Custom Characters
Custom character skins are enabled for multiplayer game modes. Even though players cannot see their characters clearly because of the zoomed out view, they can know they look like how they want to.
Players choose their custom look in the character selection screen by choosing a head, a body, and legs, and finally choosing the color they want to be.
Multiplayer Laser Sight
After testing out several laser sights, I have found one that works in multiplayer that is beneficial to the player controlling the character, but not too distracting for other players playing the game as well.
The multiplayer laser has a much shorter max range, meaning it does not extend across the map. If I did allow fully extendable laser sights, each level would look like a laser show. Also, it would make aiming much, much easier, due to players knowing if they will hit a character or not.
Another change to multiplayer laser sight compared to singleplayer laser sight is that multiplayer laser sight stays the player’s color and does not change colors whether it is hitting another player or nothing at all. The laser sight will be used as it’s intended to, to know which direction the player is aiming at and nothing more.
Singleplayer laser sight is used as more of an assistant because it will tell the player if it’s hitting something or not, something that would not be fair in multiplayer competitive games.
Singleplayer Levels
This is still my priority and a whole lot of progress has been made. Over half the levels that could be shown during a singleplayer run are now ready and in the game. The other half are still being worked on at some stage.
At this rate, singleplayer mode will definitely be the last game mode to be completed, and I am completely okay with that because it allows me to use everything I have so far learnt on making other levels to make greater singleplayer levels.
Horde
Horde mode has finally been completed and the first level is nearly ready at the time of writing. The balancing of the economy during waves took quite some refining, but in the end it has turned out wonderfully and hopefully other players will think so too.
The first horde level is going to be released at the beginning of next month, with two more horde levels that are being worked on.
Bug Fixes
Lots of small bug fixes and collision fixes, with two major (minor) fixes:
– Loading screen has an option to not start fully load a level until someone presses a button. This was important because sometimes players do not get enough time to look at the controls. This new method ensures players can take as much time as they want to look at the controls before they start playing.
– Photo mode has been optimized so that it does not go through level geometry and is much easier to control with gamepad.
Summary
Horde mode was the biggest update to the game this month, with singleplayer levels making excellent progress. The first horde level is nearly ready for release after it has gone through a lot of iteration.
I know this was a short summary, but this is because a lot of stuff that has been completed I cannot fully talk about yet or that it is still being worked on (i.e. singleplayer levels).
Finally, there is also going to be an exciting announcement next month for TACTICAL BANDITS. So stay tuned for that.