[WIP] Selaco - a brand new standalone shooter running on GZDoom

[SelacoDev]

 

Hello everyone,

 

A few weeks ago, my team and I finally announced our project, Selaco, on Twitter. We have been working on this game for over two years now, and we're quite excited to finally share some of the things we have been doing with you!

 

What is Selaco?

Selaco is a standalone game that runs on GZDoom. It draws inspiration heavily from F.E.A.R in terms of action set pieces, while mixing traditional retro-FPS elements from QUAKE and DOOM, along with some more modern features. Together with professional artists who work in the industry, several having worked on successful throwback FPS games in the past, Selaco is a fully fleshed out world full of character, action, and mystery.

 

The story takes place during a violent invasion of Selaco, the underground facility that's home to the surviving refugees after the fall of Earth. You play as Dawn, an ACE Security Captain who, with her recent promotion and high level security clearances, is digging deep into the truth behind Selaco's murky history. Before she can finish her investigation, Selaco is rocked by explosions and armed invaders. While Selaco may take place in a large-scale conflict, much of it will be the personal story of Dawn, the center-piece of the game.

 

Selaco will be released on Steam in the future and no plans have been made for funding just yet. We are currently exploring our options, as our limited budget has made things take slightly longer than needed. A full list of credits will be published closer to release.

 

Features

• A lengthy story-driven campaign
  • Selaco is a story-driven experience, and we don't say that lightly. A dedicated writer (@kknot5889 here on Doomworld) has been brought on board to assist with creating an engaging and believable sci-fi story and world. 
• Intense action-set pieces
  • Turn the entire world into confetti with the destructive power of your weapons. Every single bullet will react properly with any materials or objects you hit. Our artists have created many different variations for each (voxel)object to ensure that the aftermath of each encounter is palpable. That once lavish office space now nothing but a pile of rubble with broken paintings, smashed tables, screen, chairs, smoke, and chunks of debris.
• Custom AI
  • With our FEAR influence, writing proper AI was a goal from the get go. The enemy is fully aware of each other's presence and works together to take you down. They will keep their distance if you apply constant pressure on them, will rush you if you hide or run out of bullets, toss grenades if you use the same cover for too long, and much more. Hundreds of custom lines have been written and acted out, providing hints to the player about their current plans and tactics.
• Full soundtrack
  • Selaco is accompanied by a full length original soundtrack composed by an experienced musician who has worked on many games in the past. And no, it's not Andrew Hulshult.
• Professional voice-acting.
  • To help immerse players in the story and atmosphere of Selaco, professional voice actors have been brought on board. Dawn will be voiced by the incredibly talented Melissa Medina, with other casting choices revealed at a later date.
• Extra Gamemodes
  • Completing levels allows you to replay that level in Incursion Mode, an expanded version of that map where your skills will be tested against a near endless onslaught of enemies. Win incursion maps to gain bonuses to aid you throughout the campaign. New exclusive Incursion Levels and new mutators will also be unlocked as the campaign progresses.

 

SCREENSHOTS, ARTWORK & VIDEO

Keep in mind that some placeholder textures are present in these screenshots. These have since been replaced. We will continue to post new screenshots to this page as we continue.

 

 

 

 

 

There's still much more work to be done on Selaco, and we'll document our progress both here and on Twitter @PlaySelaco. So keep an eye out and thanks for checking out Selaco!

 

=== UPDATE ===

 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2021 by nexxtic28

[Walter confetti]

Looks impressive!

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Was wondering when will you guys make a thread here on Doomworld ever since that post on Everything Else. I've got my eyes peeled on this, especially knowing there are a considerable amount of world-building contained in the game.

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by TheNoob_Gamer

[Redneckerz]

Looks terrible, as expected by anything running on GZDoom.

 

JK it looks epic ofcourse. Weapon anims are very much like Prodeus, core look reveals something that's very much within GZDoom's graps and still looks wholly original. Not shader heavy, but effects are used where they make sense.

 

It getting inspired by FEAR's AI is a plus, but also a challenge. FEAR's AI essentially was a beautifully crafted hack established around a very specific set of requirements to make behavior look believable. GZDoom being what it is, how waypoints work within that realm is definitely going to be something.

[leodoom85]

So.......basically Fear or Doom 3 (due of the layout) but on a cyberpunk-ish theme. Gonna wait.

[RottingZombie]

I love the colors. Watching this.

 

[SelacoDev]

14 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

Looks terrible, as expected by anything running on GZDoom.

 

JK it looks epic ofcourse. Weapon anims are very much like Prodeus, core look reveals something that's very much within GZDoom's graps and still looks wholly original. Not shader heavy, but effects are used where they make sense.

 

It getting inspired by FEAR's AI is a plus, but also a challenge. FEAR's AI essentially was a beautifully crafted hack established around a very specific set of requirements to make behavior look believable. GZDoom being what it is, how waypoints work within that realm is definitely going to be something.

 

Thanks dude! Trying not to go overboard with the graphical effects was indeed something we wanted to avoid, so I'm glad to hear that is appreciated. 

 

Getting the AI to be more like FEAR rather than Doom is a tough thing to accomplish. We've made enormous progress and are on the right track, but making improvements to the pathfinding is just a enormous nightmare. Thankfully, zscript is a powerful tool!

 

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Its highly encouraging to me and the team! 

[LVENdead]

Well shit this looks really cool. I'm digging all the vibes I get from these screenshots: FEAR, Doom 3, System Shock, maybe a little Half-Life? Incredibly impressive use of the Doom engine.

[E.M.]

The main character is waifu material.

[SelacoDev]

12 hours ago, LVENdead said:

Well shit this looks really cool. I'm digging all the vibes I get from these screenshots: FEAR, Doom 3, System Shock, maybe a little Half-Life? Incredibly impressive use of the Doom engine.

 

Thank you! 

 

20 hours ago, leodoom85 said:

So.......basically Fear or Doom 3 (due of the layout) but on a cyberpunk-ish theme. Gonna wait.

 

...I see nothing wrong with any of this.

 

"Due to the layout" - levels are very open, as you can see in the gameplay video. There are a ton of different paths I could have taken to reach those soldiers.

 

 

On 1/5/2021 at 9:18 AM, Reelvonic said:

This looks awesome

 

^{RANDOM SEXIST COMPLAINT THAT YOU PLAY AS A FEMALE}

If you google Selaco, you might come across a forum that really dislikes the project because it has a female protag. Claiming its a ''cash grab'' while being very hostile around Selaco for that sole reason. It truly baffles me how this is such a big deal to some people, especially since there are so many good male shooter protagonists already. I want to be very clear to everyone here that Dawn is not a checkbox, she's a well written flawed character who isn't anything like the other FPS heroes out there.

 

Truth is, we wrote a character document without taking gender into consideration, we just wanted a kickass character. We did auditions for both male and female actors and simply went with the one we thought did the best job delivering the lines. We went with an actress with a background in animation who crushed the audition. From there, Dawn was created and some changes were made to the character's profile to fit her gender more. That's it, very not-exciting 😋

 

EDIT: I know you were joking about the ''random sexist complaint''. Sorry if my response made it seem like it was directed at you, that was unintentional.

 

Edited January 6, 2021 by nexxtic28

[Uni]

That looks really good! The interaction with the environment is a nice touch and the voice acting is spot on. I like the clean, simple HUD and the weapons but I do worry about the levels being too samey in their appearance. I played F.E.A.R. numerous times and I think some of the levels in it were a little bit repetitive but hopefully this will not be the case with this game. 

 

Good luck with the Steam launch! I'll definitely keep an eye for this one. 

[leodoom85]

@nexxtic28Fun fact. I've never played any of the Fear games. That's why I can see that I'll get some surprises in the gameplay.

[SelacoDev]

3 minutes ago, leodoom85 said:

@nexxtic28 I've never played any of the Fear games.

 

You really should give it a shot someday! I think its a great game that aged relatively well in most cases :) The full body awareness thing might do some wonky things with the camera every now and then, though. But you will get used to that.

 

15 minutes ago, Uni said:

That looks really good! The interaction with the environment is a nice touch and the voice acting is spot on. I like the clean, simple HUD and the weapons but I do worry about the levels being too samey in their appearance. I played F.E.A.R. numerous times and I think some of the levels in it were a little bit repetitive but hopefully this will not be the case with this game. 

 

Good luck with the Steam launch! I'll definitely keep an eye for this one. 

 

Thank you. I agree about FEAR having repetitive levels, its one of my biggest critiques of the game. I do enjoy the insane amount of office spaces in FEAR because it makes for some fun shoot-outs, but it could have done a better job mixing things up a bit. We are still making the maps for Selaco, but the outline is already there and I think we have nothing to worry about when it comes to variety.

 

Man, I'm so stoked to show more!

 

[Rudolph]

If anything, this reminds me more of F.E.A.R. 2 because of the flashy colors and the futuristic-looking weapons.

 

Because in addition to being really repetitive, the original F.E.A.R. is very drab-looking.

 

 

[SelacoDev]

6 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

If anything, this reminds me more of F.E.A.R. 2 because of the flashy colors and the futuristic-looking weapons.

 

Because in addition to being really repetitive, the original F.E.A.R. is very drab-looking.

 

 

 

FEAR inspiration comes mostly from its gunplay. While FEAR 2 was a good game, they really gimped the particle effects in that one, making the shooting far less satisfying.

 

We do not compare ourselves to any of the FEAR games when it comes to the visuals. We strongly believe Selaco stands on its own there.

Edited January 6, 2021 by nexxtic28

[Rudolph]

Yeah, the F.E.A.R. series is really an odd one: while the original one is technically the better game as well as the one that was designed for computers, the second and even the third ones were more varied and colourful, much better paced and especially more engaging in my opinion.

[Gez]

1 hour ago, nexxtic28 said:

Truth is, we wrote a character document without taking gender into consideration, we just wanted a kickass character. We did auditions for both male and female actors and simply went with the one we thought did the best job delivering the lines. We went with an actress with a background in animation who crushed the audition. From there, Dawn was created and some changes were made to the character's profile to fit her gender more. Thats it, very not-exciting 😋

Makes it kind of like Doom's equivalent of Ion Fury.

[Rudolph]

I thought Ion Fury was always going to feature a female protagonist, being a spin-off of Bombshell.

[SelacoDev]

2 minutes ago, Gez said:

Makes it kind of like Doom's equivalent of Ion Fury.

 

Could you elaborate on that? 

[Rudolph]

I think Gez meant to compare your game to the 2016 game Bombshell, which was originally going to be a Duke Nukem game only to be repurposed as a Bombshell one after the developers were denied the right to the Duke Nukem intellectual property.

Edited January 6, 2021 by Rudolph

[SelacoDev]

27 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

I think Gez meant to compare your game to the 2016 game Bombshell, which was originally going to be a Duke Nukem game only to be repurposed as a Bombshell one after the developers were denied the right to the Duke Nukem intellectual property.

 

But he mentioned Ion Fury and not Bombshell. Dawn is not a workaround because we cannot use Doomguy, she's her own character.

Edited January 6, 2021 by nexxtic28
missing words

[D4NUK1]

For the protagonist, it's cool that we'll have more serious female protagonist, not calling the first version of Bombshell as a Serious Character a more of a joke.

We have like 20 years of FPS and i can count easily great written Females Characters Protagonists.So i hope your team really shines with her performace.
And i really sorry that's certain forum it's doing that, because it's fails to show gender equalism, but that's topic for another website.

[Master O]

@nexxtic28 Obligatory question: will Selaco be open sourced?

[Gez]

29 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

I think Gez meant to compare your game to the 2016 game Bombshell

Nope. I mentioned Ion Fury, not Bombshell, because Ion Fury is a game developed on a modernized Duke Nukem 3D engine and featuring a woman protagonist in a sci-fi setting; while Selaco is a game developed on a modernized Doom engine and featuring a woman protagonist in a sci-fi setting.

 

Not commenting on the process which led to Dawn being Dawn; just on the fact that she's Dawn.

[SelacoDev]

1 minute ago, Master O said:

@nexxtic28 Obligatory question: will Selaco be open sourced?

 

Absolutely. I believe its even encouraged with GZDoom's licence. A special directory will be added to the game's root where the source files can be found.

 

1 minute ago, Gez said:

Nope. I mentioned Ion Fury, not Bombshell, because Ion Fury is a game developed on a modernized Duke Nukem 3D engine and featuring a woman protagonist in a sci-fi setting; while Selaco is a game developed on a modernized Doom engine and featuring a woman protagonist in a sci-fi setting.

 

Not commenting on the process which led to Dawn being Dawn; just on the fact that she's Dawn.

 

Yeah, I can see what you mean by that. That makes sense.

[Master O]

3 minutes ago, nexxtic28 said:

 

Absolutely. I believe its even encouraged with GZDoom's licence. A special directory will be added to the game's root where the source files can be found.

 

 

Yeah, I can see what you mean by that. That makes sense.

 

Ion Fury vs Saleco when?  (joking)

[Not Jabba]

This is looking great. I like the voice acting (and the snarky health vending machine).

[Pixel Fiend]

 

17 minutes ago, Not Jabba said:

This is looking great. I like the voice acting (and the snarky health vending machine).

 

Indeed! Delightful visuals and voice acting. I hope it will get big, like Ion Fury. Can GZDoom handle such amount of detail though? Doom maps often have performance issues.

[SelacoDev]

29 minutes ago, <

 

Performance is taken into consideration with every decision we make, no worries! Levels are broken up into smaller segments just like Ion Fury and Half Life, where a short tiny loading screen pops up when you enter a hallway that loads the contents at the other side. Secrets are shared across each segment until you complete the level. Effects are also handled cleverly where multiple alpha effects (like smoke) merge together when in close proximity to become a single thicker smoke cloud rather than having everything be an individual object.

 

On top of that, we have many settings to change. Besides GZDoom's default options, we also have particle count and lifespan, smoke quantity, voxel detail (which removes less ''important'' voxels from the game world like tea cups and paperstacks), reflections and Game Detail.

 

I think a GZDoom game should be able to run on a lower-end machine.

 

Thank you for the kind words!

 

1 hour ago, Master O said:

 

Ion Fury vs Saleco when?  (joking)

 

I'm down for a Shelly vs Dawn deathbattle! Make it happen, ScrewAttack!

 

1 hour ago, Not Jabba said:

This is looking great. I like the voice acting (and the snarky health vending machine).

 

Thank you! Bias aside, I agree that the VA's are doing a fantastic job here. I'm glad they are getting recognized for that because a good chunk of time is spend getting things to be delivered just right.

Edited January 6, 2021 by nexxtic28

[AtticTelephone]

Why not customize and optimize the original GZDoom to work better with Selaco? Like, Selaco's own customized GZDoom that works better, unless you guys aren't good at source port building.