Free-to-play workforce shooter Dirty Bomb by no means drew the crowds it deserved. Slightly wonky enterprise mannequin apart (now now not a difficulty – the game is proper-free now), it was quick, satisfying and skilful stuff. Not shocking, as builders Splash Damage are as veteran as they arrive – they’re the crew behind the wonderful Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory again in 2003, and several other iterations on the formulation since. They’ve received lots to show, and have launched their unique design doc for the game (previously unique to Kickstarter backers) free for all. Grab it, an art-book and the game’s soundtrack here.
I need to tip my (imaginary) hat to Splash Damage for dealing with this so nicely. Dirty Bomb’s ultimate ‘version 1.0’ replace glided by virtually with out fanfare, regardless of the years of labor and energy that went into it. Making the game free and releasing the design doc are each class acts, and will give hopeful up-and-coming builders a bit extra perception into how a aggressive shooter will get made. Between that and the game itself being obtainable to poke round free, it acts as a superb case research for anybody pondering of following in Slash Damage’s footsteps, and establish what might not have labored so nicely.
The design doc itself is a large 300+ web page e book, dense with graphs, math and deep dives on basic style ideas. There are explanations on precisely how recoil works within the game, how accuracy is affected by motion and aiming states and loads of intelligent bits of grey-box map design. If you wish to see how a multiplayer map goes from first ideas to completed and closely playtested house, it’s an awesome little learn, and also you would possibly even choose up some tips. Some of the character profile pages are good for amusing, too – sassy swordsman Phantom was apparently envisioned as half Deadpool, half Brony.
You can seize the books and soundtrack here, and in case you’ve by some means not performed it but, Dirty Bomb remains to be semi-decently populated, and now solely free. No microtransactions, and new character unlocks come rapidly. Grab it here on Steam.
