I am currently working on the post Bullet Hell Game Jam Update. I basically try to fix all the problems/ bugs from the game jam version and add features or changes from the feedback I got. So far everything works fine and it is coming along nicely. 

The update is taking longer than I thought, so I am writing a progress report to bridge the gap until the update is ready ;)

UPGRADE SYSTEM

One of the problems was the limited upgrade system of the player. There were basically only 3 options (main gun, dash, power gun). So I overhauled the complete system and split each category into multiple stats and added "Player" as a fourth category. Alongside the changes to the upgrade system, I also reworked how the player gets power cores.  In the game jam version, the player had to finish a level in under 10 seconds to get 1 power core.  Now each arena can reward multiple power cores based on how fast the player was. The player always gets power cores for each arena, being faster just means more power cores. Maybe later I add additional methods of gaining power cores :)

VISUALS

In the game jam version, all blobs were circles with different colors. Now the blobs also have different shapes with matching bullets. I also added flash animations to the barrels.  

Sniper blob with the new barrel animations.

Additionally, some parts of the UI were reworked, like the upgrade screen and I replaced all buttons with a new button system. The portals look better now and have a nice portal animation. The player received a spawn animation at the start of each arena.

SAVEGAME

I added a savegame system to the game. First I implemented a savegame for the playing-related stuff, like high scores, profile name, etc. Secondly, I implemented a savegame for all the settings of the game, basically a config file. The big change is that the player can save and exit at any time and resume the current arena by clicking on "Continue" in the main menu. If a new game is started while an old game exists, the score from the old game is automatically added to the high score list.

HEALING

One of the biggest challenges in this update was a healing system for the player and blobs. The problem is that in Fracture Hell the concept of health does not really exist. Health is represented by the shape (polygon) of the object. Once the complete shape is destroyed the object is considered dead. So I needed a way to restore a polygon to its original state in small increments. After a lot of trial and error with different algorithms, I finally found a system that works perfectly ;) I called it "restore polygon" and I will also add it to my Godot Polygon 2D Fracture Tool :)

STEP 1 The current polygon is blue, the original polygon is grey.
STEP 2 I use the offset_polygon_2d function in the Geometry class. The red area is the new offset polygon.
STEP 3 I use the intersect_polygons_2d function with the offset polygon and the original polygon. The intersection returns the area shared by both polygons. (Area in the white line)
STEP 4 The process is basically done already. The intersected polygon from step 3 is the new polygon. The green area shows how much the polygon grew.

Right now I have implemented a healing aura node that can heal the player and blobs.

I also implemented a blob that can regenerate itself after sustaining too much damage.

PAUSE MENU

The game can be paused now and alongside that, I added a pause screen.

I hope this progress report showed a little better what I have done in the last weeks and how the game progresses :)

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Thanks for reading!