Devlog #10: Music, Rebalancing, and “Voicelines”

This will most likely be the final devlog. At least for Stardance. There’s so much more that will happen after Stardance ends (more info later).

Playtester Feedback and Rebalancing

I’ve gotten feedback from multiple playtesters (all of them are listed in the credits), and they’ve all said that there’s a big difficulty spike between levels 8 and 9 (or 10), so I had to make the levels easier by removing enemies and spikes, along with nerfing enemy hp, bullet fire rates, and bullet speed. I also had to adjust level 5 due to how small the bottom section is, which gives you barely any room to avoid the snails.

For any playtesters who are reading this right now, thanks for playtesting and I hope you recover from your plant PTSD (from your 20-50+ deaths).

“Voiceline” System and Adaptive Difficulty

If only the dialogue was actually voiced. I don’t have anyone to voice act for me right now.

But anyways, this voiceline system reacts to every level you enter and every death. It’ll either give tips on how to deal with whatever you’re facing or simply mock you. Here’s a couple of sample lines:

“…And you’re having trouble with a stationary triangle in the ground. I repeat… A STATIONARY TRIANGLE IN THE GROUND!” (8th death to spikes)
“Looking for an easy way to counter snails? It’s called ‘double-jumping’.” (3rd death to snails)
“Outplanted by the plants…” (7th death to plants)
“Those bees sure do sting… But they won’t last long when you ‘sting’ them back.” (1st death to bees)

It will also change your difficulty for you when you’ve died too few or too many times on one level. I’m planning on giving the commentator a name. Maybe Domainus? We’ll find out later if it becomes canon or not.

New Music Licensing Agreement

Remember how in a previous devlog, I found out I couldn’t use Rush’s music for my game due to legal issues? That’s been fixed now, as both of us along with our parents signed an agreement. It’s not formal or anything, but from what I’ve researched, it should do the trick for now.

After everyone signed the agreement, I added some new tracks to the BGM player:

Beehold the Bullets (boss battle theme)
UPC Test: PASS (boss victory theme)
Void Hub (plays after beating the demo)

Note: The gameplay footage below does not have audio, but the actual game will.

Minor Details and Changes

Last devlog, last changes…

Added credits with playtesters, attribution, assets, and composers
Updated README (still needs a slight update, will finish before I ship)
Fixed audio sliders in settings menu starting at wrong positions
Added “Reset All Settings”
Added speedrun timer for Speedrun Mode in settings
Stopped leftover bullets from killing you
Started off player on Ultra Hard instead of Extreme on game startup

Future of Universal Existence

I plan to post future devlogs in a Discord server for anyone that’s interested. You’ll also be able to sign up to playtest future versions of the game and give feedback, along with participating in server events. You can join here:
https://discord.gg/Ztc37dcu9

This link will expire soon, which is why I’ll paste another one later in the comments.

Hope to see you around!