Intended to be a smallish release, one thing lead to another, and suddenly here we are with a couple of NEW features, and some pretty decent enhancements to existing elements. The new Energy Pickups, tweaks to the energy system and the Brake ehancments nudge things in the right direction we hope.
So, let's take a look.
New Feature: Pickups
The Joypad Y button or SPACE on the keyboard will now use any Pickups you have ready to go. Pickups are shown via a small icon in the upper right of the viewport. This is a set of features that we intend to expand on over time, but for now, we'll kick things off with a new Energy Pickup!
New Feature: Energy Pickups
Your Marble (Odie) has an Energy Pool that is used to power its 3 powers, Jump, Brake and Turbo. The Energy pickup (of which there are 3 varieties) refill your main Energy pool and each power to a smaller degree. Just pick them up and press Joypad Y or Keyboard SPACE to use.
Tweak: Energy Pool refill slowdown
OK, this is a BIG tweak. Until now your Energy Pool refilled pretty quickly, this meant it was pretty hard to deplete your powers and overall pool. Now it refills more slowly, so bashing away on your powers will drain the pool and it is now pretty slow to refill. Luckily, we now have Energy Pickups to the rescue!
Tweak: Min Charge Required for Powers
Until now Powers could be used with VERY low (yes, zero) charge. Now each power has a marker on its gauge, to indicate the base energy required before use. When low on charge its fluid will glow to indicate it has reached the required min charge.
Tweak: Enhanced Braking
The Brake power until now has been either at zero or 100% effect. Now it ramps in from 0 - 100%, as you hold down Brake. Its a subtle change, but it means you can now feather your brake presses to have small slowdowns, or stamp it down to slam on the brakes!