Wizards!: Taking an Old Prototype to the Arcade

I started re-working an old prototype called Wizards!, a Dual Stick Shooter game inspired by Robotron 2084, that dates back to 2014.

At the time I was also working on an unreleased puzzle platformer called Threshold with some other developers. I was, however, frustrated with the progress of our development efforts and felt the need to mix things up a bit. A year earlier I had released a game called Monsters!, another dual stick shooter. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the results so I wanted to go back and explore the genre again. With some Pixel Art help from the artist I was working on Threshold with, I was able to put together some game play that I thought had potential but never ended up closing the game loop. The game then sat in some dark corner of my hard drive collecting dust.

This month I've decided to put some work into the game. I wanted to make something that would provide an arcade experience, with credits, lives, and game play that was challenging enough to be worth your quarters. With that goal in mind I've simplified the design from it's earlier versions. I dropped an idea where each Wizard would have a unique ability that they could use to defeat enemies but it would use up some resource that was gathered. I also switched up how scoring is going to work; while players work cooperatively to defeat each successive wave of undead monsters, they compete to collect the skulls and bones that drop from those monsters for points. Ultimately, I want the game to provide the same score chasing experience provided by a classic game like Robotron.

So far I've gone and re-written most of the game's code. The only scripts that have managed to survive were a good chunk of the enemy behaviors. At the time of this writing, each player can independently move and shoot with their wizards. Additionally, enemies can be spawned as well as destroyed by the players. Skulls drop from the enemies and can be collected by the players but they do not yet award points, with the scoring manager still needing to be written. I also still need to close the main game loop. I also need to put together the game over/score screen and a scoreboard experience that players can use to work on their high score.

Finally, it's my hope that, along with my fellow QuadraTron dev Christian, we can build an actual arcade cabinet for the game. Our ultimate goal will be to take it to MAGFest this year for their Indie Arcade showcase. I've got a lot of work cut out for me but I think I can do this within the next month or so.

Wish me luck!