Quack – Weapons and Abilities

Today I’d like to offer you folks a quick look at the weapons and abilities systems within Captain Quack. These two systems work in synergy to bring a great deal of depth and strategy to what looks like a simple game on the surface.

The main goal of both weapons and abilities is to provide fun and useful things to the player, but also present the restriction of choice.

You can unlock any of them in any order (provided you have a token to redeem), but will NOT be able to unlock all of them in one play through. Some of them are strong on their own, some pair very well when used together.

First off, let’s talk about the weapons. There are three unlockable weapons to choose from in the game.

The Weapon Wheel
The Weapon Wheel

The charge shot adds the ability to… well… charge up your normal attack! It is a great source of single-target damage that you can “weave” into your normal attacks.

The Charge Shot
The Charge Shot

The spread shot splits your shot into three weaker projectiles. It is a reliable attack to use when you want to cover multiple areas with a specific angle.

The Spread Shot
The Spread Shot

The missile barrage continuously fires a sporadic stream of weak attacks in a general direction. It’s not the most accurate attack, but it is the go-to choice when you’re unable to line up a direct shot and need to attack while on the move.

The Missile Barrage
The Missile Barrage

Next up, the abilities. There are a total of ten different abilities to choose from. These are unlocked by redeeming a token of insight, which you receive from reaching milestones within the game (ex: defeating a boss for the first time).

The Ability Wheel
The Ability Wheel

While you can swap abilities that you have unlocked at any given time during gameplay, you can only have one ability active at any one time, and must wait for the respective cooldown on your ability to finish before using any other that you swap to. Let’s break these down into three categories: utility, defensive, and offensive.

Utility Abilities:

Teleport – instantly teleport a far distance in the direction that you are facing

Double Damage – temporarily double all of your damage dealt

Ghost Pepper – temporarily enhance your stool with acidic power, which leaves a damage over time effect on anyone that you hit

Ghost Pepper leaves a damage-over-time effect on your enemies.
Ghost Pepper leaves a damage-over-time effect on your enemies.

Haste – significantly increase your movement speed, acceleration and deceleration for a limited time

Defensive Abilities:

Shield Orb – grants you immunity from all sources of damage while active

The Shield Orb protects Quack from all damage while active.
The Shield Orb protects Quack from all damage while active.

First Aid – passively regenerate any lost health over time

Guardian Angel – upon taking damage that would normally kill you, you are instead saved and restored to full health

Instead of death, the Guardian Angel saves Quack and restores him to full health.
Instead of death, the Guardian Angel saves Quack and restores him to full health.

Offensive Abilities:

Pewpximity Mines – launch a mine which detonates when an enemy is within a specific proximity of it

Pewpximity Mines explode when enemies come close.
Pewpximity Mines explode when enemies come close.

Diarrhea Beam – unleash a beam of stool which deals continuous damage to all enemies within it

The dreaded Diarrhea Beam does big damage to enemies within it.
The dreaded Diarrhea Beam does big damage to enemies within it.

Dooklear Explosion – cover the entire screen in an explosion of stool, instantly killing any weak enemies

The Dooklear Explosion covers the screen in stool, instantly killing weak enemies.
The Dooklear Explosion covers the screen in stool, instantly killing weak enemies.
Afterwards, a friendly squeegee cleans things up for you.
Afterwards, a friendly squeegee cleans things up for you.

Some of these may sound much more useful than others, but again it’s important to keep in mind synergy, as well as the fact that all of these abilities have different cooldown lengths associated with them.

One last thing… I’ve implemented an achievement system within the game! This works similarly to these types of systems within other games or marketplaces (WoW, Steam, Gamejolt, etc.).

When you do special stuff, respective achievements are unlocked.
When you do special stuff, respective achievements are unlocked.

When you do something fun or cool within the game, you may unlock the associated achievement. These range from dumb things like your first failure, to monumental things like defeating a boss without taking any damage.

Don’t forget to support/share our Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight campaigns. You check out an early version of the game via the browser-based demo on GameJolt (note: you’ll need to create a GJ account, but it’s worth it. I promise!).

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