Tonight’s update is pretty minor. I’m still playing with the new mechanics, but I think I like where things are headed.
Changes this version:
- Levels 2+ are shorter.
- Boosters have a lower chance to spawn. (Only applies to the places where they can appear randomly, like during the spiral and random patterns.)
- The “difficult” patterns (walls and deltas) have a slightly higher chance to spawn.
- The health UI has been hidden.
- Health pickups have been disabled. (Though sometimes it looks like a health ring will spawn.)
- The speed UI has been hidden. It doesn’t really mean much now that speed is locked during each level.
- The Doom mutator has been updated so the explosion is constantly gaining on you.
- The Sudden Death mutator has been updated so the explosion starts very near you, and a single hit causes it to catch you. (The opening animation doesn’t work out so well yet.)
- The Turbo mutator has been updated so you start at max speed and never slow down when hit.
- The “near-death effects” (UI shaking, red border) have been updated to display at the same time the warning symbols and skull-and-crossbones appear.
I’ve got plans for the Accelerator mutator, but it’s a bit more involved to change, so I want to get some testing in on the new mechanics before I go in and start making major changes.
Here’s the new version: Tunnel Racer v26a
And some random brainstorming:
UI
If I decided to ditch the speed and health UI elements because of these gameplay changes, then I’ll probably rearrange the UI – maybe put the pause button in the upper-right and the distance bar between the score on the left and the pause button on the right. This would free up a bit of space.
Ships
If health disappears, it means there’s really no need for more than 5 craft if I keep the 1-5 rating for speed. Since there are currently 6 ships, one would likely get dropped, or I’d have to come up with a new reason to have more than 5. I don’t think losing a ship would be a huge loss, but I had been thinking about maybe offering ships as DLC. If there’s no use for more than 5 ships, ship DLC doesn’t make much sense.