Leaderboards
TACTICAL BANDITS now has global leaderboards via Steam. There are multiple leaderboards which tracking fastest completion times on singleplayer game mode, hardcore singleplayer game mode, and each challenge individually.
There was going to be a leaderboard to track kills, but that was not very useful as it could be easily exploited due to players playing a specific game mode to rack up their kills. Another solution would have been to have leaderboards for kills for every game mode, but that would end up creating too many leaderboards itself. In the end, I decided to not to implement these leaderboards.
Leaderboards can be viewed on the leaderboards menu from the main menu, or they will be shown during singleplayer and challenge game modes in the pause and game over menus, so that players know at all times how well they are doing.
For consoles there will be a different leaderboard system as the current leaderboard system requires Steam, which will not work on console platforms.
Game Meta System
The game meta system has finally been implemented. After numerous design and balancing issues, the new system is live in the latest build.
Players will make progress in the whole game using the scrap they find and collect in all game modes. All the game modes also give different amount of scraps for every enemy and zombie kill. Using this scrap, they can buy items in the shop, such as new multiplayer levels, weapons, skins, and art (dioramas for the menus).
It is a simple system which I feel it rewards every kind of player no matter what games mode they prefer to play the most.
Singleplayer Shop
The last aspect of singleplayer game mode is complete and implemented. In the shop, players can spend or bank their fuel canisters and scrap they have earned so far.
Fuel canisters can only be banked at a shop level, and players will be given 100 scrap for every canister they bank. This scrap will go towards the player’s game scrap which they can spend in the main game shop.
Scrap can be spent in the singleplayer shop on either new weapons or also be banked to be used in the main game shop.
All the shop levels have no enemies or zombies, but they are guarded by a bunch of loyal shopkeepers. As long as the player does not shoot any of them, he will not have any trouble in this level.
When players complete a singleplayer run, all the scrap they have left over will be banked automatically and all fuel canisters will be given 2.5x times the scrap amount they would get by just banking it in a shop level.
But if a player dies before they complete a singleplayer mode, they will lose all the scrap and fuel canisters they do not have banked. This is an interesting risk/reward system for the player, as they can play it safe and bank their items mid-game but lose the chance of getting the completion bonus. They can also risk it by not banking and going to the shop level, giving them a chance to collect more fuel canisters and scrap on another level and getting the potential bonus for more scrap.
Challenges
All the challenges are now live on the latest build for early testers to play. The last five challenges took longer as I used the feedback from the first five challenges and applied them here.
The challenges are another set of all five challenge types (assault, wave defense, elimination, stealth, and protect), ensuring a good mix for all players to enjoy.
Summary
Most of the game development is complete with TACTICAL BANDITS, with only training game mode to be implemented and unlocked in the game. After training game mode, I will be focusing on creating the achievements, and the collectibles that players can purchase and see in the game.
The collectibles will include the story dioramas that players unlock from completing singleplayer game mode, and weapon stats which are unlocked via the singleplayer shop. The weapon stats will show the weapon in details and its stats on how good it is.
I will also start porting the game next month, making sure it runs at a steady 60fps on console platforms without any issues. The game is still on track to be released in the first half of next year, which is exactly what I am aiming for.
There is also a secret game mode in development for TACTICAL BANDITS that I have been designing for the past few months that may, or may not, be in the final game. I haven’t mentioned this game mode before as I am not sure how well it would work, so I have been designing it on paper and will now start prototyping it in the game and see if it works.
If it does work, expect to hear more about it next year with other exciting news.