IMPROVEMENTS
- Added 2 new levels
- Turned dynamite into a terrain feature, which players need to light with their pickaxe or hook to destroy walls to progress.
- Levels have more hazards across the board.
- Checkpoints given a sprite to make them stand out in the levels.
- Sound effects.
- Players now leave bodies on spikes, which let them fall onto the spikes without dying.
- Ready-up screen changed.
- Background tiles added.
- Flipped the buttons for shooting a hook and reeling in to the right trigger and A button, respectively.
Our focus for the beta build was to build out more levels and fix up the presentation of the game. We built and tested segments of what we thought would be interesting for future levels. Our testing found that wider shafts and more frequent hazards would do two things: make it less feasible for one person to dominate a team and navigate a level by themselves, and also slow down the pace at which players could travel, keeping the two teams together and heightening excitement. With increased spikes, we also decided to have dead players build up on spikes, making them less dangerous on repeat trials.
We also added sound effects and music to give the game a bit more in the way of audio feedback and changed up the control scheme slightly. Our new scheme lets players hang from ceilings and walls easily by holding down the right trigger, and then either reel themselves in with the A button or toss a pickaxe with the B button. Previously, players had to hang with the A button, which potentially made them let go if they wanted to toss a pickaxe.
Though we made some progress, for our next release we need to crank out even more levels. Our current level total is just 5.
