Hello all,
After last week’s Flame Over reveal, now I’d like to talk a bit more about some of the gameplay systems it features.
At its heart, Flame Over is an action game about putting out fires against the clock. In practice this means racing around each level, finding your way through its nooks and crannies to rescue workers and cats and – most importantly – to put out every single fire, every single time!
At the start of each Flame Over level, your hero Blaze Carruthers begins in a safe area, away from the flames. He’ll return there once all fires are out in order to exit the level. However, in the meantime there’s the small problem of controlling a raging inferno and rescuing workers and cats from the merciless flames!
When you start a level in Flame Over its structure is unknown and all rooms outside the safe area are veiled in blackness until you have entered them for the first time. To help you find your way around you have a mini map which gives you a clue to surrounding room layouts and helps you find important stuff like water sources, extinguishers and axes, all of which you’ll need to beat each level.
You also have a thermometer that allows you to play a game of ‘hotter or colder’ with the fires. As you near a heat source the mercury will rise. As you move away, it’ll sink back down. Using the map and thermometer you’ll need to prioritise your route through the level to get everything done in time.
The screens in this blog post show these elements in action, but please bear in mind these images are are very much ‘work in progress’, with many GUI and other graphical elements either missing or placeholder. :)
Above: Your game area starts off filled with mysterious blackness. The mini-map in the bottom left shows that are rooms to your east, west and south you’re yet to discover. The thermometer is high, so a fire must be very close by!
As you run around the rooms and corridors you’ll come across office workers and cats in need of rescue. Rescuing people is super-important as each one returned to the safe area tops up your time, while each worker lost means a hefty time deduction, and with it, maybe game over!
Cats, while not so critical, can be returned to earn Blaze a much needed point of HP. And you’ll need it, because in Flame Over there are a lot of ways to lose health…
Above: You enter the room, and can see that your thermometer was right: a well established fire in a kitchen! Time for action!!
As you make your panicked way through the game you’ll obviously be using your hose, extinguisher and axe to get the job done. Controls are very simple and in the traditional ‘twin stick’ tradition but you’ll need to keep an eye on your water, foam and axe levels. All your equipment will run out in time, so keeping tabs on nearby water sources and extinguisher points will also prove vital if you’re to make it beyond the first level or two.
I think that’s enough for this week. :) Next week I’ll be explaining Flame Over’s fire system in more depth, so be sure to come back to the LJ blog then. For more details on other game features and inside info, be sure to keep an eye on the blog and our Twitter feed and Facebook pages in the coming weeks.
For now, I’d best get back to fire fighting. Bye! ^^
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