Forest Stages to L2

For February, I decided to switch my development process. Now, each month will end with me delivering a milestone. For February, the milestone was getting all 13 forest stages to L3 quality. L3 is not final, but it is pretty close in terms of gameplay and flow. 

One thing that I learned when doing the Cave stages is that the boss needs their own time. I can't just bundle the boss stage with the others. I did the same for the forest area. I think the Forest Boss is miles better now, but I do plan on revisiting all bosses once more when I am done improving the quality of the overall game.

My strategy of tasks and goals has helped me a lot in this. For each stage, I have a playtest task. It just involves playing the stage for real and taking notes on bugs and improvements. Those bugs and improvements turn into actual tasks for me to work on. Once all of those are done, the "goal" for the stage is completed. 

Boss UI Improvement

A lot of people dislike working with UI. Honestly, I don't mind. It's a nice break from doing gameplay and can be refreshing after working on combat, especially. I reworked my boss's UI. Every boss has an armor that you must break before being able to damage the boss. The armor recovers, so you have to keep hitting the boss. 

Before, the armor UI would be under the HP gauge. I moved it on top of the HP gauge as you can see. I think it makes more sense since the armor protects the HP. Once the armor is broken you can see the HP clearly which indicates you can now damage the boss. 

Forest Boss Rework

Most of the forest boss behaviors were already defined. He is a tougher version of the first boss. Plus, he has some new attacks. He shoots triple arrows instead of just one. He eventually will fire shockwaves across the stage. 

I reworked the stage and now the area where shoots shockwaves is protected. When the boss moves to the shockwave spawn point, the camera pulls back, giving the player clear feedback. I also tweaked his behavior slightly so he does not come off as super aggressive at first. 

I might still add a new attack that relates to the forest area. In this area, there is stinging grass that paralysis the player. I wonder if making the boss be able to spawn some of those would be interesting. Something to think about it.

Closing

As long as I keep my focus on achieving the goals, which in turn culminate in the milestones, I will be on the right path. It does not mean that I won't do the other stuff that pops up. It just means that I won't do it now. And that is a major change. I don't want to endlessly work on the game. I want to finish it, release it, and move on to the next project.

If you are interested in Yurei or know a friend who might be, why not head to Steam and wishlist it? Wishlists are a major point for releasing games. It also helps with getting a publisher's attention. 

If you feel like helping out, please wishlist Yurei on Steam.

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Thanks for reading all the way. Keep an eye out on Twitter @brightflask