Got movement ALMOST in a good spot yesterday. Got shops almost in a good spot. Alls we gotta do is figure out auto bites and get a few gobble fish in and we’ll have our layer 1 build ready to go!

I’m kinda over being terrified of putting out new builds and thinking they have to be perfect.

If we put out a build and no one plays it or it’s terrible, it’s just another day, not a big deal!

Every single day lately I think of as this hump we’re going to get over and THEN it’ll be smooth sailing, but that hasn’t been the case for the past few months. Eternally pushing to just get over that hump, but maybe today is the day!

This is one of those rare situations where knee jerk ideas aren’t going to cut it so i gotta brainstorm how I want these auto attack mechanics to work. Yesterday I figured, “Eh i’ll just make it a bonus you buy and it’s fine if it’s janky and annoying, the player will buy it if they like it and they wont if it’s crappy.

But that seems terrible. As I type this I think I’ve come up with a solution, I think what we’ll do is make it so it toggles when you mouth fully opens, but for that to happen you have to apply a certain level of input and be within a close range of fish, and once you enter “Blood thirst mode” you’ll just go blood crazed and attack everything around you till they’re all dead. Yeah i think this can work! SHouldn’t take TOO long to iiimplemnt.

The current system is more an attack by attackbasis, and it feels really janky because there’s a lot of friction between trying to enable it and moving around yourself, your inputs kinda disable the auto attacks, and once you get a couple auto bites it can easily disable, so then you’re back to moving around and trying to get the auto attacking to fire. So what we need to do is just get a nice clean feel for getting that first attack to  fire and once it does you can let go of the controller and let the blood thirst do the work.

And this brings up the question of bonuses and progression, should I gimp this ability so that getting upgrades to bloodthirst is more potent? Like I can make a “ravenous” bonus that enhances the range you initiate that first bite, and the angle, and the duration you remain in auto attack blood thirst mode.

Too many games *POE 2 COUGH* gimp many features, then they require you to get bonuses and modifierrs just to make it feel usable. And I am so friggin’ tired of this design. But I GET IT, because I have done the same thing myself over the years, you want those fun bonuses to be powerful and strong and deliver those dopamine hits.

Here’s how I  tend to balance these bonuses. That FIRST level that initial gain has to feel good, it has to be impactful and you have to be able to sense a discernable enhancement. BUT I balance ever single thing in SeaCrit in a way that nothing feels GIMPED. And if it DOES have to feel a little gimped it’s for a reason. Take movement right now, it’s going to feel a little gimped out of the gate, but that’s because I don’t want new players to struggle with lightning quick and enhanced innovative movement mechanics, and i can load up the starting area with gobble fish that will encourage the player to learn to move fast and utilize skuttle and waveswim to hunt them down and get faster. And as they learn the basics their speed will enhance and they will be rewarded with fun new speed. We IMMEDIATLY solve that gimpiness and it serves an inherent purpose. Skilled players will be able to gobble up fish quickly and literally “Get up to speed” fast!

Hot damn, this blog post is making me realize just how good a spot our game is in this very moment. All the systems are poised to come together into a larger game that is greater than the sum of their parts. And to top it all off, players will have a very fun and unconventional means of leaning the innovative bonus system right out of the gate. So it’ll be like this perfect shallows of players learning this isn’t a traditional RPG a lot of the power progression isn’t just big damage numbers, but speed! And speed can directly translate into bigger damage numbers too as ramming fish at higher speeds does more damage!

I hope I’m not overselling the project, for all I know it’s still ass and this is just the usual rose collored ramblings of a creator that loves their baby.

Anywho, feeling good about getting back to work today surprisingly since the past few weeks has been nothing but slog. Always the rollercoaster ride of dev in these parts.

A big thanks to everyone for following through all the delays and rambles and burnout.