Checkpoint 5 - UI and Polish

UI and Polish

At this checkpoint I haven’t actually got UI beyond the timer implemented yet. I plan to have 3 gem icons beneath the timer to display which of the 3 gems the player has collected in each level, which will be in the game by the next dev log.

The main content I have added this week is a third level that has a much more distinct style and atmosphere inspired by TRON.

Alongside this I finally added a core feature that was described in the concept devlog, the zipline or homing attack ability. A target will appear to make it clear that you can use the grapple key to zip towards floating white anchors placed in the level. The target starts large and quickly shrinks onto the anchor to draw the player’s eye.

Feedback

This portion of the third level requires a bit too much precision and creates a sudden difficulty spike in the game.

To remedy this I will shrink the arc that circles the platform on the right and switch out the ‘crayon’ obstacle on the bottom left for something a bit easier to get over consistently. I will also reduce the size and coverage of some of the hazards so the smaller spaces aren’t so finicky to navigate.