xr57p build 2024-04-23-2318-HTML

This is the build I brought to the recent Capital Creative Showcase in Sacramento.  I got a lot of great playtesting feedback, and certainly found a fair number of bugs/gameplay issues.   The goal was to try out some new features as we work out the next iteration of the game's design.  Things like more floor-tiles (i.e. item) variety and some sort of level progression/win condition.

new features

1. the biggest "feature" i wanted to try out is an upgrade system for the floor tiles.  In prior version you could create orange, purple, or green, but you could not upgrade them.  Now, you can upgrade Orange floors to Turrets (a passive attack tile) and Purple floors to Force Fields (aka walls; a passive defense tile)

1. Each secondary color now has an "active" version (where the Player must stand on the tile to use it) and a "passive" version (i.e. it will perform its ability without the player present to activate it.) 
2. The system for doing this is that adding additional yellow/blue to an orange/purple tile will change the tile's type.  (i.e. Ray Gun to Turret  (Orange) or Teleport Pad to Force Field (purple)).

2. I updated the way floor tiles display, so that when you hover one tile over another it will show a preview of which tile will result from the combination.

3. there is a "battery" which is the key to exit the level. after you find it, you can drop it on greens to absorb them.  absorbing a green may release a bad guy and depletes your total green count (i.e. health), so it provides a risk/reward push-your-luck mechanic on the way out of the level.  When you drop it on the starting point, you end the level.  Any greens you charged the battery with are added to your charge total (score).

known bugs:

1.  At certain points, a fatal bug crashes the game.  I believe because a floor tile instance is removed from the world's map and then something in game still attempts to access it.

other known issues:

1. the turrets are OP (should probably have a distance cap)
2. switching between secondary tile types erases all your progress in upgrading that tile
3. dropping the battery on the last green tile does not kill you (it should; there are no more greens left).
4. the upgrade system UI (or lack thereof) does not make any intuitive sense.
5. the battery-charge "points" system doesn't really make much sense or feel satisfying. its just a quick and dirty score attack mechanic to give some objective in this version of the game. (but I like the pizza-tower style goal of working your way back to the start with some sort of push-your-luck mechanic).