Hi!
Today we are bringing an important update to Heart&Slash.
For a long time, the layout of the city & sewers level has not been completely to our liking. The city part felt too long, boss placement was too arbitrary and there was not much sense of progression in the level.
We were always thinking of ways to fix these issues. However, we were also afraid of implementing any of those fixes while we were making other considerable modifications in the rest of the game. Things could break, and the cause might not be evident if we had too many moving parts in the game code and configuration.
But the game is a lot more stable now and we are focusing on bugfixing, so we had the opportunity to try different things out.
After a week of tests, modifications, crashes and head scratching, plus a couple of weeks of internal testing, we are confident that the new version is a lot better.
So, what have we changed?
For starters, the general layout is now closer to our original idea. The city and sewers are built in smaller sections of under and overworld. Once each section is completed, it can connect to the next set, which can be, once again, under or overworld.
What this means is that, in order to progress through the level, you are more likely to have to go into the sewers and back into the city from time to time. And we have a little more control over which rooms are generated as you progress.
The second improvement is that the chances of getting to fight either HERBIE or COPGORE are pretty much the same. In fact, it is quite common for both to spawn in the same level. Previously, COPGORE rarely spawned, because of how it's connections were configured. With the new sections approach, their rooms work exactly as FRANK-Y and B-DSS's in the factory level.
Another important change is that there are now a lot less big city "rooms", so navigating through it is less repetitive. We have also made a better selection of which rooms appear in each section.
The other big change is that the stat upgrade pickups that could only be found in the city are pretty much gone. We have left a couple floating around, but only those most significative.
The number of crates spawning in the city and sewers has been reduced, too. You can still find lots of new equipment, but not as much as in the previous builds. You will have enough to recover hearts and optimize your build, but not as much as to always get exactly what you want.
We think this changes make the city level much better, but we'll still look for ways to improve things.
Let us know your opinion on this update!
P.S.: Of course, there are some bug fixes in. The most important is that the repeater gun has been fixed and does no longer auto-fire when reloaded.
We are also working on having Heart&Slash available in more languages and regions, but we cannot say anything else for the time being.