Can't go 80 MPH all day every day.

We've been pushing hard as of late, we're due for a break anyhow.

So anyway, bonuses are on the docket. And I got to thinking about them a bit today, and I'm thinking we may be a little too concerned with the trees over the forest.

I have this large list of bonuses I want to add, and they're a random hodge podge of random ideas, just random things that popped in my head that I thought would be neat, but they don't really form a cohesive whole, at least I haven't given them enough thought to determine if they're the proper amounts of bonuses to form a compelling experience when it comes to creating builds, gnabbing items, and purchasing bonuses in the shops.

What makes a compelling upgrade experience?

Come to think of it many years ago I wrote an article on talent trees for beer money:

https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/lets-spec-into-talent-trees-a-primer-for-ga...

11 years! Where has the time gone!? God this industry has stunted so much in that time. Think of all the incredible things we could have accomplished if we'd focused on the important bits of gamedev, shared knowledge, pratcies, opened up the systems and promoted hard work and decency in one another. Bah.

No point harping it, all we can do is hope to rectify it moving forward.

Here's my list of bonuses thus far:

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=====Common=====

Swappy: increases damage by % every time you swap, stacks, cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds (increases), ticks down a small amount per second after 15 seconds. Favors players who like to swap a lot.

Dedicated: improves damage output based on duration of current form, .5% per second up to 30% (increases)

Enchanter: For every ring you equip, charge speed are enhanced by 1%

Breaking: Attacks deal a % damage to enemy items, use DamagePerSecond value to get the %

SeaCrit: Chance to do double damage, even on crit, a crit crit. Recursive, allowing multiple procs up to x8

Chargers: Move slower, Charge slower, deliver more damage, gain size

Behemoth's: gives player damage reduction when Chonker, increases max hefty size, but slows chungus size more

Burly: Reduces Hefty size speed Penalty, as well as falloff in waveswim.

Professional: Every kill enhances Pearl drop by 3%. resets when you're hit. Up to X% (create "on kill" event function)

Increased Charge time max, more damage, 2x damage max on alt abilities, divides alt charge initiation time by bonus

Magnet, attracts gold from further away

=====Rare=====

Dreamcatcher: Attacks to stunned enemies provide lifetap

Vampire: change to be dependent on wound status, more wounds = more lifetap. Requires wounding bonuses to really get going.

SuperChonk: Fat fish provide when eaten. Enhances dmg reduces incoming damage, reduces chungus falloff greatly.

Heavy Hitter: Enhances the stun of waveswim impacts (found on heavy armor, expensive in shop)

Impact: Enhances the damage of waveswim impacts (found on light armor, expensive in shop)

Momentum: reduces generation rate of waveswim, but enhances damage delivered at the high end

Cruiser: reduces speed penalty of chungus while waveswimming

Blubber: Increases damage reduction while chungus up to a %

Scavenger. Every time a player equips a new item, they gain 1 sharpness and one healthy.

Sharp: All Melee attacks apply wounds.

Bloodletter: Amplifies the damage over time of wounds.

Static: Large AOE of damage similar to Radiance, but smaller, occurs when waveswimming.

=====Epic===== (Epic bonuses will be game breaking but RARE, there will be many so you will have to play off what you find)

Metabolism : Burning off hefty grants health

Chonker : enhances damage bonus of chungus and reduces chungus falloff

Radiance : Deal damage based on how close enemies are. Up to x2 when fully charged. Enhances point light glow on player.

=====SHOP====

Hefty shop "The prices here sure are hefty!" NPC out front (1 line of dialogue)

Sells items that make being hefty awesome, when fully upgraded almost as fast, more damage, damage reduction based on heftiness

====Ultra Rare (Rare for now, will be more rare than rare and have a new color in the future)====

Explosivo : Deal more damage on crashdash, greatly enhances knockback

Revising:

SuperChonk: You are become chonk Eater of The light. Consumer of the dark. The hunger singularity. Feed your insatiable hunger... or else. (Chonker now reduces even more damage, while giving even more bonus damage, becomes almost impossible to shed)

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While I think there are some interesting mechanics above, I'm kinda worried that I'm missing some basic "meat and potatoes" style upgrades. Everything is complex and whacky and there aren't any mainstays to focus on to say just become more tanky, or to improve crit damage, or to enhance certain weapons, etc. You know those key passive bonuses that form the basis of many builds, that are very clear and don't require any thought. Just nice fun potent bonuses that make you stronger, faster, and tougher. I've just decided we gotta come up with a shop full of these standard bonuses and this shop needs to be accessible in multiple areas, but that's probably silly to worry about right now as we're just making a tiny little demo.

We've been focusing too much on the wacky and zany and interesting bonuses, we gotta think of what's going to build the most fun core. What bonuses will affect regen, what will affect damage mitigation in a general sense? WHat's most fun? What's balanced? What's easily understood? Haven't done much of this for the overarching system.

It's been bizarre making this small demo. most everything has been kept small and manageable and I always have this mentality of "if we're successful someone with more time and experience will remake this thing to be better in the future" and it kinda sucks to think that the wheels are spinning in mud. Maybe it's best to think that this is just the game, and we built most all of it in our lonesome, there's something poetic about that. This is our game, warts and all, and we carried it through the thick and thin.

Edit: unfortunately health is kinda taking a nosedive today. Gonna have to take a break from gamedev for a bit.