Week 20 (Sep 16th - Sep 22nd)

New LC: ZipRiver:

This week I managed to put out two Level Chunk's, both focused on the use of the mech's new Line Launcher. The first is a very starightforward LC, similar to the Geyser field's in that it's just about moving foirward and positioning, but now it's about letting the player use their new grapple ability to have some traversal fun and some light mech platforming.

The LC consists of rock platforms/pillars that can be zipped to and from with the Line Launcher, with reosurces dotted around scarcily. Making the resources harder to come by in the second half of the game will make players focus more in the early game, and need to learn quickly where they can locate resources by the time they reach the second batch of LC's.

New LC: Down Low:

The second LC this week starts off by using the mech to activate an elevator. After descending into a ravine, players need to traverse through a cave wall to reach the elevator on the otherside which is blocked by some rubble.

Once again it's all about using the Mech's new grapple and its cannon to conquer traversal segments and get to the end.

These later LC's may require some editing, because when the mech does run out of resources on a platform with no way of crossing, players may end up softlocked from collecting resources to get the mech moving again.

Next week I will look into adding some Pilot sized platforms and walkways to prevent this softlocking.

General Additions:

Created a fog particle system to emulate a foggy abyss at the bottom of each of these LC's. And when players do fall through, they will die from a damage collider lining the floor of both the LC's.

Added audio to the Line Laucnher which really sells the use of the ability. I think it still needs some UI to indicate when it's on cooldown, but I'll wait to see how players react in playtesting.

I found an issue with the tutorials where the menu buttons couldn't relocate the panels after a scene reload, so I put them on a canavs not attatched to the GameManager, so they would always refrence between the same reset objects every scene load.