Cloud Killer Devlog #7

Hi everyone,

We have spent this past week addressing the issues that came up in our first round of testing, and have commenced a short second round with a new release.

As mentioned in the last Devlog, our animator created an attack and death animation for the angels which has since been implemented into the scene. This was created as part of enhancing the game's clarity and immersion. As testing  continues, we will ensure that the animation does not experience any bugs. A death animation for the player has also been implemented.

Another issue that was fixed was the UI scaling. During testing many of the in game messages and the pause menu were scaled too big when the game was played on certain aspect ratios. Whilst this didn’t affect gameplay horribly it made it difficult for players to understand the menus and messages. In the latest version of the game, our producer has adjusted and fixed this bug. The UI has also been upgraded in its functionality. We have added a brightness and a mouse sensitivity slider to the controls menu as a few of our testers notes the camera was very sensitive, and had troubles with their screens showing the level in a very underlit state.

The element we received the most feedback on was the behaviour of the angels and how the player interacted with them.  During the first build, players were unable to kill the angels when they were disguised as the binding mechanic had been programmed to engage upon being spotted, regardless of disguise state. This has been changed, allowing players to kill angels whilst disguised. Once the player attacks however, their disguise breaks and they need to find a safe space to enable it again. This is to avoid the player being able to recklessly kill a swarm of angels without being spotted. A similar change was done to the death mechanic of the player. Previously, when the player was disguised they could be killed when they made contact with an angel. This has been changed so the player only dies on contact of an angel when they are not wearing a disguise.

A minor fix was made to the hit box of the angels. The player only has one life and because of how close players had to get to kill an angel, testers kept accidently making contact and dying. Consequently, they were unsure of how close they could actually get to an angel. To fix this, the hit box for the player's attack has been expanded.

Since adding the disguise pick up it was no longer necessary for angels to give the player disguise once they were killed. This feature has now been removed from the game.

A new round of testing has started. We will decide which issues are the most pressing coming from our second round of feedback, and we will spend this week addressing them while beginning development of the second level. By having multiple testing sessions for the first level we hope to get any major bugs fixed, and lock in our core interactions so that further development will run smoothly.

In other news, we have been illustrating our poster which will be used at Lets Break Games, held in Perth in November, and at the Murdoch end of year showcase! Here is a sneak peak:

Come see us at Lets Break Games or at the Murdoch Showcase to see the full thing, and try out our game!