[Prototype] Mehrgehrzerds

raithza

Hello!

This weekend at Free Lives we had a little gamejam and I started work on a project idea that had been bouncing around in my head for a while.

Presenting, Mehrgehrzerds!



The idea for this game came from my endless ponderings of the Power Rangers universe. Have you ever noticed how, although each ranger has his own dinosaur, they never ever use them and they always join up immediately, and then they have five people piloting one zord. The only thing that would make any sense is that each person only gets to control one limb. This game will eventually be intended to be played by two teams of two to five people, each controlling only a couple of limbs and I intend to build a custom controller for it at the upcoming hardware jam.

Download link:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46850924/Mehrgehrzerd-30Oct.zip

This prototype is playable as a 1v1, xbox controllers only. Each joystick controls a leg (only up/down), the bumpers control arm movement and the triggers control the thruster.

Thanks to Jarred for doing art and Richard help with the visual effects and Deon for the sweet-ass battle music and sound effects

Let me know what you think!

Tuism

Hahahahahahahaha awesome :D Love the premise love the graphics already! Will give it a play soonish when I have a moment :)

EvanGreenwood

We were playing this in the office and also with a visitor. Not sure which version Ruan has up there... I think this version produces a fair number of stalemates... but after a bit of figuring out the controls (and understanding when the boost works) the game also produces some really fun/hilarious moments.

Like when I humped Richard to death against a building.

Or when my dismembered, but fortunately rocket propelled, leg flew in from behind me and crushed Ruan's head (which I don't think is a feature in this version).

Or when I somersaulted over Ruan to avoid his sword in my armpit and neatly decapitated him (also I don't think is doable in this version).

(I know I can just tell Ruan this in person, but I'm sort of writing this to recommend other people here with friends and a couple controllers give it a try)

Fengol

Please make a video of a 1-v-1 match! I only have 1 controller dongle to test with and I'd love to see the game in action

Crocopede

Cool concept. I see a lot of people raging at each other over this... good fun

raithza

We made a quick video of a round:



Not the best video (lol mousecursor and accidental alt tab) but should give an idea what Mehrgehrzerds is about.

Crocopede

lol dude thats funny. Was this played with 5 people on a side?

raithza

That was 1v1 - the controllers for the multierplayer version will be made at the hardware jam next month.

Gazza_N

That. Looks. Amazing.

CiNiMoD

Honestly...this looks on par with games like Gang Beasts or Mount Your Friends! I would definitely pay money for this!

Also, I dont think 5v5 is a must, but might be cool!

tl;dr This needs to get greenlit yesterday!!

raithza

Here's the build that was at yesterday's meetup: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46850924/Mehrgehrzerd-30Oct.zip

raithza

@8bitzoe sent me this amazing reference: JETMAN / birdfighter on NES:


I didn't realize the standard for power ranger ripoff games were this high. That morph sequence :O

Boysano

Would love to know how you designed your game light effects and if you used shaders

raithza

Boysano said:

Would love to know how you designed your game light effects and if you used shaders

Which light effect are you talking about?

The fog in the foreground is just an image with alpha. I alter its color (and the color of the background) depending on the amount of fire in the scene.

There are quite a few effects using shaders, which @merrik provided for me: the scan lines, VHS distortion and chromatic aberration are all image effects. For the impacts I also use Unity's default bloom image effect.

AntiVoid

Very nice. I always like physics-based games :D

raithza

Someone "stole" my idea and beat me to kickstarter with it:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/224357883/override-cooperative-physics-based-mecha-piloting

8bitZoe

Thanks for the mention @raithza, I have to say the graphics style of override is pretty amazeballs, and the project looks ambitious.

Now, was the idea really stolen from you? or did someone simply follow the same train of though, and execute upon the idea sooner?

It happens a lot, and is always bothersome regardless. (referring to the ghost game I created in 2012 that is now sitting on steam)

So one has to ask the question, "where to from here"? I was waiting for your game in anticipation.....

:|

ZOE

raithza

8bitZoe said:

Now, was the idea really stolen from you? or did someone simply follow the same train of though, and execute upon the idea sooner?

That game has been in production for at least a year before I even started on mehgehrzerds! Them stealing my idea was only a joke.

Zehrds is still in production albeit a bit on the backburner - there should be some news early next year hopefully!

raithza

Most of you will know by know, but I actually went through with creating the large custom controllers for the 4v4 version of the game.



I consider the build and stuff to be mostly successful... I had some outcomes in mind when I started the project and I didn't quite meet all of them, but the game with the controllers work really well in the correct spaces. I've certainly learnt a lot about building physical controllers and making games for these kinds of spaces and I hope I'll be able to attempt some more projects in this vein int he coming year. I'm going to enter Zerds into CTRL.ALT.GDC. I'm thinking of blogging a longer postmortem of the controller version.

Then besides the controller version, I also want to try work a bit on the gamepad/"normal" version of Zerds, now that Broforce is finished. Some guy from Twitch expressed interest at having it playable at Pax Aus, unfortunately there isn't a ton of time to get it ready so it'll very much be the current version of the game,but it's nice to have some interest in the game. I'm not really sure that the project has that much potential in terms of commercial viability, but I'm still having enough fun working on it that I want to polish and perhaps try improve the look of the game for a bit, and doing some things such as e.g. having customizable zerds might add a lot of value to the experience.


EDIT: you can download an update playable at http://raithza.itch.io/mergazerds

raithza

@elyaradine has been helping me out a ton with Mergazerds. The game has been remade in 3d (cosmetically only - the gameplay is still 2d) and has had a ton of additions and tweaks, most significantly the addition of several new limb types and randomized zerds. I'm taking it to GDC so expect a new playable version around then. Until then, feast your eyes on this awesome piece of key art, also courtesy of Jonathan:

BenJets

Looking amazing! Great work dudes!