Audio-Visual Amelioration

In November of last year, after working on it for about 2 weeks, I've released Watermelon Monsters. I was happy with the result, but it looked unfinished and I wanted to add some things that were left out. However, due to some other work I've had to do, I ended up not touching it for a while. But now I've managed to work on it some more, so here is what's new.

Below are two screenshots showing how the main screen of the game changed.

Background Decorations

As you can see above, I've added some visual decorations on the left and right sides of the screen.

Some may think that empty space cannot be distracting, but this is an example of the contrary. In fact the plain gradient background was mashing badly with the rest of the game, particularly while playing on fullscreen.

Pieces Progression and Lore

I've changed a bit the graph that shows the piece progression on the right. Now the pieces in the progression graph aren't all visible from the beginning. Higher pieces will remain hidden until the player manages to spawn them. Also the graph has now a nicer layout.

I've also added some texts that can be read by hovering the mouse cursor above the pieces in the graph. Here players can find out some lore about the monsters as well as the setting of the game, but only if they reached the corresponding piece.

Music and Sound Effects

I also made some background music. The track is composed of layers that come in and out depending on the creatures present on the field.

Added sound effects to some monsters: now the alien makes a sound when it jumps, the mimic when it opens and closes its mouth, and the demon head when it touches other pieces.

I've also added sound effects for the gameover and ending animation, and controls for the background music and sound effects.

Game Over Screen

Added a new game over screen showing the condition that triggered it.

It also shows a line graph of the score history in the last game. I think it's just fun for the player to have such a report. With some additional information to contextualize it, it could also become a tool to help understand how to build the score and what to avoid.

Future Development

I intend to add some more features next month, maybe a leaderboard or a versus mode. I think the game is mostly done but I also think the gameplay could still be expanded and iterated over.