Demo Update

The level has been out for a couple of months by now, I have received suggestions on how to improve the game and spent some time implementing it. Here’s a summary of what has changed from the last demo version:

• Gameplay changes - The main gameplay change is that the size of the zombie explosion is halved and the bone projectiles by the skull moths no longer bounce on the ground.

• Energy GUI - A few players didn’t understand how the energy system worked. There’s an energy counter that shows up above the player's head when collecting energy from candles, using subweapons and teleporting.

• Settings - Save states has been added to the miracle tab, gamepad and keyboard customizations are now possible. The default controls have been changed.

• A number of bug fixes, mobile controls in the web version and Mac and Linux builds.

Gameplay Changes

The main gameplay change is that the size of the zombie explosion is halved and the bone projectiles by the skull moths no longer bounce on the ground.

50% zombie explosions - The zombie explosions are reduced in size by 50%. The earlier size was made to hit the player if they attack a zombie with a max ranged attack. A lot of players had a hard time dealing with this and found it very frustrating. The updated version still damages the player if you stand close to the zombie while attacking. But it is possible to attack them if you keep your distance from the zombie, especially with the final combo attack.

No bouncing bones - The bones dropped by the skull moth no longer bounce and instead spawn hands. The behavior of the projectile has changed quite a bit. The earlier version would bounce when hitting the ground and bounce a few times before it disappeared. What it ment in practice is that the bone would create a vertical line the player have to avoid, while also trying to hit the skull moth and somethings minding multiple bones or other enemies at the same time. The new version instead spawn a hand when the bone collides with the ground. The hand deals damage on contact, stays a few seconds on screen and then disappears. The hand can be damaged to make it disappear faster. So even if the skull moth’s movement hasn’t been changed, the attack feels less unpredictable.

There’s more things that can be changed to make the game a bit easier, but I figured I'd start here and wait for the playtest to see how it turned out. Let me know what you think about the changes!

GUI Energy

A few players didn’t understand how the energy system worked. There’s an energy counter that shows up above the player's head when collecting energy from candles, using subweapons and teleporting.

Energy counter above player head - The current energy is shown over the player character's head every time the player uses a sub weapon or teleports. The energy counter is also shown when enough energy shards have been collected to gain 1 energy. There’s also a higher pitched pickup sound when the player collects 1 energy. This hopefully makes it clearer which actions consume energy and how much energy you currently have.

Can’t throw with 0 energy - If you have 0 energy, it’s no longer possible to throw the sword. Before the change you could throw it and then not teleport because you didn’t have enough energy for it. A lot of players