So here we are with the first developer diary of 2022. This is going to be a short one as I’ve only just returned to developing the game following my break for the Xmas holidays.
Playtesting of World 4 levels continues and is progressing well. I’m hopeful that they will be ready to go by mid-February at the latest. If it takes a bit longer than that World 5 and the final release may be pushed a little bit further than March, but I’m still confident that the game should be complete before the end of April.
One change I have made to the game that will be in the next early access update is to add a holographic display to the world server. The final level of each world (excluding the first) contains a world server this serves as a final mission that gives information to where the next world is on the path towards the enemy. I felt that something was missing and it needed to convey that information was gained from destroying the world server. So now during the destruction, it displays important details. When the server is intact it displays an outline of the world the player is currently on. Once it’s taken the first hit it shows a slightly shaky hyperspace diagram. When it takes another hit it will show an unstable outline of the next world. I think that it helps to ground the progress and link everything together better.
Over the course of the next week or so I’m going to be concentrating on finishing off the level designs for World 5 and also putting together the outro/end-of-game animation sequence. I can’t go into any details about that as it would spoil things.
So for now, happy new year and I look forward to posting a new update next week.