Time to finally break the silence!

There has been a lot happening in my life recently, but I'm finally ready to continue working of this project.

As it happens, Feedback Quest is about to start, so it's worth reflecting on the results of the last one and see what's changed. The feedback I got the last time could be summed up like this:

• Graphics are lacking
• Controls are uncomfortable
• Performance is bad
• Reward symbols are not explanatory
• No music

There are also several points I noted to myself, while watching people play:

• Most players skip rewards for the encounter and don't get to experience all the fun stuff with attuned abilities (there was also a bug that prevented reward collection)
• Players get bored before the game actually gets challenging

Let's talk about the graphics and performance first.

This is what the game looked like 1.5 months ago:

This is how it looks now:

Placeholders for monsters got replaced with actual art, animations were added, and all the environments were significantly reworked to add more detail and color to the bland sandy arenas. There is also slight animation on the enemies, and crabs shake their pincers when walking - those things, while small, make the picture significantly livelier. The variety of crab art has also improved significantly - most of the stuff is not in the game yet, but existing crabs now look much more distinct.

The plan for the final game is to have several Areas, that would differ both in style and in game mechanics. First two areas are supposed to be Shore (sandy beach) and Shallows (shallow coral reef). While there are no unique mechanics implemented yet, two levels from the Shallows have been added to the pool! For now, they are encountered randomly.

Settings menu has been upgraded with a ton of scalability options. While they are not 100% set up and tested, they can cut out all the expensive stuff to allow for smooth gameplay on older machines. The game is built with Unreal Engine 5, and some very GPU-heavy things were ON by default - like raytraced Global Illumination and Shadows, for example. I kept all that as an option, but the recommended way of running the game is now on combined Middle/High settings. A lot of testings needs to happen still before everything is set up nicely. I left a warning there near the Global Illumination setting, since I found that one the most problematic.

Controls and Understandability

The main issue the last time around was that there were no proper visual feedback on control actions. That's why there's a whole new layer of visualization: old ugly arrow has been replaced by a new curved one (inspired by how arrows are drawn on tactical maps), selected crab is marked by a white circle and when command is confirmed - a small indicator appears.

Several issues with controls were also fixed, and here are the options available right now:

1.  Clicks - single left click selects a crab, the following click confirms the command
2.  Hotkeys - pressing a hotkey (1, 2 or 3) starts the command, and click confirms it
3.  Drag'n'Drop - the command is started by holding mouse button over the crab, and confirmed when the mouse button is released

As for encounter rewards - I still want to keep a certain level of obfuscation, so elemental icons will stay - at least for the time. However, there is now a prompt to collect the reward after the battle concludes, and this prompt reappears each time a player forgets to collect the reward.

There is still no music - it's on the way, but the progress has been slow with it. I was thinking about introducing a placeholder, but searching for a suitable one takes time, and I'd rather spend in on making the game better in other ways. It is still pretty much a demo. What kind of music would you like to hear in the game? Let me know!

Boss Battle - Captain Slimebeard

As for gameplay itself - the balance was updated slightly, visualization changed a little bit on some arena events, but must importanly - Crab Raid Tactics' first ever Boss encounter is intriduced!

Meet Captain Slimebeard - a slimy beardless pirate! The beard might appear later, though. I just don't have any art for it yet.

Captain Slimebeard makes use of all the stuff that has been implemented so far, and combines it into an encounter worthy of a boss fight.

• In melee range, he uses a Combo of 3 Attacks - two stabs and a wide slash.
• From time to time, he calls for help, attempting to Summon a squad of Slimes. If the player is fast enough to occupy the reinforcement drop area - a crab in that area will receive damage, but that would prevent enemies from spawning.
• Being a pirate, Slimebeard craves rum! He can't get enough of it, and summons Rum Barrels to fall from the sky. Those barrels can be destroyed for an instant AoE heal, both for crabs and Slimebeard himself!
• The slimy Captain has a bad temper. Without rum, he gets Enraged, dealing increased damage. Hitting him with a splash from a rum barel will remove this effect.

Other Gameplay Improvements

There were other gameplay improvements as well - damage scaling for all the AoE abilities were slightly increased, monster scaling with each room reduced.

New mechanic has been added - hiding! Crabs can hide in high grass, that is present on some levels, and it will cause them to draw less enemy attention. 

Channels Open

It is always tempting to postpone any communication until I have something shiny and new to share, but in this case it does not do anyone any good. In the end, Early Access is a show, right? There's a way for me to show you all the development process, open a window into how it's done, talk to you and make a game you want to play. I want to make the development process transparent and accessible.

That's why the Discord Server is set up and open!

Join it to hear recent news, follow what's happening behind the scenes or just chat with me about game development or some other random stuff!