Hello and welcome to this week’s dev blog! It is me, Christian (again), and I’m here to take you through what happened last week at Stunlock Studios.
First and foremost though, we’d much appreciate it if you could answer some questions regarding Bakko’s Egg Brawl. We have a survey we’d like you to fill out, and you can find it here. Thank you for taking the time!
Gameplay Team
So the gameplay team has been looking at a few different things during the last week. First and foremost, there’s (still) work going on with the new player experience. Besides working on the 1v1 matches against AI, they’re also working on additional steps within this, currently called “challenges”. The goal of these challenges is to teach some of the not so obvious mechanics of Battlerite like picking up orbs or using EX abilities.
The existing tutorial will see some improvements as well, and they’re experimenting a bit with what it could be as part of a larger campaign. There’s a chance the tutorial might see big changes but they will have to try things out a bit more for themselves before we have anything concrete to share.
As mentioned way back in the development update we are also looking into some ways to spice up the arena in general. The team have been looking at how to improve the scrolling combat text (the numbers that pop up when you deal/heal damage) in various ways. For example, having continuous damage count up towards a total damage combo value.
Lastly, the gameplay team have been implementing changes for an upcoming patch that will be going live at the start of Season 3. I don’t have a date for you just yet, but you shouldn’t have to wait too long now! As well as more general balance changes, we’ve taken a closer look at Jumong and made some bigger changes to his kit and Battlerites. We’re also trying out some new mechanics which will switch up how stealth works. Looking for more details? I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for the official patch notes!
UI
Over on UI, Katey has been exploring the post-match flow of the game and how it can be improved for UI 2.0. What should happen after you finish a match of Battlerite? Katey describes her work this past week like this:
“I’m trying to figure out how to fit in more features post-match, providing information that enables you to see how well you did, hopefully even how you can improve, and get you more excited about your performance and rank/xp. I’m also looking at providing a quick shortcut at the end of the match so you can get straight into making an Odeum highlight. One thing I’m experimenting with is having a ‘My Performance’ summary as one of the first screens after the match ends, with the option to look at a more detailed scoreboard and Battlerites chosen within this area. Or, it’s possible we’ll relocate the detailed scoreboard and Battlerites information into the match history section instead (found in your profile), especially if we keep a lobby chat open for the duration of the end-match experience. I’m thinking this might prevent players from inappropriately blaming others and rage induced chat in general. At this stage, there’s been no decisions made and I’m still exploring options!”
Programming Team
The programming team sits a lot with background stuff not necessarily always visible to the players, such as smoothing out the internal pipelines to make it easier for the rest of the company to do their work. However, they have also been working on preparations for Season 3 (as the change of a season usually means a bit of work), helping out with improving the arena feel, trying out different things with the camera systems we use in-game and fixing bugs!
Art Team
Unfortunately for you guys, the art team continued to work on a bunch of stuff we don’t want to show you just yet. It’s really cool though, I can vouch for that! What I can tell you is they have been putting the finishing touches on that project involving those mysterious fishies. That monkey business from last week is also in a completed state and you should get to see it all before too long!
In the meantime and to round this post off, here’s a concept image that shows where the monkey originates!
That’s all for this week folks. Next week we’ll be taking a deep dive into a specific topic, so stay tuned for that!
/Christian