Test Nexus

This next Monday on the second of January, I need your help testing Nexus. I want your input, help me make this game as fun as possible by telling me what you think. Tell me what powerups you love/hate, what's too strong or too weak, and what you think could make this game better. The gameplay is heading towards the end of its development so now is your chance to change Nexus.

The game will likely only be live for only a week or less, so play as often as you can to get the most out of it.

Here is the current list of confirmed powerups:

When the game is live on Monday I will announce the hidden power ups

Thanks and I hope to see you on Monday

AI Demo

I don't have much news to share this week, but here's of something I had been working on. It is a demo of some AI for defense turrets that could possibly have been used in alternate game modes or even a single player campaign, but those ideas have been cut. I will most likely use it for future projects.



The turrets will lead their shots to try to destroy nearby enemies. Click on the spawn fighter button to create more enemies for the turrets to attack. They are pretty accurate even at distances, but when the enemy accelerates or turns it will likely miss. The turret defense AI is designed to be accurate but not devastating, so that if you had them assisting you in a mission they would help you but not carry you. Each separate turret on the ship has been color coded and their targets circled to easily see what they are aiming at.

The turrets will also defend against any enemy, not just the fighters. They are even effective against asteroid fields and missiles.

EDIT: Just realized I didn't turn off the sound effects in the demo, should be off now. Also I allowed the fighters to be offensive too, it makes it more interesting.

EDIT 2: No update on 12/26/11 for Christmas, maybe an early next update however.

Shooting the wormhole

When you directly attack a wormhole, you spawn powerups in your field, but also some of your laser shots will travel through to the enemy's field. This isn't a very effective way of attacking the enemy, but the shots that spawn in their field can be disruptive.

This is especially effective against players that try to "camp" on a player's wormhole and send powerups through as they spawn. If someone is sending a lot of powerups quickly and consistently into your field, just shoot their wormhole several times and if they were sitting on your wormhole they will be hit by your shots.

Right now the current system will send three shots through when you shoot a wormhole enough to spawn a powerup. The shots that spawn move slowly in random directions and slowly fade away in only a few seconds. As I said earlier this isn't a strong attack, but it is useful when stacking it with powerup attacks and as a deterrent as well.

It also alerts the enemy that you are facing their wormhole and may be attacking soon, so be cautious about which wormhole you use to spawn powerups.

The Mine Layer

The mine layer is a new powerup added to the arsenal. When the powerup is launched it sends three of these enemies into their field. They are pretty slow moving and have a moderate amount of armor, but they will drop a mine after a certain amount of time has passed. If these are not destroyed quickly, you can easily find yourself overcome with the minefield they will have created.

They are easily stack-able with other powerups because they can create a distraction and cause mayhem at the same time. Keep an eye out for these powerups because they will are very useful.

Colors

Each player in the game is assigned a color at the beginning of each match. This color is your identity: your ship, your HUD, and your attacks all share your color.  Incoming attacks have the color of the player who sent them.  This idea of color is identity is emphasized throughout the game.

This allows you to easily separate yourself from friendly and hostile objects.  If you see an unfamiliar color, either shoot at it or avoid it, because odds are it is hostile.  This helps simplify the chaos when the screen is filled with objects and lessens the confusion.

Not only is it functional but it defines the art style as well. Bright colors that contrast with a dark background along with the simple polygons give it the arcade look and the colored outlines give objects definition and attention.

Even better it allows you to trace that last missile that hit you back to its sender, so you can get revenge by dumping your arsenal into their wormhole.

Experience System

The new experience point system rewards for playing well, even if the player does not win the entire game.  This system encourages constant attacking and defending instead of just hiding and avoiding attacks to try to wait the game out.

This experience contributes to the player's level, which indicates how skilled and experienced a player is.  Each rank earns a new background for the player's scorecard, which all other players can see.  Trying to reach that next rank will drive players to keep playing for those experience points.  Eventually these points may unlock abilities, customization options or more, so long as it does not affect game play or cause an unfair advantage.

If you've played games with a similar system such as the recent Call of Duty games, you've probably realized how addicting this system is.  You may have also noticed the small "tick" sound you get every time you either hit an enemy or score some experience points in these games, which although sounds minimal actually contributes a great deal to the reward system in the player.  When the player hears the soft but satisfying tone accompanying the experience, it reminds them that they are moving closer towards that next rank.  I've been attempting to make my own version of this, while still making it relevant to the game.

Feel free to post any ideas you have about the experience system and how it could be used to enhance the game.

Speeding Up Gameplay

Keeping the game fast-paced is a priority in Nexus's development.  Players need to be doing something at all times in game with as little down time as possible to keep the gameplay as interesting and exciting as possible.  The following are some changes made to make the game play faster:

• Recycling attacks
• When you successfully defend against an attack the game will now reward you with your own powerup of that attack.  This will allow the player to send the attack back to the enemy, giving more incentive to fighting attacks rather than just avoiding them.  This also increases the amount of powerups in each game, creating larger and more active battlefields for each game.  The only exception are attacks that must be avoided, such as the laser and circle shot.
• More powerups
• As stated in the previous change, the more powerups the more active the game field, so powerups will now spawn faster when you shoot enemy wormholes manually.  Increasing the amount of attacks too much can cause the game to lag and can bring frustration, so this has been balanced with the next change.
• Larger battlefield
• The game field has grown allowing for more movement to dodge attacks and catch up to floating powerups.  The game feels much less cramped and now provides much-needed breathing room.

 These changes and more are bringing some major improvements to the game and I when the next round of testing comes you guys will like it.

Occam's Razor

Gameplay was getting too confusing, especially for new users.  I've decided that the newest version will have two main gameplay elements removed for simplification: the ship ability and the friendly powerups.

The ship ability was a neat idea, but adding an extra button and more functionality without much explanation only caused frustration.  Players that did not know about it had a very large disadvantage, and a surprisingly large amount of people appeared to have overlooked the ability.

Friendly powerups were even more confusing, because the idea of sending something to yourself is not something innate.  The initial idea was to use this as a step to team powerups in team battles, but the benefits do not outweigh the cost of using them.  It slows down gameplay by having to think about which button sends what, and often players would accidentally send friendly powerups to enemies, inadvertently helping them instead of hurting them.

If you were a fan of these, don't worry, they aren't completely gone.  They are still in the code, so if I can get them to add to the game without taking anything away, they could come back.

New Powerup: Fighter Drones

I gave you guys a sneak peek at one of the latest updates to Nexus before I moved to the new blog, and in case you missed it here's what it was:




These guys are fighter drones, one of the newest power ups added to the game.  They are search and destroy ships that seek out the enemy, launch an attack, and then attempt to evade any retaliation.  They are nasty and a very effective addition to the arsenal.

When you launch this attack at your opponent it will spawn four drones into your opponents field.  Right now their behavior is actually pretty simple.  They have two main states:

• Attacking
• The enemy has been sighted within a certain range
• Aim at the enemy and fire laser attack
• If the enemy gets too close or the attack has finished, find a new spot and enter search mode
• Searching
• Move to a random position on the map
• If the player is spotted nearby in close proximity go into attack mode

 The behavior will probably be changed after I get some data from testing, but for now it is pretty suitable for the game.

Old Posts

The development blog for Codename: Nexus is starting fresh with the new name, to view the older posts when Nexus was still called Rift, check out the rift development blog.