Spent what time I had to create the entire mechanic for the broken powers. I first made sure that it checked what power the player had on when they died. I made a macro so they couldn’t switch to that power if they tried to. I also created a macro for the power switching, that way it always works the same and I use it for another check at the start of the game.
Now when switching a power the game will check if it is a broken power. The default integer of the broken power variable is at 69, so at the start nothing is broken. Since power one is the default power. I had to create a check that if it is the broken power it will set the selected power to two. I don’t have to do that for the other powers because it will always try to set itself to the first one.
To signify that something is broken I made its icon black, but I might think of a way to make if even clearer. When a player tries to select a broken power the icon will flash white at least, so that might be enough for now. Since I added a new mechanic I had to add a new tutorial. The first level was littered with tutorials and I didn’t want to overwhelm any players, even more experienced ones. So I devised a way that there was some sort of “flow” to the tutorials. I kept them in the same position, but this time I hide all of them except the first one. Then once the first is opened and hopefully read, the next one will reveal itself and so forth.
This puts the learning of the mechanics in the hands of the players. And this way I am trying to start with simple concepts and work my way to more complex ideas. I gave each tutorials a count, so it starts from 0 and ends with 12. I am quite happy with this change because I have been trying to improve the tutorials for awhile. This isn’t a massive change but I think it will help slightly with the learning curve. It still does throw a lot of information in the beginning. I am hoping it will be enough and players will be patient enough to learn things on their own.
Then a tiny change to the second stage. I realized the trees’ leaves were all the same shade so I created new materials for them and changed the colors. For some reason I couldn’t make it look orange or yellow. It only looks green or brown, but at least now there is a better variety with how the canopy looks.
Tomorrow I will be releasing a new video. Showing some of the powers and the combat. Next month will be the one year anniversary marking the start of my journey on this project. So I will also think of what I need to prepare for that.
GoldenGratus Games 