Dev Blog - New Weapon, New Enemy Type, Progress!

In our last blogpost I mentioned that I wasn't particularly happy with the current state of the game. Due to a short deadline to get our submission ready for Realms Deep, we've spend a lot of time making things look presentable, but everything was held by duct-tape. The weeks after submitting our video we're spend correcting all of this and ensuring that the quality of the game remained high. We're happy to say that we are back on track! A lot of bugs have been ironed out and we even managed to squeeze in some new features into the game and get continue mapping.

Please remember that GIF's do not load on mobile!

New weapon added: SMG!

The model is finished and has been added to the game! It's still mostly in 'Prototype Mode' as the weapon is not capable of doing anything else than firing. The muzzle flash effect is not yet added (the one in the GIF is a placeholder effect from our Assault Rifle) and lots of animations are still missing.

The SMG (UC-11 Compact) is the compact version of the UC-36 Assault Rifle. The UC-11 is a powerful damage dealer capable of dishing out far more DPS than his bigger brother, while also remaining much easier to control during your attack. A complete monster at close range, a bruiser at medium range, unreliable at long range. The UC-36 will remain the most versatile as it is capable of dealing with every combat situation imaginable, but if you know when to switch to the UC-11, the tide of combat can easy move to your favor.

We're still considering the addition of Dual Wielding, but cannot confirm at this point. We have been doing tests, however...

New Enemy Type: Sieger

The most agile enemy in the game! Unlike most enemies in Selaco, the Sieger is capable of flying into the air and continue the fight from above. Low cover becomes problematic as the Sieger can easily engage you from their higher position, while also being able to effortlessly go behind you when cowering beneath high cover. when facing one of these it is important to stay on the move and keep shooting.

While being able to bring high amounts of pressure to the player, the Sieger comes with a huge design flaw: their jetpack. Shoot their jetpack and the Sieger will fail to maintain control in the skies, causing them to either crash into the wall and explode or...Fly into an enemy squad and explode! The amount of happy accidents with the Sieger make him a fun yet threatening opponent. 

The Sieger fires blue sharp projectiles which chew through your armor, taking more armor points away than any other enemy weapon in the game. If your armor is high, take these bastards down as fast as possible! Armor is a precious resource you do not want to lose in battle. To easily defeat them, try to keep your distance and take them down from afar, as their projectiles are slow and easy to dodge as long as you can see them coming.

New Feature: Hardcore mode

After starting a new campaign, the player will get to choose between 2 modes. Traditional Mode and Hardcore Mode

Traditional Mode will play the game as originally intended; the game will autosave on key moments, quick saves are available and your health will regenerate to 35 if it gets too low, allowing you to always stand a fighting chance against the enemy.

Hardcore Mode takes all of that away from you. The game no longer automatically saves your progress, quicksaves are locked and Health Regen is no longer available. To make matters worse, saving the game can only be done as Gwyn Machines and costs you 200 credits, disallowing you to spend all of your credits on armor, health or ammo. We think Hardcore Mode completely changes the way you play and adds a new element of strategy. Do you save often and play it safe at the cost of being able to purchase resources? Or do you risk long stretches of play without saving to maintain a high amount of resources? Of course, resources are always available in the level if you willing to look for them, but if you are not careful enough, Hardcore Mode is capable of bricking your progress due to a shortage of health before a hard encounter. Stay on your toes and don't get sloppy!

New light switches

Health Regeneration Indicator

We've added a small indicator next to the health bar to communicate when the health regeneration begins to activate.

Added Voxel Switches

Added tier-based Destructible Pallets

Conclusion

We got a lot done this week! Our new level is shaping up great, a new weapon is in the works, and the Sieger is promising to be a lot of fun. We'll continue iterating on them for the coming weeks and hope to show you a more in-depth demonstration of both the Sieger and UC-11, just like we did with the Nailgun 

For the next blog post we'll dive deeper into AI and the sound design of Selaco. See you then!

- Wesley de Waart