Beta 0.1.3 Changelog

Hey guys, it's been 18 days since the last update, so everything is back to normalcy at least. This update mainly consist of quality of life changes and additions I made in response to recent feedback. Let's get into it.

Changes

I took the time to list all of the substantial  changes I made, and sorted them into this neat little list. I'll explain some of the more interesting features in more detail later on in this post if you're interested.

• Menus
  • Elements of the pause menu will now fade back out once the game is resumed instead of an instant cut.
  • Now a fading transition will trigger when the player clicks any buttons that take them back to the Main Menu/Title Screen.
  • Written a sub-menu system for the pause menu.
  • Added a button that displays the controls using the sub-menu system.
• Enemies
  • Lowered the distance of which enemies target you.
  • Raised the Spider enemy's HP.
• Player
  • Flintlock Musket
    • The Flintlock Musket's accuracy is no longer affected by the player's movement velocity.
    •  Now inflicts more damage if the player is standing still while shooting.
  • Stamina
    • Reworked how stamina usually works with the implementation of the Exhaustion mechanic.
    • The stamina value in the pause menu will now be red if the player's exhausted.
    • While the player is exhausted, the stamina bar will be flashing.
    • The player is now able to activate sprinting, even if their stamina is below 50.
  • Miscellaneous
    • The player is now invulnerable to taking damage during the win sequence.
    • As such, the player can now interact with the goal door to win the game while they're in combat.

Sub-Menus

So I added a button that displays the controls in a little sub-menu. That way you wouldn't have to quit the game, losing all of your current progress just to see the controls. The sub-menu system is something I've written to make it work, and it could easily be extensible to add other sub-menus to the pause screen.

 I do see the potential to adding something like this as it could be a way to display more useful information to the player. So I may add more stuff to the pause menu in the future. You can see how the sub-menu system works from the gif below. Although, it is at a low framerate as Itch.io has a ludicrously low file size limit. Trust me, the effect looks better in-game.

Perfect Shots

So I completely replaced the Musket Inaccuracy. Now the flintlock musket will inflict extra damage if the player was standing still when it was shot. I felt it's probably better to reward the player for standing still while shooting rather than punishing them for not doing it.  It also makes sense "lore-wise" (Not like there's any deep lore in the first place.) as it could be explained that the protagonist is take the time to get a better shot in order to inflict more damage.

I've also removed the yellow text that hints at Musket Inaccuracy from the controls image. I probably won't have the "Perfect Shot" mechanic explained to the player as it's not really vital to know in my opinion. In fact, there are already stuff in the game that hints at this mechanic. 

Exhaustion

When someone pointed out that not being able to activate sprint while stamina is under 50 doesn't make sense, that was when I had the idea. So I replaced that mechanic with something much more defined in my opinion. I shall introduce you to: Exhaustion!

Okay, so now the player is able to activate sprinting even if their stamina is below 50%. Now if the player's stamina goes below 0 for any reason, they will become exhausted. While the player is exhausted, they are unable to utilize their stamina for anything at all. That includes sprinting, or activating familiar abilities.  Although, with familiar abilities, it's a bit different as they will consume the player's health rather than their stamina if they're exhausted. I'm also planning of making it so the player is immune from stamina draining effects from "certain enemies" while they're exhausted.

The player's stamina still regenerates while the player is exhausted. That means when the player's stamina has reached 50 or higher, they will no longer become exhausted and be able to utilize their stamina like normal. Overall, I think this is a decent rework, and I like how I did it. Although I understand if it still needs a few tweaks.

What's Next?

So I was playtesting the game myself for a bit, and I realized that even with the player having the knowledge of which chunk an objective entity is located in, it's doesn't shorten the travel time that much. I eventually deduced that the problem is due to layout of the area itself.

If you ever played the game before, you'd notice that after you leave the spawn room, there's only really two main paths to go. I guess a proper way to think of about this is to visually the game's current layout as one circular branch. While there are connected branches that go away the the main branch, the ultimately lead to the dead end. Down below is two visualizations to understand what I mean.

If the player is on one side of the main branch, but an objective entity is completely on the other side. They would would have to traverse across the main branch to reach it. They cannot instantly jump from one side of the branch to the other.

The way the game is supposed to be structured is that there would be 4 areas. The first area, the Streets, is supposed to act as a hub of sorts, where the 2 other main areas could be accessed, with the final area being only accessible through the 2nd or 3rd areas. Looking back, it's still the same circle branch design!

Or maybe I'm looking at things the wrong way. Maybe the current layout of the Streets area directly contradicts what it supposed to be. I guess it makes sense, all this time the area was designed to be standalone when I should've designed it with the intention of being of nexus point to other areas in mind.

Either way, expect another map redesign in the future. The image below is a representation of what I want the first area's layout to be.  A layout that would be open ended.

Wait a minute... oh my god... how did I not notice this earlier?! It's the same damn circle design!! Is it really unavoidable? I guess the best thing I could do is to make the metaphorically "circle" as small as possible.

Anyway, I will also be adding another sub-weapon and familiar to add a little bit more variety to the game, and I'm putting work toward tweaking the two soundtracks of the game.  ESSPECIALLY the streets theme. Maybe if I feel like it, I may make extra soundtracks for the win or game over screen.

Personal Thoughts

Ever since I released the game on early access, I've been taking development a bit more slowly. Or faster? Not gonna lie, I do not recall ever being quick with the game's development, except for the early stages maybe? 

Back on topic, I've been taking the time working on other things while learning stuff like C++ in the process. I've recently participated in a game jam, and that got me a lot more exposure than I usually get. I'm pretty happy with that so I may participate in more of them in the future.

I'm also very eager to team up with other developers as I still haven't gotten a chance to properly do that yet, and game jams is the best way of doing it as I'm not looking to working on long-term projects right now. (At least not for free anyway.) Although considering that most game developers use game engines like Unity, Unreal or Godot, I guess I should at least take the time in  learning how to use them for the scenario of them being the only option my teammates are willing to work with.

I'm still gonna be working on this game though. Most likely at a slow pace. I would love for this be something I would just add onto every now and then.

With that, I'll see you guys later.