New level design approach,
One of the biggest changes to the game is we have redesigned several of the single player levels. Two of the levels from Act I have been completely redone and some of the Act II levels have been reworked as well. We wanted these levels to have better pacing and be more simplified and ‘Open’ than before. Originally these levels would take 1-2+ hours to get through grinding through room to room waves of enemies and platforming. The levels should now take 15-30 minutes to get through with more freedom for how the player progresses. You now progress through levels by collecting fusion nodes earned by exploring the map. These nodes can be collected in any order the player chooses. We tried to make walkways wider and building further apart in many areas to allow more running room.
Other Changes
Wallrun upgrade
When designing these more open levels we thought about the possibility of giving the player unlimited wall jumps. Along with this, we came up with the idea of maybe having the player run straight up building instead of just wall jumping constantly to go up. It works by simply holding down the jump button when next to a wall.
New shield system
The shield now disables player mobility and has to be held down to keep activated. Well timed shield activations can inflict damage to nearby attackers.
Patrol ships no longer respawn
The Nightsithe Patrol ships still work like normal but they will no longer respawn once you defeat their waves. This should remove some frustration with the game’s stealth sections.
Why are we doing this?
Simplification
We notice we were losing interest and fun developing the game because we were spending too much time and effort on things we realize were not that fun. So we decided to focus on the best parts of the game only and remove many of the extra features and gameplay systems that didn’t add excitement. We just want more fun.
Feedback
Even players have been voicing their opinions about the general pacing of the game and we agree.
Practical scope
We also believe this will give us a more practical scope for finishing the game. We were just adding too many features to the game that didn’t add much to the core experience and it was only making development more difficult for us.
Thank you everyone for taking the time to check this out. We should expect to have this update released in the next couple of months. We will let you know when it’s ready. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter @nelogame.