Time Ranger is a love letter to the golden age of Lightgun shooters.

We're trying to bring all the thrill and excitement of the great lightgun shooters and translate that into VR.

Who are we anyway?

Hi! I'm Bill, I'll be writing this first DevLog for Time Ranger, and my dev-partner in crime is Nuno!

We are two game devs that have recently been caught up in the catastrophic layoffs that have wrecked havoc on the games industry. We have worked in the industry for quite some time now (combined over 30 years experience, I think), but this is our first venture into the VR space. A space we are so enthralled with that we jumped right in without a safety net!

My background is in Game Design and Nuno is a cracking programmer, so we had decent coverage to get something playable, in that respect.

Nuno is expecting his 2nd kiddo early October, so we're trying to get an MVP out the door before Player 4 arrives. That has been our driving force towards building the MVP. Once all the core is in place, I can focus on creating more content, while Nuno goes full super dad mode and forgets the meaning of sleep.

We both lost our jobs about a day apart. We had a catch up chat, and very quickly it became clear we wanted to work together again, so we got to chatting about what we could make. It didn't take long before we landed on a throwback to Lightgun games in VR, there were a few other ideas kicked around and a little bit of prototyping, but VR + Lightgun shooter took the prize! 

With that the real fun began! Heads down, prototyping began!  The core goal is to replicate that feeling we got when we first ever experienced a lightgun game, but translating that into VR in a meaninful way. Playing into the strengths of VR, putting you right into the action, right in the middle of a shootout, holding your ground, blasting away enemies while you dodge their fire, feeling like you're Neo. 

So lets talk about Time Ranger!

The actual narrative framework for Time Ranger didn't emerge until much later in prototyping, but it was very informed by trying to be scope conscious and as resourceful as possible. There are only two of us, and neither of us are artists. That meant we would be relying on asset packs for as much as possible. 

We already owned a bunch of Synty Asset packs, so that got us off to a great start. Very quickly that sparked the idea of every level being built off a different Synty theme asset pack, and given many are set across varying time periods, the aspect of Time Travel felt only natural. That combined with the time factor of lightgun arcade shooters... you'd think we planned it! Lets just pretend we did, we'd sound much more professional.

At one point we had a moment of "What if Time Crisis and Sunset Riders had a VR Baby?!"

With that the first level was locked in on a Western setting, it is etched into the core of the experience. Some prep is already going into level 2, which currently is becoming somewhat of an anti-heist... we're excited. 

Anyway, gameplay! One of the big pillars is making it an accessible and approachable experience. A game you could hand over to anyone for an attempt and they'd intuitively know how to aim, shoot and dodge incoming enemy fire. 

So a big focus was stripping down the core gameplay and controls. No picking up weapons, no realistic reloading (actually right now no reloading at all), just pointing and shooting. 

We didn't want a cover button (like Time Crisis) that didn't make sense for VR, you could just take cover yourself, but crouching / ducking constantly is exhausting, so we simplified that to just dodging incoming bullet fire, that was an instant hit and felt so much more natural and intuitive. 

Speaking of enemy bullet fire! Making the bullets actual slowish moving projectiles that you can see coming and move out of the way was the moment where everything felt like it clicked very early in the prototyping phase. Suddenly enemies were a threat, and those threats could be overcome in a few ways. You could shoot an enemy before they fired, or you could try avoid the bullet before it hits you. 

Something that came a but later was shot foreshadowing. You'll see a warning on an enemy just before they fire, to give you a chance to react. It's pretty helpful when there are multiple enemies on the screen, giving you visual context on target priorities.

What the hell is that big floaty hologram head?

I'm glad you asked! So this absurd narrative started piecing itself together in my mind. You're this cowboy, this ranger, and your world has been turned upside down by some crazy time manipulating device that fell from the sky. The Sheriff of the town got hold of it, and it completely corrupted and warped him. Misuse of great power = terrible things. Time is broken, fractured, just wrong. 

The level starts in a graveyard. We have plans for an intro squence that establishes some of this narrative. Very grindhouse / 80s trailer narrator style. 

"They killed his partner. Who was also his deputy. AND. HIS. BROTHER." Really just having fun with it, but also trying to establish some stakes.

There was always the plan to close the level off with a boss fight of some kind. This narrative device opened doors for the boss being able to teleport around, be killed several times and keep coming back (he controls time, he can do almost anything!), which became very freeing when trying to script up a boss fight in a short timeframe.

We wanted the boss to be constantly taunting you throughout the entire level, using him as a sort of exposition font, passively building out the world and the history. But just voice over and narration didn't feel like the right idea, we wanted something that made use of VR in a fun way. Thats where the giant hologram head came in! You're being watched and followed by this hologram of the Boss' head. Watching, waiting, for you to reach him at the end of the level for one final showdown. The initial implementation felt fun, and different, and helped to almost immediately establish that this isn't just a western shooter, there is something more at play here.

We don't have the dialogue manager implemented yet, but that big (mostly) silent head will haunt you throughout the level. He does laugh at you when you take damage, though. He's rude. 

Is there a long term goal here?

Why yes! There is! We are having a blast. We really are. This is so much fun for us. 

If we could actually do this full time in a capacity that actually pays the bills, we'd do it! That is what we're trying to build here. It's not just Time Ranger, that's just the beginning, we'd love this to be the foundations of a company focused on creating wonderful accessible VR experiences.

Being pragmatic, we both have families to support, while we are both in the lucky position that we have some buffer time to dedicate to this project, we may have to eventually find work. But for now! We've got a game to build!

Signing off

This was a bit of a more broad initial DevLog, but hopefully it gives you a sense of where we came from, where we're at and most importantly, where we're going!