We've chosen our concept: "Zap Gun" (working title, we're bad at naming) is an arena-based FPS with a few twists. Your weapons are battery powered, and use a ton of power to fire; thus, you need to keep your weapon charged using certain points of the arena. Additionally, we've made some decisions regarding movement that set this FPS apart. We want to use grappling as a primary method of moving quickly, as opposed to the usual sprinting mechanic. The grapple can also be used to move vertically, so our maps will have a focus on vertical design, as well as a symmetrical floor area.
To execute the weapon charging mechanic well, we will need to test and tune charging rates, per-shot charge depletion, and charging station locations within the arena. Since the weapon charge is essentially an ammo counter, and the charging stations just replenish the ammo over time when in range, we already have them implemented in a rudimentary form; however, the actual values are arbitrary. Testing is what will tell us how to tune each weapon type for per-shot cost, and how to determine the charging rate and location of power sources. Building these mechanics will be easy, but tuning them will not.
As for grappling, we've already got a basic "zip-to-point" grapple working, but it definitely needs work. The grapple works in a few different ways: horizontal motion and vertical motion. If you grapple to a point on the surface you're standing on, you launch up a little bit, and then quickly grapple to the point. This usage is intended to replace a typical sprint. The vertical usage of grappling is the one we see most often, just moving yourself upwards to a point. We still need to add considerations for what happens if the grapple cable hits something as you rotate, as well as the grapple's range, and some VFX such as a slight FOV kick for the beginning of the grapple to make the player feel more "acceleration". Another idea we had is grappling to other players, and how that will affect those involved.
The message we want to send with these mechanics/this idea is that of a fast, high-energy FPS with plenty of opportunity for strategy depending on the game mode you're playing. To make our gameplay align with that, we're really putting a lot of focus into the player controller early on to make the different movement mechanics feel really tight and easy to understand, while still offering complexity. This also means that we need to focus on how shooting different weapons feels, since that is more-so tied to the player controller. Furthermore, our game modes need to reinforce the pace and energy of the game through objectives, scoring, and time limits.
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