I'll start off by telling you that this is an old project of mine which I've pretty much abandoned. But I dusted it off and played it a bit this morning and thought it was at least worth sharing with you guys.

In Mechanic Master, you start off with a Personal Protection Orb (PPO) which orbits you and shoots any enemies in range. They are your meat shield as well as your melee/ranged DPS. Your job is to keep them running, buff, and upgrade them.

This will give you an idea of how I like to play the game. My dad, however, simply kites the enemies around all day while using the mouse for movement. I like to WASD.

I very highly recommend clicking on Instructions, then Play Tutorial. I tried to make the controls intuitive, but it's still kind of unique.

• You start off with 1 PPO and can have a maximum of 3.
• You can change their weapon types in Dome City
• You can level up for passive bonuses
• You can cast a buff on a single PPO (which lasts longer), or do a shorter duration buff on all active PPOs (by pressing the ~ key to the left of the 1 after queuing a buff)

The goal of the game is to make it out to the level 1, 2, and 3 factories to kill the boss. The first time you kill a boss in each level, you gain an ability like rocket dash (right click) or whatever I called the thing that sucks in resources automatically. After the first kill, you will still get an exp and resource bonus for killing a boss. Press M and follow the red arrow to the closest base. If you're trying to get back to Dome City, follow the star (With the map up). Press spacebar to use a bomb and hit everything on the screen. They're great for right outside of a factory and you can buy more in dome city.

You start off with 200 resources so click on Dome City and see what you can buy. The level 1, 2, 3 zones are simply farther from dome city. You can tell the zones by what the ground looks like and which enemies are in the area. Good luck in level 3! :)

Enough talk! Have fun destroying some robots!

Mechanic Master on Dropbox - Sorry for the load time.

Added in some new background textures to spice things up a bit. The new screenshot is against the first boss.

Also added the start of a system where the ground looks worse as you get farther from Dome City. I'll make the transitions smoother over the next few days.

Aaaand it's converted! Instead of waves of enemies followed by a boss, the game is played on a map with enemy spawns and factories to destroy. Just kill the enemies near a factory. Then get close and click on it to fight a boss! Has much more of an old school action/rpg feel now.

After you kill a boss, you are taken back to the city to spend your newly acquired resources. Go out and find another factory. The boss will be more difficult and will drop another upgrade item.

Press M any time to find the closest factory.

Right now, the Mechanic can get two Dash upgrades, along with a resource auto collector and one upgrade. (So kill the boss 4 times to see his different difficulties and get his drops)

Once I start saving game progress, all Levels, skill points, and boss drops will be saved. If you start a new gaming session and fight a level 1 boss but already got his dash upgrade; he will instead drop a deployable turret part. More on those soon!

Thanks for the feedback GenkiGenga.

I'm kind of on the fence about the forced tutorial as well. It was implemented when I had too many people jumping into the game and getting killed because they didn't know what to do. It uses an unusual casting system too.

Since the game is currently in transition to more of an open world type map, vs waves of enemies, it should be much easier to blend the basic gameplay tutorial into the beginning of the game like you suggested. Then have a separate tutorial screen for the store, collecting/crafting deployables (not in-game yet), etc, which are optional.

I added a new button to the intro screen (upper left) to take you to more of an RPG type level. Head straight south from the city to find a surprise! Try to get close and click on it to fight a boss.

This is my next focus, so the World 1 will change a lot over the next few days.

harrio

Yeah, I kinda thought about that shortly after making the post. I should probably change it.

Cassianno

Thank you very much!

<img src="http://thebestspec.com/games/mmbeta/mmgameplayboss.png" border="0">

Robots have taken over the world. They quickly decimated most of the population, forcing the survivors to run and hide. The robots quickly improved their armor, becoming nearly impervious to all known weapons. Humans now live in EM dome cities.

One day a mechanic discovers a new technology, or is it... a new life form? After tinkering around, he builds the first Personal Protection Orb! The PPO is somewhere between a biological and mechanical being. It has a new kind of energy which can power weapons, enabling them to damage the robots!

Now the Mechanic Master must venture out into the killing fields, destroy the evil robots, and collect their resources in order to build more PPOs.

Video of some gameplay (Outdated. Changed to a map instead of wave system, but this still shows the basics.)

New Gameplay Video!

Keep in mind, this is in the very early stages. There are bugs, I'm not a programmer, or an artist. I'm sorry that it's ugly, but I just wanted to get started on the concept while I look into refining it. I have about 15 pages in a notebook worth of stuff to add still, but it's at a point where it's fun enough to share with people.

Thanks to the guys at Games By Design for giving out the free indie sprite pack, check it out for your games.

When you have more than 1 PPO and are in the store, click on the other PPO icons to upgrade their weapons and armor. You can buy more Knockback Bombs in the lower left of the store for 25 credits each. Press spacebar to use them when you're in trouble!

Most of all, Have fun!!

<font size="4">Play the game!</font>

Updates:

3/14/2012

• Added some new background textures.
• Fixed the tutorial and added the button in Instructions.

3/12/2012

• Made factories easier to spot on the map.
• Added level exp % when mousing over the Exp bar.
• Fixed a bug with Level Up text not showing.
• Set missiles to a 3 second detonation time.
• Added current # of knockback bombs text to store.

3/11/2012

It's time! Mechanic Master is now saving your progress including, your level, skills you have chosen on the "R" screen, and the boss drops you have earned.

Right now the max level is 20, and that will be increased within the next few days.

Get levels to power up, find factories and kill the bosses to get upgrades!

PS. If the intro screen still says it is not saving progress, you need to update (refresh the page until it goes away)

3/10/2012

• Defeat bosses for their drops. 4 drops so far.
• Changed from desert to a forest temporarily.
• Made the player immune to damage if 3 PPOs are active
• Added the ability to find nearby factories from the Map screen (hit "M")
• Added Options to Esc menu, allowing player to toggle music/sound
• Press "Z" to Zoom in and out
• Added Dash cooldown to UI

3/9/2012

• New UI!
• Set the default to be zoomed out a bit. Press Z to toggle zoom.
• Right click to dash (15 second cooldown)
• Enemy Factories - Many enemies guarding them.
• Enemy difficulty zones - Determines Enemy # and type.