RZ2 July 2021 Update
Incoming Transmission…
Welcome to the official Robozarro 2 dev blog— an inside look at the development of Robozarro 2, a PC and console game being developed in the Unity Game Engine!
Today I’d like to update you on the progress that’s been made on Robozarro 2 during the past month or so. In June I posted a video showing off RZ2’s Shopping, Dialogue, and Inventory systems. And while those systems have undergone further development over the past month, this time I’d like to focus on some of the new action-oriented additions that have made it into the game.
So without further ado (and in no particular order), here we go!
1) Exploration box explosions, physics, and traversal.
Wooden boxes can now be destroyed and/or used for traversing the environment! NOTE: Not shown in the video below— the boxes will sometimes drop credits (money) too!
Wooden Box destruction and traversal in action!
2) Grabbable objects can now be taken into battle!
As seen in the video below, when players grab explosive barrels (or other objects) and are spotted by an enemy, they’ll be able to begin combat with the object they were holding onto. This allows the player to begin combat with blast-able barrels, boxes, mines, and other offensive and defensive objects. NOTE: As of right now players always start first when entering a battle. However, once the enemy’s Speed stat is calculated into the player/enemy turn-order (right now enemy Speed only affects enemy turn-order amongst themselves), enemy’s could begin the battle with an upper hand, which would allow them to attack first and destroy a player’s barrel/explosive object before the player can use it. This would create an extra layer of strategy for the player, when they decide how to approach combat on the exploration screen.
Taking Fire Barrels into combat!
3) Enemy Bullet Attacks.
For a while now, enemies were able to attack the player during combat. However, up until this point, the enemy would just flash for a moment, and then damage the player. This was a quick placeholder animation meant to simulate what would inevitably become an official “attack animation” down the road. And while the attack animations in the game aren’t final (everything is a work-in-progress until release), enemies such as “Pistol Pete” will finally move their arms and fire bullets at the player, complete with bullet tracing and damage particle effects. Check out the effects in the video below.
Enemy Bullet Effects and animations are coming along!
4) Enemy Weapon Grabbing.
One of the things players can do in the first Robozarro game is grab weapons from enemies, once the enemy’s health value is 50% or below. And while combat in Robozarro 2 takes place on an instanced, turn-based battlefield (as opposed to real-time), I still wanted to give players the ability to grab weapons from enemies, in order to add another level of strategy to the combat. In the video below you’ll notice that the fire barrels have a blue bar above their green health meter. The blue bar means the object can be grabbed without needing to damage it first. You’ll also notice that the enemies have red bars above their green health bars. That means the enemies can’t be grabbed. However, when you damage one of the Pistol Pete enemies enough that their health points get to 50% or below of their max value, their bar will turn from red to yellow. The yellow bar means that if the player fires a grab bullet at Pistol Pete, they’ll be able to grab Pete’s weapon! Once Pete’s weapon is grabbed, just like with the barrels, players can blast Pete’s weapon at any object on the battlefield. Not only that, but since Pete no longer has his pistol, he’s forced to change up his attack routine, which will cause him to use different attacks against the player. These attacks might do more or less damage, depending on the enemy. Check out weapon grabbing in action, in the video below.
Robozarro 2’s Weapon Grabbing in action!
5) World Map.
Robozarro 2 now has a functioning world map! The artwork for the world map was completed over six months ago, but up until this point it was never programmed into the game. In the current build of the game, each section of the world map is highlightable, and will take players to the chosen destination when selected. You can see the world map highlights and animation effects in the video below.
Robzarro 2’s World Map in action!
6) Everything else.
Admittedly, I didn’t have time to record videos of everything that’s been added to the game! So, in the interest of time, here’s a short list of some other things that got added to the game in July:
Wraith enemies (pictured below).
Loot Effects (sparkles the pop out of loot cubes when they’re grabbed by the player).
Player Spawn Points (I can now control where the player spawns in a level).
Indoor/Outdoor Location Transitions (players can now go in and out of houses and other structures)!
Enemy Pathing (enemies will wander around the environment).
Laser Trip/Proximity Mines (these explosives add an element of danger to environment traversal).
Background Object Looting (players can now check the inventories of ammo crates, dressers, drawers, and other “background” objects in the game world).
Hacking Loot Boxes (players can now “hack” certain loot boxes, where they’re only allowed access to the loot if the hack is completed.
Hacking Enemies (players can now “hack” into enemies during combat. If a hack is successful, players can choose from a list of damage, buff, and debuff options).
New NPC Dialogue Boxes (talking to NPC’s in the game no longer clutters the screen as much as it used to. Check out the new NPC dialogue box in the picture below!
Robozarro 2’s horizontal dialogue boxes replaced the vertical version.
Robozarro 2’s “Wraith” enemies.
That’s about everything for July (not counting the countless bug fixes and other updates that don’t make for engaging blog posts). With so many of the game’s systems functioning properly, I’m thinking that August will be a combination of art, level-design, and scenario planning/development. What this basically means is that, with exploration, combat, inventory, shopping, dialogue, map traversal, checkpoints, hacking, and so many of the game’s other systems working together seamlessly… I’m pretty much at the point where I just need to keep making more of the game world, and tying it all together from left to right. This means continuing development on environments, enemies, animations, character interactions, puzzles, and everything else that’s going to make the game memorable and special. Therefore, it’s time to get back to work, so that I have some exciting stuff to show off for the August Update!
Thanks for stopping by!
Transmission Complete.
-Matt
