Candy Cane Crackshot (Text)
A (Hypothetical) Game About Giving People Christmas Candy, Violently.
Every gun is a candy cane, specifically, the candy cane shaped tubes that are often filled with other candie and given as stocking stuffers. Each type of candy these may be filled with is a different type of ammunition. Candy canes come in three sizes, Small, Medium, and Large, alongside melees. A brief list of these:
Revolvers - 6 Shots. Short reload in between, somewhat more powerful than Semi Auto
Semi Autos - 12 Shots. Has small start-up time .
Reeses Cups (Stuns enemies people who are being given candy)- Revolver
Gum Drops - Rapid fire (20 shots. Very quick, less damage than Semi Auto)
Kit-Kat (Piercing Shots) - Semi Auto
Hersheyettes (Birdshot)- Shotgun (3 Shots. Slightly longer reload than revolver)
Twix - One Shot (1 Shot. Needs to charge before firing)
Skittles (Birdshot)- Revolver
Lick-Sharpened Candy Canes (Come in groups of three. Single use each. Throwable a short distance, or useable for melee)
Peppermint Baton (5 Hits before breaking. Stuns enemies)
Giant Plastic Decorative Candy Cane (4 Hits before breaking. Very long range)
Movement is based around sliding (You are wearing shoes with ice on the bottom designed to slide). Most movement shooters, at least to my knowledge, focus a lot on vertical movement so I want to focus more on horizontal movement. You build up a combo by skillfully sliding (i.e. not crashing, doing “cool” sliding moves) and lose combo upon crashing into a wall or enemy. Taking damage does not reduce your combo. Getting a combo means you fill your “powerslide” meter. Your weapon is lost when you run out of ammo (or breaks for the melees) or when you crash. The game freezes when your weapon is lost as you may select a new one from your belt.
Your belt, being your inventory, is always visible at the bottom of the screen. Knowing what weapons you have available at all times is crucial for planning. Weapons are obtained from either picking them up from around the playing field, or from Santa. (One new weapon is given to you every minute, directly into your inventory)
Combat works on a parry system. You are constantly moving and aim wherever you are looking, so a good amount of the time, you will be sliding directly towards an enemy. Your aim is to hit the enemy at the best effective range for your cane. Each individual cane has a closeness to the enemy in which it is most effective (it will grant critical damage). More generally, they are better based on their size category (Smalls work best at close range, large at long range).
Once you fire, you will recoil, and start moving the opposite direction that you fired the gun from. More technically it would be a combination of the direction you were going in combination with the direction of the recoil from the gun. If you are looking in the direction you are sliding and shooting, you simply recoil straight backwards, if you were sliding sideways and shot, you would move in a backwards diagonal being half the difference in angle between the direction you were initially sliding and the recoil of the gun. For example, if you were standing at a 90° angle relative to the direction in which you are sliding, upon shooting you would begin moving at an angle of -45°.
Upon recoiling, you will be sliding in a different direction from which you started. In order to maintain engagement on an enemy, you can do a “powerslide” in the direction you are facing to shift your sliding momentum into that direction. This partially drains your powerslide meter. At max, the meter contains 3 powerslides. It fills continuously as long as you have a combo going. Generally, each enemy shouldn’t need to have a powerslide used on them, but in the case you are playing very suboptimally, the powerslides can be used to course correct and re-engage an enemy. Bosses will generally require at least a few powerslides to be used on them, lest you continually crash into the walls and deplete your weapons and health.
This movement system is designed to be awkward, but it’s also meant to encourage a very parry and pogo heavy playstyle. If you don’t kill effectively give christmas candy to an enemy the first time, just bounce to the next guy and you'll get a chance to give candy again in just a moment. It’s a system that’s weird, and potentially hard to master, but can be figured out to effectively make light work of the enemies. Note that none of the enemies are sliding, only you are. While not stationary, your adversaries’ slower movement makes it easier to plan your movements around them. The recoil system is also a bit fudged, if your mathematically decided angle is within 10° (on either side, for a total of 20°) of your angle with another enemy, you will “autocorrect” to that angle for an easier parry.
So strap on your Ice Shoes, Tighten your Belt, Grab a Cane, and Get Giving! (Coming to Steam 21XX, or never).
