R.P.G. Rocket Propelled Guts

R.P.G. Rocket Propelled Guts is a multiplayer PC game by Mooneyman Studios. Released on 23rd July, 2008 and created entirely by Mark Radon using Multimedia Fusion 2, R.P.G. was successful in winning The Daily Click's 290th Game Of The Week award. The game was popular with members of The Daily Click community and to date has been downloaded over 300 times.

"The R.P.G. Rocket Propelled Guts logo"

The game is a top-down deathmatch style shoot-em-up and can be played by 2, 3 or 4 players in one of seven game modes over 11 detailed maps. Players can take advantage of 8 stomach-ripping weapons whilst using the 3 power-ups to bolster their own defences.

History

The gameplay formula has been refined by Radon for over a decade. The first game to use this formula was a single level demo called "DeathMatch Arena" whilst Radon was at Hereford Sixth Form College between 1997 and 1999. Viewed directly from above, the graphics were crude and resembled Gauntlet whilst attempting to emulate the multiplayer gameplay stylings of id Software's Quake.

A sequel quickly followed (titled "DeathMatch Arena 2") that was viewed from a more diagnal version of the traditional top-down viewpoint. Doubling the level total to two, the game was a huge success amongst Radon's friends at lunchtimes. In fact, Radon's good friend, Steve Taylor, had bought Goldeneye for his N64 at around the same time, yet for around a month it gathered dust in his bedroom whilst the popularity of DeathMatch Arena 2 was at its highest.

Eventually, the two level DeathMatch Arena 2 had run its course and Radon began work on DeathMatch Arena 3 after finishing college. The game was in development limbo for many months and eventually was forgotten. Off and on for many years after, Radon attempted to rekindle the magic with a new DeathMatch Arena game, however the spark had gone and little came of his efforts.

"The Thunder Rifle is no match for the Shield"

Motivation

Towards the end of 2006, Radon began work on a new, un-named multiplayer deathmatch game. The years in between DeathMatch Arena 3 and this new game had allowed Radon to develop his coding skills, graphical prowess and sound effects techniques. He quickly realised during early development that this was going to be the multiplayer game he had always wanted DeathMatch Arena to be and his motivation hardly dipped during its whole 15 month creation.

It was only after a year in development that the name, R.P.G. Rocket Propelled Guts, was given to the new action game.

"A scene involving three players in a Hold The Flag match"

Graphics

Unlike the hand drawn and rather crude background graphics of the DeathMatch Arena trilogy, the new game utilised high-quality textures created from photographs of real-life materials. The game was designed to be much more grittier and realistic than the DeathMatch Arena games and the new graphical style succeeded in reflecting this. Many car journeys were interupted by pulling over and taking photos of old church stone walls, grassy fields and rusty metal work. Nearly a hundred of these textures were used over the 11 maps within the game.

R.P.G. moved back to the traditional overhead top-down viewpoint. However, this time the game used pseudo-3D backdrops. 3D model software was utilised to render certain parts of buildings and objects that littered the game worlds. The graphics were a vast improvement over the flat and lifeless DeathMatch Arena levels.

Another huge improvement in the graphical department was the introduction of "alpha objects". With the help of -CodeMonkey-, Radon was able to make gun-barrel flames, plasma weapon fire and explosions come to life with the help of Multimedia Fusion 2's alpha channels and "add" ink-effects. The weapons truly looked more special when compared to the older trilogy' efforts!

"Alpha channels play their part in bringing the explosion sprites to life"

Gameplay

R.P.G. featured 7 diverse game modes; Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Team Hold The Flag, Team Zones, Deathtag, There Can Only Be One and Rocket Arena. Of all the game modes, the most original was the hugely popular Team Zones. In this game, players were divided into red and blue teams and fought to destroy the oppositions energy generator. These energy generator powered re-generation zones that increased the life of that team's players to 200, where-as opposing players would explode if they dared enter. Once a generator was destroyed (via heavy gun fire), the attacking team would begin to score heavy points. The only way the defending team can stop the attackers from scoring off them, whilst repairing their own generator, is to become attackers themselves and destroy the oppositions generator. The game ends when one team reaches the pre-determined score limit.

In all game modes, the gameplay pace is fast and furious. As well as the 8 weapons available, 3 power-ups can increase the attacking chances of players. Whether it be the Stealth suit (making players near-invisible), the Suicide button (where enemies would explode themselves if attampting to fire) or the Shield icon (creating a 30-second forcefield around the fortunate player).

"Player 2 barely manages to not get hit by Plasma Rifle gun-fire"

Acclaim

Upon uploading to The Daily Click website, the game quickly received ratings of 4 and 5 out of 5 star scores. The game currently has a 4.18/5 star average rating and is in 44th place in The Daily Clicks' rankings. A review posted by Martin Bodger on the website awarded the game a superb 9/10.

The game did receive some justified complaints however, including some minor bugs and the lack of computer controlled bots or online multiplayer support.

"The Desert Strike map plays host to another Deathmatch"

[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HBonIhc887I YouTube Trailer: R.P.G. Rocket Propelled Guts]

[http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=7265 Download: R.P.G. Rocket Propelled Guts]

[http://www.create-games.com/home.asp Homepage: The Daily Click]

[http://www.clickteam.com/eng/index.php Homepage: Clickteam]

() 21:15, 4 October 2008 (UTC)