Update 6 : Post Conexion

This dev log has taken it’s sweet time, but it’s finally here! A lot has happened in a few months. Past few silent updates without change logs, my day job causing a slowdown, and other things, there has been a significant amount of progress under the hood. And it’s quite a bit, so

The Race for Performance

One of the major hurdles has always been performance. And a lot of thought has gone into how to reduce slowdowns and improve performance. At the time of writing, I’m looking into the Job system (cause ECS might be a lot to rewrite) but here are a number of things that were implemented. While working on the game I was able to experience 45-200 FPS, inside the editor.

• Bullets are now a singular object.
  • No longer a parent bullet with a sprite or particle child.
  • Bullets are now a billboard square (Full Rect) instead of a detailed mesh (Tight) that’s looking at the camera every frame.
  • All Bullets are now sprites of the same atlas. (Hopefully no more File.load slowdowns)
• Particles have been made lighter
  • Less particle counts, less decorative particles, only the necessary parts
  • Most have moved from meshed parts to billboard parts.
• Overall Reduction of Rendering Batches
  • Texture Atlas for Walls, characters, decorations, pillars, and other objects. All under the same material.
  • A lot of materials are now instanced (so no individual allocations)

Boss Battles

Not a whole lot to say here, was there is only one playable boss, and the 2nd is being baked as we speak, but some improvements have been made.

• Lost Mother re-balanced.
  • Shots were not nerfed. They were amplified.
    • Lv1 is still doable but requires skill (as intended)
    • Lv 5 or above is recommended. (Intended min level is 10)
  • Sprites were changed, and thus, bullets were too. Please do let me know if this turned The Lost Mother boss any easier or harder.
• Lost Mother now has a new stage far closer to the intended image
• Boss Mouse Aim has finally been fixed. Properly. (No more offsets!)

UI/UX

This was an area that I had neglected for a bit, and some of the improvements weren’t as obvious to me. Yet, I had some wonderful people aid me in multiple areas. The efforts to improve continue, and there will be UI changes next update.

• HUD Was Slightly Changed
  • The HP/Max HP text has been raised to the same height of the Lv.X text.
  • The HP Bar now has an animation when healing and when getting hurt.
  • The Skill Button Icons are now properly timed with the skill’s cooldown
  • Toast-like notifications are now a thing, on the lower half of the screen.
  • A Proper Pause Menu has been added (Finally!)
  • An additional Options menu has been added.
    • Includes Minimap Toggle
    • Includes Volume Slides
    • Includes Quality, Resolution selects & Full Screen Toggle.
    • Resolution and Full Screen are only available in Desktop
  • A New Title Screen has been added, closer to the intended version

General Gameplay

• Enemies
  • Some have been nerfed, Some have been slowed down.
  • All Enemies now have a (placeholder) hurt sound for when taking damage.
• Traps are now a thing! (Inspired by Rouge-likes)
  • Temp Regen, Poison and Paralyze are the first three.
• Oasis Shrines have been implemented!
  • Small rest place where enemies cannot see you, but can walk through.
• Fragments now give less HP.
• Elements are now a thing! (Though barely visible in gameplay)
  • Neutral, Fire, Ice, Water, Electric, Dark, Light, to name a few.
  • Elemental Bonus Damage added (but barely visible in gameplay as most enemies don’t have an edge)
• Skills have been implemented (and fixed)
  • Skills take some HP to actuate and have a cooldown, but can aid you significantly.
  • Currently there are 3 skills.
    • Azure Gust (previously implemented) – First Story Bomb skill (similar to Touhou’s “Spell Card” bombs) - Emmits bullets around the player to damage near by enemies.
    • (Demo) Sprint – Dashes wherever the player is facing, great for getting out of a tight spot.
    • (Demo) Regen – Slowly heals HP for a short period of time.

Overall these are the more notable changes, a lot of player feedback has been taken into account and have been implemented. Every bit of feedback, critic and opinion is greatly appreciated, and everyone is highly encouraged to do so! You help this game be accessible for others!

. . . .

Side Note: Conexion & PRGDA

LatinxInGaming’s Conexion was a wonderful online conference event. And I was fortunate to be selected to pitch the game for feedback in the Investor Panel this past Sunday July 27th. Being selected was a victory in and of itself. And I believe I got what I wanted (new people interested). And I cannot thank them enough.

I am neverendingly thankful to LatinxInGaming and Puerto Rico Game Developers Association for their support and allowing me to be part of their community.