Quite A Few Mechanic Updates
So What's Been Added?
The last two days have been extremely productive in terms of adding/modifying the core game mechanics. A few mechanics I added in this update are:
- Added a bug spawner and "bug portal" (which is where the space bugs will go after stealing a seed).
- Added a placeholder bug to be instantiated once a seed is planted and try to steal the seed
- I built in logic to have the bugs be instantiated in waves to make the later game more exciting and difficult.
- Ensure the bug will drop the seed if destroyed, otherwise the bug will take the seed through the portal to never be seen again!!
- Added a laser shot to the space ship. This made gameplay way more exciting and added a health to the bug so they take three shots to be killed
- I will still keep the seed shot mechanic, but will probably make it a one hit kill. It will be kind of a trade off. You lose a seed, but clear out a bunch of bugs.
- Included the unfortunate feature that your laser shots can destroy your own trees!
- I found myself shooting however I pleased when play testing, I found the strategy level went up once I realized I needed to be careful with my shots and need to move around more than just sitting in place and shooting.
So quite a bit was added! I found this time around that play testing has been super helpful in figuring out what does and does not work. I feel in some of my earlier games in this jam I had an idea and just ran with it. I never stopped to think "is this fun?". I am trying to think that with every step of the way in this game. Surprisingly I think I have already made some fun improvements by just taking a step back and thinking if the game is fun. If it isn't, then I try to think of a way to spice things up for the player (and myself!).
Up on Deck
I would like to finish up the core game mechanics so I can start adding more flavor to the game, and actually start putting more of the art together. What I will like to finish up next:
- Add a "cool down" for the laser shot. This should help balance the mechanic some more.
- Allow a seed to destroy a bug in one shot.
- Need to figure out if it will flow through multiple bugs, or just destroy the one bug and bounce off?
- Add the planet health bar to show progress and completion.
- Add some sort of health identifier for the trees.
- Start working on the UI
What are your Thoughts?
How do you think the game is coming along so far? I would love your feedback as I put this game jam game together so I may make it a better end product. Let me know in a comment and I can try to incorporate feedback into the game as I go. Thanks again for reading along and I hope to share more updates soon!