v0.0.2 is out you can play it here:

I have not posted anything in over a week, so to avoid falling back any further here is a historically ordered summary of the progress since the last post.

Meet the Weaggles

First and foremost we have the weaggles now – small purple creatures that pilot the tanks and love destroying things. A name born by to unmatched creativity or simply lack of imagination (…cuz they have no arms, they can only wiggle).

Left – a weaggle design sketch (pro art skillz),  Right – a 3D weaggle riding a tank in-game

Lights and Shadows

The next modification was rather minor, but made a huge impact. Making the light brighter changed the gloomy look of the game into a full of color bright and happy toon (which is what we want :)). Dynamic shadows contribute even further, however they come with a big performance hit (my rendering isn’t exceptionally optimal).One thing that’s worth mentioning is the color ramp. There is a rule in art/color theory that states shadows are blue… so our ambient light is not the default unity gray, but rather dark blue. Likewise our sun (directional light) is not white, but soft yellow.

Spawn Mechanics

Kudos to Yani Genev for helping out on this. The original spawn mechanic was based on an abstract resource that was hidden somewhere, the player had 3 resource points (which are equivalent to 3 lives) and the enemy tanks had 20. If you broke the enemy bases, before the spawn resources were depleted you would be able to achieve victory (which was my way of making the bases an alternative target). The system worked, but it wasn’t as elegant as the one Yani suggested i.e. removing the abstract resource and making spawners pay with their hit points. The reason the new system is better is simple – there are less numbers for the players to keep track of. But there is more, destroying an enemy base or even just damaging it, has a more direct impact on the game (the more damage the less tanks). On the other hand having your base shot at isn’t as punishing – it used to take only 1 hit (and you lose all of your lives), now it drains your lives gradually.

Wiser AI

Now that they have someone controlling them it was expected of enemy tanks to become smarter. The AI now targets both the player’s tank and his/her base (as opposed to moving and shooting randomly). See above screenshot :)

Special Effects

EXLOSIONS and brick shattering all over the place, destroying things is now even more fun. When a tank is destroyed it explodes and bricks shatter creating physical particles. Here’s a screenshot showcasing both effects: