Progress Log #6

Here We Are Again

         I've run into a bit of a rough patch, but the next demo is still on track to get done relatively soon. I'm shooting to get it out next week, so we'll see how that shot turns out. In the meantime, here's a look at some of  the extra stuff I've added to make the game slightly less devoid of content.

         The scoring system is fully functional.  The current score for your current run through the level is displayed at the top-center of the screen. The standard ways of increasing of your score include dealing damage to enemies and defeating enemies, but there is obviously more to it than that. For one, defeating an enemy faster will multiply the amount of score you get from it up to three times. The maximum amount of time  you have to beat an enemy before its score multiplier starts decreasing depends on the relative difficulty of the enemy; enemies that take longer to defeat lose their multipliers slower. More difficult enemies also, of course, award more points for defeating them, making the multiplier more potent. Whenever you do defeat an enemy, the UI will display both the multiplier bonus you got and the amount of time it took you to defeat that enemy since it spawned. These labels may feel a bit copious and obstructive, though, so I'm hoping to include the option to turn them off if desired.

         Status effects can now be applied to enemies now. The only one that can currently be applied is the fire effect through the fireball enchantment, so you don't have to worry about being poisoned or set on fire yourself... yet. Alongside these status effects, I've also added several particle effects to the game to give a little bit more flare (intentional) to different objects in the game as well as the status effects. I... didn't really know how to achieve the look of fire any other way, so it works out I suppose.

:fire:

         Instead of starting with them, you now get enchantments from chests that you find in the level. You could potentially get different enchantments from different challenges/routes within each stage, or maybe even get special enchantments from secrets. Some of the early challenges in a level could also require the player to face them without any enchantments, which would give a sense of short-term progression not too dissimilar to that of the Super Mario Bros games, which are undoubtedly a major source of inspiration for Enchanterland. The chests are, of course, the functional equivalent of the iconic question blocks.

I'm just putting the particles on everything now, and neither you nor your CPU can stop me.

         That'll be all for this week. I want to spend less time writing these logs and more time actually working on the project, so I will continue to keep these updates as brief as possible. I'll be back here next week, hopefully with another demo. Adios!