v0.8.1 – Mayan Guards AI and Explosions

In this update, I focused on making the humanoid enemies (like the Mummies and Mayan Guards) appear more intelligent. So now humanoid enemies will hear nearby sounds and start searching for you. The Mayan Guards which appear in the 2nd world will definitely be more challenging. If they spot you, they will also chase you and jump across platforms. But obviously they don’t have your dexterity. Even if they see another guard chasing you, they will accompany him. The Mayan Guards now can throw their spear at you if they see you running away from them. They can also pick it up if they find it in their path. Of course you can also pick up the spear and use it against them.

Besides chasing enemies I also had some fun making the explosions look better. Explosions are fun to do and now there are 8 layers which you can see if you slow down the video.
– white flash of 1 frame
– star flash which rotates and scales down slightly
– objects shooting off from the center spewing out dust clouds
– objects shooting off from the center spewing out pixel particles that bounce around the level
– bright hot gas particles at the center of explosion
– sparks with trails
– sparks with intermittent trail
– cloud particles going up after the explosion
On their own they don’t look particularly fancy, but when you combine them, the explosion effect looks pretty cool now.


Release Notes

Added

  • Mayan guards now throw the spear at you when you try running away. They can pick it up again if they encounter a spear.
  • You can pick up and throw the spear. You can get a spear by killing a Mayan guard or let him throw it at you.
  • Mayan guard can now punch you if he has already thrown the spear.
  • Also added Egypt mummy sprites for startled, searching, and search futile.
  • Added more sounds for mayan guard (huh when hears a sound, attack sound, hurt sound, die sound)
  • Notify nearby enemies of a sound, so if they are aggressive they go into a search state. Felicie will do less noise when landing, since she’s not as heavy as Giorgio.

Fixed

  • Fix for explosive fuse sound continuing when it gets under water
  • Fix for scarab not flapping wings when attacks while was paused
  • Fixed inconsistency in some Mayan guard sprites where he did not have hand bands.
  • Fix for trying to put back boomerang in inventory when under water, it would actually be dropped
  • Fix for “auto use health pickup” option not persisting between sessions (typo in playerprefs)
  • Fix for pressing action key when near a chest while not playing coop, player would get stuck in walking animation (Player can only open chest in Coop mode).
  • Fix for when friend dies underwater just before entering the exit, should not allow entering

Modified

  • Boomerang and Spears now break after several hits against the wall
  • Improved enemy AIs, especially Mayan guards which will try to follow you by jumping across platforms (but they cannot jump as further as you, or do wall climbs).
  • Visual improvement for explosions.
  • Do not do collisions between throwables when one of them is idle, or when horizontal speed is so low, to avoid getting stuck on each other in mid air.
  • If an intelligent enemy (mummy or guard) sees another enemy attacking a player (which might not be directly visible by this enemy), he will also be alarmed and start running towards the same player being chased
  • Enemies should hear you whistle and will look around to see if they spot you
  • Mayan guards now suffocate under water

v0.8.0 – Multiplayer Coop + Landmine

Added

  • Coop! Now you can play the single player mode, but instead of the friend being controlled by the computer, you can play it in two.
    • Hone your communication skills and explore together the procedurally generated levels.
    • Coordinate your attacks and take down the bosses together.
    • Carry your friend around but ask their permission or you’ll come across as bossy!
    • Go shopping to the bazaar together, but remember you have one purse to share!
    • Open the chest while the other player protects you from peril.
    • Try it out with some family member! Download the demo now.

  • Landmine. You can now place a landmine to unsuspecting creatures or your closest friends in multiplayer, and watch them fly off screen! You can find this useful knickknack in crates and the shop.
  • Added in-game Keys Help. Whenever you are near something, or have a selected item in the inventory, you will see the keys and their respective action. They are also visible in the shop so you can immediately know the item that you can buy rather than having to read the merchant’s description :). Btw, you can toggle this off from settings. You can also adjust transparency and location (top or bottom).keyshelpcropped.png
  • Directional throwing. You can now press up or down while throwing to give it a higher/lower angle.
  • Improvement for VS Options to select more items at one go. So now you can select all the items when playing multiplayer. You love explosions? Why don’t you start with 10 explosives and landmines?coopselectitems.png

Fixed

  • Fixed issue with entering the name for the first time in Send Feedback. The first letter was overwritten by the second one.
  • Fix for when there was a space at the end of a multiline (Send Feedback), and would have the cursor not following the text properly (fastforwarded by a word)
  • Fix for enemies not playing a hit sound when hit by a boomerang
  • Should not be able to drop rope while vertical speed is not 0
  • Menu ui elements (like toggles and bars) horizontal offset is now calculated dynamically, so this should solve for other languages which might be overriding the option description.
  • Offsets for Felicie carrying objects while swimming
  • Fixed invincibility trail while swimming
  • Fix for starting with increase hearts in Multiplayer Options (it was creating it as a pickup, causing a crash if you died)
  • Fix for crash in boss level, when you die and go again to boss level it tries to destroy the stones causing a crash. As reported on gamejolt by Recycled Soul
  • Giorgio should always be drawn behind Felicie
  • Fixes for picking up and dropping glitches
  • Fix for “I can’t leave Felicie behind”, when actually waiting for George. Same for when needing to open chest.
  • Fix for issue for Giorgio carrying Giorgio on ladder (was on his hat)
  • Fix for when throwing Felicie so it feels the same like when throwing Giorgio, even when Felicie->Felicie. Also fix when throwing Felicie with back to a wall, it wasn’t being adjusted
  • If friend dies, while you are with key, level is not generated with a key to pickup
  • Fix for level number not set properly when playing tutorial, causing issue when completing the infestation level
  • Fix for showing level 2 (instead of level 1) when going to mayan after killing boss
  • Fix for crash when pressing replay while fading out
  • Fixed reducing of credits after losing a life and winning on the next
  • Fix for picking up boomerang underwater
  • Fixed collisions between stones and boomerangs
  • Fix for Felicie swimming carrying offsets
  • Fix for when underwater, you can go in without the need of carrying friend (especially useful in multiplayer coop)
  • Fix for jittering Giorgio walk when following and reaches a wall
  • Fix for throwing crate in a corner teleports
  • Fix for getting hurt with boomerang when throwing it against wall close by
  • Fixed issue with urls not opened on windows/chrome
  • Fix for mayan pyramid in level selector shown with question mark when beating boss for the first time
  • Strip out any carriage returns from email, just in case as it causes problems on server side

Modified

  • Added a light to boomerang. Makes it easier to follow.
  • When falling fast friend should show she’s frightened
  • When friend dies, throwing of items should not be so powerful
  • Go to next line when pressing enter or tab (especially useful in feedback form)

Abandoned Ideas

  • Make friend run when you whistle. It wasn’t feeling right. Plus when Felicie would run to a whistle, then it would not land near you.
  • Added friend confirming whistle sound (okay), with a bit more delay before following.
  • Also to make a whistle know you need to press Action+Jump key together. It was getting annoying to do a whistle instead of picking up or throwing/pickup, especially in multiplayer.
  • Dynamic splitting of screen of Coop. I had implemented a shared screen for coop, which merges into one when they are close by. It was working very smoothly when players move only horizontally. But it was disorienting when they moved apart vertically and a split of the screen is done. I was thinking of doing a horizontal split of the screen (rather than vertical), but then you would have very little vertical space to play in. So I opted for the shared screen, where the camera centers on average position of the two players. If one player decides to go far away from the other player, then no one would be visible on camera. This enforces the idea of communication and having to work together.