Reflex – Dev Diary 58 – Letting off Steam

This week I have been sorting out a few minor bugs that playtesting revealed. There are times when the playtester managed to create a loop on the levels so that they could keep an endless cycle of missiles going and then peel one of to hit a target. This method works well but it displayed one potential issue. There are occasions when 2 or more missiles were on top of each other – perfectly aligned.

Although this didn’t cause any issues in the game it did result in things getting a bit tricky. The level had an impact reflector on it which rotates each time a missile strikes it. If 2 missiles are on top of each other the impact reflector rotates 2 positions. This makes it very difficult to get it to turn the correct amount of times for the task at hand.

So, I went back to the code and have added in a system that will decelerate and accelerate the missiles that are effectively colliding with each other. This allows them to spread out automatically making it easier for the player to see how many missiles are in play and to divide them up much easier.

The most important game development I’ve been working on this week though is to do with Steam. I have now finished the signup process for Steam and I just have to wait for the taxation process to complete before I can start preparing Reflex for it’s steam debut. All very exciting and rather terrifying at the same time.