Hello again folks. Run For Your Life took a big developmental break while I was busy with work and the real world. We're back now though!
I've spent the last few months cleaning things up and redoing the overall gameplay loop. There's a ton of changes, but I'll try to cover the biggest:
#1: The game now has a much more linear level structure, which I'm hoping leads to better tension&release moments. A lot of the doors needed to progress through are time-activated, or require a key or button, etc. Forcing you into a chokepoint situation where you'll need to barricade and set traps until the path ahead is opened.
#2: Roguelite elements! The abilities, weapons & passives are now rolled randomly at the start of each level, which should help out a lot with replayability and finding fun/janky combos. Cosmetics are still an unlock-system, which will persist through deaths.
#3: Improved AI and Combat This is always in progress, but I'm feeling pretty happy with the current combat system and enemy AI. There's a lot of small tweaks under the hood, so it may or may not be noticeable immediately.
I invite you to join the official Discord community to get early sneak peaks, be a part of the feedback and community-ideas process, and get yourself in the credits!
https://discord.gg/r4GrmebTj7
Follow on Twitter as well to help boost visibility of the project! Word of mouth helps a ton <3
https://twitter.com/GutsPuke
Trailer of the new gameplay and levels
New Endless Map
Reworked the way Endless Mode works a little bit (mostly invisible changes), and changed up the map. I'll be releasing more Endless Mode levels in the future with a menu to select and tracker for highest waves survived per level and other fun stuff.
Also, sharp weapons now have a chance to turn Zombies into headless Drones! [previewyoutube="4izDMNfkx-M;full"]
Endless Mode Fix
Woops! Endless mode got broken during the recent changes, I've fixed + improved it's base systems. New levels for Endless are in the works, as well as tracking progress for # of waves and time survived. Gets spicy around wave 5.
An Update
I've been working hard behind the scenes to improve enemy behavior, player control feel, and general code fixes to make the game run more smoothly. Thanks a million to anyone whos played, reviewed, given feedback, it means a lot (and helps me improve the game). I'm hopeful I'll be able to release more level updates and addons every few weeks, depending on how my real life job goes. Fingers crossed.
Cool Changes:
Added Some New Levels - Dank Barns, Office, and the return of a smaller Lab level (now Lab 002). I'll be adding a few new settings in the next update, including a new Endless Mode level. Endless Mode in general needs some rehauling, it should be playable for now, but I'll be committing an update specifically to making it a better experience.
Attack & Range Visuals - This should help with combat, a lot of players were having trouble with missed attacks. Seeing the range of your selected weapon should help with this, as well there is a cooldown visual on the bottom left to help with timing attacks.
Improved Mouse Response - Took a little tweaking but the mouse should feel much better to use. Big thanks to jlkennedy for the code assistance.
Improved Enemy AI - This could be a few paragraphs long, so I'll summarize. Every enemy has an intelligence rating, and they'll seek out the player based on how intelligent they are (assuming you're not in their line of sight). As the level progresses they will narrow their field of focus, so you shouldn't have many boring end-game moments, but as always please let me know! I wanted to make sure the Enemy AI didn't just run directly at the player at all times, giving them the ability to try different paths makes for a more unpredictable (and fun?) game.
Added Enemies - Two new enemies released this update are the Peeper and the Drone. Drones are headless zombies, on their own they will never be able to directly target the player (though they'll still chomp you if you get too close). Peepers are able to alert not just Drones but any enemy type of your exact location. All that improved AI stuff gets overridden, and the horde comes directly to you.
Coop Fixed / Updated - Local and Steam Remote Coop should be working fine. In the shop menus, Player 2 can select their upgrades without needing Player 1 to navigate for them. During any level, just press Start on the Player 2 controller and you should be good to go. Let me know if you run into any problems.
Feel free to join the Puke&Guts Discord server to share feedback / ideas / memes, or follow on Twitter for updates. Hopefully I can keep the content coming. Thanks again for the support!
Discord: Twitter: https://twitter.com/GutsPuke
Small Update + Fixes
-Reduced zombie HP and movement speed -Fixed bug in Endless mode related to player death not ending level -Reworked Grabbing mechanic, should reduce instances of not being able to grab objects
Also removed Lab001 and brought back the original Lab001 / Hospital level.
