Hey there, friends! This devlog continues to look at the game's hazards, explaining what they do and what kind of challenges I'm hoping to set before players with them. You don't need to read the previous part to understand this, but it'll probably help - plus there's more animated GIFs to see!
Spike Walls
These relentlessly chase you through a level and absolutely will not stop, ever - well, at least until you beat the level.
These add a time pressure to your actions, requiring much more rapid decision making. Levels featuring these are often designed to have obstacles blocking your way that will slow you down and expert/brave players can optimise their movements around these to get to bonus areas with more food!
Ghost Slimes
Haunted by their limited movement, these slimes will slowly move towards the living if they draw near and then relentlessly pursue their target if they get too close.
Luckily, it’s possible to confuse these slimes by hopping in a Ghoster bubble.
These create interesting new zones of danger for the player and the ability to lure them away produces some pretty interesting new play space - there's one level in particular that you can finish extremely quickly with skillful baiting...
Speed Pads
Hitting these will either greatly increase or decrease Bubbles’ speed, depending on which direction these are entered from. Whilst not a hazard in and of themselves, they’ll throw off any unprepared players who may go flying at top speed into some spikes or lasers.
This can really mix up the platforming as you’ll need to adapt on the fly to changes to how much further Bubbles can now jump or use powerups to mitigate moving slowly.
Oily Walls
These also aren’t directly hazardous, but Bubbles can’t cling on to these walls and will immediately begin sliding on touching them. This requires quick reflexes (kind of a theme of World 4 overall) and more precise timing to climb walls and dodge hazards.
Charge Lasers
In light of how difficult it is to remove cat hair, certain parts of the Neon City have anti-cat alarm systems that will fire a fuzz-removing laser at Bubbles. Once the alarm has been triggered and a target lock has been found, Bubbles has about a second to leap away from the laser!
Triggering multiple alarms will trigger consecutive lasers, greatly increasing the difficulty of a level for clumsy cats (or those willing to take on the additional risk for more cat food).
Spike Balls
These spike balls appear in the fifth world of the game. These balls will either be inert or will follow a fixed rail, requiring careful judgement and timing to make it past.
World 5 generally has a slightly slower, more pensive pace and these hazards are ideal for more complex hazard placements than could be achieved with normal spikes.
Hazards Clear!
Annnd there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this look into Bubbles and some of the goals I wanted to achieve with these level hazards. If you like this sort of thing, I'm making these about once every two weeks and you can keep up to date with them by following and wishlisting the game!
You can also follow the game's development on Twitter, where I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have about the game or game development in general.
Until next time!
Johnny
Team Cats & Bears