A First Playtest

Published April 14, 2015
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Holy crap, 5 comments! Thanks for all the warm welcome, you're awesome! To be totally honest I didn't really expect anyone to read that inital post. But since you did, hallo! Let's talk a little bit about my current little project ACS.

I had the very first 2 v 2 playtest the other day, which was super exiting.
And eventhough during our playtest we had a total of 7 crashes, (one of which triggered an anti virus programm and disconnected that pc from the internet for a few seconds) it went pretty darn well.

gallery_228863_955_62117.png
[At any point the alien players can be above or below you in vents or alcoves]

In the end we only managed to play a single round without critical problems, but to me, that one round was amazing! ACS is an asymetrical tactical shooter about a team of marines trying to escape an alien infested space station. They have to reach the exit in a certain amount of time, while the aliens try to hunt them down and eat their faces.

I was always worried that the idea might sound cooler then it actually plays. The alien team is restricted to close combat, therefore they have to choose and plan their attacks whisely. This natually creates a lot of downtime. While the marines clear the rooms and make their way towards the exit, the aliens would creep around them and find the right time to attack. In other words, there is a whole lot of dead air and then everything happens very quickly.

But in that one round I had an absolute blast! 2 Marines slowly creaping down a dark tunnel. I was checking our back, the other guy slowly progressing forward. Suddenly we see movement to our side, I start shooting, my friend does as well, but at something in front of us. I run forward because I know that we are too volnerable at our current possition, but when i turn around my fiend is dead. I turn around once more and see an alien right in front of me. I panic and shoot all around him. But he escapes.
At that point there are 15 seconds left on the clock and I manage to get to the exit. What I didn't know at that time is that one of the alien players crashed. But still, that was awesome!

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[Spooky spooky corridor]

I had a couple of first playtests for multiplayer projects where we didn't even manage to start a game propperly, so having a round like that was amazing!

Still though, the game in its current state is a buggy mess and needs a lot more work to be really playable. Entities don't get destroyed propperly, items don't sync correctly and at one point a player managed to clip through the floor, to name just a few problems.

_____________________
If anyone here is interested in participating in any future public playtests, just say so and we can talk it out.

Thanks for reading.
5 likes 1 comments

Comments

Navyman

Must have been a great moment when you were about to play a game of your own creation. Continue the great work.

April 17, 2015 11:47 AM
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