Hello internet,
A huge portion of the changes/updates for this month are based off of the feedback I received last month during the small closed alpha.
Level Revamps
Planet 2
Revamped planet 02 and planet 04 (internal naming). Planet 2 was basically stripped of many elements (possibly to be used in other areas). I feel as though when the level was being created I wasn’t feeling confident of how to make the level flow and ended up adding way too many mechanics one after the other.
The way I’m trying to approach level design now is to try and limit the mechanics of an area and see how much I can build upon those mechanics in interesting and novel ways rather than having way too much variety too quickly…
So you can imagine a level/area going something like this:
mechanic A1> combat > puzzle A1 > mechanic B1 > ….
and then we can return to the A mechanic but make it more difficult/add a twist to it. Even mix things up by having the platforming mechanic have enemies mixed in.
mechanic A2 > puzzle A2 > combat+mechanic A > ….
If one is to go through the trouble of creating a mechanic that is fun it would be better to use it to its fullest extent before moving onto something new. It’s easier as a designer and allows the player to get more out of the mechanic.
Planet 4
Although Planet 4 wasn’t accessible during the closed alpha I still implemented some changes based on the feedback for the other worlds.
Planet 4 was restructured in a similar way to the Planet 2 when it comes to mechanics. And the puzzles which were found all pretty close together have been moved around to make it have more variety.
Camera Updates
Spent a lot of time this month trying to improve how the camera moves with the player, and how it transitions from different “modes”.
By “Modes” I mean things like locking the camera in place under certain conditions. (IE: in a puzzle room, or during a boss fight).
I also added the ability to lock the X or Y axis of the camera, this can be useful for certain platforming sections.
Controls
It had been requested that in order to make the controls more responsive I add a buffering for the jump. Basically if you hold down your jump button while in the air you will jump instantly the moment you touch the ground.
Trying out the jump buffer in the “Debug Zone”
Custom Tools
While add decorations to the levels I often found it difficult to see if certain elements were properly tiled or not in the scene view, and this forced me to have to move the camera around manually to inspect each area. And often these mistakes would only be discovered once I or someone else played through the level.
So I created a script that controlled a second “Debug Camera” that mirrors the view port in the Scene View to the Game View.
Moving around the “Scene View” (on the right) gives me a preview in my “Test Camera” (on left) This allows me to quickly look over the level for any mistakes.
Another thing I created to help make level creation is easier is a custom inspector window that allows me to toggle scene elements on and off.
A tool that allows hiding stuff
This has been very helpful for making changes to level architecture. Often times decors would get in the way and it’s easy to miss things that are hidden.
Toggling some decorations using the custom inspector tool
Other Changes
Some other things that were changed based on feedback:
- Badges now have their own slots in the inventory and are greyed out when equipped. This should be tidier and give you a better idea of what badges you have and are missing
- Added a couple new enemies
- Did some overhauling of the User Interface (UI)
- Added new art and decorations
- Tons of art changes for Planet 1
- Fixed a ton of bugs of course
That’s all Folks
Well that’s all for this month. Thanks for checking out this latest update and looking forward to seeing you again next time.
Also!
If you are still interested in joining the next round of Alpha Testing you can join the Official Raygun Gadabout Discord.
Cheers,
M.
