Gun Runner

Genre: Endless Runner On-Rails Shooter

Features: Upgrades, Factions

  • Project started on: June 25th 2013
  • Project completed on: September 22th 2013
  • Approximate time spent on project: 90 hours

My goal with Gun Runner was to create a First Person Shooter that was on-rails and also featured some of the specific tropes of the Endless Runner Genre (replaying levels over and over, improving attributes each time so you make it further along, difficulty ramping up as you progress). I've decided to make it so you spent money to be allowed to 'run' for one of four factions and you have a different loyalty level with each faction, allowing you to buy different levels of boosts.

Another interesting feature of this game is how your health, money-making mechanism and offensive mechanism are the same. Effectively, the bullets you carry on your person are determined at the beginning of a level, you lose bullets when you get hit, you spend bullets to fire at enemies and you make money over time based on the number of bullets you have. In essence, this forces the player to wonder about how to maximize their profits as killing enemies also gives money for their respective faction.

I also wanted to compose my own musical themes using some free software I found, the results were okay but I've solidified my belief that I shouldn't spend much time trying to compose music and make sound effects for my games as the results aren't worth it and there are better alternatives out there.

Screenshots

About the game

In Gun Runner, the player starts with no money and no loyalty for any faction (BLU, RED, GRN and YLW). BLU offers a free mission, so the player starts with that. By "running" bullets across the levels. These levels are composed of an endless series of three lanes where enemies come at the player. These enemies have various abilities depending of what colors they are and destroying them gives money for the correpsonding faction. The player also encounters Loyalty Boxes that are worth loyalty points (which are basically experience points). When the player runs out of bullets either by shooting them all or by getting hit by enemies, the level ends.

In order to progress through the levels, players start with a small gun with average attributes - fire rate, damage, reload speed, ammo capacity and special power (a multiplier used by some special skills) - and by leveling up the four factions, the players get better weapons that all fit some archetype, shotgun, machinegun, rocket launchers and so forth. The way upgrades work is that most of them are a choice between two things - either you get 20% more reload speed or you get a chance to automatically reload when you kill enemies, for instance - and some of them are purchasable multiple times and grant a stacking effect - bonus damage, for instance.

In order to 'finish' the game, the player has to get to level 10 with each faction, the way to do that is either by spending money to buy loyalty points or just to run a lot of times and shoot plenty of loyalty boxes. While running for various factions, players might encounter more enemies of a specific group - for instance, BLU is at odds with RED, so many RED enemies will be present when running for BLU. Everything about all factions was tailored to give them a style and a personality, from enemies to upgrades.

Controls

  • A/D: Change lanes to the left/right
  • Mouse: Aim the equipped gun
  • Mouse click (or hold): Shoot the equipped gun

Special abilities

  • BLU
    • Improves your reload speed by 20%
    • Gives you a chance to reload 50% faster based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Increases your movement speed when you're running for BLU
    • Increases the capacity of your gun's clip by 20%
    • Gives you a chance to shoot ammo from your pile based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Gives you a 10% chance that your gun reloads after a kill
    • Gives you a 10% chance that your gun reloads after taking a hit
    • You gain some loyalty for finishing runs for BLU depending on the distance ran.
    • Increases your fire rate by 10%
    • Increases your movement speed whenever you empty a clip based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Increases your clip size slowly over time
    • Can increase your clip size whenever you kill an enemy
    • Whenever you get non-BLU money, you gain some BLU money
    • Whenever you reload you have a 5% chance per bullet reloaded to gain a free bullet
    • Extra ammo is shot whenever you reload based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Increases your bullets per run by 10%
    • The last shot in your clip has a chance to not consume ammo when shot
    • Increases your fire rate and reload speed
  • RED
    • Increases your damage by 10%
    • Gives you a low chance to deal 200% damage
    • Whenever you kill an enemy you get a damage boost while running for RED
    • Doubles your damage against walls
    • Stuns tanks for a little while when you shoot them
    • Increases the number of pellets shot by pellet-based weaponry based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Focuses the spread of pellets to the center of the shot area based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Increases the damage you deal whenever you're running for RED
    • The more bullets you have in your clip the more damage you deal
    • Whenever you reload you get a small chance to deal critical hits for a while
    • Prevents flying enemies from moving at all when shot
    • You can hit phasing enemies even when they're phased out
    • Increases loyalty towards RED whenever you win loyalty for non-RED corps
    • Triples the ammo you use but double the pellets based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Increases your damage slowly over time based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Allows you to deal damage to armored enemies even if you don't hit their weaknesses
    • Reduces damage from large enemies and increases their rewards by shooting them
    • Enemies hit by your attacks during RED runs take more damage by the next attacks
  • GRN
    • Absorbs 10% of any damage you take
    • Has a chance to absorb 33% of any damage you take based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Whenever you get hit you lose less bullets but you lose a bit of money
    • Your shots move slightly towards enemies
    • Improves your accuracy by 25%
    • Enemies that hit you take 10% of the damage dealt
    • Has a chance that enemies hitting you take 33% of the damage dealt based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Increases your damage but takes away some money for each bullet that hits
    • Increases the radius of any explosive attacks by 50%
    • Your explosive ammo spreads cluster around when it hits enemies
    • Whenever you get hit you gain 25% of the damage dealt in bullets in your gun
    • Gain 75% of the damage dealt in bullets in your gun when hit based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Whenever you get non-GRN money you also get some GRN money
    • You deal equal damage to all enemies caught in a explosive blast
    • Your clusters now explode themselves
    • Reflects every fifth projectile that would hit you
    • All projectiles that hit you have a 15% chance to be reflected
    • Whenever you buy loyalty with for non-GRN corps you have a chance to gain some for GRN
  • YLW
    • Whenever you are dealt damage your damage increases for a while
    • Whenever you reload your clip will get more or less bullets based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Whenever you shoot non-YLW enemies in non-YLW runs they have a chance to turn YLW
    • Greatly increases damage based on SP
    • Increases your accuracy and fire rate based on your equipped gun's SP
    • Increases the odds of loyalty boxes spawning by 25%
    • Increases your SP for all weapons
    • Whenever you get hit by non-YLW enemies in non-YLW runs you get a few bullets
    • Increases your SP over time
    • Increases your SP based on your clip count
    • Tells you which enemies are coming in what lanes
    • Reduces the odds of enemies spawning in the middle lane
    • Whenever you kill a non-YLW enemy in YLW run there's a chance for a YLW enemy to spawn
    • Very slowly increases your bullet count over time
    • Whenever you kill an enemy there's a chance for your gun to be reloaded freely
    • Increases all gun stats but your gun can morph randomly whenever you shoot
    • Increases enemy rewards but they can morph randomly whenever you shoot them
    • Whenever you kill a YLW enemy there's a chance for a new YLW enemy to spawn

Weapons

Default Peashooter, Sub Machinegun, BK58, BK61, UZI Gun, Mini Megagun, Blue Burstgun, Boom Stick, Assault Shotter, Four Barrels, Twin Blunders, Eight Barrels, Red Reductor, Grenade Launcher, Bad Zooka, Nuke Lobber, Rocket Launcher, Homing Thrower, Green Gigaton, Rail Gun, Laser Pistol, Core Detonator, Acid Cannon, Chain Pulsar, Yellow Yield

Enemies

Enemies have various powers depending of their faction, I've listed them in order of BLU/RED/GRN/YLW

  • Wall (Doesn't move or do anything)
    • Can respawn more walls
    • Double HP
    • Resists 33% of your shots
    • Regenerates health
  • Loyalty Box (Gives player loyalty)
    • Worth 15 loyalty points
    • Worth 30 loyalty points
    • Worth 50 loyalty points
    • Worth 100 loyalty points
  • Flying Watcher (Flies up and down)
    • Can split in two
    • Deals more damage
    • Moves faster, is worth more
    • Can move from lane to lane
  • Scout Tank (Moves forward)
    • Is worth some loyalty points
    • Resists 10% damage
    • is worth more money
    • Can self-destruct
  • Wide Blocker (Double the width of a wall)
    • Can break down into two walls
    • Double HP
    • Gives a bit of non-GRN money
    • Can squeeze down to half size
  • Dimensional Error (Blinks in and out of existence)
    • Worth more
    • Can blink out to avoid bullets
    • Can get stuck in either state
    • Can only be hit when phased out
  • Alpha Armor (Invincible except on one weak point)
    • Moves faster
    • Smaller weak point
    • Killing it in one shot gives more money
    • Bullets hitting its armor are reflected
  • Turret Wall (A wall shooting at the player)
    • Bullets splits in two
    • Double HP
    • Bullets are worth money if you shoot them
    • Shoots twice
  • Airborne Gunny (Flies up and down, shoots)
    • Shoots twice
    • Resists 15% damage
    • Worth more money for each shot it does
    • Shots spread
  • Anti-Man Tank (Tougher tank that shoots cannonballs)
    • Becomes a Scout Tank on death
    • Dealths 10% more damage
    • Is worth some loyalty
    • Shoots faster
  • Machinegun Dam (A wide wall with a bunch of guns)
    • Worth non-BLU money
    • Slower but deals more damage
    • Bullets are worth money if you shoot them
    • Regenerates health
  • Teleporting Bully (Blinks in and out of existence, and shoots)
    • Warps on side lanes
    • Shoots one bullet on death
    • Blinks faster
    • Shoots when phased out
  • Beta Armor (Invincible with one weak point, and guns)
    • Has more guns
    • Smaller weak point
    • Bullets are indestructible
    • Shoots if hit on its armor
  • Dodgematron (Dodges your bullets and shoots you)
    • Bullets split
    • Triple the HP
    • Worth a lot of money
    • Explodes on death
  • Laser Wall (Shoots laser beams)
    • Spawns a Turret Wall on death
    • Shoots faster
    • Resists 50% damage
    • Fires more lasers
  • Beam Bird (Moves up and down, fire lasers)
    • Doesn't stop moving
    • Also fires bullets
    • Worth loyalty
    • Worth non-YLW money
  • Hi-Tech Tank (Really tough tank)
    • Becomes an Anti-Man tank on death
    • Worth more money
    • Shoots bullets
    • Regenerates health
  • Pulse Barricade (Wide wall that shoots lasers)
    • Worth non-BLU loyalty
    • Aims better
    • Double the health
    • Aims randomly
  • Warping Insanity (Blinks in an out, fire beams everywhere)
    • Warps backwards
    • Ignores 75% of damage
    • Worth more money
    • Can split into two
  • Gamma Armor (Invincible besides the weak point, lasers)
    • Has two more guns
    • Worth loyalty
    • Smaller weak point
    • Regenerates health
  • AvoidBot 5000 (Dodges your shots and shoots lasers)
    • Shoots more lasers
    • More chance to dodge
    • Worth more money after dodging
    • Can split into two
  • Run Stopper (A massive wall with plenty of guns)
    • Has more guns
    • Worth non-RED money
    • Reflects 20% of shots
    • Doesn't stop moving
  • Evil Threads (Very tough tank)
    • Transforms into a Hi-Tech Tank on death
    • Shoots at you
    • Deals more damage
    • Can go through enemies
  • Omega Armor (Invincible except for a weak point, burns whole lanes)
    • Burns longer
    • Double the HP
    • Worth more
    • Moves faster
  • Nuke Dropper (Flies up and then drops down, destroying everything)
    • Worth loyalty
    • Drops faster
    • Worth money on explosion
    • Can explode multiple times

 

 

Posted
AuthorJérémie Tessier
CategoriesUpgrades, Endless Runner, On-Rails Shooter