Devlog 2: Improvements in Capture Systems and Creature Mechanics

Introduction

In our last devlog we talked about the capture system, and we even created a blog fully dedicated to capture systems in general.
Since then, we've been working in improving it, and starting work on some other systems the game needs to feel complete.
We've also been putting a lot of focus on the overall user experience.

Visual effects

We've spent a lot of time these past weeks improving the game's visuals, since we think think polishing the mechanics is just as important as designing them.
We mainly focused on the creatures movement.
Little details on their movement and animations really make a difference.

Some of the changes include:

• Improved shadow behavior
• Better hopping animation
• Smoother isometric movement
• New creature animations

These details take time and a lot of tweaking, but they are definitely worth it. Every small improvement helps make the world feel more alive.

Capture Game Improvements

We really want this experience to feel as fun as possible.
We added some things like a loop combo counter and the hearts counter.
Also, we want to make every creature feel unique, so we started adding new type of attacks and movements.

Some examples include:

• Charge attacks
• Projectile attacks
• Temporary shields
• Traps on the floor

The idea is for every encounter to feel different, so player needs different strategies to beat them.

More abilities will be added as we add more creatures.

Skill Tree

How can an incremental game be an incremental game without some upgrades to purchase?
This is a very important system to make the progression of the game feel real and important.
Players should feel they are unlocking new things and getting more efficient most of the time.

Some of the upgrades we're planning include:

• Earning more gold from creatures
• Improving resource generation
• Clicking multiple creatures at once
• Increasing damage in the hunting minigame
• Unlocking new gameplay abilities

At first we were going to make a creatures upgrade system, then we realized that would fit better into a more traditional skill tree, together with upgrades for the other systems.
We just started implementing this system on the last few days, starting with the visuals, so we don't have much to share yet, we will probably dive deeper into this in the next devlogs.

Creatures Encyclopedia

Like every creature collection game should have, we added a creatures encyclopedia to our game.
The idea is to give more life to the protagonists of our world with some descriptions, and to give another reason to collect them all!

Each creature can exist in one of three states:

• Unknown
• Seen
• Captured

Depending on your progress, you'll be able to access more or less information about each creature.
For example:

• Unknown creatures reveal no information
• Seen creatures reveal their name
• Captured creatures reveal their complete entry

We hope this system makes the capture of creatures more rewarding, giving players a stronger sense of collection and progression.
Would you be able to complete the entire encyclopedia?

Next Steps

We're aiming to get a first small playable version ready, in order to achieve that we will work on the following points:

• Keep working on the skill tree system
• Adjust the game economy to a first iteration
• Keep improving the hunting game experience
• Add more sound effects to the game

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