It's time for the weekly update!
We made a lot of changes since our last iteration. We completely overhauled the current map sprites, and populated a new bigger arena with a darker theme. This theme stands out with the various visual effects with the screen, highlighting the gameplay far better than the old map. We also added a particle effect for the background which augments the theme. For the pits, we instead decided to make them spell circles which makes a player catch fire if they stumble into them. This fits with the theme better.
One big change we made is we modified the goal of the game. We kept the PvP aspect but made the main goal to collect all 3 crystals. We found that players wanted another objective to keep themselves engaged and this particular game objective adds a new dimension to gameplay. All of a sudden, chasing other players, exploring new movement techniques, and playing keep away becomes important. On the note of movement techniques, we removed power ups and made the teleport a default ability. We also added fixed pillars that allow players to grapple towards them to give players more options for traversing the map. Along with these main game objective changes came an updated UI.
For our next iteration, we want to add more juice to our game. We plan to improve our wizard sprites, theme the hook better, make the map look more appealing, add more sounds, and figure out more ways to make gameplay engaging. Depending on playtesting, we are considering making the traps and crystals spawn randomly rather than at fixed locations at the beginning of the game.