Gamepad aim assist
This is something I didn't want to get creative with. It's a commonly solved problem, and I'd rather steal someone else's solution. I found a YouTube video explaining how aim assist works in Call of Duty. There are two factors.
First, when you are aiming at a target, your look sensitivity slows way down. So if you are swinging your crosshair over a target, it will linger on it ever so slightly. I actually put it down to 60% of the normal speed. It's hard to see in this gif, but it's there:
Second, when you are moving relative to your target, the game will adjust for that movement. It doesn't "lock on", it just offsets your input by the relative motion between you and the target.
This one can get really obvious, especially if you don't move the camera at all. It will just keep tracking forever, making it feel like a cheap aimbot. To avoid this, the tracking only kicks in if you are moving. It won't track a moving target when you're at rest.
I also put an inactivity timer in so that if you aren't actively aiming the camera, it won't track. In this gif, it doesn't track at first, but then I twitch the joystick and it tracks for another half second before going inactive again.
Footstep effect
This is just a nifty thing that shows where you've been.
Playtesting
I got some much-needed playtesting last week. (thank you COGG!) Splitscreen multiplayer is actually a lot of fun. I of course wrote down a ton of issues that I was able to correct this week. The hardest problem, as expected, is teaching people how to play. The tutorial was awful and I knew it, but after seeing people play I got some ideas to revamp it. That will probably happen 3-4 more times before it ships.
Overworld level transition
I'm planning on 16 levels. You have to beat two opponents to unlock the next level. Opponent 1 must be beaten on the level you're currently at. For opponent 2, the match-making system will choose a random level from those you've unlocked so far. I think it's important to replay maps in a multiplayer game.
Anyway, I want to show your progress through the game, so I made a simple overworld transition screen that shows how many levels you've unlocked, how many you have left, and which map you're about to play.
The loading time and black screens are all fake. It actually loads 15-20 MB scenes in under 100ms.
I'm not sure what to do for level names. Right now it's just "level1", "level2"... but something more creative would be nice. The guys who make Brigador just stole an album track list and used that for their level names. Brilliant idea if I could find the right album.