Post-Jam Update! Alpha v0.3.01

<Major Mechanics>

Multikill Combo System:

Killing multiple enemies with the same projectile now triggers a multikill combo, with each consecutive kill dropping 2x, 3x, 4x etc. materials.

The goal with this mechanic is to provide the player more reasons to prioritize or avoid particular enemies, and to weigh the risk of waiting for targets to line up against the reward of additonal materials. This should provide more to think about when waves are slow.

Blood Saturation:

All cells now have a “Saturation” property. The Nucleus (formerly “Infection Sack”) provides Saturation to surrounding cells, falling off proportional to their distance. All Structures now have a minimum Saturation value, and must touch at least one cell of this value or greater to provide it’s effect. Saturation is not additive in the case of multi-cell Structures.

When the only restriction is space, the puzzle of where to place structures too often becomes a one dimensional case of whether or not the space exists. Having another resource to build around should help provide an extra dimension to player strategy and forethought, while providing a little more meaning to the placement of the Nucleus

Apoptosis:

Between each wave the player now has an additional option, “Apoptosis”. Clicking and dragging the icon over a placed Structure will allow you to remove that Structure, storing it and replacing Apoptosis as an option. On the next turn you can either place or destroy the Structure, allowing you to use Apoptosis again. Structures can be held indefinitely if desired.

The introduction of Saturation makes it much more important for the player to be able to react and adapt their build and strategy to the options available each round. Apoptosis should help to provide this, while maintaining a sense of consequence to placement and a reward for planning ahead.

<Properties>

Some common mechanics and properties across structures now have associated tags

[Inert] : No Saturation requirement

[Mutation] : Structure no longer spawns once placed

[Solid] : Structure cannot be traversed

<Structures>

Bloodsack:

• Structure now provides +1 Saturation Strength to the Nucleus while placed on adjecent Cells
• No longer increases HP
• No longer [Solid]

“Infection Sack” > Nucleus:

• Now provides Saturation (3)

<Minor Updates>

Tooltips

• Empty Cells now display their Saturation on hover
• Placed structures now display their information on hover
• More consistent formatting

Visual

• Cell and player lighting system based on Saturation
• Materials are drawn in much faster at the end of a round
• Reduced brightness of background colours
• Overall colour design adjusted for clarity and consistency
• Colour feedback on placement preview now reflects if the structure will be fully saturated (green), not saturated (yellow), or blocked (red).

Misc

• Default secondary fire now retains a small amount of speed after triggering
• Overall volume increased and further normalized
• HP now displays as a bar
• Reduced brightness of background colours

<Bug Fixes>

• Fixed a bug where mousing over the same option repeatedly would no longer produce sound
• Fixed despawning projectiles making unintentional noises
• Longer tooltips will no longer display off screen
• Fixed a bug with the vein VFX between cells not flowing as intended
• Fixed a bug with the Macrophage (first boss) producing an unintentional extra noise on hit
• More stuff than I can track!!

<Future Plans>

My short term plans include:

• a web build
• a new uncommon enemy type (C3) that rushes directly towards the Nucleus, and will cause all Immunoblobs on screen to leap towards the nucleus with great speed
• more weapon type structures to swap, maybe even combine
• a way to combine certain duplicate Structures into a higher level structure
• a new upgrade type at the end of each Stage, likely focused on base stats or player perks
• more sound and art assets, with a priority on gameplay clarity and visual communication

… and way more things that are kind of just floating around in my head. Right now the game doesn’t really have an “end,” but implementing one is part of my larger long term goals. Stages at this point only vary in difficulty, and in the future I want to have more themes and enemy types based on biology and medicine; everything from phages, to immune cells, to antibiotics and chemical therapy. My intent is to keep things just a little goofy, and keep the references to biology from becoming too esoteric. Once the stages themselves are more fleshed out, my long term plans include:

• a sort of “final fight” between you and the host at the end of stage 4, randomly selected from a number of potential boss designs
• an endless “stage 5” with a new environment and enemies that ramp up in scale as your build is pushed to the limit with no further upgrades.
• Multiple player classes to begin your run, with the goal of creating challenging limitations and unique playstyles that all synergize with different upgrades

As my first game in my first Jam I’ve learned a lot, and I’m still learning loads about pixel art, audio design and programming. I don’t know how far I’ll be able to get on my own. But I know I can take this game a lot further than what I have today. I didn’t win any prizes, but now I can say I made a game and that’s kinda cool. Thank you deeply to everyone reading this, and I will be trying my best every day to do well by your time and interest!