22/9/21 Echolite Devblog #3 - Developing the Beacon

Firstly, I must apologise for an off-schedule post. Although I had plans to develop Echolite a bit more, I was completely distracted by the recent release of Deltarune Chapter 2. For those not in the know, Deltarune is a story-driven, indie-game RPG series created by lone developer Toby Fox. Most people would know Toby Fox from his critically-acclaimed indie game Undertale.

As a developer, I have a lot of admiration for Toby Fox. Not only is he talented game designer and developer who also composes his own music for his games, but the stories and characters he imprints in his games are what gives them such a unique identity. As such, I truly strive to create my own engaging stories and corroborate them into my games. This is what I envisioned my indie games to become: captivating stories with unique mechanics.

Anyhow, enough fanboying over one of my favourite game developers; back to Echolite!

I got to fixing the reload bar animation via some logical editing involving the Mathf.Lerp function. The duration would be incremented by Time.deltaTime, while it was being divided by the charge time float that was saved upon releasing the fire button. I had also adjusted the minimum limit of the mana bar, so that the player cannot shoot a bullet if it is below 10%. However, this does present a new issue involving the player still being able to charge up to 3 seconds, despite having not enough mana for it. I might need to look into this further for adjustment.

I also implemented a simple camera follow sequence to the player. It might not look like much at first, since the game is set in a dark environment, it will soon become more prevalent once obstacles, enemies and level design are created into the scene.

Finally, we come to the main topic of this devblog: the beacon! The Echo Beacon will be a relevant tool for the player as they complete each level within the game. They are designed as a simple diamond shape, with its interior acting as a filler bar indicating the time limit of its activation. This will most likely be used as a checkpoint, a light source, and as well as a boost to the player's mana regeneration if they are in range of it. I might even tweak it to also affect enemy behaviour once I have them established.

In the time being, I have developed its primary features. It is activated when the player shoots a bullet at it, or if it detects an echo from a nearby wall. It will fill up and immediately drain, indicating how long the mana regen boost effect will last. At the moment, the beacon's range is a 2 unit radius, a 5 second time limit, and a boost multiplier of 5. This will be subject to change for balancing purposes.

Future improvements for the beacon will include a visual indicator for its range, as well as the effect on enemy behaviour. Below is a demo gif for y'all :)

Thanks for reading! See you in the next one!