Big changes with 0.0.3

In my last update I told that Down the Rabid Hole was going through a complete rewrite. I am glad to announce that the rewrite is now complete, and therefore I am releasing a new pre-pre-alpha version of the game: version 0.0.3!

(By the way, said last update cam just under 6 months ago! My previous record was 10 months, so that’s a personal best!)

So, what’s in this new version?

Let’s start with the bad news: there is currently no Mac support! I did some work to add Mac versions back, and I hope to eventually support Mac again. No promises, though, especially since I don’t have easy access to a Mac currently.

Fortunately the good news are plenty! To begin with, the game looks much nicer. I am now using pixel art for the graphics, and worked to make almost everything look at least half-decent (while the previous release had only placeholder graphics).

Several important details that were not properly animated (or animated at all) in the last release now look quite nice. I am talking about things like Armadillo drilling to the next stage, bomb throwing, the Tornado Attack, and Player and Armadillo deaths.

You can also see in these screenshots that we have a much nicer HUD. This still needs more thought, but the previous HUD was more like a bunch of debug texts. Now we have an initial honest attempt to have a real HUD.

The Loadout Screen is much improved. The previous version was really a mess, pretty much impossible to understand and use. This new version might not be award-winning yet, but it is way better.

I implemented a new upgrades system, including the latest iteration of the Stats design (not to mention a much cleaner implementation, which shall make it easier to add new items to the game).

Finally, I simplified the design here and there, especially for embarking to and disembarking from Armadillo. The previous release had a the concept of “Armadillo’s platform” as an intermediate step between embarked and disembarked. I had reasons for that, but that was cumbersome. Now it’s all much simpler: just get in or out as you wish!

I hope you enjoy the changes! For the next release, I want to focus in expanding what the game offers in terms of enemies and items. Also hope to improve the character control.

See ya! Down, down, and away!