8/13/2018 Progress on multiplayer, playable characters, and game structure

So in my last devlog I mentioned that, for my next build, I won't have the other playable characters or splitscreen multiplayer implemented. Well I've decided to go the extra mile and include them because why not? I figured that those two features would be part of my next major milestone so I wanted them to be in the next build when it's ready. Initially I thought the next build would only include the new tutorial level I was working on, but I didn't think that would be enough. Going forward, I want cooperative and competitive multiplayer to be substantial experiences, and in order to add support for this I knew I needed to figure out how to implement it early on to avoid complications down the road.

Let me start by going into detail on the multiple playable characters. I currently don't have any character designs and they all use the same character model for now, but I have written down character personalities and story-lines in my game design document, and I have their abilities implemented in game. (Though those will likely be changed and tweaked after further playtesting.)

Above is the character select screen as it currently looks in game. In the future I want the character you have selected to appear on the left with a brief outline of their abilities on the right. Each character will have two abilities. A left face button attack which you'll primarily be using while fighting grounded enemies, and a double jump ability which is primarily used for platforming but can still damage enemies.

Faye, our main character, is the fastest. She's the character who's best at speed-running levels. Her grounded attack is a burst of speed that the player can use as long as they're holding down the button and have enough energy. (Energy slowly depletes while using this attack.) This attack allows the player to charge through enemies and knock them back. The screenshot below shows Faye using that against a group of red placeholder enemy capsules.

Faye's air ability is an air dash attack that automatically homes in on a nearby enemy that the player is pointing the left joystick towards.

While jumping and holding a direction, the player will see a purple target appear on an enemy if the enemy is within range. If they press the jump button again they'll dash over to that enemy and kill it. This ability will be used to get across gaps or up to high places.

This ability is also meant to be used on grounded enemies when your attacks need to be more precise. Faye's grounded speed boost ability isn't always the best attack to use on grounded enemies because in certain situations it's easy to go flying off a ledge with it.

Lee is the second playable character, and the first one that the player will unlock by playing through Faye's story. While Faye's design is focused on fast paced platforming, Lee's design is more focused on precision platforming. (Though all three characters can still run fast and there will be plenty of loops and wall-running for all of them.)

His grounded ability is a spin attack which the player can perform for as long as they're holding down the button and have enough power. If the player uses this attack in mid-air they can hover across large gaps.

Lee's air ability is a double jump which is an uppercut that damages enemies above him. This allows him to reach high places easily.

Hazel's specialty will be combat. Her grounded ability is a shockwave which she can use to attack enemies all around her.

And her air ability throws out a shockwave in a downward direction which damages enemies below her and lets her jump higher. So it serves as a double jump but doesn't allow her to jump as high as Lee.

These two abilities give her a lot more range than Faye or Lee when dealing with enemies. One more thing I have planned for her that isn't implemented yet is the ability to reflect projectiles back at enemies.

Also while all of these characters will be able to play through the same levels, they'll do so in different orders based on how their stories play out and overlap. And the levels will have different layouts to fit their abilities. For example Faye will have more wall running and floating enemies to air dash into, Lee will have more large gaps to jump over and more floating platforms, and Hazel will have more enemies in her way and more projectiles to avoid/reflect.

Next I want to talk more about the game's structure. As I mentioned in my last devlog the game will be split up into large, open hub worlds that the player can explore and find secrets in, and action stages which are attached to each hub world where the player will face difficult platforming challenges. For each of these action stages I plan to have two missions, with the mission text appearing on the loading screen. A story mission that the player will complete by playing through the story, and a bonus mission that they can attempt by going to the level select screen on the main menu. The bonus mission for each level can only be accessed once the story mission has been completed.

These bonus missions haven't been fully implemented yet, but I have a way for the game to know which mission you're playing, and where to save your best rank and time for each. The level select screen shows what missions you have completed as well as your best rank in each.

Now for multiplayer, I originally thought I should only implement simple two player races as I thought having more than that would be unnecessary. But nah. Why not allow up to four players if I can? If someone has enough friends and controllers, why not allow everyone to play together? The more the merrier. Also I originally thought it would only be necessary to have the multiplayer mode be strictly competitive races. But I wanted the hub worlds to be a major part of this game, so why exclude them when playing with friends? I decided to add what I call "hub world mode" to the level select menu for multiplayer. It will essentially serve as an interactive level select screen in which the players are allowed to explore freely and practice their abilities, and when they all decide on a level to go to, they meet up at the entrance to that level. (If you've played Kirby Air Ride, think of it like city trial but cooperative and without a time limit.) There will be secret locations the players can only reach in this mode if they work together. Let's say there's a button high up that only Lee can reach. So the player playing as him goes up there to press it, and it reveals a room with a large gap and floating enemies that only Faye can cross with her air attack, so the player playing as her has to cross it and do something over there to get a secret item. And if the player were to find this secret in single player, they'll get a line of dialog where the character says something like "Hmmm if only <character> was here, I think they could help me out..."

That about does it for all of the important things I've added to Radical Adventure since my last update. This game will support Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PS4 gamepads. It can still be played with a keyboard but a gamepad is recommended for the best experience. I hope to have a new build out soon with multiplayer and hub worlds working, though there won't be too much to do in them just yet.