Get the Gun!

How to Play:

Get the Gun! is a two-player action game. Player 1 uses A and D to move right and left and W to shoot. Player 2 uses Left to move left and Right to move right, and Up to shoot. If players fall off of the map, or get hit by an asteroid, they will be teleported back to the beginning. Players can only shoot if they have the gun, and there is only one gun. In order to take the gun away from the player, jump on their head. The gun will then go back to its starting position.

Goals:

When I was trying to come up with a concept for this project, I was inspired by an action movie cliche, the pivotal scene where the gun slides on the floor and both characters stumble to get it first and shoot the other. In order to fulfill the requirements of changing the feel of the game, I decided to set it in space, having the brawl be between an astronaut and alien, both trying to be the one to reach the gun and win as the sole survivor of the game. My goal in making this game was to make it feel different from the game I was modifying, but also to be fun and climactic. I wanted players to frustratingly attempt to reach the gun and have an ongoing struggle to be the winner of the game. I think that I met the goals fairly well. By turning down the gravity and the jump velocity, I was able to make the game feel more like space. In terms of making the game frustrating and challenging, I decreased the x acceleration and added in meteors that are able to strike the player, causing them to start from their initial position in the game. While creating the game, I ran into a number of challenges, specifically to do with the shooting mechanic. Eventually I was able to find a way for players to choose the direction they shoot in while not instantly shooting themselves in the bullet shooting process. The shooting mechanic and jumping mechanics were another way that I thought to challenge the players. While initially I wanted players to be able to choose when they jump, I thought it would be much more challenging if the players had no control over their jumping and had to face a particular direction in order to shoot in it. Not only did this decrease the necessary controls of the game, but it gave both players an extra challenge to overcome. I attempted to match the game art to my setting, while keeping it fairly minimalist in order to align with this sort of vintage-arcade-like vibe. I kept this vibe in mind when choosing my sounds, which were taken from kenny_assets, but I feel as though they were sounds that helped me get that vibe across.