Time Rivals Weekly Dev-Log #9
Welcome back to the Time Rivals Weekly Devlog! This week at Studio 316, we’re almost ready to start Protoplay! That means a whole host of tweaks and adjustments to our sandbox to make things feel that little bit better in the Arena during your upcoming playtest – so first off, before we get into this no doubt extensive devlog, here’s a reminder…
STEP INTO THE ARENA SOON!
Start planning which Rival to use and master now, because Time Rivals will be available for protoplay soon! This weekend you’ll be able to download Time Rivals from our itch.io page right here:
https://studio316.itch.io/time-rivals
The Showrunner’s got his eye on you. Make sure to impress him in the Arena when you arrive, and you’ll get renewed for another series or two!
The Rivals
Photo Finishing Touches
Shutter has been through a lot of changes lately. I’ve been tracking our Rival’s strengths over time and while Shutter has been very consistently strong, his in game performance can certainly be inconsistent in the heat of battle due to the inaccuracy of his SMG. So what have we been doing to our speedster in this last week before protoplay?
Well, first off, Khris has finished up Shutter’s model. While we can’t say for absolute sure yet, it’s likely that you’ll see Shutter’s model sprinting around the Arena with his own unique animations when you come to playtest. Secondly, we’ve heavily adjusted Shutter’s SMG bloom and spread to make the initial accuracy very high, with a steeper drop off for the longer you fire. While working on Shutter’s SMG, Jamie made an awesome tool that tracks bullet spread, numbering each round to exit the barrel and indicating where they land, so we can see where the bloom kicks in and how tight the overall spread is. It’s really interesting and cool game-dev tech and Jamie deserves his props for it as it’ll no doubt be a useful tool going into the future.
We’ve got clips below of Shutter doing what he does best – running, and gunning. Will you be playing Shutter this weekend?
Super Nova
Oh Nova, Nova. It feels like you’ve been neglected over this whole period (and, well, you have, but it’s for a reason). Nova’s a simple rival with a simple kit, and she’s always worked and performed well, even in pre-devlog builds of Time Rivals. The worst she ever had it was when we found a bug that stopped her shooting after her first death, but even then she made do with her Voltage Web trap and its high damage.
So what have we done? Well… basically nothing. We’ve fixed a few issues that were holding back her kit, where her trap was sometimes falling through the world and where her ammo counter wasn’t displaying properly. Nova doesn’t need anything flashy, besides the lightning. She’s already proved herself in the Arena: will you be seeking to build on that reputation or tear it down?
Murder Machine
Matron’s been through a lot of iteration. Initially intended as a healer (That didn’t go so good in playtesting, trust us on this one), Matron ended up in the unique position she is now where her primary and ability feed into each other, a system no other Rival has. She didn’t have much identity until suddenly she had become one of the most fun Rivals in our internal playtests. When playing Matron you can either spam shards to detonate them all around opponents, or carefully deal consistent damage with direct hits.
In the last build we limited Matron’s fire rate, to prevent spam. But we realised – this just wasn’t as fun, and it wasn’t as engaging with the cycle of her ability recharging. So now Matron can spam Dark Shards to her heart’s content once more (maybe a little slower) then use Dark Detonation to create a mighty explosion and rend any Rival unlucky enough to pass by.
Will you fall victim to the Matron’s dark shards, or will you be the one stacking the bodies high and keeping the Clone Pod economy rolling?
New Goo
We’ve really struggled to make Goobert a force to be reckoned with over the course of development. He’s been the bulkiest, slowest Rival for a while, with the most limited range, and the longest cooldown ability with his GooBot which has had it’s own problems over time. So what could we do to upgrade the strugglling scientist? Well, it was obvious in hindsight… New Goo! But what does New Goo mean? Well, with Goobert’s newest formula (formula meaning ‘buffs’ in this case) you DEFINITELY won’t want to be taking a casual stroll through his goo puddles, as his damage over time effect now ticks large numbers fast, rather than small numbers slowly.
This means Goobert can be used in the way he was always intended – to lane and block routes to objectives, with the loyal and eager GooBot to cover his back in case of a sneaky Rival trying to exploit a route he hasn’t already covered in goo. Previously the GooBot was a bit too eager and (quite hilariously) instantly detonated the moment you placed it – we later discovered the GooBot saw Goobert when it was placed and immediately blew up believing he was an enemy! Now though the GooBot only chases opponents, and we’ve already discovered how scary it can be when the GooBot is on the chase!
Here’s a clip of the New Goo’s potency – if you don’t slip, you’ll definitely dissolve running across it!
Goo-ing Up
We also fixed another Goobert bug, but I’ll hand the mic to Joe to explain this one. He created a Twitter thread about the problem and how we solved it right here:
"You fix one thing and it breaks another"
— Time Rivals (@TimeRivalsGame) September 20, 2021
A common saying in the game dev world and here is a prime example. This is a bug shooting players into the air we discovered 2 weeks ago and we have only just identified and fixed. Here is what happened. 1/5#indiedev #gamedev #UE4 pic.twitter.com/k9BavGwcpm
With all these adjustments, Goobert has become one serious threat in the Arena. Watch your step!
Tech Talk
The Box! The Box!
What’s in the box? Jamie’s programming. He’s created the lovable DPS box so we can test optimal ranges, spread and other such effects. It’s kind of a thing you’d expect us to have done earlier, but now that we have the DPS box, we love him dearly. Jamie’s also made adjustments to the clone pod throwing because our Rivals may be badass in battle, but they really seemed to struggle when throwing their Clone Pods around, which felt horrible for gameplay. The new Clone Pod throw indicator displays a small Clone Pod in the landing spot, helping you aim your throw, and shows when a Pod will rebound off a surface.
See them both in action below!
Between U and I…
What’s On The Menu?
Again? Yep, again. We’ve redone all the menus specifically for protoplay, now focusing on simplicity and ease of use. Jamie made this new simplistic design, easy to use and with a new Rivals subpage that displays all our awesome Rival models while you wait for a game. The new look is below, and still could be subject to change given just how many main menus we’ve had in the last three weeks!
We’re heading into some uncharted waters now with Time Rivals now the Transfuzer period is over. However, rest assured – we’ll be seeing you again next week with more updates and feedback on our playtest! We hope to see you there!
See you next week!
By Joe. C
