Virus Offense (mini) game rework, and some other stuff too!

While I was planning this month's work I originally wanted to create yet another mini game, but after playtesting I decided to focus more on improving the existing mini games so they would feel more complete. And so I added a brand new game mode to Virus Offense

To recap, what is Virus Offense?

Virus Offense is one of mini games you can play in Unity-chan: Desktop Companion. It is a top-down shooter, where you and Unity-chan fight against corrupted safety drones and viruses in the cyber-space! The game itself can be accessed via Unity-chan's TV game console, after entering her room and clicking on sofa.

So, what's new?

The games has new game mode. For now I named it just Main Mode, but maybe I'll change it in the future. The mode is inspired after roguelite games like FTL, Slay the Spire, Peglin, where the player has a map made of nodes, and we travel through them to reach the boss.

Node based map, instanced missions

The most important change is that the gameplay is not infinite. It has a goal of going through levels and beating the final stage. The first thing a player sees is a node map. Map is procedurally generated and has various types of nodes. We start at the bottom and make our way to the top.

Mission nodes: Cleanup, Time Attack, Elite

One of the most common types of nodes. Travelling to these nodes will move us to the combat area, and depending on the node type we will have the objective to complete it: Cleanup - fight a set number of enemy waves Time Attack - survive infinite waves of enemies for limited time Elite - a single wave that has a special enemy to beat Combat missions have their objective displayed on the UI. As for elite enemies, they are a modified versions of regular enemies with different attacks. Currently I implemented two types of them.

Rest Node

The most pleasant node to visit for sure! This node lets you and Unity-chan to regain Integrity Points or gain an item to regain lesser amount of it during combat.

Boss Node?

Well, for now it is just a placeholder. It is the current goal to reach it. As for now reaching it ends the game and shows earned points.

New Virus Offense chat UI

Previous UI of the chat felt really out of place to the style of game UI, so I decided to rework it. Now it looks more like in-game chat, and opening it pauses the game so it is not an issue to have a conversation during gameplay.

Match-3 new UI and max moves limit

After some playtesting I noticed that the rule of Match-3 gameplay - game lasts until no moves are available - sometimes led to very long games. To make it more manageable I decided to add a rule of max 20 moves. I also added a whole 3D interface to show the current state of the game. While game was tracking the player and Unity-chan score, previously the only way to know the resulting points was asking Unity-chan about them. Now you can see it directly on the table

Sending Images and screenshots to Unity-chan

Previously the only way to send an image to Kohaku was to drag and drop the PNG file on the phone. This feature is not (yet) explained anywhere, so I decided to add another, more visible way to add images to send in the message. I added a '+' button next to the text field, where you can select if you want to upload an image from the hard drive or take a screenshot.

QoL - Transparency during streaming mode

During testing I saw that when Unity-chan is watching us playing, she sometimes is obstructing the view/buttons of the other game. While it's possible to move her around in the settings it is tedious and annoying to do it just to view one thing behind her. So I added a little button to make her temporarily semi-transparent. That way you can always quickly choose if you need to view something behind her. The button only appears when you hover cursor over the Unity-chan

Notifications on minimized mode.

A little thing I forgot to add previously 😅 Now each time a new achievement/notification comes when phone is minimized, you'll see a little number of notifications awaiting for reading, so you won't miss what happened.

That's it for the last month of progress. I plan to work a little bit on animations, and more things to Virus Offense. Thank you for reading and see you next time! 🧡 🤎