The latter days:
After some further testing I found that day 4 was actually the hardest day and too hard in general too, though you can actually beat it. I've made a bunch of adjustments to balance that day out more and flow better in the difficulty curve that plays throughout the 6 days in the game.
Day 6 is rather lacking still, being the same as day 5 but a little faster, so after some pondering I've come up with something neat and scary for day 6 involving the lights. Due to sabotage the lights are off and you'll have to rely on an old lantern to see. To make things worse the Clockwork Demons that have been lurking in the darkness can now easily reach you, lest you fend them off.
During day 5 you will be able to spot some of these mechanical monstrosities in the darkest shadows of the factory.
You'll have to place the lantern down in a way that allows you to work.
However you can hold it too, to get a better look at things or to fend off the Clockwork Demons.
To make things a little more scary during calm moments, especially during days 2 and 3, I'm planning to add some "events" that cannot harm you but will definitely stress you out or give you a good scare.
Together with the Clockwork Demons and a final few tweaks the game should be complete.
Here's a preview of the Clockwork Demon model so far, in Blender:
Here's the full list of fixes and changes so far:
- The Boss now makes idle sounds every now and then,
- Improved shovel response when looking at boiler,
- Increased machine breaking chance in tutorial day,
- Machine malfunction smoke effect is more obvious now,
- Wrench now only does the repair animation when a machine is actually broken,
- Updated the instructions board to be more understandable,
- Updated controls text to be more understandable in main menu and pause options.
- Day 6: Lights are off, but a lantern spawns. Need to use lantern to light the way. This lantern will get a second function as soon as the new monster is implemented,
- Day 4 toy parts spawn rate has been increased to make that day more fair,
- Day 6 toy parts spawn rate has been decreased to make that day a little more challenging,
- Competitor can no longer kill you whilst the day ends,
- Fixed Boss voice still playing when he kills you,
- Fixed light flickers stopping when Boss decides to kill you,
- Made it more obvious that you can use the shovel against Competitors,
- Polished the loading screen.
- Fixed boiler without safety valve starting to break down halfway through green instead of yellow,
- Fixed a toy starting to run around when picked up from the belt by the player,
- Fixed being able to throw coal into the boiler through the boiler door,
- Added machine sounds for more immersion,
- Adjusted the volume scaling of the lineshaft and machine sounds,
- Made boiler fire and boiling sound a little louder,
- Increased breaking chance for machines on day 2,
- Machines are guaranteed to break before 2AM if they haven't already,
- Competitors are guaranteed to spawn before 2AM if they haven't already,
- Lowered Competitor spawn chance in days 4 and 5,
- Competitor now makes a sound when spawning,
- Added different sounds for Competitor retreating and killing,
I'm aiming to reach version 1.0 by the end of next week (4th of February). After that I can start pondering on the Deliveries update and the co-op version of the game, though it may be a little while before I actually get to making those. I am mainly working on Disinfection after all.
Let me know what you think about the game and updates so far!
Version 1.0 is released, full post coming soon.