Posted September 14, 2020 by MGD MillsGameDev
our major goal this week is to improve the heads up display for the game. We had a few requests to show an indicator for the disinfectant spray refill timer, and to improve the mini-map to display key locations better (Capitol, Hospital, Airport, etc). With the release from the 64x64 screen size our mini-map is actually mini and does not cover the whole screen when its up. We added easy to see icons on the map.
The mask ammo bar is much easier to see and can scale up to whatever maximum ammo we have set for the launcher. The spray timer fills up with green showing when its ready to spray again.
When a sick citizen goes to the hospital, they run a digital trace on the last so many people they have contacted. They will then appear with something to show they have been traced. In the game jam version this was simply a flashing outline, but we have more pixels now! We added a particle effect of spinning 1s and 0s trailing behind them. The numbers do a little scrolling ala the Matrix. Im going to play with this effect a bit more, but it is pretty fun to watch and you can really see a trail they leave behind for about a screen length.
In this game, people can die. I try really hard to not make the game depressing. Covid is a really rough subject so I make it as light as possible. Instead of leaving dead bodies, or tombstones, etc. I have the dead citizens become ghosts. They walk around and do everything they did before. They appear as transparent bodies just walking around. Can you spot them in this picture? They are easy to miss but when there is a lot of them, it can get kinda spooky.
We are a bit behind on the artwork and maps. We have about three weeks until this release is published. It is starting build up pressure on my artist and map maker. Feature wise we still need to redraw the launcher, work on the text alerts (scrolling texts), game statistics screen will go into a "cell phone" type of screen instead of requiring you to go to the capitol every time. I hope to add some graphics for the cut-scenes for the hospital and capitol. Improvements to the exit screen will add some settings, load/save game. We got plenty to do!
Hope to blow you away with the next update. See you then!
MGD MillsGameDev