Entry 2020: Infiltrator

[+cmadruga]

 

Download the latest alpha here:

12.12.2020 release

 

 

bin / cfg

Infiltrator_alpha12122020.bin

Infiltrator_alpha12122020.cfg

 

 

rom

 

Infiltrator_alpha12122020.rom

 

Updates since the last alpha release:

- Fixed intermittent issue with one mine sometimes showing up at the wrong spot.

- Fixed end game issue related to an enemy which was preventing progress of cloaked players (inside dark room).

- Added new game rating "Perfect infiltrator", destined to those who finish the game with an overall rating of 100%.

- Music volume slightly increased.

- Testing credits updated.

 

What's in consideration for the next release    

- Adding some type of variability to the minefield layout.

 

Infiltrator for Intellivision features...

- Awesome music by Nyuundere using ECS extra sound channels

- Digitized sound effects by Artrag.

- An original game for the Intellivision. This is not a port.

- 4 skill levels for increased replayability.

- A rating system that helps players track and improve their playing style.

- Infiltrator is the first stealth action game for the Intellivision platform.

- Fun fact: Infiltrator is the first Intellivision game to incorporate a digitized LoFi version of the famous "Wilhelm scream". The sound is played when you die. 

 

Brian's Man Cave video play through

Thanks for the great video, Brian!

 

 

 

Screenshots:

 

    

 

Gameplay video

 

 

 

Game description:

 

As an elite soldier severely outnumbered and outgunned, your objective is to complete your mission while basically staying out of sight.

You are equipped with an experimental cloaking suit, which is definitely much fancier than let's say... putting a cardboard box over your head to hide from enemies.

 

Controls:

 

Disc = moves character around

Action buttons = skips dialog

1 = activates cloaking suit (requires power cell to be equipped)

2 = lists mission objectives (active objective will be blinking)

3 = uses med kit (needs to be equipped)

4 = opens inventory screen

5 = reads messages received at certain screens

6 = activates the risk scanner (needs to be equipped, available on Easy skill only)

 

Here is a mocked-up overlay:

 

 

Skill levels:

 

It is recommended to start playing on "normal" or "easy".

Skill levels "hard" and "insane" have tougher and faster enemies, and your character is weaker too.

 

Main screen

 

The dashboard to the right contains information on hit points, charge level and any equipped items.

Note you will find several items over the course of the game. Not all of them can be equipped immediately. Also some of them will be unequipped automatically after use.

 

Mission objectives

 

You mission involves:

1- locating a hacking device left by another agent somewhere on the map. 

2- using the device to hack the enemy's communication tower and extract valuable intelligence.

3- a classified objective, to be revealed only after #2 is complete.

4- exiting the site by any means possible, at your discretion.

 

Pressing "2" will show a summary of objectives. The active objective will blink.

 

 

 

 

Your friend, the cloaking suit

 

Your cloaking suit provides a very effective way to evade enemies. However, it requires a significant amount of energy for operation.

Energy comes from power cells found in certain places. Some power cells are better than others, and will allow the suit to operate for longer periods.

In order to use the suit:

1- find a power cell

2- equip the power cell (by going to the inventory screen and selecting the item)

3- press "1" to activate the suit

4- move swiftly as time is running out!

 

Once the suit is activated, the power cell is consumed entirely.

The suit will not recharge on its own. You will need to find a new power cell.

 

Cloaking stages:

 

Fully cloaked (invisible) --> partially cloaked (power cell wearing out, still invisible) --> Fully visible to enemies

 

       

 

 

About the enemies:

 

Enemies will generally mind their own business as they patrol their assigned waypoints.

However, they will immediately become aggressive and chase you in case you would somehow cross their visual field.

 

 

Enemies will also attack if they find evidence of your presence. For instance, be careful with the footprints you leave when wet!

 

 

Some enemies are capable of shooting, and getting cover in such close quarters will be impossible. So you might as well not mess with them.

If you manage to trigger two enemies, most likely one will keep shooting while the other one will chase you.

 

For some enemies, colors indicate their current mode of operation:

 

- Patrolling (oblivious to your presence): blue

- Aggressive (has seen you!) : red

- Confused / Searching for you : orange

 

    

 

Not all enemies will visually signal their modes, though. Particularly the elite ones.

 

Either way, screen borders will always change colors accordingly to indicate an alarm is active and emphasize the enemies' "mood".

 

Leaving the screen will reset any alarms and bring enemies back to their original patrolling state.

 

 

Effect of cloaking on enemies

 

Of course, the safest way to employ cloaking is by activating it before entering the enemy's visual field. Enemies will completely ignore you, unless you bump into them. Don't do that!

However, as an emergency measure, you can also activate cloaking once you are spotted. That will confuse enemies and buy you precious time. Do not let them spot you again once your power cell runs out!

 

 

Inventory System

 

Pressing "4" will open the inventory system, and the items you have will show up.

Using the disc, it is possible to move the cursor to different items. As that happens, short descriptions are shown below.

Use the action buttons to equip/unequip items.

 

  

 

Equipped items will show up on the main screen dashboard to the right.

The game will equip items on the right slots depending on their use.

There is a dedicated slot for battery (power cells).

 

 

Many items may compete for the hand slot.

In that case, the last one equipped (on the inventory screen) will unequip any others that use that same slot.

For instance, only one key card can be equipped at a time, even though head and leg slots may be open.

 

Auto-equip functionality

 

Whenever the battery slot is empty, picking up any power cell will automatically equip it.

Same applies to items that use the hand slot.

Auto equipping does not apply to head or leg slot items.

 

Using the Risk Scanner (easy skill level only)

 

When playing on Easy, you will be equipped with a special item called the "risk scanner", which uses the head slot.

Press "Risk scan" (keypad 6) to activate it.

The word "risk" will appear on the upper left corner, and the scanner will show in red those areas that are highly likely to be covered by the field of view of enemies. So don't go there unless cloaked!

That is most helpful when learning the game and studying enemy patterns.

In case no enemies are on screen, the Risk Scanner will not pick up anything. Also, the scanner won't work when an alarm is active. The message "an alarm is on!" will show up.

 

The Risk Scanner is not available and cannot be picked up at any other skill levels.

 

      

 

Injures, healing and death

 

Being shot at, or simply getting in contact with the enemy will cause your character to blink in red as injures are inflicted. 

Injures decrease hit points (HP), and once those hit 0, your character will die. 

The portrait located on the upper right corner will indicate the level of stress incurred.

- Calm (green, high HP)

- Distressed (orange, medium HP): medium chance of bleeding with each HP lost.

- Terminal (red, low HP): high chance of bleeding. 

 

    

 

Bleeding will leave a visible trail on the ground.

 

 

The only way to recover HP is to find a Med Kit. 

Once equipped, press "3" to use and consume it entirely.

 

Portraits will also indicate when cloaking is active (grey), or when protagonist is swimming (blue).

 

Reading messages

 

Occasionally as you visit new screens, you may receive messages.

Those messages are mostly related to thoughts and observations made by the protagonist.

Keep an eye on the "MSG" symbol on the right hand side of the screen to know when messages arrive.

Press "5" to read messages. Once read, messages will be gone.

 

 

 

Game statistics and rating

 

When playing on Normal skill or above, once the game is over - no matter if you win or lose - your overall rating will be shown.

In order to maximize your overall rating, you will need to:

- complete all mission objectives

- avoid being spotted by enemies

- avoid getting injured

- "Hard" and "Insane" skill levels will give you a slight boost to the score (handicap) in order to compensate you for the difficulty. 

 

 

Feel free to brag and post a screenshot if you finish the game with a perfect 100% overall rating! ?

 

Credits

 

Finishing the game on Normal skill level or above will reveal game credits.

Credits so far:

- a game by Cmadruga

- SFX: Artrag

- Music: Nyuundere

- Testing: Skywaffle, Artrag, Descolado, Old Timey Retro Gamer, Peripheral, Kiwi.

- Droid graphics: TIX

 

 

Enjoy the game!

 

Edited December 13, 2020 by cmadruga

[artrag]

Very promising ! Metal Gear on intellivision  

[Zendocon]

Imagine what it would sound like with the Intellivoice.

 

"Snake, what happened?  Snake?  SNAAAAKE!!"

[vprette]

3 hours ago, artrag said:

Very promising ! Metal Gear on intellivision  

more... Infiltrator from c64 ??

[Sinjinhawke]

That's pretty impressive looking and the animation is great.  I like that the upper portion of the body can clip the foliage.  Always bothers me when the trunk of a tree blocks your head.

[Nyuundere]

A weapon to surpass Metal Gear.

[TR4SHD4T4]

Great use of animation. I don't even want to know how you pulled that off but major kudos.

 

[+cmadruga]

Meanwhile, our hero encounters a new type of enemy... better to stay out of sight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[artrag]

Any cartoon box for hiding? ??

[+cmadruga]

Demonstrating different types of enemies and use of cloaking suit.

 

There is one particular type of enemy for which cloaking won't work... can you guess which one?

 

 

Edited September 9, 2020 by cmadruga

[Kiwi]

11 minutes ago, cmadruga said:

There is one particular type of enemy for which cloaking won't work... can you spot which one?

Is it the one that can't go down staircases without destroying itself?

[+cmadruga]

Nope... not that one...

 

 

[Kiwi]

My 2nd guess are the dogs.  It can sniff you from several feet away.

[+cmadruga]

4 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

My 2nd guess are the dogs.  It can sniff you from several feet away.

[+nanochess]

Nice work all around! I think the top left tile of that truck could have yellow background in order to not look so square.

[+cmadruga]

6 hours ago, nanochess said:

Nice work all around! I think the top left tile of that truck could have yellow background in order to not look so square.

Tks for the suggestion.

 

[Zendocon]

"Uh-oh.  The truck have started to move."

[+cmadruga]

New WIP video.

Now able to enter vehicles and buildings.

 

 

[+cmadruga]

New mechanics:

A sloppy player leaves wet footprints after going for a swim...

An enemy eventually sees wet footprints (can't see them from afar) and gets alerted...

Player uses the last charge of his cloaking suit to evade the enemy... now will have to recharge the suit somehow...

 

 

 

[+Black_Tiger]

Alarm and Power Heal?

[+cmadruga]

28 minutes ago, Black_Tiger said:

Alarm and Power Heal?

Alarm and Power Cell.

(Yes, the "se" looks a little like a "hi" given the low resolution.)

I'm still toying with the idea of putting stuff in Japanese here and there.

Edited September 17, 2020 by cmadruga

[Kiwi]

(Color you see aren't exactly like the Intellivision.)

I felt to need to make alternate battery icons for some odd reason.  First one has the pips.  Second is the cute version of the battery icon. It gets really happy to plain exhaust(Is it really dead? We're not telling you.).  3rd one graduate empty over time. 

[+Steve Jones]

Although I can’t read Japanese, it looks cool

What do those characters say?

 

 

[+cmadruga]

1 hour ago, Steve Jones said:

Although I can’t read Japanese, it looks cool

What do those characters say?

 

 

Alarm and Power Cell.

[+cmadruga]

2 hours ago, Kiwi said:

(Color you see aren't exactly like the Intellivision.)

I felt to need to make alternate battery icons for some odd reason.  First one has the pips.  Second is the cute version of the battery icon. It gets really happy to plain exhaust(Is it really dead? We're not telling you.).  3rd one graduate empty over time. 

Haha... very "kawaii". Thanks!

 

So, basically I'm experimenting with this idea of making the game look like an old 80s Japanese game. 

But I'm still not entirely set on doing it. Still thinking.