Hey folks,
Got a fresh update for you. This one will address controls, game feel and more. I've heard that some think both keyboard and gamepad controls are a little rough. I spent some time digging into why that was and what I could do to fix it.
Controls & Game Feel
First of all I want to clarify that this will, likely, never be a twin stick shooter. I want to capture the fighter pilot fantasy and twin stick just doesn't deliver on that. I'm going Luftrausers, Jet Lancer or Nova Drift feeling not Gungeon or Monolith (All great games, just different vibes as far as controls go). Plus, changing to a twin stick shooter would require a massive overhaul from balance to enemy AI and more.
That out of the way lets talk about the current problems with controls overall that I saw:
- Turning is hard. Turn rates are an important aspect to the game that should help influence slip second decision making but the way ships swing widely when doing a full 180 turn was a bit hard to take. (How it's being changed: Turning at large angles will slow your ship's speed considerably making turns tighter and help you feel more in control)
- Strafing is inconsistent and confusing. Strafing is going to be a bit confusing on a 360 degree radius but it wasn't made better by the way I had implemented it. (How it's being changed: Strafing is exactly like forward motion just at a 90 degree angle. No slight movement forward unless you are also pressing forward or backward.)
- The ramp up to switching directions feels more like a delay. Going from thrusting forward to backward would gradually move your speed from forward to backward but it felt like delay in your input. (How it's being changed: changing directions will now instantly zero out your motion in another direction and build speed in that direction from there. It should be much snappier and responsive)
That's how I'm addressing general controls. Lets talk about gamepad now.
Gamepads
I've overhauled how gamepads work with the game. You can essentially switch seamlessly between using mouse/keyboard and a gamepad at any time. Strafing has been removed from gamepad controls, I can certainly consider adding this back in but I feel like it's an awkward fit with any gamepad configuration and doesn't add a lot overall (Would love feedback on this).
I've added a second control scheme for gamepads. This one is a little more in line with what you'd expect from racing games where you control forward/backward separate from steering vs having steering and thrust controlled with the stick.
Additionally you can adjust the deadzone and rumble amounts for your gamepads. In the future I'm thinking about adding rebindable buttons for gamepad and more controls schemes if folks think they are necessary.
Fixes + QoL
This patch also includes a bunch of fixes and general improvements. Here's the list:
- Game slow has been removed everywhere in the game. This was intentional to make certain effects feel "juicier" but folks feel like it's the game's performance dropping which is never a good trade off.
- Ship select screen has been reworked, you can configure your ship and then press "Start" instead of clicking the ship you want to start the game.
- Fixed a bug with final boss and the upgrade that shoots lasers when hit.
- Exiting the final boss room will give you a small amount of invulnerability and destroy projectiles to keep you from running straight into something dangerous after exiting.
- Enhanced the UI effects when you get set on fire or effected by acid to give an indication of how to avoid damage from those effects.
- Fixed a bug where hitting exit while going into a warp gate would cause you to lose control completely.
- Added a better item container description to clue players into why they should reroll.
If this patch is relatively stable when it goes out I'll be moving on to work on a public roadmap. In the next few weeks I hope to share with you what I have planned for the game and then really get to work cranking it out.