(Showcase of the current state of the game)
Week 16
Hi and welcome to the 16th development blog for Unleash!
This week is once again mainly in the name of polishing. However, we have also managed to complete a new set of tutorials for new players, as well as hooking up online gameplay to three regionally based servers. Additionally, we are currently in the process of reworking our menus visually, we have carried out a number of minor balancing tweaks for more balanced gameplay, a new very easy bot has been introduced, and finally we have come up with a new scoring algorithm for the line tower wars game mode.
New Tutorials Ready
As mentioned in the previous development blog post, we have been working on a new tutorial for the game. As also previously mentioned, we have decided to split up the tutorial in three parts, making it faster and more manageable to go through each part. Additionally, gamers who feel like they already intuitively know the basics can jump directly to the ‘defense’ or ‘line wars’ part, only spending the minimum time needed to learn the game.
(A small snippet from the start of the ‘Defense’ tutorial)
Cloud Servers
Unleash will be hosted using cloud servers regionally placed around the world. With the next update, the first three cloud server regions will be used. The first three regions are EU, USA and Asia. These three regions should ensure that anyone in the world can play without unplayable latencies. In the longer term we are aiming for even more cloud server regions, depending on the amount of players in Unleash. Obviously, the more different servers we provide, the more fragmented the playerbase becomes, since cross-server play is not possible.
Menus Rework
Our art director has been hard at work coming up with new menu screens, which look more aesthetically pleasing. Additionally, we are attempting to make the menus more intuitive and easy to use, even for newcomers. We are also reworking the logo for the game, and the menus are made using the same color palette to ensure a consistent look.
(The main menu ‘Play Now’ section as it currently looks - work in progress)
The functionality for the menus will generally - for now - stay the same, but the visual implementation will be completely different, with a much more consistent and structured style.
(The menus’ ‘Lobby’ section as it currently looks - work in progress)
Balancing Changes
Several small balancing tweaks have been carried out in the past week, based on our daily internal playtests. The three main flying monsters; Gloomgliders, Barfblobs and Crackleclouds, move slower than previously, having their speed decreased from 6 to 4. The Guardhorn monster now provides increased armor against all damage types, rather than just physical. The Flak 88 tower deals more damage on tier 1. The Blubbertwister tiers 3 and 4 have slightly decreased burrowing capabilities, and the Grumperjumper tier 4 spawns slightly less frequently. Finally, the Teleporter tower now has mixed locality, meaning that it can target both air and ground monsters.
New Bot for Beginners: Mr. Builder
Mr. Builder is really friendly. Actually, so friendly that the bot will never ever kill anyone. It literally can’t hurt an opponent. Mr. Builder will do what it does best; building up bases. It will happily build, rebuild and upgrade, but it will never spawn monsters. Thus, it provides the ultimate easy starting point for new players who want to learn how to spawn monsters that can penetrate an opponent’s base.
(The new Mr. Builder bot only does base defense. It can build, rebuild and upgrade, but it cannot attack)
Line Tower Wars Scoring Algorithm
Once again, the LTW scoring algorithm has been tweaked, since we weren’t satisfied with the previous implementation of only awarding kills and victory based on a hidden rating. The hidden rating is still in place, but it is not used for scoring anymore in the new model. Now, finishing off an opponent is rewarded with one point, winning the game is awarded with points that scale linearly with the amount of players, and finishing as late as possible is also rewarded.
Closing Remarks
A lot of bug fixes, balancing tweaks and polishing has been carried out during the week. Among the larger topics are: the new tutorials are ready for players to learn the game, multiplayer gameplay now happens on three regional cloud servers, the in-game menus are being reworked completely and will soon be ready for implementation, a new beginner bot that only builds has been added, and finally the scoring algorithm for the Line Tower Wars game mode has been rewritten to hopefully be more fair and rewarding.
Get in contact with us through Discord, or any of our other social media channels. You can find all of them through our website. Also, you can watch our internal gameplay sessions over at Twitch.
And remember… Monsters never come alone.