David Almaguer

Original Idea

ARMED! began as a small side project named “Twin Shooters,” and it played completely differently from how it does now. A 2v2 shooter with the option for each player to switch between being a robot and a weapon was the initial concept. A player may shoot while in weapon form but cannot move. Any robot in weapon form may be picked up by someone else (preferably a teammate) and aimed around, but only the weapon form player themselves decides when to fire.

During play tests, I saw the exact reverse of the intended play experience. In order to fly across the map and kill their opponents, players would transform themselves into weapons and shoot while using the recoil to maneuver themselves in the air. Not once did anyone try to work together! Although it was a lot of fun, many players thought that without a lot of play time, it would be too difficult to handle.

To make things simpler, I did away with the transforming feature and allowed players to operate each arm separately. Players could shoot from either arm, and the recoil would push the robots back, allowing them to glide across the arena. Players were even able to set the weapon in each arm. Further play testing revealed that, despite the fact that players preferred the idea better, they believed it to be harder to handle.

After several further play tests, mechanic overhauls, de-scoping, and one coding oversight (that led to limitless dashes), I decided on the game’s current form. A shoot ’em up where up to up to four players have a limitless number of dashes to move across the arena while dodging oncoming projectiles while they try to take down their opponents. Arriving here took a while, but it was all worthwhile.

Player

Players take control of little robots that can dash, fire, and hover! Robots only have three hitpoints, therefore staying mobile is essential to surviving longer in a game and outlasting any opponents.

One of the robots’ arms is a weapon. When a weapon has run out of ammo, it is then removed from the robot’s arm socket and the weapon it held at the beginning of the round spawns on the robot, ready for use.

A robot’s movement is a combination of the player’s direct input and the robot’s weapon knockback. The player controls the robot’s dashing and horizontal direction, but each weapon has a different knockback force. The most powerful one may send you soaring through the arena. However, Even the smallest knockback from a weapon still has force!

Robots are capable of dashing an endless number of times in any direction, so long as they are not firing or in their injured I-frames. The length and speed of dashing are fixed. Dashing through an enemy robot will deal damage if the enemy isn’t already dashing.

If the player doesn’t release the dashing button after a dash, they start to hover.
The robot will begin to slump while hovering. A hovering robot can still aim, fire, and move left or right slowly.

Weapon Pick-Ups

Weapon pick-ups are scattered throughout each arena in set locations. They spawn a weapon from a list and when a weapon is retrieved, a new weapon is spawned after some time passes.

When a robot moves over a pick-up, they obtain that weapon. This replaces whatever weapon the robot currently has equipped.

Some arenas have specific weapons that will always spawn.

Weapons

Robot Skins

Each player can customize their robots by selecting a piece of clothing for each body part.