After posting a combat preview on Reddit I got great feedback about the whip. It was a bit too easy to use especially since it had auto-aim. That made me rethink the type of game I was going for and the mechanics I want the player to have fun with. The whip was indeed too simple for my liking.
Then I had the idea of either holding it down or making the whip work with certain timing. I started by creating new events to use the whip. At first, I tried having the whip held down by a button and I tried putting a bar on the screen to indicate at what time the player should let go. It felt alright but I couldn’t get the progress bar to work well, and I didn’t like having it on the screen.
Instead of a bar, I tried an audio and visual cue instead. A spark that will tell the player that the whip should be released. The cue was better than the bar and it would have the player keep an eye and ear out for it when they want to whip properly.
Though whenever I create an action that has to be held down I always run into problems. I got it to work eventually but I didn’t like having to hold down the whip and then letting it go. The action didn’t feel appropriate to me in regards to the whip. I had the events set up already so it was easy to try out a different approach. Tap once to bring up the whip and tap again at the right time to crack it. This felt so much better and it matches the idea of how a whip works, bringing it up and then down.
I finally found the mechanic I wanted. The next few hours were making sure it was smooth and the issues were resolved. I ran into the usual problems with the actions overlapping or not working at all. Eventually, with the right checks, the whip tapping felt consistent and fun. It is certainly a lot cleaner than my earlier blueprints and I was able to delete the former functions. The whip input is now only tied to a press of a button and nothing on the release.
I also recently found out that I could pop up several tutorials in one go with how I programmed it. With that in mind, I added more messages that explain the whip further. Then I made sure that the arena in the first level also had desks to throw and not just chairs.
The new whip mechanics is a big change and I’m gonna assume that something still needs fixing so I will keep testing it and improving it.
GoldenGratus Games 