Have not had the chance to update the blog with my work since this Fall semester started, but here I am now.
Early in the semester I worked on something I had been wanting to do for more of Spring as well, which was to polish combat a bit. Not in terms of interaction and feel (which I still need to do) but graphics. I added hit VFX and camera shake when the player hits with their sword and it helps a lot to make your attacks feel impactful.
Harder hitting attacks shake the screen stronger to help sell the illusion as well. This shake is later used in the boss fight, discussed later. The hit VFX is a splash of color where your sword connects. It helps confirm you hit the enemy without you simply looking at their healthbar decrease.
Some mild balance changes around this time included making the Hammer skeleton easier to parry. I also helped Chris some with the new and improved grapple hook.
Next, I started working on creating a cutscene. This cutscene would utilize Cinemachine and Timeline. It would trigger when the player tries to enter the boss room show them walking in, seeing the boss float down, and the fight start. I ended up stopping working on this to make my next big feature: scripting the boss fight.
This was something we kept talking about doing but never had the time to do last semester. We wanted to have a better complete game experience by the end of this semester, and that meant getting to a dungeon that had a boss you could kill.
Up until I am writing this post, the boss fight is what I was working on.
It is configurable balance wise and features two phases and modes during the fight. In one boss "mode" he floats in the center of the arena, firing barrages of projectiles. He then teleports to a corner of the room and remains vulnerable for some time. He then moves back. The amount of projectiles fired and everything else is based on his phase, which is determined by his current health.
In phase two, everything gets harder but his modes remain the same. During both phases, he also drops platforms out from the arena as he passes certain health thresholds.
Scripting this fight was fun and led me to find more design points I want to hit. The original design plan just called for projectiles -> vulnerable state. This can be too easy once you figure out dodging the projectiles. We previously discussed adds, but that doesn't feel great with the platforms dropping out and I don't think they fit well in the fight after scripting it. We are discussing more options now, such as damage markers that appear on the ground and explode while he fires projectiles.
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