Log 2: What's Metroid's Deal? Why's It Gotta Be Vania?

New update video baby.

I have made PROGRESS including polishing up the combat (bugfixes and starting on some tuning for things like attack speed and delay for both player and enemies), adding doors that you need to collect enough money for to pay to open (this maybe relevant to the game's story), and a melee enemy. You may also notice that attacks from the player and from enemies push the recipient of the attack backwards a bit; I'd like this to be a core part of the combat's feel, where you're pushing one another around like bumper cars, having it feel a bit aggressive.

Basically I'm still shaping the game's core identity (which I'd like to think is different from just "prototyping," but I am also prototyping, lol). I want to keep the scope small, but still have enough unique stuff in there that makes you think, "Oh that's cool; that's new." The money mechanic is hopefully part of this. I have this issue with a lot of MetroidVania-style games where they all kinda feel the same. Like wow dude, 2D platforming and a big map made up of rectangles and an experience point system. Crazy. But, for example, that game Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, what a name, shook things up for me. I was like woah, it's got this Ikaruga-style Water / Fire form you can switch between, which can protect you from different types of attacks and also make you more effective against certain enemy types, and it's got a cool micro-progression loop with the 3 levels for each form that makes you not want to get hit lest you lose a level. That stuff was cool. I want to make a game like that, that feels fresh in a (to me) kinda stale genre. It's gonna be super small of course since I'm the only one making it, but a small amount of freshness is ok too.

Please look forward to when I add the boss fight against Kevin Bacon to the game.