Early Access 4 - New skills, Scuttler reworks


New feature: Throw

  • Press up key or Y button to throw your weapon.
  • It will keep it's current momentum, spin faster to throw faster!
  • Get closer to the weapon to automatically grab it again.

New feature: Brake & Attract

  • Press left and right key or X and B button to brake and attract.
  • Braking will stop your character which can help stabilise if you lose control.
  • Attracting will make drops and you weapon (if thrown) go toward you. (This scales with player level so it will not be very strong at the beginning of the game.)

New feature: Pull

  • Press down or A button to pull your weapon closer to you (when still attached).
  • Being closer can help you spin slightly faster or hit targets you were about to miss.

All these new features are tests and may or may not remain in the game. Currently they are fully optional as you can easily perform in the game without them but I want to see how fun they can be and if they can potentially raise the skill ceiling of the game for players who want to. I know I've already had a lot of fun trying to accurately throw the weapon across the map even if it's not always the most efficient strategy.

Scuttler rework (previously Sheller)

  • The Scuttler will now travel in a sinusoidal pattern, alternating between turning left and right, hence it's new name.
  • Once out of the shell, it will behave the same way but towards it's shell. (Instead of pulling it back.)
  • Value: 5 -> 4
  • Max hp: 110  -> 80
  • Hp per level: 50% -> 40% (effective 55 -> 32)
  • Other miscellaneous changes to speed and level scaling

Trying to give these guys a little personality. I like the whole moving around and having to break the shell features but the monsters still felt basic. In my opinion, the new movement pattern does a lot to help, especially when they're out of the shell. Aslo made them a little weaker so they're less frustrating to deal with.

Other changes

  • Hopper max hp: 80 -> 50
  • Hopper hp per level: 50% -> 70% (effective 40 -> 35)

It was too easy to get a decent hit on hopper and see them barely survive. The very first monster of the game shouldn't feel like it takes multiple hits for new players to kill. Especially now that they can level up and get even more hp.

  • Added a delay to the life drain so it doesn't begin until the first monster actually spawns.
  • Each xp point gathered will also heal 2% of missing hp.
  • Replace xp pickup pop-up with healing pop-up.

Trying to make the new system feel more fair while keeping the same "rush" feeling. The 2% healing will give you a fighting chance if you survive on low hp for a little while but it's shouldn't be enough that staying low is a viable strategy.

  • Maximum monster value on the board: 18 -> 10

18  was absolutely too crowded. 10 will also make the monster level ups more likely to happen a little earlier on.

  • Other fixes and improvement to the spawn algorithm that makes Scuttlers more likely to spawn and less likely to level up.

These should make the Scuttlers closer to 1 for 4 hoppers which wasn't the case before, at least not in every scenario.

Files

Spin Knight - Early Access 4 - Windows.zip 2 MB
Feb 15, 2022

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