Introduction

Guess who's back! (back again... nanana)
It's us, your favourite developers!
Hopefully, you didn't miss us too much past few weeks. The team took a well-deserved vacation and competed in a Gamejam!
Feel free to take a look at our games and show some love using the following links:

• Tree-Umph
• Space Junk
• Mold Mart
• Stormy Weathers

Of course,  we still spent some time during this vacation working on our game.  As we would say in Dutch we work like a horse!

New Characters Unlocked

Come and see to this glorious revelation! 
What we're about to show you now are work-in-progress character meshes that will make the world shake once they're released. It is a combination of sweet love and creativity!  Our beautiful doll, characterised by her beautiful scarf, and our Frankenstein crocodile made out of multiple parts. Although both aren't implemented in the game yet, they already look absolutely fantastic.

Both characters also got icons to display in the character selector, which will look fabulous once displayed in the game.

Particles, Particles, and ... even more Particles

While they are definitely not finished yet, there is a multitude of new particle effects in the game now (Dani approves). For the player, we have effects for landing from a jump and sliding down a wall. There is also a particle effect for the objective, in addition to the pointer.

Gameplay Improvements

Better Camera Focus

We are researching and testing a new method for determining who is in first, which will result in better camera behaviour. Currently, we simply look at who's closest to the objective in a straight line, but that is of course not how the players move depending on the level design. This meant that on some occasions the real player in first place did not get control over the camera. This works counterproductively and slows down the pace of the game, while we're doing our best to keep the pace going.  

We are trying to solve this by implementing node-based pathfinding to find the player in first. This is what a l primitive version of this method looks like:

The node system also tries to handle one-directional paths.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

The winning screen got an upgrade! Instead of simply appearing immediately when a player wins, there is now a cool slow-mo effect to enjoy your victory. (And let the ones you just wrecked watch in pain as you celebrate your victory) Afterwards, the winning screen appears just as before.

Exiting Developments In Moving Platform Mechanism

In the past, the moving platform was simply floating in mid-air. Now, it actually gets suspended. It is connected via a rope to a drill, which keeps on spinning to move the platform. Although it doesn't have the final visuals yet, all of the code is there, so it will be very easy to swap the visuals out when we have them.

Audio

We started adding sounds to our game. Right now we only have sounds for the UI, but it gives the game a lot more charm. We noticed that the smallest changes can sometimes improve a game in an impressive way,

Main Menu

Players will now spawn with a random character in the main menu. This is to avoid confusion while jumping around. The camera is additionally upgraded to always keep all players in view, to make exploration a little bit easier.

The time has come again. We've reached the end of this vlog! I bid you adieu and look forward to seeing you again next week for a new Devlog!

-This text was funnyfied by uwu Gilly & Senne-