Ever since the beginning of development, I've been debating on whether or not to make the game linear or something more open like a metroidvania. Since the Red Sun is one of my first projects, I decided to start off with a linear game, since designing levels and gameplay would be much easier. However, I've always envisioned the game to be a metroidvania, where the player truely explores a ruined city where competing factions vie for power, and the environment adapts to the actions of the player. Today, I'm happy to announce that the very first steps of that vision have become real!
Players can finally explore the city in a way thats not just a straight line! Hopeful this means that it'll be more fun to go through the game, given to additional freedom of choice. As a part of converting the existing rooms into a walkable city, a bunch of new rooms and a couple mechanics were added, so even old players can still find new content while exploring. There also aren't any more rooms where all enemies have to be killed, so that should hopefully make the game easier, and help speed up the gameplay. There are even a couple skips that more speedrunning-inclined players can take!
This updates basically represents the first iteration of my original vision. It took a lot of work and time just to get this basic version out, and its still missing a lot of critical components. Some of these are due to technical challenges (skill issue) and others are due to design challenges. Naturally, I plan on resolving these in the future.
The most obvious of these is the lack of a map and a map system. Now of course this is a technical problem, but for me this is mostly a design problem. The current game world is a pretty horizontal city, and most if not all of the game takes place near or above the surface. This is done to reinforce the importance of the Red Sun, otherwise I'd probably make the some kind of layered city like an Sci-Fi Ecumenopolis or something like the setting of Arcane, with a nice shiny surface city, but a rough undercity (this sounds really cool in my head so I'm not throwing it out just yet). Instead, the current game map essentially consists of three horizontal layers, with connections between each layer, kind of like how Rain World does it. The reason that I mention Rainworld is because I hate the map system in that game (love the rest of it). It just doesn't make intuitive sense to me, and its hard to find you're way around while trying to piece together the different layers of the map. I think I can get around this problem by minimizing the number of layers showing the gameplay map, while also having a separate top down map of the city. Naturally, I have no idea how to do either yet, which is why it doesn't exist yet.
Another problem comes from removing the linearity from the original demo. The linearity of the game allowed for some relatively unique set pieces and level designs, as well as preserve the feeling that the city is constantly changing (since I could just create a new scene that looked like the old room). I still want to preserve some of that linearity, while also showing that the player has a significant impact on the game world. In addition, I'm planning on adding some kind of faction system, where the strengths of each faction are kept track of, and affect the units found in gameplay. In order to preserve that feeling of finality, I decided not to respawn enemies like other metroidvanias (like say Hollow Knight). Instead, enemies that are killed will stay dead. This presents a pretty significant problem when it comes to backtracking, as frequently the player will enter reenter rooms, eventually killing all enemies and making traversal a boring chore (something thats pretty bad for a metroidvania). To counter this, I'm planning on introducing some kind of revival system, specifically for the robots, as it would make the most sense for them to come back to life. Specifically I'm thinking of adding some kind of resurrection robot, that goes around the game world reviving non-boss enemies. For the other factions, I'll probably add some kind of patrol mechanic, where factions send out small groups from their bases (another thing I'll need to implement).
Speaking of robots and factions, I need an actual story! Right now there's basically nothing, and the game heavily relies on environmental story telling. I don't even have real names for my enemies. For example, the circle polygons are called circle-dashers in the game code, while the enemy humans are named the spearman and (im not joking), the gun-spearman. Real creative stuff. In the next update, I really want to flesh out the world that players will be exploring. That means NPCs with actuals dialogue boxes, collectable items, and interactable objects. A part of this will be actually decorating the game world with more objects and set pieces, so that not every building looks exactly the same. Basically, I want to add some lore to the game so that theres an additional incentive to explore, instead of just "ooga booga smack more circles and squares", not that there's anything wrong with that.
There's a bunch of other stuff missing, but for now I'm really happy with how the game is now, despite the many challenges I've brought converting the game into a metroidvania. I'm excited to add some more story elements, and finally start adding some of the factional interactions with the game world.
TLDR: I converted the game to a metroidvania, but there's still a bunch of key features missing including a map, evolving ecosystem, and lore.
Changelog Red Sun 0.9: 9/25/23
Metroidvania Conversion
Fluid and free room transitions
Enemies stay dead when killed, and do not revive if the player re-enters the room. Enemy death progress becomes permanent when the player saves at a savepoint that isn't the same as the last, or when certain events occur (boss defeated)
Added new rooms to connect the map
Several rooms consolidated into one large room
Uncountable room changes to accommodate new transitions, as well as facilitate free movement and backtracking
Added Saberable doors and laserable doors
Added a hit-activated bounce pad
Added a hit-activated bounce pad to Steve fight
Steve is once again the final boss (go Steve)
Removed or relocated several save points
Added triggerable-transitions
Added tunnel system
Added separate volume adjustment (music and sfx) in settings
TLDR: I converted the game to a metroidvania, but there's still a bunch of key features missing including a map, evolving ecosystem, and lore.
