Stem 0.2.1 is coming out soon !

Hi there !

I know, it's been a year... "What happened ?" will you ask ! Well, it happened that I have created my own coffee shop business in Montpellier, France, and didn't really get any time to work on Stem. But I finally took some vacation and opened my IDE ! And voilà !

I have been working on the next update for the last two weeks now (even though, I did get back to work at the cafe), and I wanted to share what will change in 0.2.1.

What will be new in 0.2.1 ?

• Particles. Even though particle are technically entities and entities already existed, adding particles to the burgeon (and later to other things) is adding a nice layer to the game, making it a tiny bit juicier. Not something urgently needed, but something I wanted in the game.
• Camera movement. So far, the camera was centred (well, not vertically, but you know what I mean) on the burgeon / player. But it lacked something organic. So I decided it would be nice if the camera was swinging around the player. And I think it works. I also chose to make the camera move towards where the player is going in some situations. For instance, when the player goes left or right, the camera moves further in that direction for the player to get more visibility on the game. Same when the boost is in use, the camera will move forward. It helps reading the game, I hope.

What will change in 0.2.1 ?

• The boost mechanics. I wasn't really pleased with how the boost mechanics used to work. If you don't remember, the player could press the space bar as long as he/she wanted to move faster, but at a great resource cost. It was too costly to use it though, and reducing that cost could have broken the gameplay. I had to find an engaging way for the player to use the boost, making it something fun to play, something neither overpowered, nor useless. So I decided to change everything ! Well, almost, the boost will still make you go super fast ! ;) How will it now work ? The boost will be available when the new 'boost' gauge is filled. When the boost is used, the player will grow at the maximum speed for about 8 seconds, until the gauge is empty. To fill the gauge, the player will need to collect electricity entities (left by storm clouds). That means the boost time can be extended whilst in use as long as the player can collect those electricity beads ! Also, the player will get a partial protection from ennemies when the boost is in use.
• The entities spawning mechanics. Here is one of the parts I am still working on. The current spawning mechanic has, at the moment, a lot of flaws. For instance, it does not currently properly match the displayed weather. Also, if the player goes on one direction, let's say far left, and decides to go to the far right, entities will continue to spawn on places where entities have already spawned before. The new spawning mechanics should fix these problems. Entities will now spawn in areas when the player will enter an adjacent area. This will allow me to create patterns, and make it easier to program how entities will spawn, and also, it will be easier for me to implement a seeding system, for an idea I want to implement in 0.2.2 or 0.3.0.
• Bugs entities mechanics. Bugs will now inflict less damages to the mineral resources. Although, they will now have a 33 percent chance of chasing the player when he/she will get too close from one of them.
• Fires and flames mechanics. Fire and flames deal less damage to the water resources now. But fires will set the player on fire and flames will have a 20% chance of doing so. Being set on fire decreases quickly the water level. But the player can cancel instantly the burning effect by running into a water drop or rain.
• Other tiny little things no one cares about. And a lot of code cleaning.

When will be released 0.2.1 ?

I can tell for sure when, as working on Stem is a (very) part time thing, but I will make everything I can to publish it before the end of this month (January 2018).

Feel free to comment on my post ! Any ideas ? Suggestions ? Comments ?

Yamzho ;)