appear with a random other powerup canister inside. You'll need to shoot it down first before you can take the powerup inside.
 

The powerup spawns were always meant to be a hotspot for fighting; controlling the area for yourself is vital to secure a solid win. But when they were easy to run in and steal with no effort, it was kind of lame. The copter addresses three things:

• The addition of an extra step to grabbing the powerup adds a lot of extra effort into getting the powerup, thus a lot of extra time to spend fighting over it!
• Being able to see the powerup from far away lets you make more decisions. You can now decide for yourself if it's worth risking your life over, instead of it being necessary to always try and take it.
• The copter swooping in alerts everyone when the powerup is available much faster than a tiny canister on the ground appearing from nowhere.

Septacrash
 

Septacrash from the last update was actually designed specifically for Versus! It can be used to turn the tide of a match. The small start-up lag adds some tactical depth to it; using it with no thought will usually lead to you whiffing. You'll have to trap your opponent, be cheeky and use it around corners, or otherwise pop it off when they'll least expect it!
 

Health Drops
 

Players now drop 3 Root Beer pickups when you defeat them. Previously when you suffered a harsh battle, you could easily be whittled down so badly that when your opponent respawned they'd easily trade another point with you. Now you can benefit from surviving really tense encounters, and this increases the overall longevity of a life a lot!
 

New Weapons
 

You can see in this footage some of the new weapons that will also appear in the campaign! Watch out for Boomerang, Charger, and Artillery.
 

Balance Nonsense
 

Lots of weapons were re-balanced, in lots of little ways. Too many to list all in one spot (especially as this post drags on :p) , but all weapons that I felt were too weak or hard to use were buffed in one way or another.
 

Single-player

If you're not super interested in Snap's multiplayer, I've also made the new objects usable in maps. ? Canisters now work in single-player, and will give you a fast roulette with one of each weapon type in the game. Powerup Copters can also be placed, and any other object in the game can be put in it.

 

As for actual single-player progress, it's going well. Never really sure how much to show off because I like keeping campaign stuff un-spoiled (that's why my detailed updates tend to be multiplayer :p). But all of the remaining stages are starting to come together so I think I'll meet my self-imposed deadline ... really cannot wait to get it into peoples' hands. :)

[LadyMistDragon]

So will this actually work with versions of GZDoom 4.6 and later?

[TehRealSalt]

2 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

So will this actually work with versions of GZDoom 4.6 and later?

I believe you're referring to a HUD bug that was made obvious by a GZDoom update, yes, that's fixed. All indev testing is done with the latest GZDoom.

[TehRealSalt]

The Episode 1 update (v2.0) has been released!! The length of the game has been doubled, and lots of polish to every other aspect of the game.
Changelog: https://tehrealsalt.itch.io/snap-the-sentinel/devlog/313411/episode-1-v20-release

[Scuba Steve]

Absolutely thrilled to see proper "smears" within the weapon animations. I'm sold.

 

Playing this shit when I get home.

[TehRealSalt]

v2.1 has been released. Main reason for the patch is to fix a pretty nasty thinker leak that was happening on a few levels, please try it out if you were having performance issues before. Other highlights include alternate E1M7 generators, and Homing Beam buffs, as well as lots of minor polish in lots of little areas of the game.

 

Read the changelog here: https://tehrealsalt.itch.io/snap-the-sentinel/devlog/315408/v21-release

[TehRealSalt]

v2.2 has been released. This was meant to be just a really simple 5-line changelog patch to address lag & a few bugs, but it ballooned really fast! Most notable change is a new weapon can system -- weapons need to be kicked open to be picked up, to prevent accidental weapon pickups.
 

GIF of weapon cans in action: https://imgur.com/vayVWJO

 

Download + changelog: https://tehrealsalt.itch.io/snap-the-sentinel/devlog/336109/v22-release

Edited January 17, 2022 by TehRealSalt
Added GIF link

[Scuba Steve]

I never returned to give my thoughts on this:

 

The first several maps are pretty unremarkable--simple architecture, plain textures, and pretty basic gameplay--but everything really opens up when you get to the first city map with cars and traffic filling the streets. If the final few maps are an indication of the upcoming quality of the next episodes, sign me up.

[NPC_CO8ALT]

This is the most fresh, original thing i've seen posted on here in a while. Good work Sir.

I can't wait to see what the full, complete campaign looks like.

[TehRealSalt]

Thanks everyone for the input!!

 

On 1/21/2022 at 12:01 AM, Scuba Steve said:

I never returned to give my thoughts on this:

 

The first several maps are pretty unremarkable--simple architecture, plain textures, and pretty basic gameplay--but everything really opens up when you get to the first city map with cars and traffic filling the streets. If the final few maps are an indication of the upcoming quality of the next episodes, sign me up.

The original game jam version was obviously made under time crunch, and most of the time spent on Episode 1 was polishing the existing base mechanics. Now that those are pretty much set mostly in stone now, the future Episodes' are definitely just focusing on cooler levels \m/

 

--------

 

Didn't plan on making this patch, but I see lots of blind playthroughs guilty of running the IWAD as a Doom PWAD (which causes lots of minor subtle issues that make the game look much more unpolished). Since I had to make a patch anyway, I went ahead and threw a bunch of quality of life tweaks already made for Episode 2.

 

Episode 2 development is still going well, but what has been done isn't really showable -- just lots and lots of prototypes of just about everything. Not really polished enough yet for me to be really confident in showing off yet, hoping to get the early levels in the Episode fully complete soon. (Hopefully I'm done with patches so I can fully focus on it, lol.)


(gif of new knockback VFX)

 

v2.3 changelog:

• You can no longer run Snap as a Doom PWAD. (It's a standalone IWAD!!)
• Updated Directional Influence mechanics. This should hopefully make it clearer how to escape hitlag combos, especially in Versus.
  
  • Added the following visual effects:
    
    • Shift DI gives you colored afterimages, to show other players how you're moving.
    • Velocity DI has a ring explosion, which spews dust in the direction of the original knockback. (When using VDI, you'll be sent away from the dust.)
  • Velocity DI's effect was made significantly stronger.
  • Shift DI was totally reworked to be fully automatic, instead of only semi-automatic. This will make Shift DI really easy for pretty much anyone to use effectively, instead of being an incredibly obscure mechanic. The following changes were made:
    
    • Mash shifting was removed entirely.
    • Automatic shifting was made to be as strong as mashing used to be.
    • You now get automatic shifts every single time hitlag is added to you, instead of only after hitlag.
  • Knockback was made even stronger, to allow DI to be used to escape more scenarios.
• Replaced the Powerup Copter sprites with a 3D model.
• Added relative skybox viewpoint objects. These are used in VS1 to make the death plane more seamless.
• Improved directioning for the various connecting points in E1M4's central room.
• Improved directioning for the red key door in E1M6.
• Improved directioning for the bank area in E1M8 Normal.
• Slight length & directioning changes for E1M9.
• Optimized event handler usage. Poorer machines may feel a slight performance increase.
• Player corpses now utilize Hexen's corpse queue; by default, only 64 corpses will be allowed to pile up in multiplayer.
• Made the invincibility period after using Septacrash far shorter, to make it less cheesy in Versus.
• Versus Random Weapon roulette starting position gets offset by one each time you use the roulette. Intended to reduce the feeling of "this weapon again?"
• "Spawn farthest" is now default in Versus.
• Adjusted default multiplayer connection settings. After some experimentation, these settings play significantly more smoothly with poorer connections.
• Fixed cacti being solid for a short time after they've already exploded.
• Fixed player sorting on the multiplayer HUD with more than 2 players.
• Fixed the 7th bullet's center afterimage being misaligned.

 

https://tehrealsalt.itch.io/snap-the-sentinel/devlog/379763/v23-release

[TehRealSalt]

Just a quick release since GZDoom v4.8.0 broke Snap really, really badly. As a bonus I backported Episode 2's cool player animator system, so hopefully that makes it worth it :P
 

(gif of looking into mirrors with the new animators)

 

v2.4 changelog:

• Updated GZDoom version to 4.8.2.

• Fixed intermissions unable to progress since GZDoom v4.8.0. (You can no longer ready up in multiplayer due to under-the-hood changes, unfortunately. A more intricate fix will be made for Episode 2.)

• Implemented automatic character animations, which shows your aiming, strafing, shooting, crouching, etc. This makes mirrors & multiplayer look much better! See the attached gif.

• Added a "damage reduced" sound while Super Shell is active.

• Added the option for thicker automap lines in the menu.

• Subtitles no longer go off the edges of the screen at 800x600 resolution.

• Improved the automap view. There is now a dark transparent BG, the player arrow was made more visible, and key fobs are shown. This requires a config reset.

• Cleaned up automaps for several levels.

• Improved directioning on the ending lift in E1M2.

• Fixed being able to stand on the edge of the cutscene pit in E1M1 by using strafe-running. 

• Fixed a bug in E1M4 where a monster closet would not open in multiplayer.

• Fixed one specific menu sound being very loud.

• Custom maps now default to using the generic ending if a next level isn't set.

https://tehrealsalt.itch.io/snap-the-sentinel/devlog/403169/v24-release

[TehRealSalt]

A Large Snap Episode 2 Preview, since it's been a hot minute.
 

Spoiler

 

Episode 2 will start off with Snap heading into his job as a security guard for the Big Bark Root Beer factory. Normally it's a pretty boring job... but today, there's robots invading! Clearly this is more of Ocean's work... ...right? But Snap doesn't have his blaster on him! He'll have to kick his way out of this one...
 

 

This is the opening stage of Episode 2. One of my biggest focuses for Episode 2, especially for the opening, is to leave a lasting impression. One thing you might notice is that there isn't a single Episode 1 enemy in these screenshots! Episode 2 is going to have an entirely unique enemy roster. There's currently 5 new enemies programmed fully (although they all have some visual placeholders at the moment), with lots more planned.

 

 

It's also why this is a kick-only level, although I also wanted to force the player to learn how kicking enemies works. Going through Episode 1 without it is fine by me, but as the game gets harder, it's going to be an important tool to learn!

 

 

The Episode 2 stages are taking a lot longer to produce this time around due to more outside obligations getting in the way of development (been working on getting an actual job in game development, so that's been eating a lot of my time), on top of me being a lot more perfectionist and wanting to make all of the stages prettier & more interesting than most of Episode 1. All I can say is sorry for the longer wait for this release! I hope that the end result will be worth the wait, anyway.

 

 

I'm probably going to scale back my ambition a tiny bit for the future episodes for the sake of more timely development. (For instance, I'm probably not gonna make a whole new enemy roster again!) But I really want to make Episode 2 really good since it's going to be the first one that will require paying for the game. Even if it's cheap, I really want that price of admission to be worth it.

 

Lighting

 

You might've noticed it in the E2M1 screenshots, but Episode 2 will receive new lighting, to make the game have even more of its own stylish cartoon identity from Doom. Lots of dynamic lights have been added all over the game, with a cel-shaded look to them. Additionally, colors stay saturated when darkened in the distance, and glowing floors have a much more vibrant color to them.

 

 

Here in E1M4, the torches give off light that reflect on the world, the colors stay vibrant in the distance (purple stays purple/blue instead of becoming a yucky brown!), and the lava has a much more distinct orange glow to it.

 

 

In E1M8, the street lamps are able to give off a spot light effect now, illuminating the angry Guard Robo in this screenshot. The distant buildings also become deep blue instead of a dull grey.

 

Menus

 

I've also been making even more menu enhancements than what I showed off on Twitter a while back. Here's a back up of those, if you missed them: Imgur gallery

 

 

Say hello to the new difficulty menu! I had fun coming up with fun animations to demonstrate the changes between difficulties, instead of only relying on text to describe them.

 

 

A new feature coming to Episode 2, the "Challenge" menu! (If you've played any Sakurai games within the last 20 years, you should already know what's up.) The challenge board will be completely darkened on first start-up. When you inevitably finish a challenge though, then you'll reveal hints for the tiles surrounding it, giving you more to do.

 

 

I'm excited about this feature to give people a lot more replay value, and it compliments well with the new Record menu. A handful of challenges are going to be focused on teaching the player advanced techniques to improve their play. For example, there's a challenge for juggling enemies, so players hopefully will be more inclined to learn how to keep enemies in their stun state for longer.

 

 

Doing certain challenges can also unlock bonus content! The first bonus feature I will reveal that you can unlock via the Challenge board is "Infinite Weapon". This is a mode where you can pick any weapon in the game, and play a stage with infinite ammo. Play only with your favorite weapon, do a challenge run forced to just the basic gun, or even bring Episode 2 weapons into Episode 1 levels!

 

https://tehrealsalt.itch.io/snap-the-sentinel/devlog/488255/a-large-snap-episode-2-preview

 

[Individualised]

Just finished the shareware version. This is an amazing game. Seriously, I have no words, everything about it is just great, the art style, the visuals, the sound effects, the awesome OPN2 music. I love the Sonic the Hedgehog influence and the mashup of 16-bit era action games with the boomer shooter genre. It provides a fresh take on FPSes introducing interesting mechanics. I will gladly pay for the full game once it's released!

 

PS will there be an official soundtrack release?

Edited February 13, 2023 by Individualised

[Scuba Steve]

Episode 2 starting out on the right foot.

[Individualised]

Is this known? Was playing through E1M4, Hard difficulty, and saw this missing texture. Didn't see this before so I don't know if it's a fluke or something. Thought I'd post it here just in case.

[TehRealSalt]

12 minutes ago, Individualised said:

Is this known? Was playing through E1M4, Hard difficulty, and saw this missing texture. Didn't see this before so I don't know if it's a fluke or something. Thought I'd post it here just in case.

 

Me and Sev were scratching our heads figuring out where you were, and then figuring out how you got there. The Normal layout & base geometry was by Sev, but I did the Hard changes, and it did not occur to me you can get thrown out of the window looking out of the lavafall room. We're now putting bars over it for Episode 2 :p

Edited February 20, 2023 by TehRealSalt

[Lizardcommando]

This is looking really cool! Will there be any more new weapons and items in later episodes?

[SeventhSentinel]

On 2/12/2023 at 10:04 PM, Individualised said:

PS will there be an official soundtrack release?

There already is! Details at https://snapgame.net/soundtrack.

[Individualised]

(edit: nevermind, evidently I'm just inattentive)

Edited March 13, 2023 by Individualised

[TehRealSalt]

I am working on a new Snap demo (yup, another one, I know), set to come out in a couple of months. I'm not trying to make another Episode 1 mega shareware-style demo though; it'll have a lot less content, and won't replace the Episode 1 demo. In return, I want to use it as a testing ground for many new Episode 2 mechanics and features. In the few months in the run up to it, I want to start posting a couple of design / technical process posts, some about the stuff that is getting added to it, and maybe some stuff about stuff that's already in the game.

 

Maybe this is a bit pretentious? I dunno. But I suck at consistently giving update posts (especially when I consider the progress too small or insignificant to talk about), and this gives me an excuse to shut up and just start writing.

Today's topic: the new combo system, which I'll be introducing with this new demo. itch.io mirror if you'd prefer to read it there: https://tehrealsalt.itch.io/snap-the-sentinel/devlog/540412/combos-in-snap

 

Spoiler

Snap the Sentinel's current scoring system was added all the way back in the 7DFPS game jam version. It was a small but neat idea I had to add replay value to a very short game, and as a way to spice up the standard Doom intermission. Just tally up all of the stuff that already goes into a UV-Max speedrun, and turn it into a rank. Expert players are encouraged to go back and learn how to perfect levels. Even with casual players who only intend to play once ever, I think it's neat for them to see how their score improves as they start to understand the game mechanics, or decreases with the levels getting harder.

 

^{In other posts, I've shown that Episode 2 is going to also save your records as well. That should give even more incentive in the future to interact with ranking.}

 

Nowadays I still like the system I made, but a large problem with it is was that it is skewed very hard towards "overall" gameplay. The par time bonus has been the only part I have frequently updated about the scoring system, since it's the closest thing I have to rewarding fast, fun and frantic gameplay over slow and lame gameplay. But it's very tricky to balance just off of that metric alone! Make it too strict, and longer levels (which will always be harder to get par time on) that you otherwise got 100% on might get horrible scores. Make it too lenient, and now very slow & safe gameplay on easy short levels might get amazing scores. So I've always wanted to add a new fourth category that will more heavily reward the "moment to moment" gameplay instead: combos!

 

^{There's no time for cover! Gotta get in the fight to keep the combo!}

 

Simply destroy an enemy, and you start a combo. Damage enemies, collect items, or otherwise "do stuff" to refill the combo bar a small amount. Getting hurt drains the bar a little bit faster. Destroying an enemy will refill the bar entirely and increase the combo amount. Once the combo bar runs out, it ends and you get some points for the combo amount.

 

The idea is to simply give players a reason to always be doing something, even when it's safer to take it slow. Now we have a way to directly reward fast-paced moment-to-moment gameplay, or someone getting one really impressive moment in their run. In contrast to mostly only rewarding a fast overall time, this should make high scores more dynamic and fun!

 

^{Combos have a lot of great synergy with Septacrash, as well.}

 

                                                                                                                                                 

 

Hm, one problem. Our game is mostly fast enough to support maintaining combo, except when it comes to elevators and lifts. Oops! If you haven't literally just refilled your combo gauge right before, then your combo is very likely to drop by the time you get past even the shortest lifts. That's no fun at all.

 

^{C'mon, c'mon...! Whew, barely made it! ...but only because the lift was very short, there was a save point immediately before, and a key fob immediately after.}

 

The obvious immediate solution to me was to add pickups to give you combo meter. While I don't always stray from "video game-y" ideas all of the time if they're fun, my co-developer wasn't exactly too excited to need to start spamming new abstract floating collectibles all over our maps, let alone ones that don't have an immediate practical purpose. Snap tries to keep at least a tiny bit of immersion, even with it being a cartoony & silly game, and putting big magic MacGuffins all over the place would definitely shatter anything left. After implementing combos, I kind of sat on it for a while not sure how to finish the feature. But we brainstormed some compromises and came up with this: robot cores!

 

^{Ooo, shiny...I wanna punt it!}

 

These cores are plugged into the ground, and Snap can kick them out of their socket when he runs by them. They'll smash when they hit the ground, becoming a flurry of electric sparks, glass shards and explosions, as well as refilling your combo meter.

 

                                                                                                                                                 

 

Robot cores were designed like an actual physical object that could be fit into the "Snap lore", rather than some abstract video game collectible. Since the idea is to be somewhat conservative with their placement instead of spammed everywhere, they're also pretty large and refill your entire combo meter at once instead of only a little bit. Lastly, since they fly through the air instead of shattering instantly, it gets a bit of "hang time" before it gives you the refill, which enables it to give you a lot more mileage on lifts (which are the big problem area).

 

We also wanted to make them fun to have around, regardless of if you care about combos or not. Snap is a power fantasy about smashing robots & robot accessories, it's the whole game's schtick. So all long as you're on board for that basic premise, you probably won't mind breaking some of these just for fun.

 

^{Even though your combo meter can lower while they're flying through the air, it won't ever fully deplete. This is an intentional little trick to make it feel more like a close call if you hit it while your meter is low, compared to if we just refilled it immediately.}

 

                                                                                                                                                 

 

I really hope with all of these changes together that the scoring system in future versions of Snap will be even more interesting and fun than ever before. That's all for this post, see you next time! \m/

 

^{The elusive perfect score is now represented with its own letter grade and unique visuals, instead of only making the rank progress bar flash rainbow. I wonder if I'll see these in the wild now when Episode 2 comes out...?}

 

 

[Scuba Steve]

I saw a page on Steam for this game, are you moving Snap from a mod to a commercial game? I love seeing community members get paid for their work.