Dungeon Mole has reached 15 weeks of production! In the past few months this game has really grown and shaped up to be a really interesting challenge and project to work on. This update focuses on the main gameplay loop of the game, refining those concepts, and starting to look into level design and structure. 

New Plant: Shooter

The new beginner plant is the Shooter! When planted, it will shoot bullets in one of three directions in a burst fire rate.  Bullets fired from this plant can bounce off walls to help reach areas  the player couldn't.

UI Overhaul

All the UI of the game has been revamped to be more visually appealing, as well as react to more in game events. The input action Ui commands are now reactive to what the player is currently selecting, rather than a constant image on the screen. For example when the player approaches a dirt tile, Ui popups will appear over the selector to show the player that A will plant the selected seed, and when selecting a plant A will pop up as Interact, and B as Dig.

Tutorial Level

This version of the game has a full tutorial level, with some glimpses into how some more fleshed out level and challenges will look like, as well as a full tutorial a section to guide the player through the basic mechanics of the game. 

Other Changes

• Ui elements for the selected seed and fertilizer pop out when values change
• Respawn function added to player when they die/go out of bounds
• Hives now have barriers that block player progression until defeated
• Mineral Deposits shrink as they run out of fertilizer
• Shovel is no longer an item, now just the default B interaction when selecting a plant
• Player now has a reticle to show what the player in aiming at

Future Plants

With the basics of the gameplay now implemented into the game,  the next steps are going to be cranking out more plants, more art assets, models, animations, particles, and sound! We are super excited for this next stretch of development where we can start to see all the assets we have made working in the engine! Stay tuned and make sure to follow along to see what is to come!