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[Hollow-Headed]

For the next line of updates, I'm aiming to add controller support to the game. Although adding the basic functionality shouldn't be a problem in itself, there's a big difference between getting things functional and having it actually be usable. I'm expecting the joystick to not be able to simply emulate the mouse well, which, in such a case, what I'll most likely need to do is add controller-specific mechanics for various things, such as cursor control, locking onto targets, and landing headshots. I'll also want to have control customization, like with keyboard controls.

[Hollow-Headed]

Controller support is now available in the game. The left joystick controls movement and the right joystick controls the cursor. Although other controls like shoot/aim are currently hard-coded to specific buttons, I plan on adding customization, like with keyboard controls.

I'm not actually satisfied with the cursor controls since it is simply emulating mouse behavior, at the moment. It doesn't feel fast/precise enough to be able to freely move around the screen in the same way, so what I'm going to be doing is adding controller-specific mechanics in order to improve this.

[Hollow-Headed]

Controller controls can now be customized, like a previous update for keyboard controls.

Both controller and keyboard options vary in what is changeable, given how different they are. For example, with the mouse and keyboard, you cannot change shoot and aim, as they are strictly the left and right mouse buttons. With a controller, however, shoot and aim can be changed, but movement and cursor controls must be the left and right joysticks.

[Hollow-Headed]

While using a controller, instead of moving the cursor anywhere on the screen, the cursor is now a constant distance away from the player. Pointing the joystick in a direction will immediately place the cursor in that direction on the screen, relative to the player.

This change affects some other mechanics which are based on the exact position of the cursor, so those will also need to be adapted; however, in the end, it should provide a much better experience while using a controller.

[Hollow-Headed]

Lock-on now has a controller-specific method. For mouse/keyboard, you must have the cursor directly over a target in order to lock onto them, but while using a controller, the cursor must only be aiming towards them. If there are multiple suitable targets, then it will lock onto the nearest target.

The cursor itself now changes while locked onto someone, as well, adding a square around it in order to better show the difference between states.

[Hollow-Headed]

While using a controller, I've added a different way for the game to determine which interactable object will be focused on.

With mouse/keyboard, it is based on what is within range of the player, but narrowed down to what is nearest to the cursor, which allows you to easily direct it onto something specific, but that is not possible with controllers since the cursor is always a fixed distance away from the player. Instead, with the controller version, the object is now narrowed down to what is nearest to the very front of the player, which makes it to where you can at least use the player's position and direction to help focus in on something specific.

[Hollow-Headed]

As the final step to providing proper controller support, headshots are now better suited for them. In fact, the entire headshot mechanic has been redone, which improves it not just for controllers, but also mouse/keyboard.

Now, while using a mouse, in order to land a headshot, the bullet must be lined up with the target's head upon impact, and the cursor's position (at the time of firing) needs to be fairly close to it, as well. With controllers, though, headshots are now simply based on whether the bullet is lined up to the head, removing the cursor proximity requirement.

[Hollow-Headed]

Taking one step closer to feeling like an actual video game, background music now plays during levels. As such, I've added an audio options menu in order to control it. This also introduces a new slider option for the menu's user interface.

The music can be toggled off and on, and the volume slider behaves as one would expect, moving it to the left decreases the volume while moving it to the right increases the volume.

Following this, I'm going to attempt to implement sound effects, so that will probably be my main goal for the week.

[gabrielcarioca]

Seems like a good game, reminds me of the time I played Monaco, a lot of gameplay possibilities.

I only think the shooting is not being satisfying enough, the bullet is small and hard to notice, the enemies you shot only slide through the floor, I think it's missing some kind of feedback to make players enjoy more one of your main mechanics. This is a very subtle thing to notice and balance but makes a great difference in the gameplay.

Good luck with this project, I'm really following it to see where it is going

You probably already watched this video from JW, but if not it's a good opportunity to learn some tips to make this kind of shooter juicier.

[Pixelologist]

In my mind, I instantly relate the title of your game to farts. You probably aren't aiming for that, but that's all I can think of when reading it.

[gabrielcarioca]

In my mind, I instantly relate the title of your game to farts. You probably aren't aiming for that, but that's all I can think of when reading it.

You are the second one to say that in this devlog. Probably something to consider

[Hollow-Headed]

Seems like a good game, reminds me of the time I played Monaco, a lot of gameplay possibilities.

I only think the shooting is not being satisfying enough, the bullet is small and hard to notice, the enemies you shot only slide through the floor, I think it's missing some kind of feedback to make players enjoy more one of your main mechanics. This is a very subtle thing to notice and balance but makes a great difference in the gameplay.

Good luck with this project, I'm really following it to see where it is going

You probably already watched this video from JW, but if not it's a good opportunity to learn some tips to make this kind of shooter juicier.

Thanks for the video. I've seen similar about game feel, but hadn't actually watched that one before. It has some good points for things to try. I could see things like the sleep effect, being a good fit, just a slight pause when an enemy is killed. Regarding the bullet size in particular, though, I've been thinking about that and agree that it probably would look better having them be more noticeable. It'll definitely be something that I at least try out, but I need to think of how I would really want it to look.

About how the bodies drag across the ground when killed, are you talking about how there isn't any depth to them as they "fall" to the ground? No scaling or a sense of them falling? If so, this is something that I'm actually aiming to address sometime this week or early next week, depending on how long it takes to get sounds effects up and running. I'm thinking some subtle scaling as they fall, but could also see how a sort of visual effect once they hit the ground and drag would be good. If this isn't what you meant, could you let me know what you had in mind?

In my mind, I instantly relate the title of your game to farts. You probably aren't aiming for that, but that's all I can think of when reading it.

You are the second one to say that in this devlog. Probably something to consider

The thing with the title is that when trying to come up with one, I wasn't coming up with anything I liked. Nothing unique or that really stood out. "Silent But Deadly" crossed my mind as a possibility because it was descriptively accurate, in that you can play it in both a silent and deadly fashion, choosing stealth or just killing everyone, but also specifically because of the double meaning for a fart. I kept trying to come up with something, but over and over, I came back to it, with it becoming more and more tempting as a good way to get some not so subtle humor into it while also being both eye-catching and memorable.

So with that in mind, do you feel that it takes away from the game, or adds to it? Would it draw your curiosity enough to check it's store page, where the gameplay itself would then hopefully convince you to buy it, or would it turn you away from even looking? Personally, I can definitely see it working both ways. I thought it might be more beneficial, but I would be curious as to what you and others think, as well.

[gabrielcarioca]

About how the bodies drag across the ground when killed, are you talking about how there isn't any depth to them as they "fall" to the ground? No scaling or a sense of them falling? If so, this is something that I'm actually aiming to address sometime this week or early next week, depending on how long it takes to get sounds effects up and running. I'm thinking some subtle scaling as they fall, but could also see how a sort of visual effect once they hit the ground and drag would be good. If this isn't what you meant, could you let me know what you had in mind?

What I feel is that this world is missing physics, every gun sends the character the same distance and it seems like they are sliding on ice. What I think is missing is something that makes me feel like I really killed the enemies, but looking to the images I feel like I have an overpowered weapon and I just shot and they went flying away, but they slide in an unnatural way, they don't bounce or fall. Don't know if it's better explained now, but I don't feel like they should die and go sliding the ground that way.

So with that in mind, do you feel that it takes away from the game, or adds to it? Would it draw your curiosity enough to check it's store page, where the gameplay itself would then hopefully convince you to buy it, or would it turn you away from even looking? Personally, I can definitely see it working both ways. I thought it might be more beneficial, but I would be curious as to what you and others think, as well.

I think if you have a proper cover that convey the proper expectation there is no problem. Think that will be an image by the side of your game title, just try to be clear about what you want people to feel when looking to it.

[Hollow-Headed]

What I feel is that this world is missing physics, every gun sends the character the same distance and it seems like they are sliding on ice. What I think is missing is something that makes me feel like I really killed the enemies, but looking to the images I feel like I have an overpowered weapon and I just shot and they went flying away, but they slide in an unnatural way, they don't bounce or fall. Don't know if it's better explained now, but I don't feel like they should die and go sliding the ground that way.

That explains it very well, thanks. I think I have some solutions in mind, some more simple than others, but I'll try to work some things out to improve on all that.

Right now, headshots increase the knockback distance in what was meant to help show that it was a stronger hit, but I think less may be more in this case. Couple that with some lower knockback on weaker guns so that they don't all feel like a cannon, along with a random factor in deciding the distance, and that may be a good start. Having the bodies scale down as they fall will help, too, but the main issue is definitely the gliding as if on ice, and I know exactly what you mean about that. I'll see what I can come up with.

[Hollow-Headed]

Going further into the audio side of things, I've started work on adding sound effects to the game. In doing so, I've added additional options to the audio menu in order to control them.

At the moment, the basics are set up in that sounds will trigger when they need to, at a controllable volume level, but there is more to be done in order to get it to work the way that I want it to.

[Hollow-Headed]

The sound effect system is now complete. Sounds are now position-based, where, for example, a sound to the left of the screen is more prominent to the left speaker, and vice versa for sounds to the right. The loudness of a sound is also based on how far away it is from the player, which follows the same rules as how the AI hear, in that walls obstruct sound and so, in order for it to be heard, it must move around them in order to reach the player. If the travel distance is too long, it goes unheard, and if it does get heard, its loudness depends on how far it had to travel.

The audio menu has also undergone changes, as well. I've removed the mute toggles in favor of a master volume slider, which controls the volume level of everything, both music and sound effects. Also, rather than have one slider for all sound effects, I've split everything into different categories, currently with gunshots and footsteps having their own options, with more categories to come.

[Hollow-Headed]

I've changed some of the behavior surrounding how characters fall to the ground. All in all, they're all very subtle changes, but they're attempts to help make it feel right, where weaker guns don't feel overpowered, and as such, stronger guns feel more rewarding when you do get that big knockback. It also tries to fix how bodies seemed to simply slide away rather than fall.

Balanced the knockback of all guns so that there is a wider range of force.
Headshots no longer increase knockback.
Headshots move the head back faster, giving a better sense of impact.
Added a bit of randomness in deciding the knockback distance so it isn't always the same.
Added a small delay between the initial impact and the resulting knockback.
Added scaling to the body as it falls, to help give a sense of falling rather than sliding.
Changed how speed is reduced once on the ground in order to help avoid sliding.
Added sound effects when a bodies hits the ground.

[Hollow-Headed]

Before now, guns had some recoil to them, but it simply repositioned the guns instantly, which, depending on how much recoil was applied, made it either very jarring or barely noticeable. Now, however, I've redone the entire behavior, changing how the guns are positioned at any one time, allowing for the gradual motion of the recoil and recovery to be shown, rather than an abrupt teleportation.

[Hollow-Headed]

Hands now animate while punching an enemy or throwing a body.

This might be a step towards introducing animations for other interactions, such as opening doors and picking things up, but I'm not entirely sure about taking it that far. I mainly just felt that the knockout interaction in particular needed to be more than just the enemy suddenly falling over for no apparent reason.

[Hollow-Headed]

Now that punches are visible, I felt it was appropriate to introduce unarmed enemies as an actual threat, which is something that I've been wanting to do for some time. They can now punch you if they get close enough, which, like the player's punch, only takes one hit to take someone down. Unlike the player, though, they can attack from any angle, even head-on, whereas the player can only attack from behind.

This helps provide some flexibility in terms of controlling level difficulty, since enemies will no longer all need to be armed in order to be a threat. Otherwise, players would have been up against armed enemies even on the very first level. Now, though, guns can be introduced gradually and in more numbers so as to increase the difficulty over time.