And we are back! This is the most exciting week in Piggy Payback! yet! We have a bunch of really cool things added to the game, and we're getting so close to that alpha demo! You're in for a treat, so enjoy the read. :)
Something we did to speed up our workflow is we created a Blueprint for the boards and added a collision box that's deeper on the y axis so we can have one board that we can use as many times as we like. Next, we set it up so we can choose the board length in the Details panel. This will allow us to very quickly setup levels without trying to re-scale each log or add a box collision to each one. We have 3 lengths of board, and we just have to drag the one board blueprint into the level, and then select its length in the details panel. This greatly speeds up the workflow as every level has multiple boards in it.
We also did some simple upgrades, such as the volume slider in the settings menu. Whenever its moved it plays a pig grunt sound to tell the player how loud they can expect the SFX to be. We also setup the win and lose screens so the BGM fades out to 0 when they pop up. This allows the music and SFX previously added to these screens to be heard clearly.
We also added a little chase scene on the win screen. One of the 2D pigs chases some of the birds across the screen.
In addition, during our playtests we noticed that some of the players missed hitting the fire button while playing, and some of the testers we didn’t watch complained that it was too small. So we increased the button size by 25%. We also increased the collision size of the button by 35% in case the player still sometimes misses it.
We have some big news today! We added yet another level to the game. This time it’s another horizontal level. The level makes use of the rotating pinwheel mechanic, but also introduces two new mechanics. The moving birds, which is a normal bird which can move around, making it harder to hit. It also has the brand new crow-bomb. The way it’s positioned makes the player have to ricochet their pig off a wall before hitting the crow-bomb. If hit at the right angle the crow-bomb will take out a high number of points in the birds and eggs it blows up. This will be the greatest challenge yet for players.
So far the game has a total of 7 levels. Each level introduces a new mechanic, and each level is harder than the last. We’re really trying to ease players into the difficulty levels of the game. As they play they get more skilled. More accurate with the cannon, and quicker in hitting the paddles. So if each level is harder than the last, they stay nicely in the flow channel the entire time they play.
We made some progress on the button deck. The pinball style deck with buttons on it that the player has to hit with their pig. We made it so when any button is hit, it lights up and a letter above it appears. The idea is to hit all the buttons to spell the word associated with it, which gives you points or unlocks something. And now the logic is setup so the game knows when all the buttons are hit. Next we’re going to setup the logic so it shows the word in the middle of the screen as a widget, then underneath is shows the points. We plan to have this widget quickly spin into view, delay for a second, then spin out of existence.
We have something very exciting to share. We updated and improved the Piggy Payback! Logo. Now the letters are more round and fat like a pig This fits the theme very well. We also tipped the ‘!’ on an angle to the right. We feel this shows that the game is silly and fun, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. All in all, we’re very happy with the new logo for Piggy Payback!
Another very exciting thing we’re doing is adding in a new game mode. A different type of level/mechanic from the normal levels. We created a plinko board as a bonus stage. We call it “Pinko”. Play Pinko with your Piggo! Just like a normal plinko game, the player will choose where they drop their pig, and it bounces around the pegs and down the board and lands in one of the slots at the bottom. Depending on which slot it lands in, the player can win one of several prizes, such as golden eggs, points/currency, feathers, or power-ups. The player will be able to come to this stage and play Pinko whenever they have Pinko Piggos remaining. They will be able to earn Piggos through challenges and gameplay, or buy them with either of the two in-game currencies – Piggy Points and Boar Bucks. This mini-game will ad a cool and fun new dimension to the game!
And that just about covers it. See, we told you it was a big week, did you believe us? For the next one to two weeks we will be focused on getting everything ready for this alpha demo. So please come back next week to see what we have in store for you!
Join Our Discord: https://discord.gg/vdF4ubqV4z
Site: DangerousMindGames.com
YouTube: https://youtu.be/PmY1aFAdUSs