Selaco; an original "boomer shooter" that runs on GZDoom

[P41R47]

30 minutes ago, Ajora said:

I really don't understand the hate for the term. I find it kind of amusing, personally.

I don't understand the name at all or know what it means at all, but since i found it as a tag fore more retro like fps i thought boomer may be a deformation or reference for Doom-er like.

Seems not, there is even a ''Boomer Generation'' (tl;dr;idc)

But hey!

We are a proud booming industry...so it kinda feet that retro fps try to be like us :P

Edited December 15, 2020 by P41R47

[Bridgeburner56]

4 hours ago, nexxtic28 said:

 

Voxels! We managed to get Ion Fury's voxel artists on board to help us out there. I refuse to use any kind of 3D object in this world.

Voxels get automatically converted to models by gzdoom and are incredibly inefficient. I'd recommend moving to low poly models

[dew]

10 hours ago, nexxtic28 said:

I don't like the word boomer shooter either, but jeez, I would never make a big deal out of it.

It's not really a big deal, but it's sort of annoying that the term traces back to the "30yo boomer" meme, which is a stand-in for the "born in the wrong generation" trope espoused by young conservatives who want the society to go back to *insert something bigoted*.

 

Anyway, screenshot looks pretty good, reminds me of MedSci in System Shock 2.

[SelacoDev]

On 12/15/2020 at 8:07 AM, Bridgeburner56 said:

Voxels get automatically converted to models by gzdoom and are incredibly inefficient. I'd recommend moving to low poly models

 

Oh you are absolutely right! We used plain .kvx in the past and it was an absolute nightmare when it came to performance. Technically, my reply was a little misleading. We use .obj's.

 

We created the voxels using MagicaVoxel at first. But after noticing the terrible performance a .kvx gave, we used an algorithm to convert those voxels into .obj files. Which...lead to terrible results like this (eye bleed warning!):

https://imgur.com/a/Jxotu5N

 

That's just disgusting. So we ended up cleaning it up manually. Result:

https://imgur.com/a/gAiEVpk

 

All good now! Stay away from .kvx kids!

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by nexxtic28

[SelacoDev]

40 minutes ago, dew said:

It's not really a big deal, but it's sort of annoying that the term traces back to the "30yo boomer" meme, which is a stand-in for the "born in the wrong generation" trope espoused by young conservatives who want the society to go back to *insert something bigoted*.

 

Anyway, screenshot looks pretty good, reminds me of MedSci in System Shock 2.

 

I get what you're saying. But I was just trying to get our game out there. The hashtag was a popular one that allowed me to reach the audience I wanted to reach so it made perfect sense for me to use it. Nobody uses the term Boomer Shooter with bad intentions. Its a catchy name that gets the point across.

 

We worked on this project proudly for over 3 years with massive passion towards the two games we take inspiration from. This tweet was just me and my team getting our project out there to see what the world would think of this one screenshot. That people instead feel the need to be bitchy about a single hashtag rather than critique something meaningful about the game itself says a lot more about them then it says about me / us. 

Edited December 15, 2020 by nexxtic28

[dew]

5 minutes ago, nexxtic28 said:

I get what you're saying. But I was just trying to get my game out there. The hashtag was a popular one that allowed me to reach the audience I wanted to reach so it made perfect sense for me to use it.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't, heh. It's pretty obvious to use the term to reach a wider audience though. Just pump more screenshots and you'll be fine!

[ReaperAA]

I don't care if you call it boomer shooter or not. I only care for more screenshots :D

[SelacoDev]

8 minutes ago, dew said:

Damned if you do, damned if you don't, heh. It's pretty obvious to use the term to reach a wider audience though. Just pump more screenshots and you'll be fine!

 

Oh you bet we will. There's a lot more to show here! :) You can't exactly call yourself a FEAR inspired game without at least showing some gunplay.

[kristus]

I like the term boomer shooter. It's amusing and keep things from being taken so seriously 

[Gez]

From the boomers I know, a boomer shooter's gameplay should be at least 75% crossword puzzles. Sudoku puzzles are also acceptable, in a pinch.

[hybridial]

I would put forward Doom-Clone as an alternative suggestion. 

 

*grins* 

[SelacoDev]

1 minute ago, hybridial said:

I would put forward Doom-Clone as an alternative suggestion. 

 

*grins* 

 

But its not a doom-clone. There are a ton of those already who will do a better job at it than we ever will. There is no shortage of doom-like games in today's market.

 

Selaco comes closer to F.E.A.R 1 being in GZDoom with some of Doom's elements mixed in between. Its trying to be its own thing.

[hybridial]

1 minute ago, nexxtic28 said:

Selaco comes closer to F.E.A.R 1 being in GZDoom with some of Doom's elements mixed in between. Its trying to be its own thing.

 

Well to be blunt FEAR isn't a boomer shooter either. 

[DoomeDx]

4 minutes ago, hybridial said:

 

Well to be blunt FEAR isn't a boomer shooter either. 

 

We still going on about a hash tag that was just used to get an audience...?

 

Selaco plays like a retro shooter despite its FEAR elements. So boomershooter is very appropriate.

 

It's just a hashtag.

[hybridial]

Yeah I was really just joking about the Doom Clone thing, I definitely would be interested in trying Selaco. I think GZdoom is a great base for high concept indy FPS games. 

[DoomeDx]

1 minute ago, hybridial said:

Yeah I was really just joking about the Doom Clone thing, I definitely would be interested in trying Selaco. I think GZdoom is a great base for high concept indy FPS games. 

 

I agree! Hopefully with the release of some good GZDoom based games (supplice looks great for example!), we can prove to the world that its a very capable engine.

 

 

[Maes]

It's hard to escape that "Doom 3" look, huh?

[seed]

Now this, looks quite interesting.

 

Enjoying the aesthetic is seems to be going for so far.

[whybmonotacrab]

Looks great! Can't wait to get my hands on it.

 

 Also, like it or not, people know what a Boomer shooter is so the term has marketability. It gets the point across succinctly, just like Metroidvania or Roguelite - even if the name is dumb. I always thought it had that name because the people who champion the genre are always like "games were better in my day". If you're actually offended by term Boomer shooter, maybe you're the reason the phrase "ok boomer" exists.

[Gothic]

21 hours ago, Sunnyfruit said:

Screens are screens. Video or bust

I disagree with the idea of videos replacing images to showcase mods/games. I like images better, unless you want to showcase cool looking animations.

[Matias]

Looks very cool. Is there a reason you went with GZDoom instead of a modern 3d engine? to me it seems this look you are going for would have been better done with something else. Of course i'm making an assumptions based on one screenshot, but i'm very curious of the reasons why some devs would choose to use GZDoom

[0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0]

Does anyone have a download link? I can't find it... and also, does it have really brutal gore effects? Because they are important...

Edited December 15, 2020 by 0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0

[SelacoDev]

31 minutes ago, Matias said:

Looks very cool. Is there a reason you went with GZDoom instead of a modern 3d engine? to me it seems this look you are going for would have been better done with something else. Of course i'm making an assumptions based on one screenshot, but i'm very curious of the reasons why some devs would choose to use GZDoom

 

Many reasons! But the main reason is to feel like an authentic retro game. Don't be fooled by this screenshot; the entire world is still just sprites, voxels and low resolution textures. We have a lot of 'rules' in place to not go overboard. So no normal mapping, no shaders, no full-3D objects etc. If something does seem like a 'fancy' modern-day effect, its probably just clever sprite work from an artist.

 

I do want to bring up the weapon sprite real quick. It's converted from a 3D model but the sprites look way too 3D and I am currently not a big fan of the way they look. We tried overpainting them, but every gun has a whopping 150 frames of animations going for it (we have a very animated character!) and we simply do not have the manpower to overpaint a 1000 weapon frames. We are looking for a way to make them seem more like sprites straight from the rendering while working well within the games art style, but we have yet to crack the code on that.

 

29 minutes ago, 0o0[ULTIM4TE]L1FE[F0RM]0o0 said:

Does anyone have a download link? I can't find it... and also, does it have really brutal gore effects? Because they are important...

 

Because its not out yet :) We just announced it. No ''brutal doom'' effects, we have created our own gore system entirely through zscript that takes a lot of variables into consideration to make it seem accurate and react accordingly. So don't worry, there will be plenty of splatter and gore. We are trying to be like FEAR, after all! Shotgun gibbing included.

[leodoom85]

I think a teaser would do some justice, with some added screenshots to catch even more interest...

11 minutes ago, nexxtic28 said:

No ''brutal doom'' effects, we have created our own gore system entirely through zscript that takes a lot of variables into consideration to make it seem accurate and react accordingly. So don't worry, there will be plenty of splatter and gore.

Nice that the game has its identity to differentiate from other mods. 

[SelacoDev]

 

21 minutes ago, leodoom85 said:

I think a teaser would do some justice, with some added screenshots to catch even more interest...

Nice that the game has its identity to differentiate from other mods. 

 

I agree, partially. The thing is, we don't want to show our entire hand straight from the get go. If you start on a high note, you are expected to keep improving upon it with each update, go bigger, go crazier. So we decided to start slow with screenshots and eventually evolve into full-on gameplay clips. Bias aside, I really like what we have going on here. It feels just like FEAR when it comes to combat and I cannot wait to show that.

 

"Nice that the game has its identity to differentiate from other mods. "

 

Are we a mod, though? We have a ton of discussion about that internally :P

[holaareola]

49 minutes ago, nexxtic28 said:

Many reasons! But the main reason is to feel like an authentic retro game. Don't be fooled by this screenshot; the entire world is still just sprites, voxels and low resolution textures. We have a lot of 'rules' in place to not go overboard. So no normal mapping, no shaders, no full-3D objects etc. If something does seem like a 'fancy' modern-day effect, its probably just clever sprite work from an artist.

Don't you find that it limits you a bit on the layout side though? I find even the most advanced GZDoom maps emanate the friction of creating room over room architecture vs architecture that is sympathetic to the fundamentally 2D-first nature of the format. I've thought for a long time that GZDoom should have a format that goes beyond the line based setup. It's such an awesome FPS platform in most ways, but map-makers have to tie themselves in knots to create vertical architecture with circa-1996 complexity.

 

Anyway, FEAR is a great reference point for combat and Doom is an amazing base for movement. Look forward to some romps around offices!  Will you be taking some inspiration from the horror aspects of Fear as well or is it primarily mechanical things you're drawing from?

[SelacoDev]

8 minutes ago, holaareola said:

Don't you find that it limits you a bit on the layout side though? I find even the most advanced GZDoom maps emanate the friction of creating room over room architecture vs architecture that is sympathetic to the fundamentally 2D-first nature of the format. I've thought for a long time that GZDoom should have a format that goes beyond the line based setup. It's such an awesome FPS platform in most ways, but map-makers have to tie themselves in knots to create vertical architecture with circa-1996 complexity.

 

Anyway, FEAR is a great reference point for combat and Doom is an amazing base for movement. Look forward to some romps around offices!  Will you be taking some inspiration from the horror aspects of Fear as well or is it primarily mechanical things you're drawing from?

 

Sorry, I worked it poorly. With ''true 3D'' I meant using wavefront .obj files. We use a lot of room over rooms and portals in our level design.

 

Oh you'll fight your way through offices alright! We have a ton of destructible voxels and seeing everything tear down around you in a gunfight is what makes FEAR so awesome for me. I hope it shines through when player get to actually play it. But i'll make sure to show destruction in a video in the near future.

 

We had horror aspects at some point, but we scrapped it. We just couldn't make it work and it ended up bringing the pace down too much (it started to feel like Perseus Mandate :P). We have some scary bits but that mostly revolves around the threat of imminent danger, rather than spooky things happening. So yeah, we are FEAR when it comes to mechanics and we have a good amount of nods to FEAR. But horror is a no-go :(

 

 

[holaareola]

12 minutes ago, nexxtic28 said:

Sorry, I worked it poorly. With ''true 3D'' I meant using wavefront .obj files. We use a lot of room over rooms and portals in our level design.

 

Oh you'll fight your way through offices alright! We have a ton of destructible voxels and seeing everything tear down around you in a gunfight is what makes FEAR so awesome for me. I hope it shines through when player get to actually play it. But i'll make sure to show destruction in a video in the near future.

 

We had horror aspects at some point, but we scrapped it. We just couldn't make it work and it ended up bringing the pace down too much (it started to feel like Perseus Mandate :P). We have some scary bits but that mostly revolves around the threat of imminent danger, rather than spooky things happening. So yeah, we are FEAR when it comes to mechanics and we have a good amount of nods to FEAR. But horror is a no-go :(

Hah, I think it was me with the poor wording. My point was that room over room in a linedef based setup is 3d architecture via fundamentally 2d tooling, which impacts what kind of architecture is possible without it being a total arse-ache. I wish GZDoom had some kind of true 3d map format to make it an even better base for retro-styled games on PC.

 

Re. horror, I think that part of FEAR was not done well, so you're taking the good bits as far as I'm concerned.  Where's the name from btw?

[leodoom85]

1 hour ago, nexxtic28 said:

Are we a mod, though? We have a ton of discussion about that internally :P

Not a game but not a total conversion either. So, a standalone mod then...fuck it. :D

[ReaperAA]

46 minutes ago, nexxtic28 said:

We had horror aspects at some point, but we scrapped it. We just couldn't make it work and it ended up bringing the pace down too much (it started to feel like Perseus Mandate :P). We have some scary bits but that mostly revolves around the threat of imminent danger, rather than spooky things happening. So yeah, we are FEAR when it comes to mechanics and we have a good amount of nods to FEAR. But horror is a no-go :(

 

And I am actually glad about this. Don't wanna see it be another "Doom 3".

 

Also, regarding the weapon. I personally think it looks pretty good (at least in the screenshot).