Recently, we've been all about the cannons. Big, badboy cannons; the kind you'd normally see firing balls off the side of a tall ship. Except for us, the cannons are firing our player. Why? Well, who doesn't want to be fired out of a cannon...?
But really, it's all about player movement. We've realised that a big part of the fun of this game is how the player moves about their vehicle. Why they move is important (doing tasks, getting coins, building stuff, etc) but that doesn't necessarily generate the fun. Enter the cannon:
The cannon offers the player a faster, but more restrictive horizontal movement option. It won't be for everyone's vehicle. And just like any other panel, it has certain synergies that work really well, and some anti-synergies too. Early on it was clear the cannon's best friend was the vertical bellows, seen in the above clip.
Ultimately, the cannon was an obvious iteration on from the catapult, which offers a fast vertical movement option.
Both take up space, money, and make demands of any vehicles design. Cannons and catapults don't come cheap, after all...
We're just waiting for Dave to finish his "fired out of a cannon" animation, and we'll be all set!