Our villain, well, he’s still just an aspirin tablet.

But our NPCs now have line of sight, as well as a cone indicator for their area of detection.

We also have doors.

They open, and close — and they also can be triggered based on the completion of quest goals. Which means I can give the player their advanced alien weaponry one or two items at a time, and spread out the learning curve over the first two levels, instead of having to teach the player everything all at once.

I hate that. Who wants to have to remember so much stuff up front? Even if it is in the name of fun (and isn’t really all that much to remember).

Still, it’s much better to just start playing, and learn how to overcome obstacles as you encounter them.

Also, we played around with the camera angle and distance to the player. We liked the speed of movement, so we tried to leave it alone. It’s quick, which adds to the tension and surprise, and really helps to bring out an emotional response (fear, really) when you encounter a bad guy and have to react so quickly.

You can see in this screen shot both the new camera distance (which reveals more of the map at one time), and the NPC detection cone. We’ve also added walkways to the basic levels, and the path finding works like a champ. It goes up and down stairs super smooth, and doesn’t have any of the typical problems that you encounter with path finding and raised platforms.

And we have finished the rough conceptual level lay outs for the tutorial level and Area 51.

This is the tutorial area–a cornfield in Kansas.

You will only have two weapons, and one ability at this point. The other two tech items you will  acquire in the beginning of the next level.

Tags: ReturnDearLeader