Entry One Hundred And Forty Six

So far I was building cards by hand, meaning that each entry in the card table was created like so:

allCards.Add(new Card("octobot","/enemies/base/octobot (2)",false); //Repeat 289 more times

And that was quite annoying and frankly, could be optimized into three loop statements. I've done so, and discovered to my great surprise that I didn't have 300 different enemies, but rather 270, 10 states * 9 enemy ranks (I thought I had ten) * 3 types of enemies. Therefore, my exp calculations to get to ten thousand weren't accurate. Therefore, now bosses give 68 experience instead of 50 and the required enemy kill count is now 32 instead of 30. 

I've also used that opportunity to show the whole card menu as it will appear when you've defeated all the enemies in the game. That lead me to notice that the framerate in it was atrocious, so now I'm fixing that. It'll allow me to see how much space I have for the backstory of this game as well, since it's stored on cards.

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 265 hours

Entry One Hundred And Forty Three

Twenty-three infopacks done, only sixty seven to go and the game is completed! I jest, 100RTBD is much more than collecting a hundred infopacks, actually you won't need them all to complete the main story of the game, I couldn't say on the top of my head how many you'll need, but it's not all of them. However, if you're curious about the story and lore of this game, you'll try and get them all to get the 'best' ending. Much of the story is optional in my game, but you'll be able to seek it out if you explore and read documents left around. I just don't want to force-feed it to people and be really hamfisted about obvious plot twists and story elements.

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 260 hours

Entry One Hundred And Forty

I fixed the way that multi-block gun parts work and now I'm working on a giant ice worm boss. Since giant enemies are just enemies oversized, the snow whirl that surrounds it will be scaled up as well. It'll be impossible to avoid the snow whirl and therefore the player won't be able to jump very high, thus bullets will always hit the player. That's not really desired gameplay mechanics, so I'll figure out something. Maybe sliding ice blocks that you can jump on?

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 253 hours

Entry One Hundred And Thirty Five

I've fixed a few things today and added two rooms. I've changed the way ice blocks break - they'll now split open and pieces will fly off, it's not prefect but it's way better than them just disappearing - and I've moved on with my ice rooms. Ice enemies are annoying so far because the snowstorm around them is really tough to dodge and hinders your movement plenty if you get into it. I could maybe lower the time you stay chilled, or maybe make it so jumping helps you "thaw" faster?

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 244 hours

Entry One Hundred And Thirty

What makes a good boss fight? That's something I've been wondering real hard as I put up the finishing touches of the battle against Colonel C. A boss fight is a tougher enemy that uses moves and tactics normal enemies don't. Bosses have more health and often deal more damage as well. Badly designed boss encounters can be frustrating and break the momentum of a player through a game. Even a single terrible boss can spell the doom of a project - as most players wouldn't get further than that.

I suppose the three elements of my boss fights are patterns, increasing difficulty and a bit of randomness. Bosses have multiple moves they can do and once they start doing one, they'll stick with it. Brigadier B could move around or throw bombs, Colonel C can stand in space and spin his sword, dash horizontally or do some kind of jump-slash at the player. They pick a move, then do it, then return to an idle state.

I guess you could say my bosses are state machines. They change states via some randomness, mostly based on their remaining life, but it can also be based on where the player character is. The increasing difficulty bit is simple, the less health a boss has, the faster he executes his various moves. Since death has little consequences and you always have at least 25% of your life, I think my kind of bosses work well in a metroidvania type game.

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 236 hours

Entry One Hundred And Twenty-Seven

Here I am, ready to rumble against Colonel C, how will it go? What kind of boss will he be? I feel that Brigadier B is fine, but I have to do better with the AI on this one. I also had to fix a bug where entering a room would trigger events in the wrong order, which made certain things not work.

Currently working on: Boss fight against Colonel C

Time spent on the project so far: 230 hours