Hello Everyone!
I'm back with more content for the game, this time around we've got Four major additions: AI Companions, Modifiers, Progression, & a UI Overhaul! We will be going into more of each of these topics below, but before that - a quick update on where we're at in our timeline. I recently decided to change the date of release from March 4th to April 21st. This decision was not made lightly as I'd love to get the full game into people's hands as soon as possible. One of the major reasons for the push back has to do with getting some new hands into the project to help with development, We've now got both a Sound Designer and an Artist currently doing contract work for the game, very excited to share with you all the results so stay tuned! For anyone interested primarily in the free demo available here on Itch.io or Steam, you can rejoice with the knowledge that we have decided to include PVP(Player vs Player) in the demo in some form come release. I recognize not everyone has the extra money to purchase a game, and I really do want to get this game into as many people's hands as possible :-)
AI Companions(Bots)
This is a feature I've wanted in the game for so long now - you can now play with AI Companions to help you out on your journey through the three campaigns! You can play with up to three bots, they each have their own unique behavior and quirks - some may be shy, some might be aggressive. I even added a feature that allows you to spectate! Meaning you could have three bots playing and you just watching as they struggle without your help - it's actually really fun to see honestly haha. Try playing with one or two on a harder difficulty, you may find it to be a more team oriented experience!
Modifiers
There are currently four modifiers available in the demo: Classic - Tank have a single health, less shots, are slowed down, and can no longer dash! Teamplay - Players shots no longer damage one another whoooooo! Jellybean - Players start each level as a new random tank! Stopwatch - Players have exactly one minute to finish the level, all players are destroyed once their time is up!
We plan to have a least a few more available for the demo, they will be unlockable through the completion of secret side-objectives. Keep an eye out! Other Modifiers we plan on having in the final game include: Killshot, Evolved, Chosen, All as one, Rainbow, Dracula, Brawler... so on and so forth. Check these out in game to see their effect!
Progression
First off, we've completely rebalanced how receiving stars for levels works - things are much more fair now. Getting three stars on a mission is a serious accomplishment on any difficulty mode. We now save and display all of your accomplishments - What levels you got how many stars in, the difficulty, even the tank you used to do it. You'll be able to see this information in the main menu when your selecting your tank. This information will help us give away cool rewards for hitting certain milestones in the players progression. Example: Finish campaign 1 with each level having either 2 stars or more - things like this will unlock new content for players! We also do a better job in tracking the exact time it takes you to complete each level, this is down to the millisecond. So for all you speedrunners out there, you better watch out, I'm coming for ya.
UI Overhaul
There have been a flurry of UI improvements in this update. Everything from the menus/options to the icons and text. Things should be much easier to interact with and understand moving forward. We also added the long awaited "Quit" button to the options screen.