v1.65 - Reflector Special, Bat Melee Item, & More!

What's New?

Gameplay

• NEW SPECIAL: Reflector special (shield)

  

• NEW ITEM: Bat (melee item)

• Added ability to shield your turrets

• Items can now interact with springs

• Player movement is now more momentum based

• Randomize initial spawn positions for each round

• Added ability to play with whatever combination of teams you would like in Deathmatch & King of the Crown modes

• Removed the sponge special

• Temporarily removed battery item until it is better explained

Game flow

• Separated shop and game lobby area.

• Added a lobby area with a big screen

• 

User experience

• Tutorial now automatically loads when a new player is detected after readying up

• Removed confusing Team vs FFA chooser

• Consolidated the 2 different currencies into 1

• Added a tip popup for how to change gear when you buy a new item

Polish

• Improved tutorial UI a bit

• Improve bubble pop effect

• Turret hurt effect/animation

• Improve mini explosion effect

• Improved style of game end screen

Balance

• Gave the player access to all of the eyes and mouths by default

• New players now start with 2 coins

• Decrease eye frames on respawn

• Increase default music volume to 40%

• Made experience gained based more on time played than performance

Fixes:

• Fixed breaking turret on item spawner it doesn't detect and doesn't respawn one

• Fixed where tutorial achievement wasn’t getting triggered

• Fixed where you can break your own turrets

• Fixed where you could Make when you grapple you drop your item

• Fixed where if you pick up an item while shooting, you don’t stop shooting.

• Fixed where the grapple hook special wasn’t even in the shop…

What's Next?

I got the wonderful opportunity to show the game off at the game development club at my college. Here are the key takeaways:

• Players didn't necessarily know that you could jump while rolling

• Players don't understand that certain specials behave differently if you hold the special button down

• Didn't know what items were/did

  • No idea what the battery did (thought it was a bullet)

  • No idea what the shield pot did (never threw it at their feet)

  • Didn’t know what the mine was

• Didn't understand that rolling was an essential part of the gameplay (they didn't roll much at all)

• Didn't know you could walk jump as much as you'd like

• Didn't know there was more than one mode

• Didn’t seem to pay much attention to the score

• Didn’t know how to access phone to change their items in the lobby/shop

This will be the main focus of the next update.

These would also be nice to add in the next update:

• Hammer special

• Boomerang item

• Shockwave grenade

• Duplicator gun?

• Unlocking worlds

• Gambling mechanic for getting hats

• More sounds