I look at my creation and can see my influences.  The obvious and the not so obvious… over the years I’ve refined the pillars of my game to these:

Continual arcade control of the avatar
– no taking control from the player = input is almost never ignored (wherever possible)
– this means no locked animations… you want to jump through a window – you are going to have to jump crouch it and hope you don’t suck…
– jump crouch is still a thing
– you should be able to crouch crawl though narrow stuff without any interruption
(I wanted to add prone – but who knows if there will be a Squirrelmageddon! 2 – anyone know anyone? – lol)

Arcade Stylings
– ever increasing difficulty
– when your weapon levels up in game, you notice / feel the upgrade
– points are everything, get points, get XP, get on the wall of legendary squirrelers
– you want that power up bro… don’t kill yourself getting that power up…!
– when you die it’s your fault (most of the time… ok? 😉

Random Squirrel & AI Brains
– the brains are super basic RNG devices with a few goals
– challenging but fair death dealers
– goal: mostly unpredictable chaos
– imminent death is not a healthbar (it’s a state of mind)

A Thinking Shooter
– when in the middle of it = super high ‘choice per millisecond’
– know when to run away (which is most of the time)
– fighting your urge to shoot a squirrel just might save your life… lol
– character build / pre-mission choices matter
– going to need skill AND brains if going FTW.

An RPG Lite
– skill / loadout / training character customisation
– stats? (not yet)
– story lite (intel based)
– no cut scenes (yet)
– meta gameplay in Factions DLC

Embrace the Jank / Lore Insanity!
– power suits are janky P.O.S.
– this game is a janky P.O.S.
– master the jank (each weapon has it’s own ‘personality’ lol)
– there are no mini-maps cuz G.P.S. satellites were blown up by the aliens…
– the net doesn’t work top-side.
– TPAI manufacture AR4000 model hats and masks to wear and share
– you should visit the milking factory…