It's been a while since our last update, but the new and improved Arena of the Gods is finally here, so thank you for your patience and without further ado lets get on with the changes.
- Gimme the green light!
WOOOOOO! Guess who got greenlit on steam? We did. A short while before steam announced the closing of it's greenlight function to help new developers get their game onto the store, we received enough upvotes to ensure our game was greenlit on steam so it will soon be reaching the store so that everyone can play! This is a huge milestone both for Arena of the Gods as a game, and to me and my partner Marquis as indie developers, so we're excited to see what the future holds. Thank you to everyone that voted for us! You'll see our game on steam soon!
- It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a massively updated arena that looks infinitely better!
We've felt for some time now that while we like the idea we had in mind for the Arena of the Gods, it was SORELY lacking in any real flair or personality so we took the time to redesign and add many aspects to it that weren't currently performing well or were lacking in detail. This means that along with a complete color swap, The massive bricks on the edges are now more detailed, the tiles (that ate up way too much of the polygon budget) are now detailed on the floor which massively improved performance, The grass patches (for those of you wondering what those random green areas were) now have ACTUAL GRASS in them so you don't have to jump into imaginationland to guess what it might've been and the edges of the arena cascade into flowing waterfalls. Also the rotating pools have been removed (I'll miss you, my short lived friend) and replaced by...
- A clever ruse indeed!
The rotator pools seemed like an interesting addition to the game at the time because they were intended to be temporary blockers that you could use to escape a pack of chasing enemies or potentially get yourself into even more trouble but in reality, they weren't much more than a minor inconvenience. Waiting the 3 or so seconds for an open part of the pools to turn your way didn't really add anything to the experience of the game and didn't function well as a trap so we scrapped it for our first stage hazard (the first of many to come) being the magic bridges. When walked across, their color slowly begins to change from blue to red. if you're still on the bridge when it changes then it's lights out for you! This makes it so that on hectic stages you still have a hazard to deal with but it ACTUALLY poses a real threat of falling and stresses the importance of being decisive in combat. Don't dawdle! You don't have much time!
- Got my dancing shoes on
Enemy Mage AI pathing is now smarter and more realistic. At first, the enemy mages were frustrating to deal with because they would always kite you with damn near surgical precision, always choosing the EXACT furthest path to run from you which made them a pain to chase after but once they were cornered they didn't know what to do. Now the AI behaves more realistically, meaning that it will attempt to run from, and around you in multiple directions (and will sometimes just straight up juke you out of your shoes) which feels a lot more believable and less robotic.
- Smooth as butter
Transitions between enemy animations sync with their movements better. Also attacks and flinching when hit are much smoother and feels less choppy.
- THERMAL OPTICS ENGAGED
Fixed a bug that would cause enemies to cast spells through walls. Now an enemy will only attack if they are in a direct line of sight of you
- 2 Birds, 1 Stone
Fixed a bug that deleted enemy spells even when the player dodged through them which basically allowed them to come out on top in a 2 for one deal; Escape damage with the dodge roll's invincibility AND delete the projectile if it was homing in on you, which made it a win-win in pretty much every situation. Now in order to destroy an enemy projectile you must defeat the enemy, dodge the attack, or take the damage, as intended. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
That's all for now! Have fun, and I'll see you in our next update!
Now that we've been greenlit, expect to see us on the steam store soon!