Hey Folks!
Can't believe it's already been a couple of weeks since my last post, so much for daily updates! I think for the purposes of not letting you down, I'm going to settle in the middle and for now aim for a weekly update, much easier to quantify changes and gives me opportunity to reflect on work over the week.
Here's the major changes I've made since my last update. I won't be listing them all, if you want to see what's been improved, you can see my improvement lists and whether they have a - or + next to them. "-" means still waiting to be implemented, "+" means it's been implemeneted in some way or another. "x" means the feature has been scrapped.
+ New UI integrated: Have the side bars fully functional now, although there are still many changes I wish to make to them, for example, shortening the bars to make it easier to read for the player (and closer to the buttons/player).
- Combo meter integrated: Killing and hitting enemies now fills a combo bar at the side of the screen, which boosts the number of points you make and also gives you a projectile blast (x6 combo, you're getting a spray of 6 bullets). This feature is definitely still in the experimental stages, with some major changes on the horizon.
+ Robots! There are a more powerful equivalent of every enemy in the game in robot format. These add a bit more variation in enemies, each a twist on their counterparts. These improvements vary from movement speed, health buff, directly targeting the player or more projectiles being shot. They become more present as the game goes along.
+ Spacing: It's a basic thing, but adding breathing time between stuff happening in the game, such as when the player dies not immediately throwing up the UI, but allowing the player particles to fade away first.
+ Ad voucher system: I've fully integrated a system which will skip every 3rd advert and give the player a gift. This is part of an effort on my part to give my thanks to the player for putting up with ads. It works as a punchcard system where the bullets punch through a card to after every second failed run (after an ad shows).
+ New spawn system integrated: Similar to the risk of rain spawning system, I have a max tally of enemies that can be spawned at a particular time worth certain points. This was to stop the often unstoppable deluge of enemy types on early levels that felt extremely unfair. This new spawn system has also undergone a very recent change in how it replenishes: The original tally system replenished every second (timer based), but this meant players if they were quick power their way up the level without dealing with enemies. Instead, I've linked the tally to the number of platforms you clear in one go. So, if you jump up 10 platforms, you're going to have 10 points to be spent on enemies (which could mean 10 small enemies or 2 giant enemies), whilst if you just clear a couple of platforms that number will be easier to deal with. I like the idea of the tradeoff between more experienced players rushing through the level whilst new players edging their way up. There's some major experiments I'll be doing in this next batch of improvements that will play on this further. In the gif above, you can see as I leap up a swath of the level, I'm confronted with a shell enemy, an enemy I'd usually see on level 4 but because of my decision to jump up the level it brings those more dangerous enemies closer.
In the last few builds, I had a rising tide, but it's barely present in the game since the players often power away from it at stupid speeds (whilst it only moves upward in a constant speed). I've now anchored it to the camera, just off screen and when the player remains on a platform for too long, it starts to creep up. If the player jumps up even one floor, it receeds, but will rise again if they linger there too long. It adds an extra layer of urgency and keeps the player pushing upwards.
+ UI unified/expanded: In game buttons now match the rest of the game, and the settings menu now has the ability to switch the position of the controls to 3 formats (LEFT RIGHT UP/LEFT UP RIGHT/UP LEFT RIGHT). There's also a speedrun timer in.
+ Shopkeeper! The sop now has a cute shopkeeper that gives you the prices for items in speech bubble format and a giant pair of hands to direct you. There's a bunch of changes I'm hoping to add to improve the experience, such as putting a barrier infront of the middle channel so you have to pass the other items in the shop, stuff you'll hopefully see I've implemented in the next week!
+ Progress tracker: I now have a "map" on the pause menu, where you can see how far off you are from certain bosses. Already been fun to see people pausing the game to check it mid-play.
Here's what I've got left to fix:
TO DO
FIXES
- Stop enemy tally in shop
+ Make combo more sensitive
+ Shop offer health always if you have reduced health
- Limiter for spawn including dive bomber
+ Nerf the spikes (and make that the robot standard)
+ Snake boss death particle is a cheap kill of the player, look at cutting it out
- Fix spiked enemy spawn code (Set maximum spawn, might not be relevant with the addition of rising tide)
- Have the combo affect the barrels?
+ Disable boss projectiles on death
- More satisfying and optimised boss explosions?
+ Speed up ad skip bullet puncture function
+ Seal have a bullet foam trail
- Level up shows in notifications for ads
+ Higher tier bullets are still broken
- Kill enemy fall mid-tier death projectiles upon entering the boss (when the player enters the boss)
IMPROVEMENTS
+ Refine Item Art
- Smaller, cheaper armour upgrades
+ Potentially look at custom gravity for artillery/divers?
+ Give the boss a life bar
- Potentially look at a tiny mid-level shop (After each boss)
- Reward ads on shops?
x Temperature Meter for Game, which measures how far you’ve climbed and how the enemies will react (you climb 10 blocks, you’re getting pretty warm). Have the temperature correlating to multipliers.
+ Powerup saved between plays (And watch ad/use points to keep them)
- Warning for water rising?
- Tint screen red on death (With white bomb explosion at the end?)
- Unlock announcement needs to be clearer (Character unlock)
- Shielded area in the shop (Stop you getting shot on the exit)
- Shop doorbell/jingle sound when you enter/exit
+ Blow up letters based on which gets hit first?
+ Shop section you have to walk around to enter shop (To stop you powering through)
- Rising spikes instead of water?
- Different blue for LV1 projectiles?
- Walk particle (dust)
- Powerup disappear after time?
- Throw more powerups in at start to draw player in
+ Revise colouring of walls
x Low opacity for unaffordable items?
+ Last death marker
+ List all player types, even if locked (give explanation of how to unlock them).
- Flow mechanics to platforms (alter difficulty over games)
- Tell you when you beat your high score
- Powerup particles?
- Flash up pause symbol
- Disable ads symbol on main menu pop down from top (Along with settings menu)
- Sound implementation
- Make shop purchase barriers clearer that they can be interacted with (That they're something to push?) Possibly have the entrances open?
+ Potentially redesign barrels?
- Push "enemy tells" more, make them clearer before they attack
+ Experiment with bubble shield designs
+ Revise the UI?
- Optimise again
MAYBE PILE
- Environmental Factors?
- Exclaimation mark instead over player? (Easier to read)
x Buttons instead of jumping for shop?
x Maybe a bonus for blowing up all letters?
x BG flash when boss killed
- Re-design spread shot enemy?
- Have a breakable barrier (That jumping into/shooting breaks?)
x If you make the change to putting it along the top, make the health bar thicker
- Text prompts for powerups?
- Water splash upon death? (Dependant on whether it remains as water rather than spikes)
- iAP to buy points? (Purchasing any will disable ads)
- Maybe have iAP be x2 points for 24 hours instead, so still requiring player effort to get value from?
- Do I make the points visualised rather than abstract
- x1 should fill upon killing one enemy (Scales are off for combos)
- Switch out the word combo for power?
- Display points of kills
- Tutorial?
GENERAL FEEDBACK
- Look at Shellraiser and Hammerwatch
- Game is definitely harder
- First gun hard to get a combo with
- Spikes are disliked by a lot of people
- How to pause not clear
- Red powerup looks hazardous
LONG TERM
- Definitely investigate collectibles
- Pre-games shop but stops high score (Include disclaimer)
- Level warp available after a world is completed (for points)
- Build a shop to allow you to start w/ powerups and warps
- Potentially look at health refill mechanic, crucial thing is making it blatantly clear that this state is for refilling your health.
- Price of warp decrease with every kill of each boss?
- Give Chameleon inverted controls
- Beam for crush boss on the second round
- Beam explosion powerup? (Cheaper with less coverage)
- Storyboard game ending
- Make the final boss be the UI
- Daily challenges?
More next week (Or sooner!), thanks for giving this a read!
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