Anon42
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Weekly Update! 3-29-2020 (More Area 5 visuals, new enemy work, accessibility features)
🕑 Added 2020-03-29 17:45:19 +0000 UTCHey everyone, time for another CPE development update! This week I've got a few more visuals to show off from our work on Area 5, as well as some general information on accessibility features I want to add for v0.39.
First off, the gif you see at the top of the post. Puffernutter worked on a parallax background for us to put below the surface of the water, in area 5 so it's not quite as plain as a flat color. We plan to do a bit more with the background than just this, but this is what we have for it so far. She's also been working on some more bits and pieces I can put in the environment, one of which is the large swaying plant you see in the background there.
As you can see, I also spent some time this week giving our new enemy some animations, including a completed idle animation and a WIP projectile attack animation. He's been surprisingly fun to animate so far! Orexius has also started on his first H-scene, so hopefully that will be ready in time for v0.39 as well.
Next up is a last-minute thing I wanted to start working on. I looked through our Patreon exit surveys recently, and found a survey from someone who was unable to play the game because of a disability they suffer from. This was kind of a wake up call for me; I don't want this to happen to anybody who wants to paly the game, so in the hopes that I can improve somebody else's experience in the future, I'm going to officially start adding in some accessibility options. I've also wanted to add in a gameplay options menu for a while, to implement some options for people to turn on/off, and it's a great opportunity to add accessibility features as well.
None of the accessibility options listed there are functional yet, but here's what they are and how they will function:
- Toggle Blaster. As stated in the screenshot above, when enabled, pressing the Shoot button will toggle the blaster on, and it will continue to automatically fire until the button is pressed again to toggle it off.
- Blaster Auto-Aim. When enabled, the player will still have to turn left/right to face enemies, but Alicia will automatically target the nearest enemy in her field of vision, simplifying aiming controls.
- Always Full Jumps. When enabled, Alicia will always jump to her full height, even when the Jump button is released early, allowing you to simply press the button to jump instead of holding it.
- Auto-Dash. When enabled, if the Jump button is held down while jumping, Alicia will automatically dash in the direction the player is holding once she reaches the peak of her jump, allowing you to cross larger gaps without extra button inputs.
- Gameplay Speed. Reduces the speed the game runs at, reducing the demand for reaction times and precise inputs. Now, unfortunately this option is going to take a MASSIVE amount of work to implement properly; Crisis Point's game logic is currently frame-dependant, which means if the game runs below 60 fps, everything runs slower. Changing game logic to be independant of framerate is an absurdly huge amount of work, and while I do want to try to make it happen, I don't think it'll happen until closer to the game's completion. That being said, I WILL still be implementing this feature, just in a simpler way, by lowering the game's framerate; it will make the visuals choppier, but hopefully for anyone who struggles with the speed of the game, it will still be able to improve their experience until I can do it right.
I have plenty of other ideas for accessibility features too, including an easier difficulty level I plan on adding in v0.39, but I'm definitely looking for any and all feedback on this! If you have a disability yourself, or just have ideas on accessibility features to implement, please don't hesitate to comment here or DM me! To anyone who does have a disability who has struggled to play the game because of it, I'm so very sorry that I hadn't considered your needs up until this point. Getting that exit survey made me realize how very real and important this is, and I'm determined to improve our accessibility so that everyone can play and enjoy CPE.
Alright, that's it for this week! I did a bunch of other things this week, including finalizing about 8 cutscene/dialogue scripts (some of which will not be in this update) and sending them off to our actors, so it's been an extremely productive week for us. Thank you very much for reading, and we'll see you in the next update!
Comments
Anon42
I don't know about russian specifically, but eventually we would like to localize the game into other languages. I can say with certainty it will NOT happen until after the game is 100% completed and released, though. It's going to cost us a lot to translate the game, and doing it before the game's text is even finished would be a massive waste, especially if any text is changed and needs to be re-translated, or if the original team that did the partial translation isn't available to do the rest, etc.
Anon42 Are there plans to introduce additional languages such as Russian, German, Chinese, and so on? Russian Russian language I like the game, the story, and so on what would I do more to understand the history of the game just need to do Russian please if possible
Carl
Looks fantastic!! Excellent work from the CPE team as always :D
Nathan Phoenix
I say prioritize toggle blaster and auto dash. Those options would be a major boost to making the control scheme smoother. I don't think you need to worry much about game play speed since the the no-damage and infinite-jumps from the debug menu would work around anywhere players could get stuck (iow just make a cheat menu available). Alternatively you could create a late-level teleport weapon that could be unlocked early on easy mode (think spin-jump from metroid). As a rule of thumb when designing accessibility try rebinding the controls and playing your game with only one hand. (ha ha, get the jokes out of your system and give it a test run)
Decanter
If it makes you more sanguine about the work involved in making the game more accessible, consider that it's likely to be welcomed by more than just certified-disabled people. For example, slower game speed is helpful to players who simply have just plain shitty reflexes or little experience with this kind of game. This sort of happy side benefit is sometimes called the "curb cut effect", named for how wheelchair accessibility measures also benefit people with working legs who might be pushing strollers, grocery carts, etc.
VitAnyaNaked
A pretty good idea with the addition of some options that will allow people with disabilities to play the game.
Anon42
As always, our playable updates come out every other month, so v0.39 is scheduled to come out late April
Remu
When do you think v.39 will be available?
