Announcing Scoot Hard DX + Beta 2.8.3a

NOTE: We updated the beta to 2.8.3a which features a lot more content. Changes include:

• E2M1, E2M2, E2M4 and E2M5 have all been given major overhauls
• E3M2 and E3M3 has been adjusted. We’re still working on balance these
• New voice actress for Surprise, the lovely CakeofRage has come on as the voice of Surprise
• Some new Dr. Atmosphere and Maimbow Lines. We’re still working on adjusting the levels on these
• Introducing the not-patented Vox Voiceover Subsystem. The bosses taunt you remotely! In Episode 2 it’s Dr. Atmosphere, in Episode 3 it’s Maimbow
• Some lore changes. Nothing too major, mainly the relationship of Surprise and Dr. Atmosphere has been changed. You are all forbidden from making jokes about this
• Tweaked Surprise and Dr. Atmosphere’s boss fights a bit
• Tweaked the AI for the enemies a bit to accomodate underwater sections, as well as fix the jumping issues. Enemies should work underwater and jump more reliably now
• Fillyseeker has new design to help distinguish it from Missile Launcher more
• Tornadozer overhaul. Primary fire one hits most things. Secondary fire lets loose it’s classic homing, seeking tornado
• Many other changes

Check it out!

Me and my team have been working on polishing a prototype unearthed from back in 2014 – Scoot Hard DX: Daytime Drama Zero, a prequel to the first Daytime Drama and another standalone project for GZDoom.

We weren’t intending this to be a big project, but it grew to something bigger as more people got involved with testing. It’s more than a small prequel at this point, it’s even better than DD2 is (at DD2’s current development).

WARNING: This game is for mature audiences only. Contains wanton and gratuitous violence, strong language, politically incorrect humor, and themes of authoritarianism.

You can try out Beta 2.8.3a here (Requires Windows 7/8/8.1/10 64-bit, with OpenGL 3.3+ or Vulkan. Softpoly sort of works but is unsupported by me)

Loosely based on the Rainbow Factory song and fanfic, play as Scootaloo as she takes on the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation all by herself. Take on a whole army of Cloudsdale’s “finest”. Fight with eight deadly weapons from the Missile Launcher to the massively powerful Rainbower. Fight against three bad bosses – including the head of the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation themselves, across over ten levels of non-stop action that will blow you sky high.

This is a beta (Beta 2.8.3a), and isn’t feature complete. Several enemies are missing, some voicework needs redone, and alot of the levels still need tons of work (mainly layout/balance issues, plus the Doom 64 style lighting). We plan on having most of that by Beta 3.0. We plan on having future betas after that which more polish, more music and more voicework is done. However, here’s a list of what we got so far:

• Over ten levels of non-stop action across various Cloudsdale owned facilities, both in the sky and on the surface, from office buildings to resource mines, from icy glaciers to the weather facility itself.
• Custom Soundtrack by Metal Neon influenced by the works of Aubrey Hodges, Alexander Brandon and David Wise.
• Advanced features built on the Daytime Drama 1 and 2 codebases.
  • Experience glorious ScootSpeak™ when you kill enemies in the most ludicrous manner (you can turn it off).
  • Eight weapons across four categories – Bullet Weapons, Missile Weapons, Weather Weapons and Big Weapons. You can carry both bullet weapons and one of each of the other weapons. Strategize which one is best for the job at hand.
  • Enemies with different AIs react to different weapons in different ways – Low Guards to Zombies, Pegapol to Enforcers. Try each weapon with each enemy type to figure out each one’s weakness!
  • Turn into an invulnerable chicken who has the power to deny feature requests rend their flesh, or blow their eardrums out with a ClusterCluck™
  • Glide around the map and do some neat tricks to get to secrets, engage in overhead combat, or just perform some cool stunts.
  • Dynamic boss battles that require more than circlestrafing.
  • Loads of Interactivity – destroy lots of objects and use vending machines for health.
  • Fully voiced bosses.
• Powerful ZScript code, available under a permissive 3-clause BSD license.

We’ll be working on alot of stuff for Beta 3, like replacing some of the existing levels and rebalancing existing ones, and some other gubbins. One of the things I’m unfortunately looking into is a new VA for Scootaloo as her original VA, Alabeanz, I have not been able to get ahold of, and they’ve been missing for some time (I haven’t seen them post on their Tumblr in over a year). I’m hoping they’re okay, wherever they are. We might have a lead on one, I’ll be sure to update if we hear anything.

Here’s some screenshots taken earlier of the first four levels.

Scoot Hard, friends.