Dev Blog - Nailgun Design, new animations and more! (Patreon)

Short little update about what we have been working on!

Nailgun - Troubled development
The 3D model of the Nailgun is currently in its final phase and it's final few details are being added! Hopefully I can show the full model later this upcoming week! Apologies that it's taking a little longer than intended. We've had some issues finding the right artist to get it done. We rely entirely on freelancers to get 3D models done and one of the most impressive portfolio's we have received, turned out to be fake portfolio with stolen work from another artist. After receiving a lackluster low-poly from said artist, we felt like something wasn't right, so we started digging into the artist's portfolio to figure out what was wrong. As it turns out, none of the work was his. Thankfully, no money was paid upfront so our budget did not take a hit. We managed to continue our search and managed to find an artist who was capable of even more impressive things. Eager to show more later on! So far, it's shaping up great!

For now, here is the concept art of the nailgun. Just like all guns in Selaco, the aftermath of this weapon is going to be absolutely devastating. While its Rate of Fire may not be as fast as the UC-36 Assault Rifle, a single shot of the nailgun is capable of leaving a massive trail of destruction behind and pin its targets against the wall along with a gigantic crater around the nail's point of impact. The 80-rounds Drum Magazine ensures that Dawn can wreck havoc for a long duration of time! Want to fire faster? No worries, with enough Weapon Parts you can upgrade the rate of fire and increase your damage output significantly!

Speaking of upgrades...

Upgrade System


Cockatrice is currently working on a UI for Selaco's upgrade system! I've seen the entire menu in action and - bias aside - the look and feel of the UI is not something I have ever seen before in GZDoom. In a future demonstration video we will absolutely be showing this off!

Selaco highly encourages exploration, as levels are often quite big and the amount of rooms you can explore are high. Some area's contain resources called ''Weapon Parts'', which can be used to improve the power of your weapons, among other things. On top of Passive Weapon Upgrades, there is also the option to customize the behaviour of your weapons Alternative Fire. Dont like how the default ALternative Fire of the shotgun fires both barrels at once? Why not replace it with a Flak Upgrade and instead shoot shards that ricochet off of walls?

But be careful, Dawn is not the only one who gets more powerful. The enemy will gain new tricks and abilities as you progress throughout the campaign. Don't fall behind by ignoring those precious Weapon Parts or they will give you a hard time in the late-game!

New animations
We haven given our soldiers an additional animation pass. We've adding a Stumble Animation that triggers when you shoot a soldier during their strafing state, as well as interactive Death Animations. For example, if a soldier is dying and on it's knees, they will fall over forward. However, shoot them during this animation and they will drop backwards. Cool touches like these make the shooting so much more satisfying! Below are two animations. One where I shot the target, one where I did nothing. We are adding a whole bunch of those and it feels absolutely amazing. I'm so stoked for people to finally get to play this!




Cabinet Cards

One of Selaco's features are the so called ''Storage Cabinets''. It is basically like Doom 3's Storage Lockers except instead of a code you have to remember, you carry around their personal card to unlock their storage lockers. For the longest time these were just placeholder checkerboard boxes, but we finally got around to giving them a proper texture and sound effect. The 'elevator animation' is still a bit buggy, so please try to ignore how the (placeholder) Armor pickup is already in position before the elevator gets up there.

Weapon Icons

Picking up a new gun in a first person shooter is a big deal. It's a new toy to play with, a new companion that stays with you throughout the entire campaign. To ensure maximum satisfaction, we've added glorious Weapon Icons that display on the HUD when Dawn acquires a new weapon (there's a glorious sound effect too but we'll show that off later in a gameplay video!).
A lot of gifs this week! Looking forward to show off the nailgun model in the next blog.

As usual, thank you all so much for funding this project of ours. I'm confident that there will be something to enjoy for everyone!

See you all next week.

Wesley de Waart