Today we take a quick look at a video from the first encounter — Beach Bum Biff — of the second world of Captain Quack — Sun Nova Beach.
As you may guess from the title, this world takes place on the southern coastline, or beach, of the world which Quack inhabits. You’ll meet some crazy characters in this area, the first of which is Beach Bum Biff.
He and his horde of crabs roam the beach all day and night, relaxing to the sweet sounds of his ukulele. This video is nothing more than a tease of some simple animations, the lovely view of the beach and one of the many different background music choices for the area.
I have another quick look and update on some Quack stuffs for you. Today I’ll briefly discuss how boss encounters work for Quack, and give you a glimpse of the first boss of the game.
Weed Whackin’ Walt
So this here guy is Weed Whackin’ Walt. He’s the first boss of the game, and the groundskeeper of the Parklands (the first area of the game). He may be old, but he’s well seasoned and has many tools in the ole shed (ZING).
Bosses work a little differently than a typical encounter does in Quack:
They begin in attack mode, skipping the cloud mode part of the fight entirely. Right from the word “Go!” you’re in for an intense fight.
They consist of multiple phases. The fight evolves as you progress in the encounter.
Beating a boss unlocks a new ability or attack type. Once you’ve unlocked it, you can use it retroactively in the game.
And that’s about it. But enough jib-jab, go ahead and check out the video below to see a bit of the fight in action!
In future updates, we’ll take a look at some new areas and enemies, and also go into detail on various mechanics of the game.
Not a huge update today, but hopefully an informative one. We’ll talk a little about what the heck you do gameplay wise in Quack, and then we’ll take another look at some footage! Let’s get quackin’.
SO! FIRST OFF. What is going on in this game? Well, it comes in two parts:
The first portion of the gameplay takes place during what is called “cloud mode“.
During this mode, Quack is incognito in his cloud and is unseen by the world and its inhabitants.
In cloud mode the player needs to interact with the environment of the level in order to expose the enemy’s weakness. This typically involves a lot of rapid tapping (or clicking for PC users) on specific objects during small time frames. But what do you need to interact with? That’s where Quack’s trusty ear horn comes into play.
While Quack is in cloud mode, he can don the ear horn to listen for clues as to what you may need to do to uncover the enemy’s weakness. Simply tapping (or clicking) anywhere on the screen while using it will give visual and audible clues to the player. Hear a ding or see a shine? That’s probably something you need to interact with at some point.
You can consider using the ear horn as somewhat of a hint system, but it’s not going to hold your hand. You’ll have to observe and solve the puzzles for yourself as well.
When the enemy becomes vulnerable you’ll move into the game’s second phase of gameplay — ATTACK MODE!
When you shift into attack mode, the gameplay changes up somewhat drastically. Instead of solving puzzles and turbo tapping with precision, you need to unleash a stool storm in an arcade shooter/bullethell type of environment.
What this means is that you’ll need to DODGE A LOT OF STUFF and UTILIZE YOUR ATTACK TYPES and ABILITIES! Speaking of attack types and abilities…
Quack has a number of different types of attacks, but for today we will focus on three: normal, spread, and beam.
Normal simply shoots straight down.
Spread shoots two smaller bullets down at an angle and does less damage than a normal shot.
Successful hits of either of these two attacks will build up your special attack meter, which powers…
The Beam attack. This shoots a large and wide beam of stool down for as long as you have the special resources for it. It does very high damage but it depletes quickly!
These So what about abilities?
Quack can obtain a number of different types of abilities, but the two we will focus on today are: shield and teleport. Quack can only equip one ability at a once, but they can be swapped at any time during gameplay.
All of the abilities have a cooldown on use so you can’t just frolic through the game spamming them constantly.
Shield creates a shell of invulnerability around Quack for a short period of time, making him immune to all incoming damage for its duration.
Teleport will instantly send quack to the end of the screen in whichever direction you are moving. Very useful for a quick escape or if you need to get somewhere quick to pump out some damage.
Utilizing all of these things to your advantage can help you defeat even the most difficult of encounters. When the enemy’s health hits zero, it’s a glorious victory for Quack and another step towards his ultimate revenge.
I hope this information gives you a bit more of an idea of what you can expect when playing the game. As promised, here’s a fresh look at some in-game footage. The footage takes a look at Newspaper Ned, the third encounter in the Parklands area of the game.
Work continues to move along with our main project, “Captain Quack: I Pity the Stool”. All of the game mechanics are fleshed out and working as intended. The storyline and game’s progression is all laid out. Really all that is left to do is the artwork and finish up some enemy A.I.
With that being said, we’ll also have a lot of promotional material to work on because we’re planning on launching a crowdfunding campaign for the game in the next couple of months! This means a lot of work for us, but it also means a lot more consistent updates about the game for you.
Shortly in the future, we’re going to feature some updates that demonstrate and explain various parts of the game and how the gameplay actually WORKS (as I know by simply watching a video it may be a little confusing). The goal is to make sure you’re able to have a clear idea of what this game is, and where it is headed BEFORE any crowdfunding campaign is launched.
In the meantime, please check out this new footage of an internal build of the game. There is still some placeholder art (mainly character and enemy art), but it should be enough to give you an idea of the gameplay and what to expect soon.
Thanks!
P.S.
Work on Hobo Train also is progressing, but we want to make sure it’s a lot more polished and there’s plenty of it to show off before we talk more about it. (BUT IT’S FREAKING COOL.)
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