Hired Guns: Your memories (plus some fun fan-created stuff!)

[Cherno]

I won't release these kind of piecemeal versions. Instead, I will wait until I have something more substantial to show and upload that. It's still a long road to get to this point, but luckily virtually all the needed elements are there; they only have to be combined into one game. That's the advantage of having worked on so many different projects in the past

[Cherno]

Hello, short update: I'm currently working on gun code, it's a little bit complicated because the whole item system is designed to be easily configurable (you will be able to add your own items, or edit existing ones), and because the RPG-style item management via the inventory (as opposed to just hitting a number key like a normal FPS).

Anyway, progress is being made and I am already able to equip weapons, fire & reload them. Next task is implementing different ammo types (AP, HP etc.), which should only take a few hours because the code base is already there from an earlier project of mine, I just have to adapt it to the Hired Guns project.

Another thing: If anyone, especially 2d & 3d artists, wants to contribute, drop me a line There is a lot to do like inventory icons, weapons (world + view models), a Psi-Amp model, character models, enemies, eggs, ...

[Predseda]

Would it be possible just to take the existing graphics and enhance it (add more details in higher res + more colours)?

[Cherno]

I doubt that it would be efficient, and I already made hi-res versions of the UI graphics. The character sprites can't be used because they are so low-res and are only drawn from four angles as opposed to the 8 angles which is standard for FPS games since at least Wolfenstein 3D The item icons could just be renders of the models, of course, but I would have to make the models first!

[Cherno]

Hello all,

I'm currently implementing AI so the player has something to shoot at when playing a map. Here are some things I still have to do before I release a demo

- Monster spawner (eggs)
- Water going up & down / waves
- Keys
- Pushable blocks
- Falling damage
- Force fields

I did a lot of those in my previous attempts, but those were mostly ugly "just-get-it-done" jobs that had serious physics problems (the blocks in particular). This time around, I want to do it properly

[Predseda]

Last time I played your demo it was quite enjoyable.

[Cherno]

Hello, nothing interesting to say at the moment, I have worked a lot on the game but it was mostly behind the scenes stuff like editor functionality but important nonetheless. Now that I look at that todo list I had written above, I have to say that I I didn'T work on any of these things I listed But it's what I will attempt for the next development session. Stay tuned as always

[Predseda]

I am tuned.

[Lord Aga]

Me too Always keeping at least one eye on your projects. Sometimes even three or four !

[Cherno]

Forcefields and water/underwater effect/waves are done, including item damage (items won't be destroyed completely, they will stay at 1% condition). That means they are pretty much useless since I plan to handle it like Fallout 3 where a gun with low condition will jam every shot and have minimal damage. Similar effects would go for healing items etc. until they are repaired with a Repair Psi-Amp, for example.
Currently I'm working on a grenade throwing system. I might implement a visible curve indicator to show the approximate way the grenade will travel when thrown, depending on the force applied. If you have played Gears of War, it'll be like this. This indicator will supplant the clock face cursor from the original HG game.

[Cherno]

I spent the last three days on the sentry guns, and they are pretty much finished apart from texturering. They can be in the level as enemies or deployed by the player if he carries a auto sentry kit. Both uni-directional and multi-directional models are supported, of course It comes with a laser sight that works as the sensor. Step into the laser and the gun starts shooting. The laser is red if the sentry gun is hostile nad green if it is allied. So far, it's weapon is a rapid-fire machine gun, I think the fireballs from the original were lame :P

I wonder how the characters could be made more different, maybe give each one a special ability? Apart from needing no air underwater, the starting equipment and some stats there wasn't much variation which is a shame considering each mercenary had his or her own backstory in one of the manuals. It could be a simple proficiency bonus like dealing more damage with grenades, or something, I think the LucasArts game Outlaws did it too.
Any ideas?

[Predseda]

Sentry guns and other enemies - do you plan them to be animated a bit, or static like in the original game?

[Cherno]

They will be fully animated. Of course, the sentry guns will only turn their turrets around (and aim their guns, if they have a target).
However, for the other monsters and characters, this is more like a wish since I don't think I can create the necessarry assets myself. Maybe some other fans with the required skills will agree to help with the models while I'm programming the game

[Cherno]

Hello all,

still working on the game. I'm currently refining the character controls. It's surprising how complex a basic ARPG interface is; even things like equipping items, switching weapons, realoading (let alone actually firing guns) take a lot of time to implement.

Here is a picture of the a sentry firing. It isn't textured yet. The model is designed so it can fold down into a handy package to carry around before deploying.

While looking for some of my old Hired Guns art to use as test assets (and possibly another big painting for the office) I stumbled across your page. It is hard to imagine that I started working on the original game 24 years ago. How is your Unity version coming along?

[Predseda]

You were a part of the original team?

[Predseda]

He he, the answer is obviously YES. So dear EABers, boltthunderhuge is no one else than Graeme Anderson, Hired Guns graphics artist and he kindly agreed to answer some questions. Here is a link to the EAB thread, where you can find our interview.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...50#post1111650

[Cherno]

Originally Posted by boltthunderhuge

While looking for some of my old Hired Guns art to use as test assets (and possibly another big painting for the office) I stumbled across your page. It is hard to imagine that I started working on the original game 24 years ago. How is your Unity version coming along?

I have to apologize, I didn't notice someone posted in this thread!

It's good to see another DMA developer finding his way here to this forum. As you can plainly see, Hired Guns has cult status among the Amiga users of old.

As for how my Unity version is coming along: I'll try to explain, but it might be a little bit chaotic, just as my workflow

The map editor and map system I developed for Hired Guns is also in use for several other projects and it saw a major update a few months ago. HG itself is in a quite advanced stage; I have to update it to the latest map engine version, but major things like the GUI is largely functional. I'm especially proud of the fact that controllers are fully supported, as are four players for couch coop mode. The thing I am stuck on are the visual assets; the environment graphics and models I can do, but things like characters are outside my abilities. So, I think before I release a new demo I will just put in some very simple placeholders without any animations, because a lot of functionality is already there (for example, you can pick up a sentry gun crate and set it up).

[Cherno]

I just found a screenshot of an early version of Hired Guns:



From here:

http://www.nostalgianerd.com/from-dm...-of-dma-design

I can't make sense of of the UI elements, like the LIFE / SCAN, the XXXX 0.00, and the offset vertical scala.

Edit: Also, one thing that came to my mind about the original plot of Hired Guns (four mercenaries being sent to a planet to rescue hostages, while the real reason is to pit them against genetically engineered monsters) is that it's similar to the premise of Predator, where the Black Ops team is sent to rescue hostages while their actual mission is to find CIA operatives gone missing, and find themselves being hunted by the titular creature.

[Anakirob]

The wikipedia entry for Hired Guns, as well as the above post suggest the plot involved a sham hostage rescue mission.

But I seem to recall that the mission these mercenaries were sent on was to dispose of four faulty reactor cores before they melt down and destroy the planet. Indeed the objective of the game (which I've completed more than once) is to obtain these cores and dump them in the appropriate recepticle in the final mission. I once had the original game with all the documentation, and I don't recall anything about a hostage rescue mission.

Can someone shed some light on this?