Changes this week:
- This week we tried to make our swim movement for realistic by allowing the players to change direction and inertia outside of the submarine (and we gave them flippers :) ) to differentiate from their directionally limited movement inside the submarine. We also updated some of our sprites to make the different features and mechanics more clear. The bubble gun now looks much more like something that could shoot bubbles and the oxygen tank is now connected to the pipes to make it more clear that they are related. The shooter element of the game is now more interesting because enemies take more hits, have damage indicators, and death animations. To account for the increase in enemy health, we made the bubble gun shoot more rapidly.
Motivation for our changes:
- We wanted to make it more clear that players could swim because some of our playtesters thought that it was a bug that they could leave the submarine. Collecting oxygen tanks and fixing pipes outside of the sub is important for gameplay so we added player guidance for leaving the sub with arrows point out of the sub at the exits. We also added animations and flippers to make the swimming look more natural and less like a bug. We gained feedback about shooting enemies seeming a bit abrupt so we added juice to our bubble gun and animations to the death of an enemy. Players also felt that seeing the failure text when they run out of oxygen was lame so now we added a comical death animation to the players and a restart dialogue.
Our plans for future updates:
- We would like for players to have more to do outside of the sub to differentiate ourselves from games like Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. We will add some weapons that can be used for close combat outside of the submarine and more enemies that require new strategies to defeat. Additionally, we would like to implement a revival system where players outside of the sub can be stunned and then saved by players inside the sub.
