Devlog #5 - Alpha 2 Release!

Well, we're coming close to an event that is going to happen at our campus, a GameDev Day, and in it we are to try and present a demo version of our game, so we've tried to add as much as we could to Alpha 1 to come up with Alpha 2.

1. We have added 2 new characters into the game, they serve as players and enemies, so that we can extend the game roster as quickly as we can, so we re utilize them both as a player and an enemy, solely to preserve time;
2. UI has now been complete, for the current intended features;
3. Unlock and Highscore System has also been done but only the Highscore System is enabled for the time being;
4. We have added Music to the game, the volume can be configured in the Options, it's currently on Random Loop and has a count of 3 different tracks provided by DonSimon of varied length;
5. Points and Scores are now tracked along Runs, Points are the accumulative traveled distance of all runs and serves to unlock new characters, has Solo or Team Scores, to be placed in the Highscores, your Score(current run Points) has to be better than the entry that is in first place;
6. Healing System has been added, to provide the player with a chance to regain some health at a (current 10%) chance of dropping a "Medkit" on each Enemy kill that provides currently a Randomized Healing Value (25 - 100) that represents a % of Heal based of the Player Max HP;
7. Currently there is only an "Easy" Setting for the AI, low stats and limited behavior (easy mode), will try and provide more variety as soon as it can be possible.

New Additions

UI

• Highscores Menu is now working and serves to present all the Scores that have been added, along the completed runs that meet the criteria to be added (always be better than the one at first place);
• Options now offers settings for volume options (Master, Music, SoundFx, currently that are no SoundFx) and is divided between "Sound Volume Settings" and "Bindings Settings" for the players.

Characters

• Added Terry, a slower character than Ex-Kyo that provides good damage and speed, still requires balancing, just like Ex-Kyo, this character has the same attack move set that Ex-Kyo has, a Linear Combo (Light and Medium Attacks) that finishes at a Heavy Attack;
• Added Vanessa, a quicker character than Ex-Kyo that provides low damage and high speed, still requires balancing, this character is different from the other two, where it does not have linear combos, this character has 4 Light Attacks and 4 Medium Attacks, and each attack can link to any attack on the other Attack List, giving it a "free flow combo feel", character does not have Special Attacks.

Heal System

• A Medkit drops on Enemy Death, only Heals Players that have any missing amount of health, it glows with a different color depending on how much HP% it is supposed to heal, this value is not currently set, but randomized between 25 to 100 % of the Players Max Health each time a Medkit is generated, they have a 10% chance to drop on each Enemy Death. 

Data System

• All Players Profiles and Highscores  are properly stored in a save file in each new windows system through a Save/Load Persistency System of the data;
• Same goes for the new Sound System, but it only saved the value of the Master, Music and SoundFx System;
• Data gets stored to "C:\Users\*USER*\AppData\LocalLow\Besaids\Infinity Battle\game_save", is in a binary format in .txt files, these are not to be altered in any way, or the data will get corrupted and one would have to delete the files to reset the corruption, losing all data in the file during the process.

Sound

• Volume was added in the options, giving the player the ability to lower or higher the volume of various settings;
• 3 Music Tracks were added to the game, of different , they play in a random loop since game boot.

Bug Fixes:

AI

• 2 Player Logic was revisited since Alpha 1, and has been fixed since then, it was previously broken at the AI level when playing with 2 players;
• AI getting blocked at the edges was an issue, now resolved;
• Enemies would often get broken during GameObject Destroy Action,  this has been currently amended;
• AI would often get broken during player targeting due to wrongful variable manipulation;
• AI Linear Engaging of a Target is now better at getting closer to the Target for an Attack;
• The maximum number of enemies targeting a player has now been fixed and is now a setting in each AI Brain.

Data Save/Load System

• Saving and Loading of Player/Setting Data was overhauled and revised, now being able to save the Player Profiles, Player Highscores and Player Sound Settings.

Profiles

• Now the UI and Game Data is responsive to alterations to the Player Profiles, on the removal of a player profile from the profile list, this is now reflected in the UI Player Selection Screen and the Highscores that match that Player Profile are also removed.

Bindings

• Bindings were not being properly assigned on each new build in a new computer, this has now been resolved and have been set to a "default" set of bindings, one has to customize them, if needed, through the Options.

Characters

• Players were able to jump on top of enemies and get stuck, that is currently no longer possible;
• Players were able to push enemies by walking/running/jumping against them, that is no longer possible;
• Ex-Kyo was tweaked in terms of stats and animation values;

Current Unfixed Detected Issues:

• Enemies sometimes have a hard time getting triggered on the death animation, we believe this might be due to the order priority of the animations which is influencing, but we have not delved into that yet, so we can not be certain if this is the issue;
• Enemies occasionally throw actions whilst being Hit;
• Enemies while Linearly Traveling to a Target sometimes jitter, trying to line itself up with the target's positional Z value.

Coming Up Next:

• More balancing of the current characters, we are still new and have no clue, and so we trial and error until it feels right;
• More enemy behaviors and different difficulty settings;
• More characters;
• More levels and overhauled level layout with a more proper parallax setting;
• Addition of Sound Fx.

Not a Priority:

• Addition of particle/effects for actions (hits, knockdowns, etc...).