REASONS GAMES
Raiders, mechs, and a fight for the base
The wasteland fights back. Raider gangs hold camps and come for your base on a timer, and armoured AI mechs patrol the ruins with red scanning cones. You fight back with melee swings and guns that use real ammo.
What's new
- Combat. Swing in an arc with fists or a melee weapon, or fire a pistol or rifle. Each shot uses one round, and an empty gun just clicks.
- Hit feedback: a white flash, knockback, floating damage numbers, blood from raiders, sparks and oil from mechs, screen shake and a short hit stop.
- Three kinds of raider: scavs with clubs, tough brutes, and gunners with pistols. They wander, chase you, attack, and run when badly hurt. They walk around walls rather than into them.
- Two kinds of AI mech. Scout mechs are fast and fragile. Heavy mechs are slow, hit hard and fire bursts from range. Both are heavily armoured, so melee barely scratches them. Bring a gun.
- Mechs patrol set routes and sweep a red scanning cone. Step into it and they see you. Gunfire and turret shots make noise: a mech that hears it gets suspicious, comes to look, then goes to full alert and calls nearby mechs in.
- A destroyed mech leaves a smoking wreck. Search it for high-tier parts: circuit boards, batteries, gears and sometimes a mech core.
- Dead raiders drop loot and give experience.
- Raider camps and mech patrol zones now appear across the world. The area around your starting camp stays quiet.
- Raids. A countdown warns you, a horn sounds, and a party heads for your base. Raiders go for turrets first, then doors and walls. Your turret fights back.
- If you die, the screen fades and you wake at your bed, or at the starting camp if you don't have one.
- A health bar, an ammo counter while a gun is held, and a red flash when you're hurt.
- Full controller support: aim with the right stick, fire with R2, and a gentle aim assist that you can switch off. The controller rumbles when you're hit, and that can be turned off too.
How it was made
- Raiders find their way with a navigation mesh built for each area, so they route around walls and ruins.
- Mechs listen to a shared noise system. Gunshots and turret fire carry a set distance, and any mech in range reacts.
- Automated tests cover the enemy AI, combat, and a full raid on a walled base with a turret. One test aims and fires using nothing but controller input.
Screens
Tools used
| Godot 4.7 | The game engine. Enemy AI, combat and the raid system are all GDScript. |
|---|---|
| Asset Forge + Higgsfield | The raider and mech sprites and the combat effects came from earlier Asset Forge generations. |
| Aseprite | Every sprite was finished by hand and locked to the game's palette. |
| Claude Code | Built the enemies and combat in its own branch. Every change was re-tested before it went in. |
How to try it
- Start the game and search the starter stash (E, or Cross on PS5). It now holds a pistol and 24 rounds.
- Pick the pistol with 1-8 or L1/R1. Aim with the mouse or the right stick. Fire with left mouse or R2. With a melee weapon or empty hands, the same button swings.
- Build some walls and a turret near camp (B / Triangle for build mode). About 4 minutes in, a 'Raiders incoming!' countdown starts, and the party comes for your base.
- To find mechs, head about 55 tiles north-east of the start into the ruins. Fire a shot nearby and watch the patrol react.
- The nearest raider camp is about 70 tiles west-south-west of the start.
Known issues
- The heavy mech's sprite reads more like a hulking brute than a machine. It will get harder, more mechanical plating in an art pass.
- The scout mech is small on screen and easy to lose in effects.
- Bullet tracers are smooth lines that don't sit on the pixel grid yet.
- Wall damage shows mainly through the health bars; hits on walls need stronger effects.
- Raider camps and mech zones don't show on the world map yet.
- Combat sounds are wired up but silent until the audio update.
Ironfall dev log · Update 6 of 18 · All updates