Development progress #3 (Sounds and Music) news - Cursed Coins

Hello, everyone!

It's been a while since my last article, but I am back and I want to share game progress.

Boss: Zombie Lord (last stage)

In the previous article I introduced new boss Zombie Lord and his stages. Last stage wasn't finished at that moment, so I want to show you last stage of Zombie Lord.

During transition to this stage Zombie Lord consumes his Lamp which he threw on the second stage. This will restore his life to 100%, but now with every summoned zombie he lose health. Combat is close range and similar to stage 2, but boss cannot be stunned and do more damage than before.

Sounds and Music

Sounds

This is where I spend most of the time. I implemented game logic for sounds and searched for free sounds which turns out wasn't easy. At first I didn't knew which style of sounds would fit the best. I tried to play with the real sounds of guns and shooting, but this seems too overwhelming for 2d game with 4 constantly shooting characters and also it was hard to find sounds which would sound similar. When I tried to create most sounds with bfxr and this wasn't a bad option, but it was hard to make different shooting sounds. The default shooting sounds from bfxr would perfectly fit laser weapons, but most of weapons in game are normal weapons so I don't want them to sound like laser weapons. I managed to make some good sounds for weapons, but later I found a free sound pack which sounds fit better and which I couldn't achieve with bfxr. At the moment game has one part of sounds created with bfxr (shooting, explosions, hit, skills) and the other part is from free sources (shooting, enemies, skills).

Music

I want to thank Davi Vasc for making a game music. He found Cursed Coins game in indiedb and offered his skills to create music. We quickly made a deal and he started working. At first I didn't plan to buy music or hire someone to make music, but now I am very happy with the results.

Music used in the first game screen. It is slow paced and calm, but also a little bit eerie and creepy. It perfectly fit into the overall atmosphere of the game.

Music used during the monster wave combat. It feels energetic and a little haunting at the same time. Included instruments create spooky atmosphere.

Music used during the boss fight. This one is much darker, more tense and terrifying than the other tracks. It creates the rising urgency and enhance danger feeling of the game boss.

At the moment where are 3 tracks, but game is not finished yet so where will be more. If someone is interested in the more Davi work you can find it in his webpage.

New alpha release

Last week I made a new alpha testing release with all new features mentioned in the previous article. It included new boss and leveling system. The current game versions seems too hard for new users, so I decided to postpone public testing. Here are the main issues I need to solve before public testing release.

• The game is too hard at first levels.
• It is not clear how to play.
• It is hard to notice new enemy types (ex. archers).
• The game is too fast and overwhelming in the beginning.

I am already working on some issues and will post my progress later.

Thanks for reading.