Blogs - theredfront

We’re still in full spin for The Red Front as we verge upon Beta. At present we are approximately just under 2 weeks out.

This week we have had an overhaul of the upgrade shop. We found the old shop to not be satisfying and there was no real sense of progress as players upgraded their tank. We have redesigned the shop to provide better indicators of the tank strength and give players a real sense of gaining beneficial upgrades.

We have also made a considerable amount of fixes and changes to the game.

Change Notes

• Added tiered Workshop menu on the level screen
• Players are now awarded rubles after completing each mission. Missions can be replayed to earn additional rubles
• The engine heat bar animation has been fixed so it is always accurately displaying the correct value
• The options screen for Moscow and The Bunker have been fixed
• The in-game menu has been modified to support language localisation
• Music has been added to the score screen
• Mutator count has been correctly adjusted for in game score purposes
• Added functionality for the Weapon Drop Workshop Upgrade
• Added functionality for the Missile Drop Workshop Upgrade
• Added functionality for the Soviet Drone Workshop Upgrade
• Tweaked the drone AI, shooting and sounds to make it more powerful
• Corrected issue with loading transition screen
• Score menu has been removed from its own scene and included as an additional panel that pops up on level completion
• Fixed the core calculation when mutators are in effect
• Language Localisation support added to Score Screen
• Corrected Score Screen active multiplier count
• Corrected Survival Mode score storage

There are numerous other changes made to the game which have not been recorded here.

This week coming, we will be focusing upon the third mission (Evacuation of Leningrad), squishing bugs, adding more achievements and ensuring player data is correctly saved. We will then be entering an internal beta for our play testers to try out.
Following the internal play test, we will make further modifications and then work on the rest of the levels for The Red Front.

We are still on track for a September/October release, now the core mechanics are mainly in place we will start to see the game quickly shape up.

Comrade Tim.

www.theredfront.com

It’s been a busy week in The Red Front.

We have completed the design of the training mission, this is set at the secret bunker where the Russian Super Tank was constructed. Here you will learn how to pilot the new tank and learn about some of the capabilities.

On top of this, we’ve made many more numerous fixes to the game, removed multiple bugs and modified other minor components.

We are quickly drawing in upon the beta version, we are at most 3 weeks out.

New Features and Changes

• New Training Level Added – Learn how to Pilot the Soviet Super Tank!
• Menu Music persists throughout scene changes

Fixes

• In game Menu fixes, menu buttons now function correctly
• Level sequencing has been fixed
• Player power ups purchased from the workshop are now correctly stored

New Media

It’s been a bit longer between the last update and this new one, though we have something a bit more special to show.
The Battle Map design has been completed, this is where you select the battles on your way to Berlin.

The mutator system has also been redesigned. We’ve taken inspiration from Sanctum 2 and have applied a similar concept.
Below each mission, there are six black dots. These dots will be filled in as you complete each stage with mutators enabled.

On top of this, various tweaks have been done to the game to make the data flow correctly. We are in the process of tidying up the loading and score result screens, as well as the development of the first training “Bunker” mission.

Language localisation has taken some additional effort to ensure the level select screen and the upgrade workshop is compatible with all of the supported languages.

New Features and Changes

• New Battleground Selection Screen
• Overhaul of the Mutator System
• Inclusion of level pips to mark completion of mutators
• Modification of the game data flow to support new features
• Language localistion added to the Level Select Screen and upgrade Workshop

New Media

The Nazi Reich has developed laser technology to try to combat The Red Army’s advanced weaponry. They have also been applying more armour and stronger weaponry to the bucket cars. These advancements are still not comparable to our own, though it is cause for concern as they may develop stronger weaponry.

New Features Added

• German Laser Tank
  The German Laser Tank has taken advantage of the Soviet Weaponry and has been deployed to the Nazi War Machine. These tanks can deal pinpoint damage and are heavily armoured.

• Armoured Bucket Car
  New weapons have been deployed to the latest bucket cars, as well as reinforced armour. These new cars are very powerful and can move very quickly. They will need to be a priority target for the tank commander.

• Combat Pickups Improved
  The look of the combat pickups has been improved, shield recharge pickups and extra rocket drops have been added. These have a chance to drop when an enemy is destroyed and provide an extra combat boost for the commander.

• Terrain Improvements
  The terrain of the first level has been improved, adding more variety to the first stage.

New Media

See a preview of the newest updates in action:

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A busy week for development in The Red Front.

Lasers have now been included in the game as a playable upgrade, replacing some of the older weapon upgrade systems. I am far more satisfied with how these upgrades perform compared to the older systems.

There is a good demonstration on what I like to call the LUDT area (Laser Upgrade and Damage Testing).

There were multiple challenges with getting these lasers working. Using a base asset from the unity store means a lot of re-working of other developers code to make it work well in your game.

The scaling on the base asset and the line render creation were completely broken when working at the same dimensions in my game. I spent probably 4-5 hours refactoring the original code to make it work properly.
I am sure this saved some time as it reduces the total amount of artwork required, as well as provides a fairly optimised system.

I added extra particle emitters for the shoot point, point of impact and added in a laser cooldown system which really adds to the feel of the weapons. I llmited how long the laser can shoot for to avoid the player from perma-spamming the weapon and ruining the experience.

All in all, I am happy with how this system turned out.

For other news on this system, see the dev blog update at The Red Front Development Blog

- Comrade Tim