Adding JUICE

In this session, I focused on making the game feel good to play by adding sound effects, screen shake, and music, among other things.

Background music

I added five background music tracks, with one being for the ending cutscene, three alternating ones for normal gameplay, and a fifth for menu scenes.

Sound effects, screen flash, particle effects, and camera shake

I spruced up the game by adding a screen flash when an enemy hits the ship, particle effects when enemies are killed, a camera shake when an explosion happens or an enemy hits the ship, and sound effects for all of those events (plus clicking buttons in menus)

Difficulty updates

I had noticed that some players struggled with the first levels, while others breezed through them. To help with this, I added a dynamic difficulty system to make the game a bit easier for players on a losing streak and a bit harder for players who are getting comfortable. I also discouraged players from letting the tougher enemies through by making the special enemies do two damage and the boss enemy take away all three hearts. Lastly, I made enemies more likely to spawn close to each other to maximize the satisfaction of taking out two at once.

UI additions

To help better communicate with the player, I added a progress bar to indicate what fraction of the level’s enemies have spawned, as well as a reference page with information on all the different enemy types.

Debugging

Finally, I fixed a multitude of bugs, such as the player respawning at the wrong Z position when falling off the map or a second music player being created when the user returned to the title screen.