Daily Design: Day 180

Daily Design is a series of game concepts devised daily through all of 2016. These are just basic concepts, designed based on randomly generated words. Today, they are; 

Train, Six and Anarchy.

As such, the game I’ve designed today is…

Six Shooter

Six Shooter is a multiplayer shooter where 6 players compete to kill each other with armoured (and armed) trains. Every player is confined to the same network of tracks, though they all start at very different ends of it.

Trains can fire to either side, like an 18th century ship. While they can also fire directly forward, the front-facing cannon does relatively very little damage. The best way to deal damage to enemies, though, is to ram them – ramming their side will immediately destroy them, and ramming from behind will do huge damage (tee hee). In a head-on collision, both trains are destroyed.

Cannons will deal damage according to where they hit – hitting a train from the front or back does huge damage, and hitting them on the side does relatively little. Side cannons can’t be manually aimed, but if they manage to hit a cannon it will be disabled for the remainder of the match. The front-facing cannon can be aimed manually, and while it doesn’t do much damage it can be used to easily destroy equipment on enemy trains.

To get around, players can utilize turntables scattered about the map. Staying on one lets them rotate in any direction until they’re aligned with a track, which lets players move more tactically. While there are quite a few turntables to use, your train is quite vulnerable while using one.

Finally, after a short time period the map will begin to close in. Tracks will be dramatically uprooted and fly into the air, an effect that begins at the furthest edge of the map and works its way inward. This is used to make sure matches don’t run for too long, especially when it comes down to just two players.

This is also a game that lends itself well to cosmetic rewards, as trains are easily and heavily customisable. Playing games online should reward an in-game currency that can be spent on cosmetics, though winning shouldn’t grant significantly more than losing. This is a game about having a fun, chaotic mess of a time, so winning should never be the priority over simply having a crazy match.

That’s it! Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow with another quick game concept.