REVO v0.39.0: Defense & Offense

Enemies are now tougher, weapons are more powerful, level and resource progression is smoother, and bugs are fixed-er. Don’t just read about the changes below, however. You can also try them for yourself and support this project with your feedback. Playtester sign up at the end.

Tougher Enemies

So many enemies are defeated in the same way: shoot it. This seems a little one dimensional in concept, so I found ways to make them more interesting through various defense upgrades. Now you have to take more risks and learn a distinct tactic for each type of enemy.

Fanners, which fire spread burst to both sides, now have super armor to block your attacks, initially from below but it can rotate this armor to follow your position and limit the effectiveness of your attacks from other angles. You have to move around a lot to take this guy down and in groups it’s a bit more daunting.

Irongills, which have always had super armor on both sides, can now turtle into their armor by closing it up around them, forcing you to time your shots and position directly in front of them as they open to fire at you, which is a fairly dangerous place to be.

Other enemies have added super armor or greater accuracy.

Balanced Levels & Resources

With tougher enemies everywhere, it seemed necessary to redesign portions of each level so that this did not create unintended and unreasonable spikes in difficulty.

Resources like starting tech points, ship count, and ammo drop count were adjusted and bug fixed to smooth out the early game’s difficulty progression and to help new players learn the ropes.

It’s difficult to cater to a wide spectrum of players, but I think I’ve managed to achieve a nice balance between challenge and mercy to respect players in their ability and will to try as well as show them a good time no matter what their skill level or play style.

You now start with minimal resources and support and those who succeed amass the supplies to take on bigger challenges while those who struggle gradually get fed small bits of assistance in the form of an additional ammo drop or extra ship.

HUD & Boss Fixes

Various bugs were fixed including some problems where the ship and ammo drop counts in the HUD displayed incorrectly. In the process, I think I also streamlined some of this code.

I also did a decent rework of the Carrier boss in order to scale turrets to fit better and ensure that every turret fires throughout the battle and shows its own health ring. This creates more clarity and consistency for the final battle.

Choices & Learning

Overall, I think REVO is noticeably more fun and challenging and a big part of that is how enemies and weapons offer you more choices and details to learn. If that sounds like a good time to you, please show your support by playtesting the game before it ships, because your feedback can really help make REVO a better experience for everyone.

I am looking for new playtesters who are willing to try the game and send me thoughts on what’s working and what’s not, but you don’t need to be experienced in this type of game or any game at all. In fact, sometimes the less experience the better because fresh perspective helps me discover the best ways to teach a new player how to get the most out of it.