One of the NUMEROUS things that is planned for is a smorgasbord of new bullet types, from grenades to rockets to lasers. But at the moment, I'm focusing on allowing the game to move between levels in an intelligent way. Right now you only move between levels by dying or completing all of the Hex Console Puzzles. There is no level progression.
Removing the HUD would be nice, but there's alot of information I need the player to know. It is in my thoughts though. HUD's are so dated. If I can come up with a good solution, I'll allow them to disappear. Or at least toggle off. (of course, to toggle anything requires a Game Menu, which is another huge project)
Are you certain you're not seeing the "Starter Gun"? There is always a grey gun in your starting inventory now. It has TERRIBLE stats, but you don't start completely unarmed. Once level progression is working, you'll have guns from previous levels. Or course, level progression means each new level has higher and higher stats, so even a great gun will eventually be newbie trash a level or two forward.
I *might* have fixed that inventory bug with a new system that SUPER-PURGES those things. I had seen the bug many times before. But right now the game's guts are all over the place, so I can't share the build. It's like a car at a mechanic, fan belts over one in place, the carburetor is on a table. This level progression thing is SUPER IMPORTANT to make this an actual game. I have the key system working, and I have a Terminal up and running. But the widget that actually generates level stats and MOVES you to said level, is still just a dream. Also, I don't have a system to dispense the key-parts that you build the key out of. I *might* need to build a whole new badguy to pack around the key bits, so you can kill them, collect the bits, assemble the key, and activate the Terminal to transfer to other levels. See? Complicated!
I can see why Stormland was made the way it was made. There are only so many ways to make a game like this. I'm trying to do some new stuff, so I can't really copy them too much. It requires lots of pondering. There's millions of ways to solve this problem, but I think there's only a handful that are actually fun to play. Thanks for the input, every bit helps.