Week 10: Polish Sprint 1 - 1

Almost there! Welcome to the first week of the Polish Sprint. 

Improving Animations

The intention of the polish sprint is not to add more content but to improve on the content that is already in there. Considering there are a lot of animations there are some that could use some improvement. 

For example the punching animation: We made it more dynamic and halved the playtime so the attacks can follow quicker after each other. 

The polish sprint also gives the opportunity to add things that not necessarily serve a gameplay purpose but are nice as a visual/improvement. 
This victory animation and impact animation are some of those. 

Creating a Healthy(-ish) Environment

Another thing that we did to improve the project was populate the background. Last week we added a couple of meshes like the fish and the ruins but it still felt quite empty. Now we thought about cliffs and a sinkhole. We also added depth with the help of some fog! Why a sinkhole you may ask? The crumbling arena needed a place to fall down to make sense as well as why it is rising up and the upwards current. 

Anyways, take a look!

(The cliffs are still in the works so stay tuned for those next week)

The arena was looking a bit naked so we decided to dress her up some more! We added some more corals and other plants. This is still the older arena, the newer one will be implemented next week! 

Small but necessary changes to the arena, added some barnacles and other props into the arena mesh. When the arena breaks and falls the barnacles will stay attached. It still has to be implemented into the gameplay.

Time to prepare!

The start to our shrimptastic battle was a bit harsh and abrupt. So we decided to guide our lovely players a bit more into the fight! We made 2 tutorial pages and a countdown ‘till the start. Still not sure about FIGHT! or SHRIMPACT!

More Particles!

We created a different current particle: this one visualizes the currents surrounding the map:

And an effect that plays when the pearls are being spawned by the clam:

Hot Potato... or... Pearl?

The devs made some improvements in the feeling of the game.

When something is about to explode, chances are high that that object is pretty hot. Let’s visualize this, shall we? The pearls now turn to a glowing red to warn you that you might want to run away from it.

We also made sure that these guys don’t damage the arena when they’re being thrown around. It would be really confusing otherwise.

Yoink!

The hook behaviour has had a little upgrade. We changed the movement so that would indicate that you’re able to escape when the hook bops up and down. After that the hook yoinks you up at a way faster speed so it is clear to the player that you can’t escape any more.

In the previous version, we had some issues with the respawning, but as you can see, these have been resolved. Woop woop!

Speaking about respawning, there’s no sudden teleportation anymore! We implemented a delay before the player would respawn. Now the other player has a bit of breathing room, you’re welcome!

'Aim Assist' to 'Aimbot'!

We’ve been testing around and we noticed that it was still quite hard to aim the pearls correctly. This is probably due to the perspective, but also because it’s a fast paced game which makes the players constantly zoom around. We decided that the aim assist should become stronger, so you don’t have to think and calculate too much to make the shot. Yes that’s right, we are saving your brain cells.

To make this stronger, we increased the max angle in which the aim assist applies and we also changed the curve in which the assist decreases.

Previous version:

Reworked version:

This causes the aim assist to stay strong for quite some time.

Hit me baby one more time!

Let’s add some more player feedback. Previously, whenever a player got hit, they would flash white and there would be a small freeze frame. We decided to apply this when the pearls hit you as well. Besides that, there is also some subtle controller rumbling added whenever you are involved in some impact (getting hit, hitting your opponent and getting caught in the explosion of a pearl).

What's next?

Next week is the official last week!! Oh boy, it was a ride. But we're not done yet!
We still need to add a lot of sounds and the UI needs some tweaking here and there. Everything will be polished up in order to release Shrimpact as a project where we can be proud of. We can't wait to let you, the player, get their hands on our cute and chaotic game.
Stay tuned!