Welcome guardians to the third Dev Diary for Guardians Planetfall!
Today I’m giving you a small tease of the laser rifle you all saw me shoot at a tree in the trailer… Not all Guardians are well trained!
This weapon falls into the Primary Weapon category and is unlocked using Federation Credits to increase your firepower.
The Laser Rifle is an energy-based weapon powered by a rechargeable battery cell. With good trigger discipline, a skilled Guardian can take advantage of its regeneration system to maintain sustained fire without ever swapping batteries. However, overheating will force a battery replacement, and those are limited during a mission.
From a design perspective, this weapon was special. We didn’t want energy weapons to simply be “higher damage” alternatives. Each weapon in Planetfall must have a clear purpose and gameplay identity.
For the Laser Rifle, the recharge mechanic became its core feature: as long as you avoid overheating, the available shots will slowly regenerate. And of course, we always keep our most important metric in mind: how cool it feels to use.
We explored multiple variations during development, including different moving parts, VR ergonomics, and mechanical behaviors.
From these early explorations, we established a strong baseline for the weapon’s silhouette, aesthetic direction, and VR handling, which guided us toward the final concept.
We hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look. If you’d like to see more and help shape the future of the game, join the Discord community, make your voice heard, and wishlist the game!
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Thank you for building Planetfall with us. 🚀
P.S: The Federation’s laser and shield technology isn’t entirely human-made. It was salvaged and reverse-engineered from an ancient species about which the Guardians know very little…