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Demo Update #4 - Controls, Aesthetics, and Interfaces

Demo Update #4

As I get Project META ready for both Steam Next Fest (Oct. 1st) and Early Access (Oct. 8th), I've made several aesthetic and quality-of-life improvements for the game based on everyone's feedback. Project META is looking much better this time around, and has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few months. I'll be making much more frequent updates over the next few weeks to fix reported bugs, improve minor areas, and add options requested by the community.

Here's a look at this update:

Controls

  1. Control scheme has changed considerably. Power Wheels are now individual and activated by holding the B Button on either controller. This affects the following powers detailed below.
  2. Blast Power Set: Double click the grip button to change Blast Type.
  3. Fire Power Set: Double click the grip button to Create a fireball. Fire Breath has been taken out temporarily until better control scheme is found.
  4. Weapon Power Set: 4 Holsters have been placed around the body; 2 on the shoulders and 2 on the hips. These are where you can draw your weapons from now.
  5. To set which weapons are in which holster, use the new Armory Interface.

Environments

  1. Physical interfaces have been placed in every level. They have the same functionality as the player menu.
  2. Health and Energy levels have been moved to the right forearm instead of the HUD.
  3. Gladiator Arena and Research Center have been added as levels in development.
  4. Lighting improvements to all scenes, including ambient occlusion, more sources of baked light, and a switch to night time for Millennium City, as well as some minor prop/environment changes.
  5. Light Probes have been added to all levels. What this means is that lighting on dynamic objects like your avatar, enemies, and moving objects should be MUCH better and change with their location.

Interfaces

  1. Interface's are another way to interact with the system, and most support both touch-based and laser pointer controls.
  2. Level Select, Avatar Calibration, Armory Interface for the Weapons Power Set, and Enemy Wave Spawner all have separate Interfaces that will be available in every level.

Other

  1. Several bugs and sub-optimal code was removed and the game is running smoothly.
  2. Vibrations have been added to more collisions and weapon strikes.
  3. Help texts have been updated to match the new control schemes.
  4. Wave options have been disabled while a wave is in progress so that mid-fight changes won't mess up the spawning logic.