Gameplay Trailer: Gunpoint

By: Derek Yu

On: January 23rd, 2012

Tom Francis has turned to the dark side – in his spare time, the PC Gamer UK editor has been developing his own game, Gunpoint, a noir-ish stealth title that involves, among other things, knocking people through plate glass windows and playing around with high-tech electronic gizmos. Check out the above video, in which Tom talks us through the first few missions. It was posted a couple months ago, so the question of whether to charge for Gunpoint has been mostly answered (yes, but at a low price, with a substantial free version). That said, I don’t think developers have ever been adverse to hearing from more people who want to pay for their games.

Gunpoint is a finalist for the IGF Excellence in Design award.

Posted in Platformers, Previews, Videos, Windows | Tags: TomFrancis

http://s.hryx.net/ hryx

So cute when he falls on his face and makes a THOOMP!
Bobus Doleus

I want a similar game but with random, procedurally generated missions and infinitely grind-able upgrades.
News

what’s the point
Bwich

And what is the name of tha game?
Gupster

so the editor of pcgamer, and the owner of tigsource, and the pet project of the IGF execs dear esther, are all up for big prizes against 100 games that are better. IGF should fuck themselves. Everybody should know these fools are just gladhanding themselves press and trophies and prizes. IGF is a fraud
Gupster

IGF Excellence in working for the press award = Gunpoit
IGF Excellence in being my own project award = Dear Esther
IGF Excellence in running TIGSOURce = Spelunky
IGF Excellence in being my pal = FEZ
Bobus Doleus

I… What?
http://laserbrainstudios.com Christian Knudsen

I believe you can download it from http://www.iwhat-thegame.com
123

http://www.mediafire.com/file/81m85ktdfczs4mz/The.Humble.Indie.Bundle.Steam.KeyGen-ExOdiuS.rar
All 4 Indie Bundle
http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

“100 games that are better”

Write out the names of the 100 games and if they’re good I’ll post them on the front page with a note telling people that these are your top picks for IGF this year.
Dialock

I like turtles
Corin Dennison

I know what you are trying to say and it might even be true, but I happen to think Spelunky was a fantastic game, well deserving of any awards it might win, and Gunpoint looks sweet.
http://twitter.com/estebanfeldman Eka

Saboteur!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saboteur_%281985_video_game%29
Vincent

How did this editor learn to program anyway? Or did he just use some of this drag&drop game maker shit?!

@b7c035b1fc12e6c530baaf9b8daebf82:disqus :true
@derekyu:disqus : One trophy is not enough, right? Phew…
http://twitter.com/Bwakathaboom Bwakathaboom

These complaints pop up every year. The thing to remember is that *most* devs don’t enter the IGF. It makes sense that the few that do are ones closely associated with that part of the “scene” because a) they’re the only ones who even know about it and b) they’re the only ones who take it seriously.
Jessie

oh you silly trolls.
http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

Alec and I knew very little about the IGF when we entered it in 2007. We hardly knew any other indies. We submitted because it was something to do to motivate us.

Let me walk you through my experience to let you know how big a difference it made for us:

– The submission deadline forced us to haul ass and make some tough decisions about the game.

– The IGF pavilion was the first time we got to watch strangers play the game and talk to them about it.

– The award show… was so much bigger than we had imagined. I thought it’d be in a small conference room or something. I wasn’t expecting a giant hall with a red carpet and lights and cameras and all that jazz. I distinctly remember being ushered to the front where people like Alexey Pajitnov and Shigeru Miyamoto were sitting. I was floored.

– We lost the first three awards, the ones we thought we had the best chance of winning. When the grand prize came up we thought it was over. Alec and I both had our heads pretty much on the table at that point.

– When they called out “Aquaria”, I almost couldn’t believe it. We were sitting with our parents and girlfriends and they all cheered. Alec and I hugged a crazy hard bro hug that had been hiding there for years.

– On stage, I felt like I finally got a chance to thank my parents for all their support, in front of everyone. It was amazing. It makes me tear up just thinking about it.

In light of this, I actually hesitated about submitting Spelunky, even though it’s a different game/team and all that. I wondered if maybe the IGF is for “new” developers, since it affected me and Alec so much. In the end, I think it is for all indie developers, and that will include people new to the scene and new to game development as well as people who are more experienced in both. As someone who went to the award show 4 years ago, I am looking forward to being side-by-side with someone who has never been, and I hope they will feel likewise.

But yeah, I wrote all this emotional crap out not really to contradict you, because I actually agree that awards don’t matter unless you’re trying to win one. However, if you’re someone that’s spent years working on a game, it’s a big deal to get that kind of recognition – to go from your bedroom to a big hall with a red carpet and everything. It was a big deal for me then and it’ll be a big deal for me now.
http://www.gnomeslair.com/ Gnome

Looks utterly fantastic and rather reminiscent of the excellent stealth-action hybrid that was Saboteur on the ZX Spectrum.
http://twitter.com/OstrichBanditos Ostrich Banditos

Hey Derek, how can I send you a preview of the preview build for our game: High Vaultage.

http://vimeo.com/35651362
Eccart

try joining the forum instead of trying to shill in a comments thread, scum
HtotheCHARDCOREXX

drag and drop game maker SHIT!!!!!@@!!!! you tell ’em champ!!!! we need more games by antisocial mouth-breathing fat white male idiots who have dedicated their lives to making a videogame in their parents basement at all costs, the highest toll being their personal hygiene. FUCK ACCESSIBILITY. NOOBS ALL OF ‘EM. MAKE GAMES IN ASM OR GTFO!!!!
Guest

Dumbassery as a comment that has a point and dumbassery as a reply without one.

Point of fact, Game Maker only runs on Windows/Mac. So, in a time where cross-platform play is widely needed (Win, Mac, PS3, XBox, Linux, etc), Game Maker isn’t a very good option. Especially, when the author mentions that he would like to have a port that Game Maker doesn’t port to! On top of that, version 7 for Mac (current) is not compatible with version 8.1 for Win (current). So, he might even be screwed for a Mac port if using 8.1 and might even still be screwed if using version 7 for Win if the files are incompatible. They say that’ll be fixed in version 9 though.

Now, I get not foreseeing such things if one is just experimenting. But, if even the possibility exists that one would want ports of the game, then it’s just ridiculous not to look into such things.
Gamemaker

Fuck game maker games!
GODS SON

IT is a great disrespect to the craft of interactive entertainment. what the petty fools at IGF have done. They waste all the resources and focus on products that are not representative of true innovation. They sacrifice showing the truly great art and innovation to the world in exchange for giving mediocre crap that they made themselves all the praise.

Its a small tradgedy that will be easily erased by truith and time. But it is a real disrespect to our craft
Anonymous

i wonder how many of the FP trolls are MattG
Hairrorist

God, High Voltage looks unpleasant.
http://twitter.com/flipskip1 Scott Warren

This game looks badass! Definitely going to play it. A couple years ago I actually made a game for a 48 hour compo that this game kindof reminds me of: http://flipskip.blogspot.com/2009/06/two-bullets-to-hell.html
GODS SON

every poster on every internet site that isnt you is mattg
Jotaf

Why don’t you go “game make” yourself, instead of ditching other people’s games? :P
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dick-Move/100001336953862 Dick Move

Screw all the haters, this looks boss. The rewiring mechanic looks awesome, and the game looks like all around fun. I don’t get why so many people are getting incensed by this.
Guest

Indeed. However, Game Maker shouldn’t be used for any serious game. Rather, just as a prototyping device.

To the game in general, the dev should look into Love (love2d.org) as a possible engine to replace Game Maker. Pro: supports the big three OSs. Con: It’s possible to obtain the source (<- assuming a commercial product).

If wanting to write his own engine, SFML is a good choice. It's a C++ framework with bindings for several other languages. Version 2 will be out "soon."

I'm sure there are others to consider. But, off the top of my head, the above would be my suggestions to enable a Linux port.
GODS SON

nobody gives a fuck except the suckers who paid 100$ to enter the sham IGF. 600 suckers got scammed. It aint hating if scumbags are doing innocent developers dirty
Jotaf

Actually, I disagree. I just played Stealth Bastard and was surprised when I found out it was created using Game Maker. Also, Hyper Princess Pitch and Spelunky. If it’s done well, why do you care that it’s coded with GM, Python or C++?
Gamemaker

uhm Spelunky made with Game Maker?? ahahaaha. The first free version yes. But not the currently developed version.
o0o

looks a lot like Trilby: Art of Theft, but that’s a good thing
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dick-Move/100001336953862 Dick Move

And I don’t see a single one of these six hundred developers claiming IGF was a sham. What’s your point?
some anonymous game designer

Why is creating a game with Game Maker bad? Programming a game from scratch doesn’t necessarily make it a better game. You do have more freedom in doing oddball things. However if you just want to make a typical 2d scrolling sideview or top down game for instance, nothing wrong with using a drag and drop editor. GM also allows you to program.

It’s about the design and quality of the game. If someone makes a game that has nice or fitting graphics, good audio and is very fun, it doesn’t make them any less of a game designer if they used drag and drop vs raw coding. They’re just able to deliver their vision faster.

I coded a game from scratch and I have to say it was frustrating sometimes, when testing a single function over and over or killing a hard to find bug was taking time away from what I really wanted to do, which was continue working on the artwork and level design. Also, once you’ve prototyped a game in GM or any other drag and drop editor and you have everything you need – as in functions, why rewrite in raw code? If it’s some bizarre game concept that just can’t be done or is a headache to do in a drag and drop editor, I can see that. But, why redo? When I studied programming, instructors who were pros with lots of experience and visiting veteran programmers who worked with top companies all said the same thing: raw coding is archaic. If you can find complex or tedious code that was already done which you could use (with permission if necessary or learn from), it’s better to stitch together programs, rather than always create from the ground up. Once you’re a good programmer, you can seamlessly piece code together. So in other words, they were saying the same thing, better to drag and drop if you can vs writing from scratch.

Have a nice day.