V2.0: Bullets, Blood & Booze

It's been a long time coming, but I'm happy to announce Stalewater version 2.0! This is by far the most extensive update I've released for one of my games, adding extensive new features, some new content and several fixes.

Enemy Projectiles

Gone are the days of the dreaded hitscan rifle enemies! All enemies in Stalewater now fire physical projectiles that not make avoiding damage easier and more skill-based, but also provides a nice visual flair. Projectiles also have a small amount of inaccuracy added so getting ganged up on by enemies is a bit less unfair. The image above is admittedly not the best, but I had to take it quickly for this devlog.

Dismemberment

Combat improvements are all well and good, but surely there needs to be more over the top stuff to make up for all this polish, right? Well you're in luck, because now you can blow people apart into a pile of disassembled limbs! The gib objects are tied directly to enemy damage locations, and a limb is only severed when the damage received is greater than the enemy's current health. Headshots with the rifle will almost always result in the targets head popping off, and a stick of dynamite will result in multiple limbs being blown off at once. Limbs can also be severed even after an enemy is dead, so the janky physics fun can continue!

Improved Combat

The greatest ailment affecting Stalewater has received significant treatment since the So Bad Its Good jam ended.

Alongside the two new features listed above, a couple other aspects of the game have been worked on to make combat a bit more palatable.

The final battle layout has been changed to avoid the player being cornered, as well as provide covered the player can crouch behind. And since enemies are no longer hitscan, the cover actually works!

There is now a hitmarker that appears whenever the player lands a hit on an enemy, giving clear indication that you've actually done some damage. This hitmarker can be toggled in the options menu if you don't like it.

Hats worn by enemies can be shot off by landing a headshot, giving a nice visual indication of a headshot along with looking really cheesy. Hats also fall off when an enemy dies, and when the hat falls off it can be shot on the ground to move it.

These changes combined with projectiles and dismemberment definitely make Stalewater feel more reactive.

Drunkenness

Something that I wanted in the initial version of Stalewater, and something one of you in particular has been asking for, is visual effects for drinking whiskey. Well now there are not only a few visual effects when you drink too much, there are actually some gameplay implications.

As you drink more whiskey, your alcohol levels increase, and once your level passes 50% you start to feel the effects of the alcohol. Your vision distorts and you feel more wobbly when moving the mouse. Once you pass 80% however, drinking whiskey can actually damage you because you're killing your liver! You'll have to wait until your alcohol level decreases to such a degree that drinking more won't push you over the red line to avoid more damage. Alcohol effects only disappear once levels drop below 25%, or the green bar on the meter.

Save System

For the first time in the recorded history of my games, you can finally save your progress!

You can save/load your progress at any point through the pause menu, and you can provide your own custom name for save files. Save files in the save/load screen are sorted from newest-to-oldest and display not only the file name, but also the date and time of when it was created, along with a screencap taken at save time.

The system is currently very much experimental so expect some jank and for some things to not appear as expected when loading a save.

This is the last major update for Stalewater, the only updates I plan to make in the future are major bug fixes and changes to the save system, any new feature ideas or content will be saved for the sequel. I'm hoping the follow-up will be out by Christmas, since work will be picking up quite a bit for the rest of the summer into fall. But we'll see how that goes, enjoy!

Features

• Experimental Save System
• Dismemberment
• Inebriation effects
• Optional Hit markers
• More hints
• Enemies now shoot projectiles

Fixes

• Greatly reduced file size
• Increased hitbox sizes for dynamite pickups
• Increased hitbox size for enemy shoulder region
• Reworked level design
  
• Improved objective descriptions
  
• Changed controls for comfort