Heroic Fisticuffs!

Here's a place where I talk about games, applications, websites, and other things that I make for fun. Mostly roguelikes. And robots. Since my domain is hard to spell you probably came here on purpose.

Hardpointe version 0.3 released

Latest version is now playable in the same spot.

New for version 0.3:

  • start menu, including daily & weekly seed generation
  • revamped the death & victory menus
  • fixed a few menu bugs (especially on death & victory)
  • added occasional monster spawning 
  • added end-game monster setup for the fight back to the surface
  • changed SHIELD power to also have a timed component
  • improved PHASEWALK power so that enemy attacks now go 'through' you - and hit other enemies
  • improved CLOAK power to trigger 'surprise' attacks (+1 damage) 
  • better handling of ending timed powers (shields, cloak, phasewalk), along with visual animation when they end
  • added a dedicated key (e) for wait only (useful in a few situations when using Space/Action can trigger the ambiguous input menu when you don't want it to)
  • Shielded enemies now more intelligently turn on their shields
  • fleeing enemies will not run away forever - eventually they will recover and resume hunting
  • better names and descriptions for blasters
  • Added a new kinetic blaster (knockback effect)
  • Made the Archon a bit tougher (can no longer be stunned or hacked)
  • enemies knocked back into walls are briefly stunned (so you can set up wall attacks)
  • added a score stat, although it doesn't track anything yet
  • fixed targeting bug that made it too easy to throw grenades and wreckage onto yourself



Next version progress & Phasewalk

Spent some development time beefing up the Cloak and Phasewalk powers. Cloak is fairly straightforward, but I wanted the enemies to react a little better. Instead of immediately giving up, they will move towards your last location. This means you can easily predict their movements and set up traps for them.

Attacking will remove your cloak, but also add +1 damage, which enables you to take out the tougher 2hp enemies relatively quickly -- assuming you have a Cloak charge to spare.


Phasewalk has been in since day 1 - I initially added it as a debugging feature so I could walk through walls, and thought it was a pretty fun mechanic. Now it gets a bit more useful. When phased, your attacks won't do any damage, but enemies can still attack you. Their attacks will pass 'through' you and hit anyone behind you.

This works for ranged attacks:



And melee:

I'll roll out this version pretty soon. Meanwhile the game is still playable here.


Hardpointe v0.2 Long Play

I did a full play-through of the game so far. Took me a lot longer than expected! I guess that's a good sign. I also managed to not die. Definitely on the easier side at the moment - there are grenades and powers a-plenty. Here it is on youtube. I'll try to add commentary next time.

Later versions will get a lot more brutal. More terrain, more enemies, fewer power-ups, and at least two more enemy types. I want to have some support-style enemies, with two in the works: one will keep it's distance and put shields on near-by enemies, the second will be super-fast with no attacks, but be able to alert other enemies to your location.

I am also toying with some kind of factory-type system or enemy that will spew out countless 1-hp/1-damage enemies. Simple to handle in the right scenarios, but if left unaccounted for, it could make things very difficult.