This is going to be a short post in which I'll talk about a new game mechanic that I've added.

Or rather, a mechanic that I've made changes to. It's been over a month since I've started this blog about my game, and I'm happy with the 3 little articles I've been able to put out. So far they've only been about things I've already made, but I wanted to write about something new!

The Boost

The boost mechanic is something that's been present in the game for a while, but I've recently felt it's not quite right. Previously all it did was change your momentum in the air to match the direction held. For instance, if you held to the right while pressing the boost button, your momentum would immediately switch to that direction.

It felt nice and snappy, but it added a level of freedom that took away from the potential depth of it a little bit - the fastest way to get along the ground was always to jump and boost immediately, and there was little motive to use the other mechanics. Boosting was just easier!

I wanted the player to not rely too heavily on the boost while still finding it useful, and for there to be potential for a bit more depth with how it interacted with the bubble mechanic.

My solution? The spin boost!

The three main differences are:

• It can be charged up and released at different strengths.
  
• The player enters a spinning state.
• Nice ~visual flare~.

When the player is in this spinning state, they are able to interact with the bubbles in a new way - they can enter them, then propel themselves out in whichever direction they choose. It kind of acts like a second boost.

 This means that the player is encouraged to use a combination of both the boost mechanic and the bubble-gun.

Consequences

It's my hope that this will make the game more fun by opening up the opportunities for the player, but it also opens up ideas for features that I could add. In particular, I want to try adding more environmental interactions. These are fun little parts of the environment that you can bounce off, grab onto, etc that help you out. With this new spinning state, there are possibilities that come to mind.

Bouncy mushrooms are a good example of environmental interactions.

I think that something akin to the cannon barrels in the Donkey Kong country games would be a really fun addition. They could either force the player to be propelled in a particular direction or allow them to choose. They could also come in different strengths, sending you further or shorter distances. There's a lot of details to figure out, but it's concepts of a plan at least.

They probably wouldn't take the same form as these, though...

That's about all for this update. I've got more updates to share, so I'll try to post new little nuggets to this blog whenever I can make the time.

Check out my previous blog posts if you haven't already:

An Introduction to Valerie!

Platforming Game Physics 

Designing a Main Character

Thanks for taking your time to read! If this post was interesting to you, please check out the free demo of Valerie, the game I'm working on right now.

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