It's been a long time since the last update. The development proceeded not as quickly or steadily as I would like, so I'm publishing this update now just to prove to myself that progress has been done.

Additions

The level selection screen has been removed in favor of a hub world. The levels will be connected by the streets of the city itself and the tunnels that travel under it.

The new level, named Gravity Robot Museum, brings some lore and a side quest. It is currently the starting point of the game but I don't know if it will remain forever like this.

A quests menu has been added. It is very much Work In Progress.

There is now a new NPC that offers some unique mechanics: the Robot Services Station. This NPC will be an extension of the pause menu and will allow to use some options that don't need to be accessible all the time. Currently features information about quests available in the area and the display customization (previously available in the pause menu). In the future this NPC will offer further customization options and information about the world.

An health system has been added: fuses. Fuses work as shields that protect the player character from damage. Each will wear down at different speed and will break after receiving enough damage. They can be repaired for free at the Robot Service Station.

Other things

The Basic Gravity Point got some visual effects. Previously the only graphical element of a gravity point was the sphere that showed on top of the objects affected by the gravity point. Now there are also a dot to show it's center, a line that connects it to the body of the player character showing when the cursor is at its maximum reach and some attracting particles to add flavor.

The lag that sometimes occurs when a model appears on the screen for the first time is a known problem and I added some measures to prevent it, though it can still happen sometimes. The cause has to do with how the engine compiles the shaders and may disappear completely when the game will be upgraded to use Godot 4 (once it comes out).

Future Development

In the last months I got a clearer idea of the story I want to tell with this game and how it should be structured. I will keep working on updates but I can't promise how frequently they will come out. In the meantime I would like to write some posts on the mechanics currently present and the ones that I would like to add.