Elemental Powers
Master of all four elements.
Infinite Level game discussed: The Future Project
I finally get to talk about this! Information on the elemental abilities is something I've refrained from talking about for a long time, despite it being such a key part of The Future Project. What was the reason for this? Truthfully, I just needed to sit down and polish them. These powers have existed in some form or another for almost as long as the game itself has been in development, but it was of course in an unpolished state. Fire looked bland, the ice shield was just a transparent cube, and the list goes on. When I began working on The Future Project's trailer, I knew I had to show off some elemental action to get people more interested. The trailer gave a pretty good look at the flamethrower and ice shield abilities in particular, but there's two more that were not given much attention at all. So, how about we take some time and showoff each of these powers? And just where did this idea come from anyway?
Inspiration for elemental abilities came from none other than Bioshock. This might be simultaneously obvious and surprising. It's obvious because, hey, how many first person shooters do you know where you can shoot literal fire out of your hands? But some may be surprised because Bioshock is a linear first person shooter, a possibly odd source of inspiration for a metroidvania. The two game styles don't seem like they'd be compatible. In the Bioshock games, the player is allowed to mix and match their powers with traditional guns to deal with enemies in their own style, and that's the primary purpose of the powers. But there are a handful of moments where you can use those powers to open pathways, similar to the metroidvania. I wanted to take this mechanic and explore its uses in a game focused on exploration. So I did, and quickly implemented abilities made for opening up new paths. For the most part, the powers just open doors, both the literal and metaphorical kind, but there's a handful of special use cases that will give each power more identity. Of course, those special abilities can have some fun combat use too, so I also made sure to give each power the ability to inflict status effects on enemies, much like how they work in the Bioshock games.
So, let's start with the fire ability, which will likely be the first elemental ability players acquire. Fire is all about laying on extra damage over time. It's great for steadily chipping at one enemy while focusing on another, or bringing a tough enemy down more quickly. With each elemental ability, you can either fire a single projectile or use a unique ability by holding down the fire button. As you can imagine, the fire ability will see a lot of extra use in the Jeweled Tundra world. It's full of ice and snow, which the fire ability can quickly melt. In particular, enemies in the Jeweled Tundra do not handle fire well, and quickly fall apart once burnt. See, that's another layer to these elemental abilities when it comes to combat – weakness and resistances. Using fire as an example, certain enemies will fall apart when lit on fire while others won't react much to it all. I mentioned that Jeweled Tundra enemies are weak to fire based attacks already. An example of fire based attacks being less effective on an enemy comes from the very world you find the ability in, an island with an active volcano. These enemies are used to intense heat and lava, so burning does minor damage on these enemies. Plant based enemies fall apart to these fire based attacks, with one notable example being the Vile Flower enemy found in Distant Sibling.
When holding down the fire button, the fire element grants you access to a devastating flamethrower which provides a constant stream of fire that burns any enemies it touches. These “charged” attacks are where the elemental powers really distinguish themselves. Each element will have a unique special power that we'll cover as we go. All charged powers have specific purposes too, and the flamethrower's is all about hitting multiple enemies quickly. In situations where you're in a room full of enemies, the flamethrower will be great for applying damage to all these enemies with a single attack. However, as you can imagine, this power comes at a cost. Each of the four elemental powers has their own separate ammo, which means using up all of your fire ammo isn't going to prevent you from using your ice ammo. How much each charged elemental attack uses varies from one ability to the next. In this case, since the flamethrower can last as long as you have fire ammo, the attack will quickly consume fire ammo over time, about fifteen to twenty ammo per second.
Next up is the ice ability, and maybe it's because I like the cold, but I find this to be my personal favorite elemental ability in the game. The basic projectile inflicts the frozen status on enemies, which is something of an all-around status for enemies. Like the fire ability, hitting enemies with ice will damage them over time, but it won't be nearly as much damage as the fire ability. In addition, frozen enemies move slower and, if they fire projectiles, fire said projectiles at a slower rate. While not as effective at any one thing as the other abilities, it's helpful when you want to quickly apply a variety of status effects on an enemy. In terms of weaknesses and resistances, enemies in Jeweled Tundra will obviously not be very affected by your icy projectiles. But, enemies used to warm weather will take their status a little harder (unless of course they're so hot they practically melt the ice before it hits). Most enemies in the game will take a pretty neutral status to ice though, which further emphasizes its usefulness as an all-around attack.
For its charged variant, the player can summon an ice shield that blocks all enemy attacks, including physical attacks. As a complete opposite to the flamethrower, the ice shield is a far more defensive ability. That said, you can still fire your regular gun or missiles to keep the damage on the opposition. Like the flamethrower, the ice shield rapidly goes through ice ammo, so you'll only have the ice shield up for a limited time. That said, you can increase that time by finding upgrades to ice ammo scattered throughout the world. Another interesting item to point out about the ice ability is its ability to freeze water. Extreme cold turns water into a cold, frozen substance, who would've thought? But it's not just a cute little detail! Shooting ice into water creates new platforms for you to use, allowing you to safely travel across large bodies of water. Use this function to reach previously unreachable upgrades and, perhaps, crucial items for progression.
The third element is earth, which allows the player to manipulate the dirt and rock around them to trap enemies. If a projectile lands on an enemy, that enemy will be completely stuck and unable to move. Sure, being frozen may slow an enemy down, but that's nothing compared to outright stopping them in their tracks. As you can imagine, fast moving enemies will be much easier to deal with when they can't move. It makes them easier to aim at of course, and is also a good way to keep an aggressive enemy off you for a short time while you take care of something else. There's certain enemies that outright crumble when hit with earth, with flying enemies being one example. There aren't many flying enemies in the game, but the ones there are will quite literally fall quickly when you trap them in dirt and stone. In fact, if you can land that hit, most flying enemies should go down in a single shot! That's how effective earth will be against these rare but formidable opponents.
Charge the earth element and you'll summon a platform of earth in front of you. You can jump onto it and use this to keep enemies off your level, giving you a safe space to shoot from. It won't work on everyone of course, but enemies that must get close to attack won't be able to do much. But in truth, this power really shows its usefulness when platforming. For instance, shortly after you acquire this ability, you'll be asked to use it to cross a large gap. Suddenly, all those huge, impossible gaps don't seem so bad. And you can increase your elevation with each summon too, so you could theoretically keep climbing up these pillars until you reached the sky. But using this “attack” will cost a flat twenty five earth ammo, and even that's prone to change if I find players breaking the game with it. It'll be one thing to use it to reach certain parts of the game earlier than normal, but I'd like to avoid situations where players can softlock the game.
Finally, there's the electric ability, where the player shoots a ball of electricity at an enemy. Its unique perk is completely stopping an enemy from firing projectiles at all. This of course means its meant for those specific types of enemies, so aggressive enemies that use physical attacks won't be so affected. Still, this will come in handy in situations where it feels like projectiles are coming from all over the place. Imagine, if you will, a bunch of enemies camping in a lava river like you see in the trailer, sitting in a line and pelting you with their projectiles. Hit some of them with this, and now you suddenly don't have to worry about so much potential damage headed your way. Electricity presents a good foil to the earth ability, with earth stopping physical enemies that like to get up close and personal, while electricity stops enemies that prefer to keep their distance. Combine the two effectively and you have a room full of enemies that literally can't do anything to you. Alternatively, you can choose which type of enemy gives you more trouble, focus on them, and use the corresponding ability to make them easier to deal with.
Of course, it has a special charged attack too. Hold the fire button down and summon a ball of electricity that surrounds you. Similar to the flamethrower ability, this is great for when you want to quickly apply this status to several enemies. It can act a bit like a trap too, as it will remain in the area for a short time before completely disappearing. Enemies can walk into it in the meantime, which of course applies the status. Since I keep talking about how earth and electricity can work off each other, you could first summon an earth platform to stand on for safety, and then summon this electric field to prevent projectile attacks from those unaffected by your earth platform. Outside of combat, there's a small handful of areas that do require electricity to move into. And I don't just mean the breakable walls that are weak to electricity. One world will have an emphasis on finding hidden goodies by powering doors with your electricity. Makes me wonder what other interesting locks require electricity as the key...
When spelled out like this, it's easy to imagine a scenario where you completely stop the opposition with a few well placed elemental attacks. This is intended as part of the fun of The Future Project. When you combine elemental powers in various ways, alongside your regular weaponry and movement options, you can become quite the force of nature. It's classic metroidvania progression, where you start off pretty weak but become a powerhouse by the game's end. In the case of this game, that power fantasy becomes power reality once the player chooses to use their abilities in creative ways. Sure, it may be sufficient to blast enemies with fire and watch them slowly disintegrate, but how much more fun would it be if you freeze them, then zip around the enemy, stop them in their tracks as the freeze effect wears off, burn them for good measure, and finish by unloading missiles? Scenarios like this are what I'm attempting to train the player up to as the game progresses, which will then let them take on some awesome boss fights that put all these cool powers to great use. And of course, there's lots of exploration potential that opens up with these too. Like I've said before, I want the player to get a new ability and quickly think of places where that ability can be used. Got an ice ability? Huh, there was that water body that stopped my progress a moment ago. Fire? Bet there's some stuff to melt in the ice world! It's thoughts like that which, to me at least, make the metroidvania genre so fun. These have been a real treat to implement into The Future Project, and I can't wait to see players utilize the elements as they play.
Until next time!
-Lance T.