Devlog 1 - Player Movement

Implementation

Player movement for my game was very easy to implement as it's just a simple auto-shooter. The difficulty with the game will come when there are hundreds of enemies coming from multiple directions, so you'll need to master these basic mechanics to stay alive for as long as possible.

For my game, I'm using a simple 8-way directional movement as shown in the GIF below.

I've added a blink/teleport ability that the player will be able to use when getting cornered or just in a sticky situation. However once I've implemented the card-based upgrade system, this ability will become an uprade. NOTE: This might change, I'm not 100% sure yet.

Finally, one of the main movement mechanics is the ability to use the planets gravity wells to gain a speed boost and slingshot yourself around them when you need to reposition.

Future Ideas

In the future I may add a speed boost that you get from a combo breaking. This combo will increase based on the amount of enemies killed in quick succession, and the longer the combo, the quicker you need to kill the enemies, but the longer the speed boost will be once the combo breaks.

Feedback

From the feedback I recieved they seemed to really like the art style I am going for which is awesome, and the teleport and slingshot mechanics are a nice touch that feel sensible for the type of game that it is. One issue that was raised, was the fact it was hard to keep track of where you were in the world. I've since updated the build with a custom background so help with this and I also plan on addressing this issue by adding a minimap you can see where the planets are in relation to the player. This would also help the player plan out where the next potential slingshot is, as the planets are dynamic, constantly rotating around the Sun.