v0.4.0 - Halloween Update!

Happy Halloween! Today, we have a major update that's extra spooky and a lot more fun. I think you're going to really enjoy it. Let's dive in!

Updates

Gameplay

The game has always been first and foremost about surviving as long as possible, so it only felt right to add a timer to the top of the screen. Now the game over screen displays your survival time. I've moved the score to the top right of the screen. The game has also been made significantly faster. I think this feels a lot better to play and less sluggish.

Item Drops

Items now drop from dead enemies rather than randomly spawning. The likelihood of an item spawning depends on the enemy type.

Spellcasting System

Spells now stack! That means you can use the base fireball spell, which is aimed by rotating the crank but also pick up additional spells, and they'll all fire at the same time. For now there are two spells, and only the fireball spell requires aiming with the crank. To accommodate that change, an update has been made to the lightning spell, which you can read about below.

Lightning Spell

The lightning spell has been revamped to work alongside the new spellcasting system. Now it fires a single lightning bolt every few seconds, which targets the closest enemy. This let's you focus on aiming the fireball spell while the lightning spell provides suppressive fire.

Lightning Strikes

While we're on the topic of lightning, remember how lightning strikes can target you if you're idling too longs? Well the hitbox on the lightning strike has been increased, which makes it more likely to take out enemies if you can dodge the strike yourself! Consider this a risky strategy.

Tombstones

Tombstones have been added. They not only add to the spooky atmosphere but also have much more health than the trees. You can use these to shield yourself from most enemies (besides spiders, but we'll talk about that below).

Collision System

The collision system was completely reworked to enable more advance collision handling. The most obvious place you can see this is...

Spiders

Spiders receive an entirely new collision system! Now they can crawl through environment items such as trees and tombstones, and they can also craw through a horde of zombies. They slow down quite a bit while they crawl over the objects. Now you can't be as safe hiding behind them.

Bats

Bats have received an updated movement pattern that feels challenging but more fair. They now stop for a bit longer providing you an opportunity to hit them if you're not being swamped by other enemies!

Menu Image Stats

Finally, I added a menu image when you hit the system button the Playdate, which shows some stats about your current run.

Stat tracking

I've also started tracking longer term stats such as total enemies killed and total playtime. I'm not displaying those anywhere yet, but I'm hoping to add a stats section on the main menu in the future.

Known Bugs

Something is causing an FPS dip on longer play sessions that I unfortunately haven't been able to track down. It's not too extreme, so I feel fine releasing this version. However, I'm aware of the issue and actively debugging the game to figure out what's causing that.

Future Plans

I have a few things that I want to add in the next update of the game. This includes a small update to the main menu to add a section to display stats as well as a significantly larger update to introduce an experience system. With the experience system a number of changes will be made. First, I'll probably drop the score mechanic and instead add experience based on factors such as the type of enemy killed and survival time. Next, I'll probably remove the item drop mechanic and make it so that items can be chosen alongside player upgrades from a reward screen after the experience bar has been maxed out. I think this system will be a lot of fun, and I look forward to implementing it. These plans are still in the planning phase, so they are subject to change.

Closing Thoughts

That was a lot of updates! I've been working nonstop on this version for the past month in order to release it on Halloween. I hope y'all have as much fun playing this version as I've had building it. Good luck surviving. You'll need it ;)

Happy Halloween!