UNDERLIER GAIDEN: The Ancient (EFPSE vertical slice) [Bring Out Your Ghosts 2023]

An entry for Bring Out Your Ghosts.

Controls:

• WASD: Move
• Space: Jump
• Left Shift: Crouch
• E: Use
• Mouse: Aim
• Left Mouse Button: Attack
• Mouse Wheel/1-8: Change Weapons
• Tab: Mini-Map

About:

Underlier Gaiden: The Ancient was originally going to be an entry for Unofficial Easy FPS Editor Jam #2, but I ended up cancelling it at the last minute as the project was in no state for sharing.

How unfinished? A certain YouTuber would be rolling out the Gordon Ramsay clips...

I was a couple of entries into what I intend to make into a long-running series of underwater, eldritch-horror-themed games - the Underlier series - and when I was considering what to make for the then upcoming retro FPS jam, I figured what the heck, combine the two.

Then the theme for the jam dropped: dark fantasy.

Underlier had, up to that point, a modern setting; no specific year, but the backstory of the first game was being delivered through messages on portable electronic devices, so it placed the events roughly around our time. Or a way away from eras typically associated with fantasy, in any case.

But there was the thing: the as yet unseen threat in those first games is implied, as is the case in Lovecraftian horror, to be unfathomably ancient.

Pairing that notion with my love of a little game called Heretic, I had an idea and I was ready to run with it.

Note that, riding that Heretic high, I haven't paid much mind to anything like historical accuracy here. Cursory Google searches informed me that certain weapon types were highly unlikely to have existed in the same era, in the same parts of the world, let alone behaving anything like the very shotgun/flamethrower/grenade-launcher-esqe weapons I was creating.

The mainline games in the series are intended to be relatively grounded.

Gaiden? What the heck, it's a campfire story.

I'm also releasing this as something of a swan song for my time with Easy FPS Editor. It's a fun utility which - once you're familiar with the quirks - is as easy to use as the name suggests, but it has its limitations; there may well be workarounds which could accommodate every feature I'd want to add to an FPS, and I've seen games made with it that are clearly doing fancy stuff under the hood, but I'm also learning Godot and already achieving better results over there, so that'll be my new home for FPS projects moving forward.

(There's also the not insignificant issue that I can't in good conscience monetise any game I make in EFPSE. It's complicated.)

Anyway, here it is: Underlier Gaiden; revisited, patched up, playable. The weapon sprites are cleaned-up versions of the very hurried renders that would have been used in the original build, and as such lack the full range of animation I had originally envisaged, and while the human enemies are varied in terms of stats, they're only visibly distinguishable by the odd beard and the weapons they carry. The level design isn't as lavish as I'd have liked, and the story refers to the opening area as a "village" when it looks more like some kind of steampunk industrial estate. Nonetheless, enjoy 👍

Underlier Gaiden uses third-party sound effects from the following asset packs:

• Super Dialogue Audio Pack by Dillon Becker
• Royalty Free Sound Effects Library by FilmCow
• Darkworld Audio Sound Effects - Survival I by Darkworld Audio
• Essentials Series - NOX SOUND by Nox Sound
• Free Cinematic Sound Effects by Gregor Quendel
• Free Deadly Kombat Sound Effects by Daniel SoundsGood

Some sound effect edits, plus additional sound effects by me.

Particle effects are default Easy FPS Editor assets.

All other graphics and all music by me.

Shoutouts to the following YouTube channels for invaluable Blender tutorials:

• Smeaf
• Royal Skies
• pinkpocketTV
• masterxeon1001

Consider picking up the 12-track OST: