At the moment I'm polishing existing mechanics and adding puzzles to existing regions.
And I figured out the "bring barrels to the shopkeeper" system only really makes sense, if it's used to add something that would otherwise not be there.
If you just carry a barrel to the shop to make an upgrade appear there, why not just have the upgrade at the barrel location? This was critisized multiple times and rightfully so. But what the barrel system can offer are puzzles that are otherwise not possible. Puzzles that are about getting a barrel out of a certain situation, instead of just carrying it over. So I will try to turn nearly all barrels into such puzzles. The force cube barrel near the town entry is now also such a little puzzle. The latest barrels, that had the wrong color, can stay that way, as figuring that situation out is the puzzle. I've seen people get stuck on this for a while but it was very satifsying for them to finally understand what to do.
I've made the halo puzzle a little more difficult. The shop keeper now offers more things than just rings. At first I kept it as limited as possible because I thought it could be too difficult. Turns out it's actually a little too easy. A little added complexity or "red herrings" should do a good job.
I have also plans to expand the coloring mechanic even more in hopefully unexpected ways.
I've added yet another bonus ability. I plan to not hint at it at all.
I'm thinking about a tower defense section where you have to defend wave after wave. The game needs something where you actually need all the mighty gun and fighting upgrades where you can potentially slash yourself through hordes of enemies. But you can only realistically beat the entire thing if you are overpowered enough. I think it would even be good to have this as a mandatory thing that advances the story near the end.
Related to this: I made the enemies harder. Right now they are just an annoyance but nothing that's really taken seriously. That needs to change, because the upgrades you get are often about better fighting abilities. But if fighting is easy anyway, you wouldn't need those upgrades. So there needs to be a more serious threat so you appreciate your upgrades much more.
Regarding the bad optimisation of the game: I did a couple of things that already improve the FPS. But I can't fully figure out what is really making it bad. I will get there sooner or later as I'm learning to understand and use the engine better and better every day. I know the game should be a lot smoother on low performance computers.
What is the optimal price for Supraland? With there being sooo many games, what are people willing to pay for such a game? The more games there are, the less people will pay for non-AAA games. Is 9,99€ that threshold?
If it's too cheap will people think it's a bad game or appreciate that they might get a great game for a low price? Let me know in the comments what you think!
-David