Sector shooter · Expansion packs · Phaser AE

What it does

A level is a sector-map map, and the run plays it. The player moves over steps and off ledges under gravity; in the modern set they also double-jump, air-dash and steer in the air, and a rocket at their feet throws them upward. Shots aim up and down at whatever is in line, the way the classic games did, and shooting a wall can set off a trigger. Rockets and plasma fly in 3D both ways, with splash damage and knockback. Jump pads throw the player up to ledges, sectors with low gravity make every jump float, and conveyors and winds push the player and the enemies along.

Props stand about the rooms. A barrel takes a few shots, then bursts with splash damage and knockback, and sets off the next barrel a moment later, so a row of them goes up one after another and takes the enemies beside it with it. A crate breaks and can leave pickups behind. Both block bodies and shots, and you can stand on them.

The rest of a shooter is here too. Health and armour share damage, pickups fill them, and keys open doors of their colour. Backpacks double what you can carry, and powers make you berserk, invulnerable, invisible or proof against slime. Triggers can teleport you, spawn a wave or end the level with a kills, items and secrets tally. Mutators change the rules for a whole game: gravity at a fraction or a multiple, and instagib, where every hit kills. Enemies come from fps-enemies, so they hear shots and fight each other; bosses come from fps-bosses, so they fight in phases.

The map's fixtures play their part. Swinging doors open on use and stop shots; a locker or cabinet, opened, gives up what it holds, which can be supplies, a gun, a key, or an enemy that jumps out. Glass stops shots both ways: an enemy's bullets strike the window between you instead of you, and enough shots, or a rocket's blast, break it open.

Two sets come ready. The classic one has fists, a pistol, a shotgun, a chaingun, a rocket launcher and a plasma gun against grunts, gunners, fireball-throwing fiends, charging brutes, floating eyes and a three-phase Warden. The modern one has a blade, a revolver, a scattergun, a nailgun and a launcher against husks, drones, sentries and a teleporting Hulk, with style ranked D to S. A three-level episode, a wave arena and a two-level facility come as plain map data to play, read and change. The facility is architecture rather than a maze: a refinery with a zig-zag window over a slime courtyard, a canal whose bridge must be raised, an octagonal pump hub and a sniper balcony over a yard where a ship passes; and an administration block with a hologram in its lobby, a curved stair to a mezzanine, dark offices, lockers, a toilet block where something waits in a stall, and a security room whose screens show the floor.

Features

Movement with height — steps, drops, gravity, and in the modern set double jumps, air dashes and air control.
Health and armour — two armour grades that take their share, and pickups up to their limits.
A full arsenal — hitscan with automatic vertical aim, pellets, projectiles with splash and rocket jumps.
Keys, doors and switches — coloured keys, lifts and switches, all from the map.
Powers and backpacks — berserk, invulnerability, invisibility, a radiation suit and light goggles.
Barrels and crates — props with hit points that block and break, bursting in chains with a delay.
Jump pads, gravity and pushes — pads aimed at ledges, low-gravity rooms, conveyors and wind, from the map.
Mutators — a gravity scale and instagib, set at the start or changed mid-level.
Enemies and bosses — infighting, ambushes, flyers and phased bosses with health bars.
Triggers that play — spawns, teleports, waves on kills, messages and exits.
Doors, lockers and glass — hinged doors, cabinets that give up their contents, windows that stop shots and break.
Skill levels — damage and ammunition scaled, things filtered, and the dead rising on nightmare.
Style — points for kills in the air, after a dash, in chains and by a barrel you shot, ranked D to S.
Two episodes, an arena and an autopilot — plain-data levels and a player for demos and tests that opens doors and lockers, presses switches and finishes them.

Good for

A 1993-style shooter — the classic set and episode play as they come.
A boomer shooter — the modern set: fast movement, rocket jumps and style.
A wave arena — kill triggers bring the next wave, and a boss ends it; pads and low gravity open it upward.
A level editor's test bed — any sector-map map plays at once.

Make it yours

Weapons, enemies, bosses, pickups, props, the player's movement, skill levels, style and mutators are all configuration, and levels are data. A prop is a few numbers: hit points, size, and a burst's reach, damage, knockback and fuse, so a mine, a gas tank or an unbreakable statue is a line of config. The classic set on a kit-bashed episode with keys and a boss is one game; the modern set in a grid-painted arena with waves, jump pads, double jumps and style is another, from the same rules.

A quick look

Start the first level of the episode and step it with the player's controls.

const S = sectorShooter;
const run = S.createSectorRun(S.sectorLevel(S.classicEpisode()[0], S.classicSet(), { skill: 'normal' }));
game.step('play', dt => {
    for (const e of run.step(dt, { move, yaw, pitch, fire, use })) if (e.type === 'sound') play(e);
});

Works with

sector-map — the levels, with their jump pads, gravity and pushes.
fps-prop-art — pictures of the barrels and crates, whole and wrecked.
fps-weapons, fps-enemies and fps-bosses — the arsenal, the enemies and the bosses.
world-3d, rig-fps and audio — meshes, a first-person camera and sound placed where it happens.
corridor-shooter — for levels on one floor height in square cells.

Good to know

Levels are sector maps: no rooms above rooms or slopes.
Shots aim up and down by themselves; free vertical aim reaches projectiles and wall hits only.
The autopilot does not jump, dash, ride lifts, use pads or break windows to get through, and can lose on hard skills. It does shoot barrels next to enemies and open lockers.
Props stand still until they break; a blast throws the player, not the props.
Enemies' hitscan attacks pass props, and only the player rides jump pads.