Hello there, again,
Quickly wanted to show some of the latest developments.
With a bit of context first:
Many of the current elements regarding the visual and audio quality are in their first iteration. Some I even quite like in their current state. Most of the elements could benefit from an overhaul though.
Since I’m following a mostly hedonistic (aka unstructured) approach when it comes to what tasks to tackle next, I’m already doing some graphical overhaul here and there, even though the game is not finished yet – and well knowing that there are more important tasks on the to-do list.
The benefit of this approach is that I almost always work on tasks that I enjoy at that moment. And in the case of graphical overhauls, I immediately and always see the results whenever I test the game - which is also enjoyable for me.
(Fully and quickly skippable!) splash screens, because the game appears a lot more “official” or “real” with those included. For me personally this has a surprisingly strong effect.
Main menu and button redesign:
Previously the only dynamic element was a relatively demanding star field with around 200-500 GPU particles in the background:
Now it uses ~10 particles, but some more elements and a start-up animation.
With the new menu the button design for the whole game got an overhaul too.
Without further ado, may I present the new design:
(The colors in the video are a bit distorted, no idea why though. The game title should have the same color as the previous menu design).
For me personally the new menu already looks a lot more interesting and somewhat professional than before. Then again, I am the one designing it, so I am probably the worst person to judge 😅
Added a Performance Monitor for convenient ingame analysis during playtesting:
Added feedback buttons in various places for convenient reporting of bugs / feature requests and feedback in general:
The feedback form will automatically collect some data in the background like CPU/GPU model, game mode, current level, general ingame stats like deaths, killed by what, etc. to get a bit of context, especially for bug reports.
Overworld now shows details for each level when you zoom in, visible before entering a level --> this should help decision making in the skill selection screen
The skill selection screen now offers videos showcasing how a skill works instead of a simple screenshot + text
Active Sensor Pulse is a super useful skill throughout the whole game, which means it would probably have permanently blocked one of the three skill slots, which means 33% less freedom for tactical choices in the skill selection... which is not good. Hence, it is now a skill permanently available like dashing. The only downside: One more button being used, which increases complexity of the controls
Added a "Stats" page to the main menu so that all the general stats as well as the highscores, ranks etc. for each sector and level are quickly visible in one place.
Previously you needed to start a new game if you wanted to play a different game mode. The 3 game modes (Relaxed, Time Attack and Hardcore) got their individual savegame now, which means you can play all 3 modes independently and in parallel if you want to.
As always, interested in your thoughts.
Cheers,
Inv1s1ble