Mech's take the Somme
A downloadable game for Windows
The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the upper reaches of the Somme, a river in France. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies. More than three million men fought in the battle and one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the deadliest battles in human history. (wikipedia.org)
The real battle was the first use of the tank in warfare, however these proved unreliable. In this alternate history it wasn't tanks that the allies introduced, but giant armoured mech's marching across the battlefield destroying all in their way.
You must take control of your mech and navigate your way across no-mans land, avoiding obstacles and whatever else the enemy throws at you. When you reach the enemy lines you must eliminate any resistance and break through.
This is my submission to the MechJam II game jam, built over two weeks in September and October 2021.
- Background music from PlayOnLoop.com, Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0
- Sound effects from FreeSound.org.
Controls
- Use the mouse to look
- Click the right mouse button to toggle between aiming and freelook
- Use the left mouse button to fire
- Use the WASD or Arrow keys to move
- Escape pauses the game
Version 1.4 Update - Credits
- Fixed up the credits section to better credit the creators of the assets used.
Version 1.3 Update - The Red Barron
- Added the Fokker Dr1 aircraft made famous by the Red Barron which will attempt to bomb and strafe your mech.
- Added bullet impact effects.
- Added health packs to allow you to play for longer.
Version 1.2 Update - Machine Gunner
- Added machine gunner operating a tripod mounted machine gun.
- Added more variation to the level and some new models.
- Adjusted the difficulty level to shift the balance towards the enemy - they now see you earlier and can shoot from further away.
Version 1.1 Update - Post Jam tweaks
- Added mech footstep sounds.
- Added exhaust smoke to the mech.
- Changed the aim mode to toggle rather than hold.
- Added mech weapon aiming to ensure the guns are aiming at the cross hair.
- Added mech death animation and explosion.
More Like This
Checkout my new game Blue Sky Aces, a retro inspired, stylized world war 1 flight simulator that puts you in control of some of the worlds first war planes. Zoom above the trenches as you engage the enemy in fierce close range dogfights, where any moment could be your last. I'm aiming to have a demo on Itch later this year, otherwise Wishlist on Steam here
Download
Install instructions
Download the zip file and unzip it, open the unzipped folder and run "Mech's Take The Somme.exe".
Note: your system may warn you that it has detected an unrecognized app, click on the "more info" link and then the "Run anyway" button to continue.
Development log
- Fokker Dr1 AddedNov 06, 2021
- New machine gunner enemyOct 19, 2021
- Mech Jam 2 PostmortemOct 07, 2021
Comments
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Cool game but looks like some credits are missing, perhaps even more
CC-BY-NC Sounds
synthetic low-rev engine.wav by Timbre
Artillery Explosion (Close) (Mixed) by EvanBoyerman
CC-BY Sounds
MECH STEPS - 2.wav by jdpstar
16-Explosion.wav by SgtPepperArc360
CC0 Sounds
goreSplat.wav by ThefitzyG
Falling Bomb.wav by Daleonfire
wind.mp3 by Topschool
Yes I believe you are correct. I don't think I properly understood the creative commons license when I made this game, and I had thought that crediting freesound.org was enough. One of the challenges I've had with freesound.org over the years is that it's been really hard to find the same sound again to credit the authors, especially if all I have is the audio file. Can I ask how you managed to track them down?
Sure thing, there's a bunch of ways:
But sometimes sounds get deleted, then it doesn't work.
If you renamed the sounds, you might be out of luck, unless the uploader added some kind of metadata.
To get the files I used Asset Ripper.
Cheers, I'll give that a try.
Hey thanks again for pointing out the issues with the credits, I believe I've fixed it up for this game, but I'm going to go through some of the others over the next few months as I suspect they might have similar issues.
Cool, all the best to ya!
Intresting...
lol nice
Hey looking for some feedback on the right click to aim feature, like or hate it? I'm thinking about doing away with it and just using the right mouse button to toggle between freelook and locked, keen to get people's opinions
You need an entrenching tool/function for the mech. Right now, the mobility over broken terrain is poorer than a Mk IV tank, which had an entrenching beam. Maybe the RMB should let the mech climb up over trenches and sandbags?
Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it. Yes I agree it does feel a bit wrong that this huge machine can be stopped by a little sand bag wall or a bit of barbed wire. I think the easy answer to some of these problems would be to simply make certain obstacles breakable allowing the mech to smash through them. In real life that's what would happen in many cases - assuming giant mechs are real.
Early on during the development I had issues with the size of the mech and navigating the terrain obstacles, I never really solved them due to time constraints, instead I just made the trenches wide enough that the mech wouldn't get stuck in them. I think some sort of procedural animation of the legs combined with placing individual feet might make this all feel a bit more realistic. This would allow the mech to step over larger gaps and obstacles, and maybe even step out of trenches, all without looking odd.
An easier (but klunkier) method is just have the mech stiffen up and jump (springpads under the feet or jumpjets).
Not sure if you want to keep on this, but using German combat tripods (panzerkampfdreifuss) to fight giant fauna (dinosaurs) on an exotic planet was a side-idea of mine back when I was still into Frank Chadwick's Space 1889.
i havent played it yet but as i wright this im downloading it, but that sounds great