Hi guys and gals,
Hope you all are well :)
Listed below are my development progress with HeavyVertical. Still in early alpha but already very playable so far!
- added menu system (basic at this point)
- added World and scrollable Level selection screens (thanks to Rob Miracle for a sample at Coronalabs)
- mid-game pause dialogue with Retry/Level select/Exit options box now fully working (again a big thanks to Rob Miracle of Coronalabs and other Corona devs in helping me out with some issues).
- scoring and star-rating system
- end of level 'where Next?' dialouge box
- added camera shake when player (ship) bumps with objects. Adds more juice to the physio-visual aesthetics ;)
- much thicker and puffier smoke when engine is on sustained high throttle with high temperature
- added cooling power-ups to ease engine temperature (not sure if that Fan icon is a good idea!)
- Fuel Up sound
- added force-sensitive collision sound effect on the cargo. the stronger the impact, the louder the impact sound.
- added ship lateral tilting - worked some math with it so the engine exhaust plumes follows the exhaust pipe during rotation
With the above in place, I am soon going to upload a playable prototype in a few more days for Android (APK) with about 4 or 5 levels to play around, and I hope you guys with Android devices can help me improve the game with your feedbacks :)
More non-essential but cool plans for visual (and audio?) enhancements:
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- Subtle camera shaking when the ship is about to explode from engine overheating. In addition to the audio warning and blinking red-lined temperature gauge, I feel this is a good visual cue for players to let go of their touch or else blow to kingdom come :P
- Camera shake when the cargo impacts hard
- 2.5D realtime lighting!! I so want this. Imagine maneuvering in pitch-dark mining caves with your ship being the only light source!! (Need to acquire a paid Plugin for this, and see how "Heavy" the app would be with all those extra normal maps )
- Background music? What do you guys think? With the continuous engine thruster sound, I would think background music only adds audio clutter, no?
So many things in my head, so little time!! Essentials first !!
Other Future enhacement plans (likely not included in the Jam version - not enough time!):
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- Ship upgrades (via in-game currency using gems, or in-app purchase):
1) additional shields/armour
2) engine upgrade (some cargoes are impossible to hoist with the default ship)
3) Engine coolant upgrade
4) turret gun AND a gunner (say whaat???).. Yes, future levels will lead you in harms way, so you need an AI turret gunner for defense - I'm still thinking about this. Allowing players to operate the guns is too much of a workload. Of course, the Gun and the AI gunner skills can be upgraded with in-game currency (gems). ... your overall airborne weight too naturally increases with these fittings, and then it connects to fuel consumption, more engine heating, etc etc, the list can go on.
There will be many types of gameplay challenges.
Here is a gameplay video of the latest build. Please note the movement of the ship is a little jerky because I played this on the Corona Simulator (Windows) with mouse click/drag as controls. I use FRAPS to capture the video. In actual device, you tilt slightly left-right to steer, tap/tap-hold to engage/sustain the thrusters.
Cheers!
Santi