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[Hollow-Headed]

Here's something I've been curious about, as you've said before the inspiration for Silent But Deadly was Hotline Miami. However when I look at this game it seems to pace itself slower than Hotline Miami, What do you think that pace change offers you in terms of game development and in game play?

That's a tricky thing, because the game itself could probably stand to be a faster pace than what it currently is, but before determining that, I really need to work on the AI and get a better idea of how the end result really plays. However, compared to HM, I assume it would still be slower, simply because they're sort of different types of games.

Stealth in itself tends to be slow, but more than that, I think a slower pace allows for more tactical play in general. For example, one big difference between the games is that you can't punch enemies directly head-on. Instead, you need to be behind them, or else you will definitely lose. This really sets the pace while unarmed, because you're now extremely vulnerable, and instead of being able to rush into a room to punch an enemy out, you must wait for the right time, and use the environment to your advantage.

The gun-based side of things is a different story, though, and that is where I think pacing can be improved upon the most. I would say it's mainly slower here because bullets do a varying degree of damage, as opposed to HM, where one bullet, regardless of the gun, typically meant a kill. Because enemies may take more shots to kill, things like enemy grouping needs to be considered, so as not to overwhelm the player, since they're more likely to run out of bullets throughout their gunfights. However, this also allows aiming to have a big impact, so that you can save bullets by landing headshots, dealing double damage and killing them faster.

Ultimately, the entire system needs to be balanced out better, so I think there's definitely room for improvement.

[Hollow-Headed]

This update brings various bug fixes and an improvement to the HUD's look, adding more borders around certain parts so that they don't blend completely into black areas.

I've also changed how text looks while focusing on certain things, such as guns on the ground, shrinking secondary information's text size in order to emphasize the primary information. They also use colors to represent certain qualities, such as how much ammo the gun has, ranging from green, yellow, orange, and red.

Damage indicators are now smaller, as well, and negated damage is a different color from normal damage, so that the two are easier to tell apart.

Finally, I'm experimenting with a change to how ammo is shown, where rather than showing maximum bullet capacity for your current gun, it now shows total ammo for that type of gun. To me, this is more important than the other, and by keeping it on the opposite corner of the screen, it forces players to look to both areas in order to get all the info. With this, all of the most important information is together, in one area. Because of this, I've also changed the total ammo display to where it only pops up in certain situations, such as if you're focusing on a gun or had just picked up some ammo, providing that information when most important, but not other times, so as not to clutter the screen with information of which the most important bits are already shown elsewhere.

[Hollow-Headed]

I've finally improved the way that bodies fall from higher levels. They will now shrink and fade into the void, whereas before they would just suddenly disappear.

For comparison, here's the original version.

[Hollow-Headed]

The menu system has received a major overhaul, with many improved features, bug fixes, and additions, such as:

* Full manual controls. Before now, the only way to interact with any menu was with the cursor, but it can now be controlled directly from keyboard or controller.

* Aim retention. The player's crosshair position is now saved before pausing, and will resume back to that position once the game is unpaused, making it to where there is no interference with one's aim, despite the cursor having been moved while paused.

* Slider acceleration. While manually controlling slider-based options, such as the volume controls, holding down an input will cause the slider to speed up over time, allowing the player to go from one extreme to the other with less wait, yet remaining precise enough to only move one point at a time.

* Minor polish. Some small things have been added, such as sounds while interacting with options, and a more comprehensive highlighting system, which works with an option's entire row, rather than just the main button, like before.


With the exception of just one more thing, this update wipes an entire category from my to-do list. Although it can stand to be even better, especially visually, it is basically finished in a functional sense, making it a somewhat uninteresting leap of progress, but a very important one, nonetheless.

[Hollow-Headed]

As a final touch to the menu system, I've made it to where lists can now be scrolled through while the number of options exceed the amount that would fit on-screen. Until now, that problem has always been a potential hindrance for them, where it would simply cut off at a certain point, making it practically unusable for anything with a large number of options. Now, though, they can be scrolled manually by both the scroll wheel or by dragging the scroll bar around, and will otherwise follow the current selection, making sure that it stays within view.

I've also taken this opportunity to change how the color-based listings are displayed, opting to show the colors themselves, rather than just their names, and as an example of both changes, I've added a whole range of additional colors. In a practical sense, this change probably only really cuts back on potential translation issues, but I just think it's a better way to show them, so that there is an immediate visual reference, rather than just a description.