ShootPotato.com
Because of compatibility problems, this demo can now only be played at ShootPotato.com.
Requires a Windows PC with mouse and keyboard, and preferably Chrome, Edge, or Opera as a browser for raw mouse support. Sadly, the game does not seem to start on Mac OS, and this is likely because Apple does not actively support OpenGL.
The plan is to launch a standalone version on Steam featuring extra guns and worlds, but that could be a year down the road. The website will always be free to play without having to log in or download anything, and I will keep updating it with new features and fixes as I work.
Join the discord server to report bugs, suggest features, hear about the development process, and chat with other players.
Have fun! Leave a comment, or email me:
chad.chisholm@protonmail.com
Development log
- v0.022: Look out! Projectile potatoes!Sep 05, 2023
- v0.020: 3D audio effects engineJul 13, 2023
- v0.019: life, death, food, high scoreJul 04, 2023
- v0.018: wheel sensitivity, dead-end fixJun 29, 2023
- v0.017: night, bug fixesJun 28, 2023
- v0.016: sprite sheetsJun 27, 2023
Comments
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this game is overall a 9/10 i think the only thing holding it back is more gun variety. maybe a pistol to replace the revolver or another shotgun and assault rifle. just something to spice up the gameplay.
Thanks for the high marks! And I totally agree about the guns. But it might be next year before I can get to that, because first on my list is creating more diverse and interesting worlds.
Hello, it’s me again. I have a good suggestion, you should add a bit of progression where you can unlock new maps/rooms by getting new high scores.
Yes. My current plan is to make diverse environments for the player to adventure through. I should have more challenging environments spawn when the kill count is higher. That makes sense.
I love this game so much. I think you can add some achievements like reaching the score 500/1000/3000 or killing 10 potatoes using one grenade. And maybe you can add a player archive to show the kill count by different weapons and the total kill count.
I'm so glad you like it! And those are good ideas.
could you add enemy sounds? they constantly keep sneaking up on me.
That's a good point. I don't currently have positional audio effects in my engine yet. Maybe I should prioritize that now.
OK I made an audio effects engine and added footstep sounds.
thx, it works really well.
W update. An idea for the respawn patch is you respawn with only one of your guns and you spawn in with an explosion, killing nearby potato monster guy things. Also it would look more polished if the font when you die matched the font of the "ok" button. Once again this was an awesome update and we need more games like this.
I like this! Or maybe one of your guns is dropped at the place where you died?
Yeah you're right about the font rendering. I'll put that on my list.
Yeah something like that so that it kinda gives them a chance to fend all the potato monsters off
Patched: when the player respawns, monsters are removed, monster spawn cap is reduced to initial value, and guns are allowed to spawn so the player can get re-equipped.
I was looking for a shooter to chill this evening and I had the chance to find this game !
I loved this old school feeling. We feel it is a work in progress but there is already a strong base for a really cool shooter.
I'm glad you like it, and that you recognize it's only in progress. Let me know if there are specific features you want to see. I updated the game just now with some big changes.
how is ur game so good?
edit: a bossfight and variety of enemys would be cool
I'm glad you like it! What kind of boss? Giant tentacle potato? ...Octatopus?
Maybe a four-legged monster with a big mouth, called hippotatomus?
does everything have to be a potato?
what if you had a potato monster riding a uni-corn?
it could be a bossfight as the potato knight that you would face after every like 5 levels, it could even get more hp after every defeat to make it have difficulty scaling.
the more i think about this the worse it sounds.
yup, a four-legged monster with a big mouth, called hippotatomus
world generator screws up once more!
it spawned a pillar in the stairs making the mempm stuck.
floor plan + guide
Oh those stairs are temporarily closed for construction. You'll have to go around. ;)
bug report!
you left the tnt out of this grenade, it isnt exploding.
It's happened to me twice. I still haven't figured this one out.
I found that if you throw another grenade at it, it will activate.
found game breaking glitch:
if you stand here the enemies stop chasing you. and if the enemies stand here they cant move.
the rh.r is undefined.
Yes, I know about this bug. The world generator sometimes makes bad arrangements. I hope to fix it later this year.
And also the rh.r thing was only going to work in v0.016. It changes every time the code is compiled.
Will there be more weapons?
In the future, yes. But with the existing set of weapons complete I will be spending my time on game mechanics, enemy behavior, and world variation.
are headshots purely for style?
yes. potatoes don't have brains.
good for you being scientifically accurate.
exactly.
Neurological Aberrations in a Man-Eating Mutant Potato Monster: A Brainless Anomaly
Abstract: This scientific investigation aims to explore the unconventional neurobiology of a man-eating mutant potato monster, postulating the absence of a conventional brain structure. By delving into the creature's unique evolutionary trajectory, genetic mutations, and adaptive strategies, we present a comprehensive explanation for the absence of a brain in this aberrant organism.
Introduction: In the realm of biological sciences, the phenomenon of a brainless organism challenges conventional understanding, as it deviates from the standard neurological blueprint observed in most multicellular organisms. Our study focuses on an extraordinary example: a man-eating mutant potato monster exhibiting distinct adaptive characteristics, despite the apparent lack of a centralized cognitive organ.
Methodology: To investigate the neural architecture of the mutant potato monster, a combination of histological, genetic, and comparative analyses were employed. Microscopic examination of tissue samples, including the major sensory organs, neural ganglia, and potential brain regions, was conducted. Additionally, we sequenced the monster's genome, scrutinizing genes associated with neural development and brain formation.
Results: Contrary to expectations, our study revealed an intriguing absence of a recognizable brain structure within the mutant potato monster. The microscopic analysis of neural ganglia distributed throughout the organism's body revealed rudimentary clusters of neurons but lacked any discernible centralization. Additionally, comparative genomics indicated deletions, mutations, and inactivation of genes crucial for brain development, such as those involved in neural tube formation and neuronal proliferation.
Discussion: The evolutionary trajectory of the mutant potato monster offers possible explanations for the absence of a brain. It is postulated that an accumulation of genetic mutations, driven by adaptive pressures, may have resulted in the loss of conventional brain structures. Given the monster's subterranean habitat and predatory nature, alternative adaptations, such as an enhanced sensory system and decentralized neural networks, might have been favored over a central processing unit.
Theoretical Framework: It is hypothesized that the mutant potato monster has undergone a process of neuroplasticity, wherein neural functions and information processing have been distributed across multiple regions of the body. The decentralized neural ganglia observed in our study may perform specialized sensory and motor tasks, allowing for effective hunting, feeding, and survival without the need for a centralized brain.
Conclusion: The man-eating mutant potato monster represents a unique case in the annals of neurobiology, defying conventional expectations of a brain-dependent cognitive system. Our findings suggest that the absence of a brain in this organism is likely a result of genetic mutations and the evolutionary optimization of sensory and motor abilities for its predatory lifestyle. Further research into the neurobiology and genetics of such unusual organisms will undoubtedly shed light on the diversity and adaptability of life forms across the biological spectrum.
a multipart academic study? damm, thats some dedicated research.
I asked ChatGPT to write that, right after I saw your comment. lol
found 2 glitches:
the procedural generation generated an inescapable area; i have been stuck for like 10 minutes with only the potato smasher and grenades, the room consists of 1 narrow light yellow room and 1 dark broad yellow room.
grenades can go through thin walls if you clip your hands through the wall.
I have fixed the grenade thing. Thanks for the tip.
Was it the very first space? And was there a door that would not open, or no door at all?
Was the game laggy? The architect becomes suspended if there are no leftover milliseconds for it to work. It's supposed to work during spare time to generate the next rooms while you're playing, so that is something that can go wrong. If so, there will be a door but it just won't open.
Also, sometimes the entrance door and exit door are placed side-by-side, which can make you think there's no way out but actually it's just in a cognitive blind spot, which has happened to me a few times and I thought I was trapped.
I will have the game print the random seed to the console in the next update, so if a dead-end happens again there's a chance it could be shared with me and I could reproduce it. Otherwise it's impossible to nab.
i have gone through an area before, i think there was a little lag sometime before it, but nothing notable. here are the pictures:
full size
entrance
"exit"
floor plan
Pictures and a hand-drawn diagram? That's some dedicated feedback. Thanks!
If there's any chance you've still got this browser instance open... go into the console and type in "rh.r" (without the quotes) and hit enter. Assuming you were playing v0.016 that should provide the seed that was used.
sry started a new run a few hours ago
Ok. I will proceed to debug a door that won't open. Thanks.
Oh man, this is impressive for something so compatible and smooth, built up from scratch as a webgl game. You should open source your work once its done and maybe allow modding support. Maybe have a system where people can ‘load’ mods onto the game by uploading a mod file. I think that weapons should be assigned to numbers instead of letters by default, like old school quake and doom, but that’s just my opinion. This idea might be far-fetched for now, but in the future, online multiplayer would be awesome. Maybe allow people to run dedicated servers or have it p2p if you don’t want to run your own servers.
Thanks, I'm really glad it runs smooth. Open-source and modding would be fun, but I'm a little shy about sharing my source code. It's kinda messy.
I set the default assignments to what I think people should learn in order to have the most fun: all the gun keys adjacent to the WASD keys. But yeah, it's opinion. That's why configurable controls is the most essential feature for PC games.
I would like to make multiplayer mode in the future, and I have experience making p2p apps, so it can be done. It will not be pvp gameplay though; it will be players vs potatoes. I don't like pvp in online games, in principle.
If you open sourced on something like Github people could contribute and help refine your code if enough developers are interested. It’s a community thing. Players vs potatoes sounds fair enough, I guess if people want pvp, they could mod it themselves if there was support for that.
could you increase the minimum brightness of rooms, i have been finding rooms that are too dark and dont light up.
also allow us to choose the strenght of the scroll wheel in the options, it selects weapons too fast for me.
I increased the brightness for you. I changed it from 0.015 to 0.028 (irradiance).
And I'm putting scroll wheel sensitivity on my to-do list for you also. I'll have to think about the best method of implementation.
thanks.
i fucking love this.
darn yes!
Love the potato gore! Keep up the great work!
Thank you!
Good Game
Thanks!
This is really, really good! I had a blast playing it. It looks awesome, it plays fluently, fighting feels 'impactful', as do the sounds. Sounds like an overstatement perhaps, but this is near-perfect, especially for a WIP game. Oh, yeah, also liked shooting holes in the potatoes. I would consider shooting off limbs or crippling them as well :-)
Found one bug: Reloading doesn't work with the shotgun, it only reloads when you switch to a different weapon and back again.
A suggestion: Implement using the scroll wheel (or Q and E for instance) to scroll through your weapons. Because of the limited ammo I found myself switching weapons quite often.
Oh one last thing: When you hit a potato (and don't kill it) it stops moving for quite long. Is this intended?
And indeed, if you build in more variation, more levels, perhaps some goals, assignments, it will be even better, because at some point it does get boring.
But, like I said, I really liked this!
Thank you so much!
The shotgun doesn't need to be reloaded, it only needs to be pumped, which you must do manually with the right mouse button. Maybe I should include an onscreen tip for this. I only have it pump automatically when equipped so the player doesn't have to think about its last state after switching.
Since you're the second person to suggest scrolling through weapons, I will see if I can include an assignment for that in the options menu. Personally, I like having all my weapons on dedicated keys like swatches on a palette. But I can see that not everyone thinks of them that way. Good to know.
The potato is staggered when hit because I haven't made their reaction animations and behavior states yet, so it's like a placeholder for now. They will be able to express fear or aggression, run around in panic, away from you, to cover, or toward you all at once depending on context.
Nothing makes me happier than to hear somebody had fun.
Good to hear! And indeed, I never realized that you need to 'pump' the shotgun, good to add as a hint indeed.
My playing style is that I want to use other keys as less as possible. So one hand on the mouse, other hand on the WASD keys, so anything I use frequently I would like to be either within easy reach of my keyboard-hand or with the mouse, without having to look. Q and E could have that effect, 1 - 5 are a bit harder. I know, I am spoiled ;-)
Keep up the good work!
Edit: Btw, using the pumping with right mouse button feels really good, really gives that Boom-click-clack feeling ;-) So indeed, don't change it, but add a hint.
Updated to v0.015, you can now scroll through your weapons by assigning NextGun and PrevGun to your chosen keys or mouse controls in the Options menu. Enjoy!
Awesome! Gonna try it out now.
Yes, really nice! This plays far more fluently. You can easily switch to the masher for boxes to conserve ammo and easily switch to other weapons when running out. I've been playing this far too long, it's so satisfying.
One improvement I would make is to have the shotgun use reload as well. I sometimes find myself out of flow when clicking the wrong button.
I agree. Should work now.
really cool!
I'm not sure I understand the control system. Maybe you could make it so you can just scroll thru your weapons by pressing Tab (like in halo CE). Also the shotgun controls are a bit peculiar to me since it doesn't reload (cycle) automatically.
Anyway I had a lot of fun and will play some more later. Don't get bogged down by all my critique because overall this is quite enjoyable.
I could implement a next/prev weapon control that you could bind in the options menu. So the user could assign Tab or mouse wheel up/down.
Pumping the shotgun with alt-click seems odd at first, but with practice it becomes a very satisfying muscular habit. Especially when you master the correct rhythm.
Thank you!
thanks! using tab to switch between weapons definitely feels nicer
great work on all those gun reloading animations btw, super smooth