Gunboat God news & patch notes

* Fixed some laptop trackpad mouse issues. * Added a "mouse contain" option, which might be useful when the game is played with accessibility software, for example: Mhook. Let us know if there are any issues with this! * Build version is shown on the "about" screen.

Hi everybody, It's the day I can officially add 'PC game dev' to my LinkedIn profile... I can't believe I'm actually saying it -Gunboat God is FINALLY HERE!!!

6 years in the making! 🎮

This has been such an awesome journey, from starting out as my passion project 6 years ago to getting signed with a publisher and working as a solo dev on my game fulltime... to release day! Thanks so much for sticking with me from the early days, wishlisting, leaving feedback on the playtests/demos, and for just reading this blog. I really appreciate it! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/bf3eff9b1189d15ab881cccc8a6f88f8e543f21d.gif

Check out the new launch trailer! 👇

Gunboat God is 25% off for launch!

It wouldn't be a proper game launch without a proper discount! You can grab Gunboat God for 25% off for 2 weeks. Smash through enemies and grab a bargain at the same time. 😉

A review would be so appreciated! 🌏

I also wouldn't be a proper indie dev without mentioning Steam reviews! If you do dive into Gunboat God and thrash about with your friendly croc pal, please consider dropping a review. Launch week is a crucial time to get noticed by more players, and reviews are so helpful. I'd also really love to read what you think of the full game! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/20e89f0382c1a2c1f5ebd31b9f51ffb6c11d4589.png You can check out the FAQs we posted a few days ago if there's anything you'd like to know about Gunboat God: Answering your questions!

A small heads up!

On a small percentage of PCs, the game might seem to be running in slow motion, which is especially confusing if you have a high-end build! It means the game is trying to run on the integrated GPU instead of the dedicated GPU, so try forcing GPU utilisation in Nvidia Control Panel or AMD Software, and you should be all set. Alternatively, some players have reported going from 10 fps to 60 fps after turning off "background blur", or other visual effects, in the options menu. Happy Gunboating! I really hope you enjoy my game, and all feedback is welcome. Thanks again for being here and for checking out Gunboat God. Let's gooooo! Tom

Hey everybody! It feels crazy to say, but... Gunboat God is launching in 3 days time! To prepare for launch day, I wanted to take a look at some of your questions I've seen popping up. Let's dive in! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/87f97fcbc0a53d34529dc214e094a2d27b76a8dc.png

How much will Gunboat God be?

Gunboat God will be £9.99/$12.99, but for launch week there'll be a 25% discount!

How many levels are in Gunboat God?

There are 212 levels of gun blastin' chaos!

What is the gameplay length?

Gunboat God is roughly 8 hours long.

How many bosses are there?

There are 5 boss fights in total!

How many weapons and upgrades can you use?

There are 8 weapons you'll unlock throughout the game and 74 different upgrades.

Is Gunboat God Steam Deck Verified?

Yes! You will be able to thrash enemies on the Steam Deck :) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/2ed2f4cef353e8eba2427f04dd0389dceda75cbf.gif

A small heads up!

On a small percentage of PCs, the game might seem to be running in slow motion, which is especially confusing if you have a high-end build! It means the game is trying to run on the integrated GPU instead of the dedicated GPU, so try forcing GPU utilisation in Nvidia Control Panel or AMD Software, and you should be all set. Alternatively, some players have reported going from 10 fps to 60 fps after turning off "background blur", or other visual effects, in the options menu. Happy Gunboating! If you have any other questions please do let me know in the comments, but otherwise, chat Monday for launch day! *panic intensifies* Thanks for all your support!

Hey everybody, Steam Nest Fest has been awesome, and I wanted to say a big thanks to everybody who took the time to leave a review. Because of you...

The Gunboat God demo is sitting at 96% positive!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2832190/Gunboat_God_Demo/ I'll be keeping the demo live, and all reviews are super appreciated! So if you've played the demo and liked what you saw, please consider leaving a review It'll really help my game get noticed and find other players. Also, if you'd like to leave any feedback about how you got on that will go straight to the dev team (me), head here: https://sttl2.share.hsforms.com/2-IiXnYBsRKKAWnIwlCvIAA (this is super helpful for spotting bug and making sure I'm able to polish everything before launch, so thanks!)

Gunboat God is launching 13th April!

It's now crunch time, and I'll be working hard on making my game the best possible frantic boat shootin' experience it can possibly be! Thanks for all the support. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/b7b3706045ba0d858bb741561e6ad358c6024672.gif

Hey everybody! It's been a pretty wild week and I have THREE important bits of information I'm suuuper psyched to share:

1) Gunboat God is launching April 13th!

It's crunch time! I'll be keeping my head down and working hard to make sure my game is the most fun arcade-y experience it can possibly be.

2) It's also getting a console release!

Gunboat God will also be coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S!

3) The demo is now live!

You can try your hand at some boat shootin' carnage below: If you get a chance, a review for the demo would be super appreciated to help me get noticed on Steam. As a solo dev, reviews are like gold dust, so please do let me know how you got on. Thanks so much for all your continued support. I'm really excited for launch day, and just wanted to say that this is all possible because of the playtests and the incredibly helpful feedback I received to help improve Gunboat God. You're all awesome! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/19d48b445224b4a4493506ff15463f459cc142c2.gif Speak soon!

Hey everyone, Big things are happening! Super stoked to say that Gunboat God will be part of Steam Next Fest. Loads of awesome games are being showcased with a whole load of demos from the 23rd - 2nd. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/a1040cd1dd81e6f32888592ce50929249ef437a1.png Which brings us nicely to the next point...

The Gunboat God demo is coming February 19th!

I've hand-picked some levels from the first biome in the game for you to play in this demo. Expect chaos, challenge, and high scores begging to be beaten! You can head here to play from February 19th 2pm GMT. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/11338e34080ae169a03cff9418b321d7a36f5fa8.gif

Don't miss the Indie Fan Fest!

Gunboat God will also be part of the second Indie Fan Fest airing on Feb 19th, showing new game reveals, world premiere trailers, and more. You might even see some new GBG gameplay 👀 {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/2b32d1536916287b2b6e8cc60f9160f992b7f750.png Talk soon!

Hey everyone, A huuuuge thank you to everyone who checked out the GBG playtest. Having you join our development journey is super helpful, and your thoughts will really help shape the future for Yeti and their bullet-spitting boat.

If you haven't already, please complete the feedback form

(I'd be forever grateful!)

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/c7c6fc271235179acaf9fe6d1fd863b22a801b1c.png If you played Gunboat God over the last couple weeks, please let me know how you got on. It'll only take a few minutes and will help me ensure GBG is the best it can possibly be! 👉Have your say here.👈 The playtest has been taken down for the time being while I work on polishing and implementing your suggestions. It may come back in the future but for now I'll be focusing all my efforts on trying to make a really great game! Thanks again for all your support, it means a lot.

Hey everyone, It's been a while but we're back with some pretty exciting news...

The playtest is ready to download!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2511210/Gunboat_God/ From now until August 14th, as part of the fantastic Tiny Teams event, you'll be able to blast your way through the first biome in Gunboat God. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/8c331d4dd43371b6848227cdbbf318da35cc52cb.gif It's fast. It's frantic. It's a boatload of fun! Head to our Steam page to join the chaos, and if possible, we'd really appreciate your feedback. It'd be super helpful to hear about the parts you enjoyed, and the parts that made you want to yank your hair out (but hopefully there isn't many of those!). Help shape Gunboat God into a really awesome game: https://fireshinegames.jotform.com/232772033272956 Thanks so much for your support! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/844d50945dcf7b229e02da34aef67996f12b20fb.png

Ah yes, collisions. Every game developer’s favourite topic (that was a joke). I will never forget the pure agony of the Plesioth hip check in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. That was my first encounter with an evil hit box in games, and it was seared into my memory for all time. Thankfully for Gunboat God, I have a few different tools at my disposal to ensure accurate and CPU-efficient collisions.

Enemies

Setting up enemy hit boxes is done on a case by case basis. The larger the enemy, the more accurate the collision method must be. Small enemies like a beetle or bat only require a rectangle. This is manually adjusted for each of the enemy’s animations. Job done. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/869b2fd5df2f40ad3c29b9fbeea184d6d84fc9ae.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/f427848c3dae351467946eac4516711f139e77b8.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/20c229f08111b7c5b4b24e8d6d7a0729051c944e.gif

Different shapes and sizes

Round enemies can be conveniently given an elliptical collision shape, which can also be adjusted to suit the size of the enemy’s animations. Another job done. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/f6e1d040b8cb7985dd141efad76103408586c83e.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/cc2dc1b69b01050722591f0e1d41c8abb884de5d.gif

Precise collision masks

Let’s say I have a gigantic tentacle enemy (which I absolutely do, thank you for asking) a rectangle or ellipse collision shape would be far too inaccurate for fair gameplay. This would also be true for other very large enemies and bosses, the largest of all. Precise collision masks are used for these animations, which don’t require any adjustment because the collision detection is simply based on the pixels in the animation frames, hence the “precision”. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/ea3e3e71c35a31d8a127d5eb537bb9d69bec39cf.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/d7c54db1b781f4e8faaf985c61843d97da82072f.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/7875494a1c7e492018fb8338a4adbe3c89cc4651.gif In the above image, you can see that "precise per frame" is the chosen collision method. It looks like the rectangle is being used as the collision method, but it's not. In this case, the rectangle is being used as the area in which precise collisions will be detected. Two collision methods are being used to get the best result. (More on this below).

Extra refinements

There is a problem that can arise from precise collision masks, however. What if pixel-collision is “too precise” for some enemy animations? Take this boss animation for example. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/bb0fcc7fca7abeefdf401742e831fe6c58ad0884.gif The spikes on this boss can collide with the player, which feels way too unfair in playtesting when trying to duck and weave around the boss as it chases the player. As mentioned, the rectangle shape can be applied over the animation to determine the area in which precise collision can occur. This isn’t perfect at all, but it greatly helps crop out the spikes and wings from the collision mask. Another job done, again. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/8457b6ce6a47a25595282a9ecfe823d94009944e.gif

Bullets!

So we have all of the enemy collision shapes setup, but what are they colliding with? Bullets! The same system applies to player bullets, beams and bombs. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/1bb413a30cf386dfac908f74c3614019c46f2bdc.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/7fb2b6080af4a05c43bc304cc4426ff0ba1d0aab.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/b3640b70fd2022cbbdba0f881695e21daaa87586.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/4089a63da9cbf5c95e09f856bb7536629a6791aa.png In hard-mode, the player will have an augment become available to them, called “Spear”. This allows bullets to pass through multiple enemies, so the bullets need to keep track of how many enemies they collide with before expiring. The laser beam weapon is a little more complicated. It needs to detect all enemy collisions, sort them by distance, then collide with the enemies one by one and in order. All of that happens once per frame. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/11338e34080ae169a03cff9418b321d7a36f5fa8.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/7cfda77005ee3435e0fbdea7a78d7e99e11f611b.gif

More stuff!

That’s all for now! Don’t forget to wishlist Gunboat God, it helps a lot and is much appreciated :D I also post small development updates on Twitter and Bluesky. https://x.com/jansonRAD https://bsky.app/profile/jansonrad.bsky.social All the best, Tom

Hey everyone! Just a super quick message to those of you who joined our playtest: Firstly, thanks so much for playing! We had over 300 people download Gunboat God over the last week which is amazing to see. I hope everyone enjoyed what they've seen of the game so far. Secondly, we'd love to hear your feedback! The main reason we organize playtests is so that we can hear about player experiences. Whether there was something you loved or something you think needs changing, it's all relevant and incredibly important to us.

Please complete the feedback form by clicking this link here!

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/341f0e925caf0135d17aba63e982ecc6a299191f.png With your help, we can make Gunboat God an awesome game that'll provide you with boatloads of fun! To chat with other gunboatin' enthusiasts and find out more about the next playtests, join the official Gunboat God Discord server. Speak soon, and thanks again! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/6391bfc63e64160a24077ca9889032591ffea9a8.gif

Hey everybody, {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/7192c3c518d70996ff1fcd4d0b57847ce1121092.png The Gunboat God Open Playtest is now live! If you'd like to start boatin' n' blastin' before the game officially launches, now's your chance. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/fc201ee6533f0dd9ec0bb0029f72db7779b53258.png Head to the Steam page and click 'Request Access' to be part of the shoot 'em up mayhem. Your new pal Yeti is eagerly waiting!

Your feedback is SUPER helpful

The reason we're running this playtest is because we'd love to hear your thoughts on the game's current state and what improvements and tweaks you'd like to see in the full release. If you do decide to grab your weapons and jump aboard your trusty gunboat, we'd really appreciate it if you could fill in this feedback form: https://fireshinegames.jotform.com/232772033272956 The playtest will be closing on the 25th March. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/2ed2f4cef353e8eba2427f04dd0389dceda75cbf.gif

We were featured in The Mix Spring Showcase!

I recorded a deep dive into the gameplay of Gunboat God where I showed some unseen footage of upgrades, abilities and more! You can check out the full video here:

Join us over on Discord!

To chat with other gunboatin' enthusiasts and find out more about the development, join the official Gunboat God Discord server. Thanks in advance for checking out the playtest, I hope you enjoy your time with our talking crocodile. Speak soon!

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/19d48b445224b4a4493506ff15463f459cc142c2.gif

Whast was I thinking?

Here’s an interesting bit of useless trivia. Some time ago I thought I would be able to build all of Gunboat God’s levels by carefully sketching on a piece of grid paper, then manually typing object position values into the game’s code. *For every single object, in every single level*. So…I built one level this way and quickly decided I was never going to do that again. It was (not) fun while it lasted! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/7d652e546f00288d2dd73ec578a973610dd154d8.png I got straight to work on an internal tool that I could use to help me build the levels. Let’s take a peek behind the curtain. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/5fbfdfd668fababdbb53f9ca5004f4e6621083d8.png

Workflow

Before doing anything on the computer, I decide what the level type is going to be, based on where I expect the player to be at a certain point in the game. Level types include outgun, clear out, laps, collision course, and many more. Then I think about the basic structure of the level, ie: a single idea of what “challenge” or “vibe” the level is going to throw at the player. Finally, I sketch! Every level in the game has a sketch like these. The final result in the game won’t look exactly the same, but the sketches will always be a handy reference point. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/0205db89117a0b30671c27bde5ca2a06920f9ff6.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/229e83b3ecbbd5b88789bdf4c80cd0f68a6535ec.jpg

Developing a useful tool

I developed the level layout tool progressively as needed, and by the time I had finished building all of the levels in the first biome, the tool was essentially complete and ready for full-steam-ahead-development of the remaining biomes. I could add most of the hazard types, manipulate level regions (which determine enemy spawns), and add other miscellaneous objects. The red copy of the player is shown on the screen so I always know the player’s dimensions, to ensure I’m laying out things nicely (Hmmm... can the player squeeze through that gap over there? Yep!). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/6ab75d6c1ba9fbd71457db7f01d20ef403a1b7e7.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/749808f76d51cef4e335a1ac24b34dd46a3bb828.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/7a99a5e70878b8c40c1b9b7f4769dea538e6df0d.gif Levels purely filled with hazards can be frustrating experience, so adding floating stones to the game was a way to break up the flow of a level and open up space to move around. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/dc701b8f6dcd1e95e2523e3ad0798f1f070673ba.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/38bbfb888368389351391c4c3757745c8ce61231.gif

Stretch it out

The most satisfying part of level building is implementing the finishing touches to achieve that *chef’s kiss* sweet spot of difficulty and flow. I recently did a full sweep of level improvements where I nudged and stretched out levels that felt too cramped and frustrating. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/19a8452a85309cd42ce6c08048b73e1fcf709a5d.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/b2646375438089205e422ade94d12684d820849f.gif Everything finally comes together when I add enemy spawns. This is done purely in code, since that’s not something that needs to be visualised, and it’s easy to write out the relevant enemy code for each level. At the end of the day, this is a super useful dev tool that allowed me to blast through mission development efficiently and test things as quickly as possible. It's just for me though! It won't be a feature in the final game. That’s all for now! Best, Tom

When I started prototyping Gunboat God and I was figuring out the mechanics, the style was already firmly set in my mind. I knew I wanted to use a strong silhouette style with a 3D-to-2D workflow. This was a great excuse to have heaps of characters to animate to make the game burst off the screen, but it also supported the genre of the game. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/c55d28b924bff9decf3e147cf6a0c51c51385240.gif For each character-enemy, I have four enemy types to choose from. Birds (Woodlands biome), water-based (Waterways biome), boat-based mutants (Marshlands biome) and aircraft-based mutants (Ruins biome). Then I simply decide on a thematic attack and get to work on the character’s first pass animations. These are low-effort “blocking” animations that I can quickly create and export to test in the game. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/f24a204468b44e343b54c3951868c68e2914f82a.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/8aa315ac0421f7f5c43bbb28deab2a93c33e6d9b.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/a722c69084e60eced470f1e45afdfa4beb319657.gif This streamlines the entire workflow, since I know that once I’m programming the character and implementing its animations, there will be a lot of detailed adjustment to movement, attack timings, and even the size of the character. Once the “first pass” programming is done, I switch back over to “second pass” animations, which is the polishing phase. Once I’m happy with the animations, I re-export for “second pass” programming. This is my special sauce for character development. Call it a one-two-punch workflow. So the breakdown is:

• Animation first pass (animation blocking)
• Programming first pass (getting the enemy movement, behaviour, collision and effects working)
• Animation second pass (animation polish)
• Programming second pass (refining health and damage numbers, movement, etc.)

After some time strictly following this workflow and getting comfortable with it, I was able to entirely develop a character in 2-5 days, depending on the size. Some small bird or fish characters would take 2 days, and larger humanoid characters would take between 3-5 days. Reasonably streamlined! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/e7bcd6e49a16343fce3716754bfa47040752cc30.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/4b04adb2f7fe7e4930efdee1c7f83860684fcb94.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/5fe6d2cd2fe4f21bb2a0e53f39541c37c7b84f6b.gif Then there are sound effects and vocals to be implemented, but I generally work on those at random times so it gels with a lot of other development work. When I start working on a character’s animation, I first establish the “golden pose”. I take my time iterating and refining this pose, as it serves as a sort of style guide for the character’s animation set. Almost all of the characters have an idle, hit-react and attack animation, so once the golden pose is ready, those are the first things I animate. Then I move onto miscellaneous animations like airborne-flop (fish enemy), melee stab (knives enemy), or overboard and drown animations (various boat enemies). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/18cab8f537b032347f3b5ebd56974119b145dcfe.png These animations are playblasted and imported to Photoshop as individual frames, where I wrote a script to clean up and export sprite sheets that can be easily imported into Game Maker. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/9b242ca83430e4c1d192713dc4f6c1e8212a7bea.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/6208a57423c1d858b0c3fc83bd140d9300f7a29f.gif Finally, in Game Maker, the animations need to be added to their respective texture groups (eg: bird character animations, water enemy animations etc.), their pivot points and collision masks need to be set, and their frame rate needs to be set. Then on to programming. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/1f13a6d26e6e847cfac41adb025160950bc0ca3d.gif I hope this didn’t seem too glossed over. I’m restraining myself from making the blogs 100x times bigger since time is scarce. If you have any questions, let me know! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/19d48b445224b4a4493506ff15463f459cc142c2.gif Follow me for lots of juicy posts on Twitter. https://x.com/jansonRAD Also join our Discord, where we might be organising a playtest soon! https://discord.gg/vSJjCU6TsW Best, Tom

Hey everyone, We'd like to say a BIG thanks to those who took part in the playtest. We hope you and Yeti had a boatload of fun shootin' n' blastin'!

We need YOU! - to leave us your feedback

The playtest is closing later today, but you can still complete the feedback form. Your feedback is SUPER important to us - your thoughts on Gunboat God so far will really help shape our game. We want to develop our game with our players at the heart of it, so please tell us how you got on! Which mission types did you enjoy the most? Was there a part of the game you found the least fun? Did you use more than one weapon? WE WANT TO KNOW!!!

Complete the feedback form HERE

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/900dadb83083542d3a0dac49cf511843df5ac73a.gif

Come join us on Discord

We’ll always be active on here, updating you with the latest news – BUT if you did want a quicker way to hear about demos, playtests, and to chat with us, come join our Discord server. Thanks again for all your support, we can't wait to share more gunboatin' chaos with you soon!

Hey everybody,

It's TIME!

Start surfin' and shootin' in the Gunboat God playtest - live NOW! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/ccb69c9d1eca94b35c14cd014abc8d8cb067182e.gif

Head to the Steam page and click Request Access

We'd love to hear how you and Yeti get on. Help us make our game even better by leaving your feedback here: https://fireshinegames.jotform.com/232772033272956 Now get going… that Gunboat isn’t going to God itself!

THE BEGINNING

It all started with a simulated line. A jostling, bouncing line of vertices intended to simulate a basic 2D water effect. Once that was complete, I planned to make a fishing mini-game as an exercise to become acquainted with GameMaker, as I was interested in learning a new game engine. But I quickly found that I enjoyed GameMaker’s workflow a lot, so naturally I started pushing the prototype beyond the scope of a mini-game, and added movement, jumping, shooting, enemies and *shudder* a menu system. Gunboat God was born! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/6391bfc63e64160a24077ca9889032591ffea9a8.gif

STARTING SOMEWHERE

Years later, it’s eye-opening to me how much stuff in the game there is to share. I struggle with that quite a lot; when I start thinking of content to post on social media, I get a strange sort of writer’s block where it’s nearly impossible to decide what to post. There are too many options! However, today I’d like to get my feet wet with my first blog post (pun intended) and show you some water physics.

BASIC WATER

Basic water simulation is achieved by adding a line of vertices across the screen, then imparting y force on any or all of them. This gets the vertices jiggling, but it looks wild and random, like an electrified scribble. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/d3f2da7abffd1021881564eb04307c4520d8746b.gif To smooth things out, the vertices’ y force is constantly reduced by a small amount, and they also tug on their neighbour vertices. Much nicer! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/86c5841a044dd642c1490c7a2aed45d4b7466f53.gif

OPTIMISATION

Eventually I added 3 water layers with environmental detail to fill out the scene, and it was clear that the water instances needed to be optimised. So I set the number of vertices lower for the background layers, and higher for the foreground layer, although it’s very hard to tell. Each water layer only has a single “neighbour” pass. More “neighbour” passes would make the water look smoother, but no one is going to play this game on a NASA server, and again it’s basically impossible to tell, so no big deal.

SEAMLESS

Additionally, the water vertices need to be repositioned from one side of the screen to the other as the player moves around the scene, to make the water appear seamless. This repositioning happens off-screen so you never see it, but here’s a clip of shortened water to demonstrate the effect. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/1de15d31e56faf2769c35a254541c86dd8864a9b.gif

AWW, LOOK AT HIM

Now to add the boat. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/25a383f3a7a8ac869d1a23c8214a99da435c30a4.gif

REFINING

I experimented with a few different techniques for boat physics (eg: “sticky” adherence to water surface, or buoyant “slingshot” momentum on water surface), and the end result is a mishmash of all of them. The basic goals for boat physics were:

• Stay on the water surface when at rest; smoothly fall and buoyantly rise to adhere nicely to the water surface
• Left or right side of the boat dips down to stay “connected” to the water surface
• Leans to the opposite side when moving left or right
• Imparts y force on the water when shooting upward

This is a short list but it was tricky to tweak everything to get it just right. I wasn’t completely happy with boat physics until about 2 years into development. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/8e0e310ba47dfc06ea09d7105dea5382bb1a7e16.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/88d562bd675b5a3b5ca6ee9d4c15b13bedb32690.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/01c4164d183b3234771c8508ce8029c3632153a8.gif

FINISHING TOUCH

The finishing touch was to have the boat slide left and right when on the side of a wave. It adds a bit of physicality to the game-feel, which is always welcome as long as it doesn’t get in the way of functionality and it “feels” right. I calculate this horizontal sliding by checking the angle difference of a range of vertices near the boat, with nearer vertices having more weight. The final value is imparted on the boat’s x movement. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/01b9a0489fb323b6e32c7cdd2d2dcd032a4c5aa3.gif

UH OH

It wouldn’t be a water-based game if we didn’t have big waves! Here’s the maximum turbulence setting, with a “rogue wave” hazard sweeping through the scene. This is my favourite hazard in the game because it’s fun to dodge, and it’s thematic so it almost designed itself. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/82f24e163cc0820024126ef5307cfe3e199ef199.gif Best, Tom

Hey there! Welcome to the Gunboat God Steam page. If having serious amounts of fun over and over sounds like something you’d be interested in – then stick around! Here’s the deal:

Gunboat God is a shootin’, blastin’, real-good-time'n’ arcade-style game

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/850e1eae0603532f71d1a7d8ec740a7777b2cf0e.gif If you’ve come here from the PC Gaming Show, thanks for visiting! It was awesome to be featured alongside so many other wicked indie games. Chaos and thrills go hand-in-hand in our action packed shoot-em-up. Quick-fire missions and a boatload of monsters – you ready?

Meet your future best pal – Yeti the croc

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/ccb69c9d1eca94b35c14cd014abc8d8cb067182e.gif Meet your whip-smart crocodile companion, Yeti, an all-round good guy with one goal he’ll do anything to achieve: crankin’ up your Gunboat! New weapons and upgrades are kind of his thing, so if you truly want to become a super-slick baddy-destroying machine, keep Yeti on your good side.

Like what you hear? Drop us a wishlist

With more wishlists, more people see our game, which really help us smaller devs out with getting noticed. Huge thank you! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45053696/435fc457573293c81841e6fb121ae12341ab4c37.gif

Come join us on Discord

We’ll always be active on here, updating you with the latest news – BUT if you did want a quicker way to hear about demos, playtests, and to chat with us, come join our Discord server. Thank you for checking out our Steam page. We're super excited with the announcement, and we can’t wait to show you more of Gunboat God! Talk soon, captain. Tom 😊 (the dev)