Tiny Orb Update

There's been 8 versions since I started this project so I'm just going to focus on the major changes I've made since the first version and other plans I have for Tiny Orb :D!

Also heres a TL;DR version
CHANGES:
-No longer need to clear blocks to open the exit, just kill enemies
-Up to 3 Items Per Level
-Health and Shield Blocks
-Item Reworks + Balances
-Combined Health Items
-Cursed Items
-Turn Timer
-Launch Visual Improvements
-Reduced Enemy Speeds at Later Levels
-Ability Reworks + Balances
-Map
-Items on Death Screen

PLANS FOR FUTURE VERSIONS

• Easy + Hard Mode
• NG+
• Different Ways Of Obtaining Items
• More Items
• Progression
• Saving

Longer Version:

CHANGES:

• To clear a level, you only need to kill the enemies
This is the biggest one I received feedback on. The original idea was that you had to clear both enemies AND blocks but a lot of people had trouble clearing blocks or just found it tedious. I still wanted wanted to keep the original game idea intact so I made changes that made it less tedious early on such as not generating large rooms and giving only damage + block clearing items in the early levels, adding more booster blocks, added Missiles (an ability that had the sole purpose of clearing blocks and rewarding players that wanted to focus on killing enemies more), made bomb destroy nearby blocks, and some minor balance changes.

I also included an experimental mode where people could play while only focusing on enemies and this ended up being a pretty important choice because after trying it myself, I actually agreed with everyone else. The main goal is to just kill enemies now. It helped streamline the gameplay and provide a more focused goal. Thanks everyone that fought me on this y'all were right xD

• Choosing 3 items per level
Originally you only got 1 item per level and there was no star system. Gameplay was too slow and didn't really reward skillful play. It was also too difficult to create a cohesive item build without more choices. The star system provides a more goal oriented challenge but is still being tweaked.

• Health and Shield Blocks
Changing the goal to be clearing only the enemies made the blocks pointless except for a couple items like Fragments and Absorb so I added blocks that can give you either health or shields. All items that can destroy blocks all trigger their effects. Their effects are minor but can mean the difference between life or death and provide an extra element of strategy to work with.

• Item Changes: Laser, Missile, Bomb, Torment, Companion
Laser: was confusing, unreliable, and all around a garbage item. It originally would shoot a laser FROM where you start to where you end your turn. it didn't make sense visually when it was shooting from the position you launched from and hit a wall so the laser didn't even reach you, players didn't understand what it was shooting at, and it was too difficult to use it effectively even if you did understand it.

Now it always shoots at an enemy as long as you have line of sight and it pierces to damage other enemies in the way and additionally destroys blocks behind them. Laser easily went from one of the worst items to a favorite among some players.

Bomb: radius was too small to damage nearby enemies a lot of times so the radius was increased slightly. Bombs were also changed to destroy nearby blocks to help with the previous goal of clearing blocks, which is less important now but can help you recover HP/Shields or clear the map for Nuke builds.

Missile: changing the main goal made missiles completely useless (except in a nuke focused build) so missiles and all other items that destroy blocks will trigger Health Blocks and Shield Blocks.

Torment: players seemed to like the art for Torment more than the item itself and I think part of the reason is that it's not clear how much its even benefitting them. To help make it more clear I made it show purple damage numbers. It's a great item for builds that deal many instances of damage each turn such as Knockback, Speed+Mass, or Tornado builds.

Companion: I love the idea of these guys but they have been pretty underperforming for a while now. In the first build they would also block you and bounce you all around too it was so bad xD Now they inherit your basic stats (Health, Speed, Damage) and that means they benefit from items such as Vitality, Power, Boost/Targeting, etc. They also increase their damage based on how many stacks of companion you have. Companions still have a ways to go before a summon only build is viable, but they are still fun to have and lay the foundation for some other plans I have.

• Combined Health Items
Health items? BORING. combined Vitality with Rejuvenation so Vitality provides a small amount of regen as well. Added Mass, which increases your mass and health. Most health items will have additional secondary effects to fit into different builds and feel like a fun item choice.

• Cursed Items
The idea for cursed items is to mix up gameplay by offering the player choices that have negative and positive effects. These encourage risk/reward gameplay, make different builds more effective, and provide players with optional challenges.
The only Cursed item so far is Chaos: massive speed increase to ALL units. (Can be effective in speed/betrayal builds but indirectly increases the potential damage output of enemies and makes it harder to plan between turns).

• Turn Timer
The new power meter below the  health bar doubles as an indication of the enemies turn duration. A lot of players get impatient trying to launch on the enemies turn so hopefully this gives a little bit of info on how long you have to wait until your turn. It's small and out of the way so you can check it if it matters to you, but doesn't distract you if you don't find it useful.

• Dragging While its your turn
This goes along with the previous update. My first solution was to completely hide the launch indicator on the enemies turn, but even though no one said anything about it being hidden, I could tell from watching that it didn't feel correct for them since they would still try dragging during the enemies turn.

I changed it back so that it was visible but changed the color to red while it was the enemy turn and back to blue as soon as it was the player turn. You can now launch even if you are moving as long as its your turn (originally it would only switch turns when all units stop moving). The launch indicator now works in screen space instead of world space so your aim doesn't change while you're moving and doesn't get tiny when you zoom out. It's hard to explain the affect on gameplay, but it feels so much better to use now.

• Reduced Enemy Speed
Enemies got way too crazy fast late game so I toned them down a lot. Enemies still gain a little bit of speed each level, but they are a little more predictable with how they scale now.

• Ability Changes 
Abilities are meant to be really powerful, but starting with 3 charges meant that players often ignored Battery which is actually a strong item. 3 charges at the start was also just too strong for the early game.

Nova: was hard to use defensively with its small size and lacked the amount of utility as other abilities since it originated from your position instead of your mouse position . I increased the size by a lot, made it affect companions as well, and increased the knockback slightly to make it a lot more viable.

Freeze: also lacked the utility of other items so it now also stuns enemies, making it VERY strong against bosses.

Cannon: was way too strong just because of the additional mobility so the knockback distance has been toned down a lot and the damage increased slightly. Now it feels more like a cannon ability and less like a free turn.

Bumper: is a really fun, chaotic item that can work against you if the enemy uses it on their turn. The biggest issue was if you blocked a doorway it would take too long to get out of the room sometimes. Bumpers now get a little smaller after each hit and get destroyed after 5 hits instead of 10. Still need to find a better sound effect for it though xD

Splasm: The focus of this item was to clear maps faster, but its always been too weak. I increased the number of projectiles from 8 to 16 and you can activate it anywhere instead of at your position. its a lot better for killing enemies, especially with Torment, or clearing the map for Nuke builds. The additional projectiles also makes it easier to hit bosses and large enemies multiple times.

• Map
I was reluctant to add this because I thought looking for the exit is part of the game. The problem was that it often becomes a game of looking for the enemies too which I think is even less fun. The map also lets you strategize, plan your route, and land some sweet trick shots so I'm pretty happy with the change.

• Show item build when you die
Adding item build on the end screen makes for some dope screenshots so players can share their high score and awesome builds. I always intended on showing it, but it took me a few versions to get it in.

PLANS:
• Easy + Hard Modes
I plan on putting in separate difficulty options for players with separate skill levels. Easy mode will be for new players or players that want to experiment with different builds. The max moves to get gold stars will be increased and enemies will scale slower.

Hard mode will reward players more in the the progression system, and getting those gold stars consistently will be much more challenging

• NG+
The game currently scales infinitely, but the problem is that the maps start to get too big and takes too long to clear. I’m going to add a final boss/bosses and loop back to the beginning while keeping the players items and increasing the difficulty. This should help keep it from becoming tedious in the later levels

• Different Item Events
 There’s a ton of items I have planned that should allow for awesome builds but if I add everything all at once, the item pool becomes too saturated that it becomes impossible to plan a build effectively. I want to add some alternate ways to pick items that can show up between stages. Here’s a couple examples:
-More options: choose from 6 options instead of 3
-Duplicate: choose an item you own, make copies of it based on the number of items you earned
-Category: allows you to choose damage, utility, or defense categories then only shows items from that category
-Curse: option to gain Cursed Items
-Trade: Allows swapping items so you can remove things that are no longer relevant to your build

• More Items
I have a ton of ideas for items I want to add but it’s gonna take a while to implement and balance each of them. I’ll be slowly adding more as I create the different events to give more time for testing. I want to have a lot of unique items, but my short term focus is going to be:
-Cursed items
-items focused around friendly units like Companions
-more varied health/defense items
-items that can continue to damage enemies you aren’t near such as Mines

• Progression
I want to lock a handful of items behind a progression system to keep gameplay fresh and provide a long term goal, but also to allow players to get more familiar with the game without being overwhelmed by a large amount of item choices

• Saving
Stop playing whenever and pick up where you left off. Hek ya! Also need saving for the progression system xD


Big thanks to everyone that streamed Tiny Orb, donated, gave feedback, or even just played. You guys are awesome!
Special thanks to:
https://www.twitch.tv/davetaco
IffyOMalley
https://www.twitch.tv/bluishgreenproductions
https://www.twitch.tv/determined_hero
https://c0smicsans.itch.io/
https://www.twitch.tv/coleslawski
https://www.twitch.tv/rookrules
https://www.twitch.tv/littledoctorgames
https://www.twitch.tv/cinderblockcreates
https://jrevel.itch.io/ (holds the current record at Level 99)
https://www.twitch.tv/stokesmagee
https://www.twitch.tv/squuuidly
and everyone that stopped my stream as I worked on this project <3

THX.4.READ.9
-itsBoats