UPDATETwo new enemies, new upgrades, start of level 3.
Jus to show I'm not makin this shit up off the top o my head, here's an analysis of both:
The first new enemy is the ninjas, they come in red, yellow n blue:
I thought I'd only ever add ninjas if it was totally necessary for a game, but in this one they just kinda fit the 90's-arcade-game aesthetic so well.
When the guy at the back raises his sword, they are invincible. If you try n attack em, they''ll retaliate. In this mode they're AI is aggressive and will come after you.
When his sword is
lowered, you can hit em, and in that state they're AI is evasive: Like they'll run away from you.
They're death animation is the old ninja smoke-bomb trick, and sometimes they drop out of jets. They are faster than you, and get higher jumps for no reason other than because they are ninjas.
The point of this enemy is to combat anyone who's got too used to the game and knocks out all the enemies soon as they see em. Also these enemies stay tough regardless of how much you've upgraded your attack or speed.
Enemy #2: Punks:
Very simple: They explode after a few seconds. No melee attacks, very simple AI, they just blow up. They've got very low health so you can knock em out in one, and they laugh just before they explode. I want more enemies to laugh, it's a very Metal-Slug thing to do.
I'm gonna draw more punks. I expect I'll flood you with em at some point, so I want em to have like 3 different random heads.
The point of this enemy is that you beat all the other guys by rollin up next to em and hittin em. There hasn't bin much evade gameplay yet, and y'know, variety is the blah blah blah.
In level 3 you can see the second speed upgrade, and how it makes you a complete badass speed-wise.
I still need to add some random pipes to the background of level 3, and make it splash when you touch down from a sick ramp.
Oh and I still need to add the welding animation to the upgrade thing.
I had a good idea to turn the jet in level 2 into a boss. It can fly overhead n drop fat bombs, it can drop ninjas, or even touch down to the road n minigun the 2nd n 3rd lane. You'd attack it by whackin it's nose from the left or right when it touches down.
Do I wanna use that up in level 2 though? It means I'd have to come up with a new boss for the ending, and comin up with bosses in this game aint easy.
The game feels slightly more upbeat now, especially with the punks, I like those.
Starting to feel a bit janky/broken though. I changed the controls a slight bit n I can't get it to feel fluid AND glitch-free at the same time :/