Don’t think I want the snowbot firing constantly – might make it more arcadey than I’m going for. But the basic idea could work: you could click one button to set the turret’s direction, and use the other to move. It could then shoot anything hostile in range and firing arc.

Right now, though, I think I’ve got the current controls working better – there’s now a marker where you clicked, so you can see how long you’ve got to concentrate on firing before you have to deal with movement again. It’s not the most elegant system in the world, but to me the difficulties that stem from it don’t feel cheap, it’s about as hard as it actually would be to aim the other way while running, say.

Haven’t given up on Gunpoint, but I do seem to have slowed down. One of the reasons I’m doing Ludum Dare is to refresh my enthusiasm for it, finish something easier first like I probably should have done when everyone told me to at the start of Gunpoint’s development. The two day limit means this can’t distract from Gunpoint any longer than I intended.

You could also color-code the shield rings; from one color to another (for example: innermost is yellow while the outer ring is blue) or a different color every ring (ex. even rings are red, odd rings blue). This way you can make the rings smaller and people will still notice the health meter!

Hope I helped.

(Again, Tom, are you still working on that detective game?)

Haven’t decided yet, but if possible I’d like a Discovery element where I don’t have to hand-make all the things you can discover, so bespoke mechanics might be too expensive.

Every enemy has an invulnerable shield. They also have a different set of rules describing their movement and how you can get past their shield, which you need to figure out Zendo-style.

Examples!

The green enemies’ shield visibly doesn’t cover their rear 90 degree arc. They try to move continuously towards you and run you over but have a wide turning circle.

Red enemies are blind and fire in a set direction every second or so. They are invulnerable except for their forward 45 degree arc. Whenever you fire a shot, they turn to face the source of the noise.

And so on.