Fixes and Updates:
- Updated movement, attack, and roll speed for players and bot
- Updated collider size for player
- Removed player physics-based movement
- Maze level redesigned
- Fixed bug when restarting level with level intro off would crash the whole game
- New game mode (Capture the Flag)
'Capture the Flag' game mode
Capture and take the flag to the capture areas to score points.
Player Physics Movement
We tried implementing the physics-based movement last week, and continued working on it this week. However, the longer we worked on this, the more the gameplay and feel of the game changed, and not for the better. We tested it out with several people, and found that most of them found the game more difficult to play and enjoy with the new movement. One of the things we are most proud of the game is how accessible it is for anyone to pick up and enjoy, and this new movement was leading us in the opposite direction.
We don’t think this would have been a major issue if we started the game with physics-based movement from the beginning of the development. But since we are halfway through development, it was much harder to implement. We could potentially do it, but this can take at least a few months to ensure that it feels good. But even this does not guarantee that it will work correctly 100% of the time. And this will definitely push us back in our development schedule. To give an example, our original movement took us around six months of developing and testing, to make sure it feels good and works correctly.
Therefore, we have decided to remove the physics-based movement.
You can try out our last physics update in our 'physics' branch on Steam.
You can download the ‘physics’ branch on Steam at any time by right-clicking on the ‘Akuto: Mad World’ game name on the Steam library page and selecting 'Properties' from the window that opens. From this window select the 'BETAS' tab and then the 'physics' option from the dropdown menu (the menu labelled 'Select the beta you would like to opt into:’.
To revert back to the latest build of Akuto: Mad World, change the branch to 'NONE- Opt out of all beta programs' from the same menu.
In Other News
We have nearly completed this milestone (Versus Game Modes), and will soon start to begin working on the next milestone (Mini-Games). We have one new versus game mode to add, which we are expecting to complete around mid-April. After that, we will raise the price of the game again. It will be around $1, but more for certain countries due to the Steam tax hikes. You can read more about the Steam tax hike here.
You can view all of the updates for March on one single page on our dev log.