Week 8: Feedback Adjusted Build (Road to Beta Week 2)

Hey all!

It hasn't been too long since the last update since I uploaded the last devlog later into the week last week, but we do have updates! This week we're providing a ~5 update video showing off what changes we've made based on feedback received in playtesting and from the alpha presentation. You can download the video on the main page, or access it through the following google drive link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wGHf5H1_eSrM92IqN0oKhl3Ewb5Yre1i/view?usp=shari...

I'll go over the main points made in the video. First, you can see the updates to the main menu which now looks much better than before (thank you to our art team for providing the UI). Next, there are a couple of clarity updates that we decided to introduce. As was said last week the players generally had a hard time keeping track of when they had enough meter to use specific abilities. We decided to add coloured particles around the player as they moved if they had enough charge in that direction (e.g. red particles if the up ability is charged). We had some playtesters play with this change and they found it hard to notice, so we're going to look into making it more obvious (or add it to the tutorial) in the future. One other way we have to tell the player that they have enough charge to use an ability is a sound effect pertaining to each direction. We are currently using placeholder sounds, so hopefully by beta we can have the real sounds implemented and it will be easier to play.

Another change made regarding clarity was informing players when specific enemies are aggro-ed. In some levels enemies don't start moving until you approach them, so we added a Metal Gear Solid esc "!" marker to tell the player the enemy is moving towards them. We're also planning on adding a sound, but that is not implemented for this build. One more clarity change made was adding a mine timer and making it more obvious when the mine was inactive. By adding the timer the player should learn that the mine isn't instantaneous, and also that something will happen after the timer ends. In addition, our mine is full black when inactive and a silver/blue cross mine while active, which ideally makes it clear to the player when the mine will do something.

One final change made to clarity was fixing some colour coding on our enemies and moves. The mine is now blue when active, and the mineable walls/enemy are both blue to indicate that you need to use that ability to break/kill them. This should help the player not get confused on what the mine does.

One piece of feedback we got was that it would be nice if the moves were more satisfying to use. For this, we added a small screen shake and enemy death animations, which should make the game more fun to play (there may be some tuning needed on how long the screen shakes or how long the enemy dies).

Other than clarity, we implemented more of the assets our art team has provided, including: a new attack texture, an updated mine texture, a new ranged enemy model, and slight changes to the floor model. We're also looking to have a model for the mineable/strong enemy by the beta, so look forward to that.

There's not much updates on implementation of the music assets, but we're focusing on enemy aggro sounds and charging sound effects for the time being. Like the strong enemy model, we're hoping to have these in for the beta next week.

For the next few weeks we'll likely mostly be working on finishing one more regular level and one boss level (time permitting), along with improving the overall user experience. We're also looking to implement animations for our character within the next couple of weeks (ideally before beta), which should give our game some more life. Right now we're looking at animations for each of the moves, and potentially an animation for the ranged enemy to signal when they are attacking. As the final build approaches we're looking to polish up our game and make sure it's working and fun to play.

That's all for this week! See you in Beta!