Seventh Iteration!

Compared to the previous blog post I made, there have been a lot of major changes to the game.  First of all, the adventure genre has been added to the game! Before we go there, let's talk about the changes to the base game first.

The tutorial is now separated into a different section of the game, instead of it being integrated into the first stage of the game. It might be too overwhelming for the player to the tutorial while fending off enemies, so having a separate section where the player could mess around and get comfortable with the controls is a good change.

As you can see in the tutorial screen, there are 3 new moves the player can do! EX attack which is a ranged attack, block and a backwards dodge.

Block & Dodge

EX Attack

And of course, these features were implemented due to the tester's feedback.  These were some of the main complaints from the testers:

"I can't hit the enemy without getting hit, maybe some sort of ranged attack could be added?"

"The game is too easy, make the enemies more challenging."

Due to the popular demand, I had to add a ranged attack. But let's not forget, this is a beat 'em up game, so we're supposed to use our FISTS, which is why the EX attack can't be used infinitely unlike other moves, the player has to collect EX points which can be obtained can killing enemies to use this attack.

As for the block and dodge, some sort of defensive moves HAD to be added in order to make the game more challenging. During internal testing, which is just me playing the game, the game was too difficult after buffing the enemies, after all the target audiences for my game are the casuals/beginner players. Therefore, to make the game easier for the player, these defensive features are added to the game, this feature also allows the player to have more skill expression as dodging attacks will mitigate any attacks.

Moving on, we have a new enemy! Yay! This new enemy attacks slower, but he hits a lot harder than regular enemies. I've also made some re-colours of the enemies! They don't have anything different sadly, just a fun little eye candy for the player ^^

Finally, I'll be talking about the ADVENTURE part of the game. The whole plot of the game is that our character is locked up in a building and he breaks free to find the person who kidnapped him in the same building. So, I wanted to give the player the experience of going around the building and fighting their way through it.

The first thing I did is adding some props or elements to the stages to make it feel more 'realistic'. Things like adding doors that the player has to break open and elevators to go to the next level.

There is also this amazing scene transition I made accompanied by some elevator ambience. It serves as a quick break for the player, as well as showing progression.

If you're wondering why the second screen transition looks different, this is the PERFECT SEGWAY into what I'm gonna talk about next, which is the third stage of the game. Before I implement branches to the stages or bonus stages to emphasize the ADVENTURE genre, I was wondering how I could implement it in a linear game. Introducing, flight mode.

Basically, the elevator the player takes to ascend the building got sabotaged, and enemies are throwing random objects from above and the player has to dodge them as the elevator slowly ascends to the next floor. In this stage, the player cannot fight back and can only run around to avoid getting hit. This section of the game is to make the game world feel more interactive. Having the trusty elevator suddenly break down and changing the whole gameplay loop gives the player a quick little adventure doing something else rather than fisting everything they see to death.

That is all for this week's development blog post, we're near the end, thanks for reading!