Wow. Hard to believe another year has gone by! So long 2018! I’m hoping that 2019 will be an exciting and prosperous year for everyone!

What have I been up to this month? Glad you asked! Here we GO!

New Platforming

This month I’ve been grey-boxing a bunch. Created these spike platforms. When they have art they will be alien creatures that react to you jumping or shooting them.

Sometimes the Spikes start visible. You have to shoot them to hide them… Though be careful not to shoot a dormant platform or you’ll cause the spikes to appear!

Made some improvements to the “Air Dodge Nodes”.

Added a slight slowdown to give you time to make your next move.

Added a directional arrow to tell you where you are currently inputting. To Avoid input errors.

Also it will now snap you to 8 directions.

New Enemies

I also added a new/old enemy. He was actually developed a long time ago but haven’t added him in any of the levels yet. Although I did rework his AI and added some new animations for the wind up before he throws and added some basic sound effects.

On his own he’s not a very tough opponent but when he’s mixed in with other elements he can make things a bit tricky.

Rumour has it, deep in space exists the GalactEYE! An ancient creature as old as the galaxy itself. It is deeply curious but has never developed proper social etiquette. The GalactEYE has a habit of staring for prolonged periods generating a deep sense of discomfort. Also! The intensity of the stare forms a singularity at the centre of the object of its gaze. Which will eventually cause them to be atomized. Yikes!

Once the Galacteye can see you you have a short window of time to get out of his sight before you take tons of damage. Originally I had it that the attack was unavoidable. (It basically forms right on you.)

But decided to give the player a short grace period at the point of no return where you could roll out of danger. In the GIF below you’ll see that the circle flashes yellow, if you dodge during that short animation you will be safe.

Menus

Starting to put together some of the art for the menus, first up is the “Badges” menu.

Important Note: Descriptions and art are not final and might not match each other.

I’ve been trying to come up with a name for the “Bonus Skills”. Since they are designed like pins/badges with a retro 50s print complete with wear and some printing offset errors. look I am going with badges for now. It also separates them from the actual Abilities like your shield and roll etc.

Very early design for the status menu. Mostly getting the HP/SHIELD/CHARGE bars there to update based on their current status in game. Still a bunch of stuff missing, including ship and player abilities.

Holding down Y for a short time will allow you to beam to your ship… If you are in an area that allows it. (ie: not underground or in an area with interference).

Space

Got in a bunch of space changes. A big one was overhauling how the ship is controlled. You now rotate and move in the direction you are facing rather than rotate the ship towards the direction you want. Feels much better!

You can also aim your shots with the Right Analog Stick.

Overhauled a bunch of the lighting in space and added some new textures and colour to the ship. And some temp music and sound effects. I’ve really been enjoying just flying around which I think is a sign that it might be on the right track!

Space Glamour Shots

And to end this months update I leave you with a few spacey glamour shots! Thanks to everyone who has followed the progress of Raygun Gadabout over the past year. I’m looking forward to another year of adventure with you in 2019! Best to you all and until next time, take care!

M.