Wishlist V-Hunter Puzzler Dx!

If you like what you see below, please wishlist V-Hunter Puzzler Dx!

Unlockable Costumes

This was a fun feature I’ve had planned for a long time. Since Dylan, the artist, drafted a few really awesome V-Hunters, I knew I’d have to add them in as unlockables.

The implementation was actually pretty straightforward. In the ready function of my Player node, I read the current V-Hunter texture from my GameConfiguration Singleton. I then assign that texture to the Player node’s sprite and boom! Instant alt costumes.

It was a fun feature to add and I think it adds to some of the fun of the game!

Game-breaking bug!?

I hit one of my first game-breaking bugs! It took me a few hours to troubleshoot, but it was a pretty weird issue tied to my save file (which is JSON).

I have an object called levels_completed, which is a dictionary where the keys are [saga, level]. There I can keep track of which levels are completed, and some stats on the run.

The issue is that I stored the key in code as a list [saga, level], however, when it’d get written to the save file, it’d be translated into “[saga, level]”. This caused a scenario where Godot would actually create a duplicate key. This duplicate key would crash the game and delete the save!

To fix this, I just store the key as a string in the code and in the save file. I’m just glad I figured this out before it affected any users!

Stats Menu

Nothing too snazzy here, but I wanted to have a menu for seeing stats, especially since I plan on adding achievements tied to them. I also want to add a tab for unlocks, so the player can know what they have to do to unlock the costumes.

Complete Touch Support

This involved some small adjustments, like adding back buttons to all the menus. Now the whole game should be playable via touch controls, which is a goal of mine.

TL;DR Features Implemented

• Stats Menu Added
• Unlockable Costumes Added
• Slide animation for popup menus
• Pause Menu shows over dialog
• Pause Menu works with level end/death popups
• Added pause and restart touch icons
• Turn timer stops on player press
• Achievements added to save file
• Fix duplicate keys issue on levels_completed (game-breaking bug)

Next Steps

Honestly, there’s not much more I need to add to the game. Some extra achievements, an unlocks tab, and some other polish and testing. In the meantime, I’m focusing on marketing and building up wishlists. I recently just added a Demo to the Steam page and that brought in some wishlists, which I’m happy about it!

I was planning on the release to be at the end of March, but in an effort to get more wishlists and marketing, I’m waiting until after Next Fest this summer.

If you like what you’ve read, please wishlist V-Hunter Puzzler Dx and consider following me on any of my socials on my Linktree!