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Knock Off: BOOMerang

Having just developed a weapon based on a bouncy ball, I decided to delve further into the world of real-world projectiles which could be fun to use in a game. When designing the bounce ball I considered the idea of catching the ball or having it return to you in some way. I ultimately didn't add that functionality to the design as I felt that that additional element overcomplicated it. I still liked the idea of a returning weapon though and so of course my mind jumped to the iconic boomerang. After doing some research into boomerangs and their depictions in other games, I quickly noted that I would have to leave all semblance of reality behind. In real life, boomerangs do not return to you if they hit something, of course, but that sort of ruins the fun of the boomerang, it might as well just be a sharp stick at that point. Also, a boomerang hitting something, or someone, and then coming straight back to you is equally as pointless gameplay-wise. Having it work that way is just a slightly more convoluted cooldown system, the duration of which scales with how far away your target is, which is no fun. Bearing this in mind I made the decision that A) the boomerang needed to magically navigate its way back to you after hitting something, and B) the boomerang must pass through enemies so that it can hit multiple and hit the same enemy multiple times e.g. once on the way out and once on the way back. This would allow the weapon to provide exciting and unique gameplay while remaining intuitive and easy to use.

As you can see here in my documentation, the primary fire mode is the classic boomerang throw, except with the added fantastical features I mentioned earlier. I also opted to allow the player to recall the boomerang to themselves early as this will serve as a handy quality of life feature. If you throw the boomerang and miss, you don't want to have to wait around for it to reach max range or hit a wall before returning to you so you can throw it again. Being able to return the boomerang early also opens up opportunities for skill expression, as it allows players to potentially hit an enemy, reposition, and then recall the boomerang to quickly hit them a second time, resulting in an even bigger knock back and an extended stun.

Real boomerangs don't move in a straight line, they travel in a large arc before returning to the thrower. Due to this, our primary fire mode is actually more similar to a sort of magical frisbee. I still wanted to represent the arcing path of a real boomerang somehow and so for the secondary fire mode I opted to have the player simply throw it in a small ring around themselves. In truth, this acts more as a melee attack than anything else, but it still provides a flavourful second option, the close range of which counterbalances the slower, longer journey of the primary.

I could have very easily just made this weapon apply force in the same way that the bounce ball does. Honestly though, I just love a good pun. That's right, its an explosive weapon just so I have an excuse to call it a BOOMerang. That's the cool thing about this project though. I love grim, dark, serious games. That is where I am most at home. But the light, cartoonish, eccentric nature of this game allows me to explore my silly side and base design decisions on the fact that I think something is funny and I think the players will find it funny too. Not everything has to be high art. Not everything has to tell a story. Sometimes it can just be dumb and fun. That's what this game is about.


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