Build 32: Final Gameplay

[weasel]

Well, we've hit a big milestone with Build 32. After a long weekend of thinking, testing, experimenting, and discussing, we've finally arrived at Final Gameplay.

That essentially means there will be no major changes from here on out, and a level you make today with Build 32 will continue to work after release! Obviously there is still a long way to go. Lots of bugs, menus need to be straightened out, and the Tutorial is a mess right now - just to name a few.

The biggest change in Build 32 is a huge artistic overhaul thanks to Greg. Too many things to list here, but the game definitely has a new feel to it. In terms of gameplay, the biggest level-breaker included in this update is: If elements fall off the screen, it's game over.

Full changelog after the jump.

[weasel]

ART CHANGES:

- Updated the overlay again to have a slightly different effect (a bit softer) and to be on top of everything (including the menus).
- "Einner" text on the victory screen changed to be less vertically challenged.
- Fixed the player death animation to make it align with the new player graphics.
- Added a new "falling down" animation to set it apart from the "falling up" (jumping) animation.
- Voting prompt no longer flickers.
- Fixed up the "Already voted" text and made it appear sooner, during fade-in.
- The version number is now easier to read (and credits moved on the main screen)
- The Element grabbing graphic is now a backpack-collection one, not a generic explosion.
- All new element artwork, including animated, idles, and get animations. These should be close to (if not) final!
- Aiming reticule for the gun added to make aiming easier and more obvious.
- Firing effects and animations added for the gun, which look awesome.
- New Protonaut idle animation... Looks real good!
- New Projectile graphic, with particle effects. The particle effects are a little faint.
- New walljump transition animations
- New main menu animation
- New bond graphics
- Changed the way the custom mouse cursor works and when it appears. There were some issues with Mac compatibility so this is half baked right now.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES:

- Lowered the lifetime of the projectiles from 4 to 3 seconds, after which they "blip" out.
- Projectiles now explode as soon as they touch an Element.
- Reduced rate of fire for projectiles (3 per second)
- Aiming speed slightly decreased to make precision aiming a bit easier.
- Now allowing holding down the fire button for rapid fire mode.
- Looks like I forgot to kill the projectiles after they disappeared - which lead to some glitches and severe slowdowns of the simulation (if you fired a lot of them). Fixed.
- Collectible gasses (all spheres, including Nitrogen) now produce a Game Over event if they fall outside of the level boundaries. Does not include Solids or Metals.
- The Health bar has been gone for a long time, but the player still had "health" in the background. This is now removed - if you take a heavy enough blow, you simply die. I haven't tweaked this perfectly just yet but it seems to be working ok. Let me know if he dies too easily or not quick enough in certain situations.
- Fixed the "fires slightly right" bug when aiming straight up (incorrect math on velocity generation - woops). This fix will slightly affect how fast the projectiles move when fired while walking and unfortunately will break old replays.

EDITOR CHANGES:

- Supermove now works on the player and terrain (woops! typo bug. Thanks Ryan)
- Holding down shift while in drawing mode (Elements, Structure) now hotswitches to move mode. Move mode can be used to move other items in the editor or to scroll the canvas. (Also thanks to Ryan)

GENERAL CHANGES:

- The "first time with this version" error message that pops up now has its own notify window, instead of debug output.
- Made the "you have an old verison" logic behave a bit better, and now pops up even if you are anonymous (since the 'anonymous' user can set his keys and sound preferences).
- Added spacebar to the "allowed keys" list for the control mapping (woops, did a > instead of a >=).
- Added feedback for what key you hit on the control mapping (still commandeering the graphics window for this).
- Tab now properly cycles through all the text fields.
- You can now use the reset button on the victory/gameover screen.
- "Aluminum" is now "Iron", officially. Makes a bit more sense for a falling, crushing object in the game to NOT be the lightest metal on the planet.

CURRENT TUTORIAL LEVELS:

Work-In-Progress still. These aren't setup in-game yet, so you'll have to enter them manually via ?level=xxx :

Tutorial 1: 532 Collecting and Jumping: Now bigger and more fun on it's own.
Tutorial 2: 535 Firing: Now bigger and more fun as well.
Tutorial 3: 534 Nitrogen: Now shows a very "light" booby trap and mostly-enclosed (unreachable) Elements.
Tutorial 4: 504 Hydrogen
Tutorial 5: 543 Single Bonds
Tutorial 6: 544 Double bonds
Tutorial 7: 545 Ghost Bonds
Tutorial 8: 549 Hexagon/Aluminum
Tutorial 9: 503 Wall-Jumping

OTHER THOUGHTS:

During this update I privately tested out:

- Having an ammo count on the gun
- Having shots collect all types of circle elements
- Making GameOver only trigger on losing non-Nitrogen collectible elements

In each of these circumstances the game pretty much sucked. I reversed all the changes and none of the above were implemented.

[Nikola Tesla]

Dang these new graphics are amazing! I love the wall jump animation, and really love the destabilizer-what-ever-you-call-it animation! it has a fluid, futuristic movement, that is, amazing! (Now we just need sound effects.)

Wait, now if a element falls off the screen, you must start over?

[weasel]

Hotfix:

- Debug screen for menus disabled (woops)
- Fixed the "old version" dialogue popping up every time

[weasel]

Wait, now if a element falls off the screen, you must start over?

Yep. Sorry about that, it'll ruin some levels. But now level designers have to be more careful about where they place bottomless deathpits. :)

[Nikola Tesla]

The editor is kind-of glitchy. Mainly with the move option, it'll make you slide all over teh screen, not really allowing you to select what you want.

[weasel]

Not sure what you mean there - when move is selected, if you click and drag on the backdrop it will move the view. If you click on an item it'll move the item.

Try turning on the grid ("L") or drawing some terrain for a reference point and see if that does the trick for you.

[Nikola Tesla]

It will move some, then it will jerk to a corner.

And there's this.

[weasel]

Hm, I'm not seeing the "jerk to corner" effect. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. :/

Fixed the gravity reticule not being lined up for Build 33. Greg changed the art on me :(

[Nikola Tesla]

I'll try to get a video when I get to my house.

[Nikola Tesla]

Well, I can't get a video, it seems after I place a wall, (I haven't tested to see if it does it if a place a element) it will get all wonky if I try to move something, and the screen and if you try to move it will float around like if you tried to move in a low-gravity environment. And if I can get a hold of whatever I want, It will usually let go of it and do that jerk to the side motion I said earlier.

[weasel]

Bah. I see it now, there's an error popping up if you have Debug Flash. I messed up the cursor selection; it's definitely broken. I'll get Build 33 out ASAP to fix it.

[JayJSE2]

I don't like the new bonds. it's too hard to tell the difference between a structural rod and a single rod

[weasel]

Marked for review. Thanks for the input!