After The Storm
Hey folks!
After a formidable event-a-thon, covering gamescom and IFA Berlin, we’re back in the lab. Although some of us caught a cold, we’re in good spirits to push CACTUS to the next level, meaning: it’s time to kick off the production phase and reach “content complete” status (Beta) by Mid 2024.
Even though our excessive event hopping might imply that the game hasn’t received much attention lately, nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, we’ve made significant changes to the core loop, introducing a revamped active reload and heat system that encourages ability usage much more strongly.
In addition, our next demo will be completed soon. It will showcase the capabilities of our custom Axon Toolkit with regards to dynamic level architecture and sophisticated event scripting.
Let’s have a look at each one of these.
New Heat System
Previously, you would consume frenzy to trigger abilities. However, since the maximum frenzy cap was at three points, players only used abilities sparingly.
With the new Heat System, you can aggreggate more action points and even increase the maximum cap by finding certain upgrade items. This allows you to use certain abilities multiple times, such as triggering multiple blast shots in a row, turning the ability into the corridor sweeper it always should have been.
Manual Reload
Now this might come as a surprise: We’ve given up on automatic reloading. Instead, you can now initiate reloading using “R” (or any keybind of your choice), which gives a lot more control over detonations and ammo. And with the new heat system, spamming remains impossible.
What’s more, it allows us to design more interesting puzzles, such as tagging an explosive plant with a needle and detonating it to crush a wall.
Revamped GUI
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While updating the heat system, we also took some time to update the corresponding GUI. Most visibly, there is a lot more color in use and states are better indicated. However, these changes really shine when seen in live motion.
New Demo
To showcase our custom toolkit, we’ve built a new demo for potential business partners. We also consider releasing it to our community sometime in the future. For now, we’ll provide you with some scenes that show, what you can expect from the final game.
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Event Roundup
Apart from gamescom, we’ve also participated at IFA Berlin, including a keynote on CACTUS and the current state of the indie games scene. Of course, we also met fellow devs, friends and new faces, as well as big surprises such as the slick LVL venue, where we had a CACTUS booth.
So here are some impressions from our travels:
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What’s Next?
Our next goal is to wrap up the demo and, by that, start the actual production phase of CACTUS. By that, we mean building the actual story levels that will make up the game you’ll get to play. So expect to hear more about this process over the coming weeks.
So long!
Oliver
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