Devlog #75: putting stuff together for the 3rd alpha demo

I am pretty close to releasing the 3rd alpha demo of Shardpunk! The scope for the demo is sealed, I have all the assets I need and I am focusing on the final touches. The demo should be out in August.

That being said, I did make some changes in how the game works, so let's take a look at them.

It all started with these new graphics of shelves, which I've started using as high cover objects.



The shelves were looking great as an obstacle; however, I wanted to allow the players to search them for loot. The problem was that the loot points system was too simple to handle it. Until now, loot points were always 1 tile big, and the element (whether it was a corpse or a locker) that was lootable had to be placed on the same tile.



Such an approach was not enough for the shelves. A character was not able to stand on top of the shelve to loot it. What is more, it would be cool to extend the searchable area so that a character can perform the looting from more than one location.

Therefore, I decided to extend loot point definitions. After my changes, it is allowed to have a separate definition for "pickup points" for loot (which define a place that character can stand on to perform the search action), and a separate location where the loot point indicator is located.

Here's how it works for shelves:



I started to use the same approach for crates as well. So now the game has searchable cover objects!



Besides the shelves, there are other new obstacle types present in the levels that make them look nicer. This includes windows (shattered, to make sure characters can shoot through them) or pieces of furniture. And with some randomness in asset generation it can look slightly different each time:



So what's next?

I'm focusing on polish right now and making sure that the game is not too difficult. After all, I want the players to finish the first mission and see the shelter phase.

Take care!