Attention Recruits!
As you may know from our previous update, we found ourselves in a situation where we couldn't actively work on GUARDS! as much as we'd like due to the ongoing console port.
We are really happy that you all want more GUARDS!. We want more GUARDS! too, so over the last few months we have been hard at work trying to figure out a way we could make it happen.
First, a little bit about what is in the update.
One of the biggest bits of feedback we get from reviews and players is that the game is too hard. Punishingly hard. Hard games are ok, but when the players don't know what killed them or why the mission was failed, it can cause alot of frustration.
With that in mind we consulted our friends over at UXIF who gave us some feedback on the game and even helped us with the implementation of the following improvements:
UNBLOCKABLE ENEMY
Some of the tougher enemies in the game cannot be blocked. Which always comes as a surprise to new guards the first time they get destroyed by a hammer wielding punk. Now unblockable enemies will glow red, to highlight the fact that they are more dangerous than a regular perp.
ENEMY BEHIND SENSOR
Not the snappiest name, but it's pretty descriptive. When an enemy is behind you, a red chevron will draw on the screen to alert you to their presence. Think of it like your character hearing footsteps as someone rushes up from behind them.
This feature was single-handedly responsible for saving my life multiple times in the first mission alone. It is particularly useful when a perp has managed to disguise themselves as a corpse and then tries to jump you when you've moved onto clear another room.
OBJECTIVE GLOW
We now highlight import items in the world gold and icon in world space. This allows guards to spot them more easily amongst the chaos and makes it easier to make sure nothing kills / destroys them.
It also solves the "last objective" issue, where you end up back tracking through the level to find the last hostage, or last crate. Now they are much easier to see from a distance.
HEALING ITEM GLOW
Pretty straight forward. Now healing items glow green. It means you can spot them much more easily in the debris.
🚨 THE IMPORTANT PART 🚨
Now, some of you might be thinking "But where are the new districts / new enemies / new weapons / etc. ?!"
We wanted to put out a small update first, as a test, to see how difficult it would be to bring in extra outside support and patch the game while the console version is still being worked on.
If it all goes smoothly, then we will be able to get more ambitious and add more stuff. If it is a nightmare, then we will need to resume our original plan of waiting until the console version is finished.
I wanted to be as transparent as possible about this update, since I know I didn't do a great job of communicating what was happening with the game before. GUARDS! is our first game as a team, so we're still learning alot about communicating with you and the wider community.
Finally, if you would like to be invited to playtest some of the new features and improvements for GUARDS! sign up to our MAILING LIST and FOLLOW US ON STEAM where we will be sending out information about how to get into the private test realm.
Thanks for your support!
== The GUARDS! Team ==
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