Gearend Progress Continues

Yo! So I've been working on Gearend some more - in the time since my last post, I've implemented a new enemy and revamped how I make maps. I used to make them by hand, placing each tile of the background as well as the "foreground" ground and wall areas, but now I'm using "prefabs", or groups of blocks to create the areas. This allows me to be more efficient with how I make my maps and layouts.

I've also started trying to be more "Metroid-like" in my map creation so far, with areas that double-back on themselves, and that have multiple exit paths / doors. Hopefully, it'll be interesting to traverse.

I've fixed a couple of bugs that arose, fortunately. They had to do with going through doorways and running events. The doorway bug was interesting because it arose as a result of not testing doorways in the same direction more than once - I always used to go back through a doorway the way I came in. Now that I have a cyclical room layout (door A > B > C > D > A), I was able to find the bug. Guess it's a lesson to always test your game thoroughly and consistently, not just once or twice to ensure it works correctly.

The event bug arose because of spamming the advance key to skip through the dialog faster, haha. Guess I should test my game like players will play.

Also, I've begun implementing stats, like deaths and scrap collected. Eventually, there'll be a stat screen where you can see the amount of time you've played, how many times you've died, how many scrap you've collected, and so forth. Maybe there will even be different areas that are unlocked depending on how well you do with collecting and playing the game. If I do choose to implement such an area, though, I think I want the player to know that it's in there, and that those stats matter.

If I hide content behind an invisible barrier, so to speak, that the player doesn't even know exists, it can just frustrate players (i.e. after beating the entire game and looking through a walkthrough, they find out there's a better ending for playing in a special way).

I've also implemented some additional 2D filters, like a radial blur around the edge of the screen, and a slight vignette. I've also tweaked the bloom filter to be more accurate, using the built-in luminance texture instead of my custom formulae that weren't accurate.

No new devlog video or boss yet, but I hope to make significant progress soon. I'm gonna place some enemies, finish up some maps, and create the first boss before the village, and press on through!~

Thanks for reading.