Onward and upward
The first round of playtests is over. What now?
A breakdown of first-round feedback and next steps.
Performance
The game runs well right now, smoothly at 60FPS. To keep it that way when we polish it later on, some things need to change under the hood.
Already improved
Some feedback and graphics updates are in place already, others are in the code and part of the next demo:
- background, ball, and arena floor graphics;
- visual cue for where to be to disable a bot;
- disabling bots permanently (3x);
- disabling bots is harder each time;
- camera zoom behaviour - not too far out;
- height/shadow readability for ball bounces;
- more reward types, and reward expiry blinks;
- multiple game modes;
- highlight if you got a high score;
- exit the game from menu screens.
Up next
Apart from performance, these things are up next:
- bot graphics;
- fix dynamics for the hoop resting against a bot;
- add an occasional, moving '×2 time zone' while the hoop is inside it;
- add disable-chain multiplier for consecutive bot disables;
- add a game overview/tutorial at first launch;
- add a stand-alone demo installer.
So, doing all that means I stick my head up a keyboard for a bit. When all this is done and there's a new playable demo, it'll be posted here.