Hello everyone! The Squillamorph Christmas update is almost ready! I'm currently in the final stages of making it and I expect that it will be ready sometime this week. Keep an eye on the Squillamorph socials to find out when it goes live!

In other news, I took part in the Yogscast Game Jam over the weekend! If you want to play the game I made for it then click here. If you can rate it too then that would be great!

The Mutagen upgrades were a big focus for me this week. I talked about the changes I am making to the upgrades a couple of weeks ago but it involved creating a menu system to equip them. By far the hardest part of making the new system was getting it to work with the saving method I use but I got it working nicely. The new system feels good to use and really improves the mutagen upgrades by allowing the player to choose which upgrades they are using.

The new update will wipe the local leaderboard. This is because I am adding play-time as an additional entry to it and it will break if entries without a time are included. I decided to re-implement this after receiving requests for it. It had been a big part of the leaderboard at EGX but I thought that it might not be as relevant for Early Access. However, it is now back in and I am excited to see how fast the game can be played!

I've also got the Kragon boss a bit further along in development, adding a new stage to its fight. However, there are currently no indicators as to what players should do near the end of this new stage. If players are paying attention then they'll be fine. The fight is still a way off being finished, which was not my original intention for this update but more important things took priority. 

The new enemy attack warning effect, which I discussed last week, made combat clearer but was slightly too chaotic. I reduced the spread and quantity of the exclamation marks but it was still too much. I have now completely changed it to a single mark that hovers above and moves with the enemy. This is the clearest it has been and I am much happier with it like this.

Lastly, I'd like to mention that I have changed the in game cursor from an object to a UI element. This means that it no longer jitters as the player moves and I am pleased with the quality difference it makes! It's always the little things.

My plan for this week is to finalise and test the game so that I can get the update out this week.

If you like the look of the game, please consider getting it on Steam. It is still quite early in development but the more feedback I get now, the better the final game will be!
​
I hope you enjoyed today's post! ​Thanks for reading!

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Hello everyone! Christmas is fast approaching and I am doing everything I can to get the next Squillamorph update finished before then.

​Quickly want to mention that I am going to shorten the posts slightly from now on. If you would rather have the more in depth posts, let me know!

Don't forget to get the game on Steam!

The past week has seen some good progress in different parts of the game. I started off with more combat improvements. I did some research into combat in other 2D games and noticed that most of them made imminent attacks very clear. So I've added in a warning particle system, the yellow exclamation marks, that makes attacks a bit clearer. I intend to tweak the effect slightly as I think it is currently a bit chaotic. Other changes to combat include timing adjustments to the Flop Shark attacks and minor tweaks to their movement behaviour.

The next thing I want to mention is, of course, the Santa hats. I spent longer than I should have getting them working properly but I think it was worth it! Every enemy has one, except bosses, and they don't impact performance much because they don't collide with anything. They will only be in the game from the next update till the new year.

I have continued work on the Kragon boss and have begun implementing a second stage, which involves making use of the Kobolds. This needs a lot more work but is coming along nicely.

Lastly, I'd like to discuss some quality of play changes and improvements. I have removed the freeze frame effect that happened on enemy deaths. I had received quite a bit of feedback about it, so it is now gone. I have also reduced the screen shake effect. An equally important change that I made last week was drastic improvements to performance. I discovered a way to half the performance impact of collision checks, which is a major improvement. I also managed to reduce the impact of pathfinding updates that occur during gameplay.

I hope all these changes will make the game more enjoyable!

Things I will be working on this week include:
- Kragon boss second stage
- Combat improvements
- Mutagen upgrade updates
​- Optimisations

Hopefully, I will have everything done for the update by next Monday.
​I hope you enjoyed today's post! ​Thanks for reading!

Get Squillamorph on Steam!

Join the official Squillamorph Discord server here: 
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Hello everyone, over the last week I've been busy working on new features and improvements for the next update. I estimate that this update will not be ready for another week at least, but I'm working hard to get it out before Christmas!

​Get the game on Steam now!

In other news, Squillamorph and I have been featured by UCA in an article on their website. This also led to an appearance in a local newspaper, which means I am now officially a 'gaming guru'!

Until now, I've been relatively content with the quality of gameplay. However, I got some feedback on the game that made me seriously think about the current state of the game. It made me realise how unfinished the existing content is and that there is a distinct lack of variety. So I played the game through again, looking for things to improve when I noticed something that I have been overlooking in the Flop Shark levels. The combat felt uncontrollable, unclear, and nonsensical. The worst thing was that I didn't know why. I hadn't noticed this before and just couldn't put my finger on it. I took a step back from the game to think about what could be fundamentally wrong with it.

​After thinking it through, I realised that it was mostly the combat at fault, but more specifically combat involving the Flop Sharks. The pace at which they swarm and attack the player is just unfair. Even if you get the hang of their irregular movement, it is still difficult to control a fight when completely surrounded and pushed around. After several waves, this can get to the point where it feels chaotic and unenjoyable. As the first main enemy encountered after the tutorial, it is incredibly important that the sharks feel good to fight and control. Otherwise, players will quickly become infuriated with the game and stop playing, which is perfectly understandable. For a game focused on combat, this is unacceptable. So, the next question I had was how to improve it?

The solution is to rework the combat, which in hindsight wasn't that great to begin with. To start with, I have reduced the amount the number of enemies spawned each wave increases by. That should help prevent players being overwhelmed too quickly. The original idea for the Flop Sharks was to have them constantly swarm the player, but this might not be such a good idea. To reduce the swarming mosh-pit tendencies, all player attacks now have some knockback. To improve the combat skill requirement, I have also made the 'skill' attacks more skill based. They now require consecutive hits on an enemy to trigger the more damaging third attack. I am still working on this and I am also considering a possible damage multiplier as a reward for sequential hits.  

In summary, I am working to improve the combat and make it much clearer, more satisfying and logical. I am also looking into ways to add some variety to the gameplay, perhaps in the form of waves with special enemies or environmental changes.

​(Side note: The GIF above shows a great example of how the brief invulnerability after ejecting, added in the latest update, has prevented unfair deaths)

The Kragon has needed improvement since EGX. I have not yet finished its fight but I have had the chance to think about it and start adding to it last week. Now it has a new ability to use against the player, which is designed to make it harder for the player to hide behind environmental objects without fear of the boss. It can shoot a volley of 3 non damaging grenades, just like the Kobold's but with a larger blast radius. I'm still working on the force of the blast; this GIF showcases grenades that are more powerful than what the final result will be. I think this will only happen when it isn't attacking but I'll have to test it. 

The other stages of the Kragon will involve using the Kobolds to deal damage to it, in the same way the Flop Sharks are used in the Flopalodon fight. It will also involve a freezing effect similar to the one applied to the player when they come into contact with cold pipes. I hope to work on this boss again this week, but I am not sure how much will get done as I am currently prioritising the combat improvements.

I did manage to start on the mutagen improvements last week too! I have created a functional menu system for them but it currently has no effect on gameplay. The GIF shows the menu at half the size it actually is in game. My current idea is that the game will slow down time or maybe completely pause while this menu is open, to allow for switching mutagens on the fly. Just like the Kragon boss, I would like to work further on this but it is not the largest priority right now.

Let me know what you think about the changes I'm making to the combat, Kragon boss, and the mutagen system! My priorities for the next week are:
- Combat improvements
- The Kragon boss fight progress
- New Mutagen system implementation

​I hope you enjoyed today's post! ​Thanks for reading!

Get Squillamorph on Steam!

Join the official Squillamorph Discord server here: 
- Discord Server
​Follow Squillamorph on:
- Twitter
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- Facebook
Tell your friends to check out the game too!