I took some time away from development on Gunslugs (about a week) to get a fresh look on the game. There is a LOT of content going around in this game, but some stuff was missing. The worlds started to become “just another scenery” and not having a unique thing of their own.
I was also looking for the right way to “glue” all the various worlds and characters together. So first thing I did after a week was play the game, actually this happened because of an interviewer dropping by “the office” and I figured giving him a preview of Gunslugs 2-player coop mode would be fun… and it was!
Playing it with a fresh mind also showed some stuff that needed improving and gave me some good ideas for the worlds and gameplay.
Every world now throws something unique at the player, and I only have one more “main” world to add and then see how much time and ideas I have for the secret worlds I have planned.
“Secret worlds!?” I hear you ask? so, imagine if you can: you play Gunslugs, you shoot all these guys, fighting your way through the level, and suddenly in between the dropped weapons and ammo there is a flashing Gameboy ! Pick it up, and the next world you play will be a Gameboy 4-color style level based on Stardash with the Stardash chiptune playing in the background.
Fun part of this is that the Gameboy possibly only spawns if you have a specific character in a specific world ;)
I have a couple of these secret levels already written down in the “Design doc” so let’s see how many I can get in before release.
