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 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 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 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.
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).
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
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
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
Offensive Abilities:
Pewpximity Mines – launch a mine which detonates when an enemy is within a specific proximity of it
Diarrhea Beam – unleash a beam of stool which deals continuous damage to all enemies within it
Dooklear Explosion – cover the entire screen in an explosion of stool, instantly killing any weak enemies
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 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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