Rocket

Week Twenty-seven

(or Up, Up, and Don't Die!)

I intended to write and publish this post last week but time flew by before I knew it. So, anyway. This post will finally reveal some information and art for the power-up we tested in our last build. The art featured in the post is pretty recent. I drew the concept a couple weeks ago and Jon Worman just put finishing touches on the model in the past couple days.

The power-up is called "Rocket". Once player's pick this up at the end of one of the levels, the mech is able to make Rocket Drones and Rocket Ammo. Rocket Drones have a lot of control in the air and are able to boost themselves vertically to greater heights than other drones. Players will be able to use them to reach out-of-reach places and when aerial maneuvers are needed. Rocket Drones can also self-destruct, dealing damage to nearby enemies. They will explode if too much damage is received.

Power-ups have come a long way from the initial concept. The last time I posted some art for them was November last year. At that point, I was planning on having players pick up finite power-ups and manage when and where they would be used. Now that sort of resource management is met by the current scrap/energy resource mechanic and players keep the power-up once it's acquired.

Not only did power-ups in general go through big conceptual changes, specific power-ups like Rocket changed quite a bit as well. Initially, I wrote Rocket to be all about vertical movement and very little aerial control. Another power-up called "Glider" would be about horizontal movement. The reason behind splitting all of this functionality up was to have a number of large rewards that could be given to players when they beat levels or game-play challenges.

The fragmentation turned out to be a bit clunky and overlapped too much in testing. We decided to combine the horizontal control with Rocket and make it a more functional power-up. Rocket now feels really great to use and I think we will have some fun challenges in store for players.

We're getting further and further along in development, which means I'll have some new stuff to show next post.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Rocket Concept Art by Aram Wahler

Rocket Model by Jon Worman. Drone Model by Daniel Bodunov.

Wing Power-up Concept by Aram Wahler