Hey!
I just recently finished a pretty big milestone regarding the game's zones, so as per usual, here is the government mandated blog post in which I show off some of the new goobers & more.
Alternative Zones
This was something that wasn't originally fully planned, but made it in regardless. The game was originally envisioned with exactly 4 Zones, with an average run duration of 12~ ish minutes, depending on how fast you are putting the pedal to the metal. The idea was to hit a similar spot Nuclear Throne hits, very quick and impactful, short runs, where deaths don't feel particularly bad due to run-length being short anyways.
Ultimately, when reviewing the game something didn't feel quite right - I personally felt there was a bit of a lack of variety. There were plenty of enemies, but visually you did kinda come across the same few tilesets over and over. Adding 100% entirely new areas was out of the question due to dev time constraints - what wasn't out of the picture was "Alternative Zones", however. More simple color adjustments alongside some generational changes and a small subset of new enemies would offer some visual variety, even if just in color, while also giving these alt. Areas their own identity with their own area-specific enemies, while keeping the cop enemies of the stages shared.
Alt. Areas have a roughly 50% chance of appearing whenever the game would take you to the usual area, offering a bit of extra variety to each run, or even Loop.
So I went to work, which took a while, but finally got done! So let's check 'em out.
Alt. Desert: Mesa
The alternative desert features these generational "stamps" which appear around the road occasionally.
Designing an alternative Desert was a bit challenging. Since it's the first area of the game, I can't really afford to throw much crazy stuff at the player. Additionally, I didn't really want to make an alternative version of the Desert Bandit, considering it basically serves as a Tutorial. As a result, other areas feature an additional switched up enemy, while this one only has 1.
This vehicle roams the Mesa and takes up the spot of the big enemy. At a set interval, it will switch to its spiked form, damaging you on touch. The augmented version of this enemy will even try to tackle you!
As an additional sidenote, the normal Big Cop has been retired as the flagship big enemy of the Desert. For variety's sake, having the Desert essentially have two identical enemies, but one a lil bigger, felt like a cop-out (hah). The Big Cop will now simply appear 10% of the time the game would spawn a normal cop, and in its stead, this Big Bandit will appear:
It has a big assault gun that shoots 3 close range shots. Hopefully this doesn't raise the difficulty of the first area by too much, while making it much more interesting to go through.
Alt. Countryside: Meadow
You'd never guess the inspiration for this one. The generational quirk of the Meadow is that it has circular-bits sticking out the wall on occasion. Unlike the desert, which was kept simple by-design, this one can have an actual impact on your driving. I definitely didn't accidentally break the one in the picture above...
Enemies for this area are themed appropriately. For our flagship small-fry, we've got this fancy, wooden fish mobile:
In-game, it comes equipped with a close range burst-shotgun, similarly to the current Countryside enemies. Unlike them, however, they just blast you at close range, with no bullets to be shot. This offset is made up by a generally higher fire rate and bigger damage on hit.
As far as the big one goes, we have this honorable warrior:
When getting close, it will start to charge up a sword attack in a random pattern around it. Getting hit will tumble you, so don't get sliced.
Alt. Factory: Foundry
A much darker look, the Foundry features square protrusions and intrusions, oscillating.
The smaller enemy of this area keeps the Industrial theming of the one before, but comes with a very interesting bullet.
Always shot at a sideways angle, the bullets by this enemy will follow the path of the track for a bit, creating hazards that actively follow you, but without being homing towards you. These will fizzle out after roughly 2 seconds though, and are generally harmless if you are behind the gunner.
The big one comes with a big rocket launcher.
There isn't much to be said here. This dude shoots a rocket at you, and it explodes. Considering the getup, it would be more accurate to say it's two dudes...
Alt. Nearside: Farside
How does the farside of the moon look like? Scientists have asked this question for years. Don't look it up on google or you will spoil the surprise.
In true cheese fashion, the generational quirk of this alt. Zone is circular holes and protrusions.
To keep in line with the absolute insanity that was the Nearside's UFO, this area's smaller enemy shoots a black hole that sucks in not just the player, but also enemies alike. It also deals damage over time while you stay inside of it, so you better invest in that weight stat.
Depending on the situation, this enemy legitimately causes absolute chaos once the black hole is out. I'd stay wary.
The big one features a similar getup to the Nearside's sniper, except instead of shooting a deadly hitscan explosion blast, it has a long-lasting, slowly turning & burning laser.
Being in close range, taking cover, or throwing their aim off by taunting is key to avoid getting roasted.
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This was quite a mountain of work, and I originally wanted to move onto other things (like upgrades or new characters!), but I think the added variety will add a lot of value to the game in the long run. Please look forward to it! With this, the game is enemy and zone gameplay content complete. A very cool milestone to hit!
I am planning an update to the demo soon, and the demo will also feature the first Alt. Zone, Mesa. However, I am also planning to include a variety of QOL and some upgrade changes in said patch, so it will still have to stay in the oven for a bit. More on that when it's all ready - which is hopefully very soon!
Thank you for reading!
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- Alexander