WoAIII: Death and the Boss Monster

Published August 15, 2015
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Day 5 draws to a close. The deadline is near (more so because I don't intend on working on Sunday, a possible all-nighter notwithstanding).

I have a new prototype: Powerthief v0.2

(I won't post a new screenshot today because the game is visually much the same as it was yesterday--the changes are primarily in gameplay.)

I feel that I got a fair bit done today--amongst other things, I made the following changes:

  • The "death" mechanic is now in!

    • When the player dies, the spell which served them best should now be given to the enemy that did the least damage during the run
    • These changes should also persist between play-sessions

  • The main boss has been implemented!
  • Two new spells are available: Lightning Ball and Spark Spray
  • A simple "you win" screen has been added
  • Health powerups now sometimes appear on completing a room
  • A weapon powerup should now appear on completing a level
  • A new enemy type has been introduced
  • The movement of one of the pre-existing enemy types has been made a little more complex
  • Some basic tutorial imagery has been added to the first room
  • Enemies should no longer spawn near the player
  • There was a bug that caused the "game over" screen to cover the play-area when starting a new game, preventing play; this should now be fixed.


  • I attempted to implement a simple options menu--only to discover that my previously-functional key-mapping GUI broke at some stage in the past, and that furthermore my splash screen's code was interfering with it! Attempting to fix the problem was taking up too much time, so I decided to dump that feature, for now, at least.

    In the new day I intend to create a few models with a handful of animations, create some basic sounds, find a few music tracks, and keep polishing the game. I'd like to add basic special effects, some new spells, some level-geometry, a simple intro and perhaps a better outro, and maybe the mid-boss and a new enemy-type or two.

    I'll confess that I'm not entirely happy with the way that this game is turning out--the gameplay feels a little messy, a little cluttered. And yet, I've actually had some fun play-testing it, so I'm not entirely unhappy, either.

    The schedule is looking tight, and I'm not sure that this game is coming out as well as I would like, but I'm not entirely unoptimistic: even if I don't complete all of the above, I may yet produce something that I can feel at least somewhat happy with.
    Previous Entry WoAIII: Prototype!
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    4 likes 9 comments

    Comments

    Orymus3

    Won't be able to test this until after the results are in, but definitely looking forward to it!

    Keep up the good work (bossfight!!!)

    August 15, 2015 02:49 AM
    Mussi

    Seems like you've been busy :D, will certainly give this a whirl once I get home.

    August 15, 2015 01:43 PM
    Thaumaturge

    Thank you both! I hope that you both have fun with it. happy.png

    (bossfight!!!)

    Who knows, maybe--and this is some distance down my "to-do" list right now--the mid-boss fight might make it into the final build... happy.png

    August 15, 2015 02:32 PM
    slicer4ever
    ah, quite fun. that final boss battle is a doozy, i barely beat him. i like the new enemy, and not having the enemys spawn on you makes the game much better. looking pretty solid thaumaturge. However i did beat it on my first try, which bypassed your death mechanic. figured i'd let you know this is something that may happen.
    August 15, 2015 07:00 PM
    Thaumaturge

    ah, quite fun. that final boss battle is a doozy, i barely beat him. i like the new enemy, and not having the enemys spawn on you makes the game much better. looking pretty solid thaumaturge. However i did beat it on my first try, which bypassed your death mechanic. figured i'd let you know this is something that may happen.

    I'm very glad that you enjoyed it! ^_^

    As to your winning on your first attempting, I'm surprised! However, worry not: I'll likely make the final game a little longer at the least, which should increase the difficulty. I might also make the enemies tougher, in particular making their default weapons more powerful and giving the main boss more health.

    August 15, 2015 07:09 PM
    Mussi

    Quite fun and challenging to play :D! Love the gameplay and the choices you get between spells. It's sometimes unclear which particles are mine and which are the enemies :P, maybe you could slightly recolor them for the baddies?

    I also noticed that moving your mouse outside the window pauses the game unless you had it clicked before moving it out, is that intentional? Scrolling the mouse wheel exits the game for me, I'm guessing that's not supposed to happen :P.

    My favourite spell is the rapid lightning ball one, good range and low mana consumption :).

    August 15, 2015 10:38 PM
    Thaumaturge

    Quite fun and challenging to play biggrin.png! Love the gameplay and the choices you get between spells.

    Excellent! This sort of feedback is really encouraging to read. Thank you for it! happy.png

    It's sometimes unclear which particles are mine and which are the enemies tongue.png, maybe you could slightly recolor them for the baddies?

    Hmm... It's tempting, but I also want it to be clear that the spells are the same as the ones that you had been casting (since this is my implementation of the competition's theme, and I don't want it missed! ^^; ). It might be worth considering a small colour-shift, however--but that won't be in the next release, I don't think, and I don't know how much time I'll have after that.

    I also noticed that moving your mouse outside the window pauses the game unless you had it clicked before moving it out, is that intentional?

    It's not something that I added for this project in particular, as far as I recall, but might well be something held over from one of the projects that form this game's ancestry, or perhaps a feature of Panda--I'm not certain. One way or another, however, I think that it's worthwhile: pausing the game gives the player an opportunity to return the mouse to the window without being killed, it seems to me.

    Scrolling the mouse wheel exits the game for me, I'm guessing that's not supposed to happen tongue.png.

    Heh, no, I believe that what you describe is a bug that was reported to me in the competition thread--it should be fixed in the next release, I believe!

    My favourite spell is the rapid lightning ball one, good range and low mana consumption smile.png.

    That's interesting--I never really got the hang of that one, myself! It's interesting to note these differences in players' experiences of the game, and skills with it. It's also heartening to infer that the spells aren't too badly out of balance, given that two players can prefer different sets of spells.
    August 16, 2015 12:38 AM
    Eck

    I'm not sure the version I downloaded was your latest build. It still crashes when you scroll wheel without any spells. The weapon power up doesn't happen every level as you suggest. But I did see the lightning ball spell.

    The game is tough, and gets tougher if you die with the wrong spells. I made it to the boss after some effort. I'll try to beat it when you release your final build, then I'll give it a judging. :)

    Good job sir!

    August 16, 2015 12:55 AM
    Thaumaturge

    The game is tough, and gets tougher if you die with the wrong spells. I made it to the boss after some effort. I'll try to beat it when you release your final build, then I'll give it a judging. smile.png

    Good job sir!

    Thank you very much! happy.png

    And yes, letting the enemies get their hands on the wrong spells can be quite bad for the player! I like the thought that this might factor into a player's decisions, weighing the advantage to them of using the spell against the danger of their enemies ending up with it on the next run.

    It still crashes when you scroll wheel without any spells.

    I haven't yet released a build with the fix for that. It's fixed on my end, but I'm rather behind on my builds! ^^;

    The weapon power up doesn't happen every level as you suggest.

    Ah, that's perhaps not sign-posted very well: a "level" in this game isn't the same as a "room", but rather is a collection of rooms. Including the starting- and boss- levels, the build available at time of writing should have three levels--that is to say, there's one level between the starting room and the boss room. I might try to add some sort of indication of this change, even if it's just a change in tile-set.

    August 16, 2015 02:03 AM
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