RAW 1.2 Update!

Game Mechanics

- I've overhauled the game mechanics substantially. Several weapons have been adjusted for damage, speed, and fire rate.

- Each stage will start with a boss that will need to be defeated. Obstacles, when destroyed, will spawn "normal enemies" players will have to contend with as well in order to advance to the next stage. 

- Leveling up will add a sizable amount of health to the player's max health and add additional damage to their projectile damage.

- Bosses, when encountered, will use most of the available weapons players also have access to (whether through weapon pick-ups or unlocks in the upgrade store)

- In addition, bosses have unique mechanics. These mechanics can include: 

  -At 75, 50, and 25% spawn additional enemy units

  -At start of stage, increase health substantially and damage considerably. 

  -On death, spawn 10 random loot (random loot can consist of credits, health drops, ammo clips, and weapon pick-ups)

  -At 75% spawn an additional boss unit with it's own unique mechanic. At 50% another boss unit with it's own unique mechanic. Then at 25% another boss unit with it's own unique mechanic will spawn. (I've also adjusted the difficulty so if an additional boss unit is present, another boss unit will not spawn)

  -At 50% increase health and damage substantially.  

  -At start of stage adjust fire rate to almost consistent. 

  -At 50% spawn additional obstacles

  - At 10% health, become invincible for 2 seconds and adjust weapon system to 360 projectile radius. After 2 seconds, the boss loses invincibility and the 360 projectile radius

  - On death, spawn 10 obstacles (side note: obstacles deal damage if the player touches it, with the exception of a few player advanced RAWs.)

  - At 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, and 10% boss teleports away from the player and gains a small bonus to damage.

Asset Updates

- I've created new screens for main menu, upgrade store, and others.

- I've changed the RAW unit appearances (Again). While I absolutely enjoy the journey of game making and look forward to learning more and more as I go, I find myself never quite happy with how things look. (One step at a time)

Upcoming RAW 1.3 Update Roadmap:

The following are not fully set in stone, but these are my goals moving forward.

- Add a score system, change sound effects, change music, and further enhance gameplay with potentially more unique weapons and other systems.

  - Score System

      - While I want RAW to be a difficult game to play, I don't want it to be impossible to play. I was contemplating ways players could earn credits if stages are too intense to climb. The score system would essentially add points to the player for destroying obstacles, defeating basic enemies, looting items, and so forth. There would be a milestone system for when the player reaches a certain score they'd be rewarded credits. For example:

   500 points - 100 credits, 1000 points - 200 credits, 2000 points, 400 credits, and so forth. 

        - Achievements could work too, but with my current computer system there's already a lot of computing going on. 

  - Sound Effects and music

    While my primary focus with selling RAW is to eventually get a better computer system, I also am searching for new sound effects and music to bring to it. I've seen a few weapon packs out there that are "decent", but not really fitting what I'm looking for. If you make sounds, let me know please. 

  - Unique Weapons

    I'm a huge fan of MMORPGs and other works where loot is the focus. I'd love to add unique named weapons the player can loot that feel and act in a variety of ways. I don't think I'd add them to the upgrade store, simply because the reward feels better if it's looted (in my opinion). 

  - Other systems

     One of my goals was to add an "Endless" mode to RAW. Endless mode would allow the player to face all the enemies, bosses, and other additions and see how far the player could go. Maybe one day :D 

One of the down-sides of being a new developer with a lack of crystal clear understanding of code is not knowing what all is out there. Down the road, maybe even in 1.3, I want to add more of a storyline, but between you and I, RAW feels like a Shoot-and-Slash or as we gamers call Hack-and-Slash. It's fun, but I want to add a much deeper story line.

   - Final Remarks

    I know itch.io is a big place with tons of developers and creators that make amazing games. I'm not good at social media, video creating, or advertising, so I know this is a step-by-step type of journey. I am considering adding another game I made a while back which is called Sludge Island. Sludge Island is a survival game that lacks a lot of "fancy" visuals, but is a joy and challenge to play. It features you, on an island, with a disease that has no cure, but you can keep the disease from taking over by consuming different things. The whole point of the game is to survive on the island or build a raft and leave the island. If anyone shows any interest (maybe with a like to this post or a comment) I'll post Sludge Island as a free game. :) Thanks for reading and enjoy!