DevLog_07: Prototype Release

Level changes:

Continuing of last week, we implemented the pipes into the 1st and second level.

UI

We had some improvements to the UI based on our testing last week. There was a minor bug that didn’t show stacks of upgrades in the double digits very well, so we fixed that.

UI Glitch on the left, all fixed on the right.

We also wanted to give the player more feedback when they increase their shield and health, or decrease their health. So we altered the UI to grow with the changes to health and shield (within limits of the screen size).

We call this the "glass cannon" build. All hit, a some shield, no health.

We also added some stats for when the player dies. Everyone loves statistics! Right????

Statistics!

Sound Effects, Atmosphere, & Music

The slime pools were a little boring looking, so we added a custom shader to make it appear to be a bit more alive.

A much better pool of slime!

We also saw a few players fumbling around the second level looking for an exit after defeating all the enemies. So, we felt we should add an exit sign, just so we’re up to council fire regulations.

Slightly more obvious now!

Boss Fight

To create a goal for the players, we added a boss fight to the final room of a round.  The boss rises from the centre pool when the player enters and stays there. The boss has 2 abilities, a  powerful throw attack and spawning slimes. The boss spawns slimes whenever there is none in the room, however this deals 20% of the bosses health to do so. The ability to spawn slimes was done so that there was a constant pressure on the player. The self damage was added so melee builds could still defeat the boss even though it was inaccessible and that the players wouldn't ignore the summoned slimes.

Big Boy

General

Based on player feedback from testing, we implemented countless gameplay improvements including:

• Decreased mouse sensitivity for WebGL build.
• Fixed the aim and spin of the throw attack, much easier to use now.
• Changes to the balance of some upgrades.
• Toggle sprint instead of hold.
• Added tutorial text for controls on the first level.

The writing's on the walls!

More significantly, we added enemy scaling. Repeating the game was really an afterthought the night before testing, and it ended up becoming a core part of the game loop. As the player gets more upgrades, they become a god and unkillable which quickly ends the fun of the game. So, we have implemented separate scaling for enemy health, and enemy attack power. Now you can become a god but still die.

We also added an upgrade to speed up player light and heavy attacks. It can be really fun to spam the light attack when you’ve got the upgrades stacks.

You can never attack too quickly!

Animation & Visual Effects

This week we added some final polish for visual effects. We wanted some indication of the upgrades the player have, so added a shield effect, and strong weapon effect to the character

Glowing!

We also wanted a more obvious indication that an enemy (particularly the final boss) has been hurt, so we added a flash effect on damage. This was particularly useful for the boss because the boss hurts itself every time it spawns an enemy, and we wanted to show that. You can see it triggering in the attack gif further up.

Just a bonus gif. We accidentally spawned too many enemies one time. Thank god for god mode.

References