Inspiration

I've already mentioned what a wonderful source of inspiration women can be previously, now it's time for other musings. I often work with music playing, I often put together a playlist before starting with emotional relevance to my target or otherwise assist me in getting the juices flowing and more specifically in the right direction. I have a talent for hemorrhaging ideas once I get started they just tend to go all over the place. Music can help me channel the thought process and direct it at my goals.

It's not alone I tend to have lots of reference material. I also keep various tutorials up and around just in case. Most important to me though is my thinking ball, an object to keep me physically engaged while I think to keep my scatterbrain from forgetting what I was just thinking about seconds ago. To aid me I also consider my meals and snacks as they play a bigger role than you might think. I'll also play other games in the genre and try to think about how they accomplish a given idea that I might like. A big part of my creative process includes absorption and analysis before I get to work. I of course then plot everything down before the actual work starts but still. Getting everything organized comes secondary to having something to organize which is why I often just throw down as many ideas as I can then play process of elimination with them, what can I do, what can't I, what's time feasible, etc.

With all that in mind and having been said I'll progress to some work I've done towards the main game. I've added a new addition to the shields in which you now have an upgrade to them that redirects incoming bullets away possibly hitting other enemies. I've added new visual effects for this shield and the old shield for when they interact with objects and projectiles. I've also added new visuals for existing field barriers so now instead of being a solid color they're mostly clear with wandering random streaks of colors that shift color dynamically as they move, no small feat mind you especially with unreal which was horribly unforgiving this last week. I've also started updating the "knock down" system in which if a player is not fatally hit by a projectile with a velocity over a certain point they get violently thrown to the ground. The update to this will increase speed at which the player can recover, an experience addition to it for players that have a knack at surviving, and the ability to shoot on your way up though it may be unlikely to use as often the only bullets that meet the requirements are from snipers which as previously mentioned tend not to be in direct combat. Though obviously not only combat snipers are going to be enemies around you, while you may be knocked down by a sniper you may still be surrounded by other enemies and need to shoot as you crawl away or otherwise get up. Just as previously mentioned sometimes you simply won't have a leg to stand on till a medic arrives and pulling yourself to safety may be your only option.

I've also been tweaking other features and adding in more content but I've really been writing down more concepts for improving the storyline. I was thinking about how short I'd really made it and figured it would be surprisingly easy to expand. So I've started writing in a few new secondary characters that will have significant roles, not to say "main characters" simply because they'll be almost entirely optional. While I'm expanding the options I'm not sure yet if I want to significantly increase the single player on a mandatory level. Rough estimates so far is that when it's complete a player could brush though single player in a little under 12 hours, my eventual goal is to push this to at least 16.