Making the combat more fun

Something that I have been working a lot on lately is making the combat more fun

Essentially I was not happy with the fights,  they felt very clunky, primarily because I had intended the game to be a puzzler first and a shooter second - but it was clear that the fighting mechanic needed to work well. So this has got an overhaul.

THE SHOOTING

The actual mechanic of shooting stuff didn't feel fun. You would press fire, and after a small pause where the squirrel would flap his arm an acorn would arc in whichever way you (the player) were looking.It was tough to aim and slow and didn't feel right.

Instead of that there is now a more familiar "fps" vibe - there is a reticle so you can see where you will be shooting and you can just hold down fire and machine gun stuff. It's a lot more satisfying.

THE BADDIES

Up until now these guys have been pretty stupid. All they would do would be to run towards you, shoot from time to time, so they were about as tricky as an enemy in a 90s shooter. The new improved AI has them using cover, dodging and working as a team. When idle it will also be possible to mess with them by creating a distraction and sneaking past - so enemy encounters will be a lot more engaging.

FIRST PERSON OR THIRD PERSON

To compliment the above, you can now zoom out into a third person view to help with jumping about on platforms and such, and then zoom in to first person for when you want to shoot at things!

That's about it for now!

Take it easy

The Biostation Drone