So, here we are again, 2 weeks later. And what a wild 2 weeks they were. Does it ever happen to you, that you know you need to get something done but you kinda disregard it until you actually need it? Like, “Yeah, I’ll have to do this one thing.”? Then you get to it, and you realize it wasn’t nearly as simple as you thought it was going to be? Yeah, that feeling, I’ve gotten used to it, unwillingly.

But here I am nonetheless, and it’s all okay. So, enough chit-chat, and let’s get down to business.

I’ll never get tired of that wonderful feeling when you picture a concept in your mind, and then suddenly see it coming to life before your very eyes. From the moment I designed this UI for the first time, I knew I was getting myself into unnecessary trouble, that I could probably get away with something much simpler, but I fancied the idea of a dynamic, world-integrated UI so much that I couldn’t resist going for it.

And yes, the intro sequence can be entirely skipped. Just a graceful touch on the spacebar will allow you to go right into the action.

So, here’s how it works. The UI takes the shape of a wall of machinery and monitors. Each of those monitors displays a particular menu, and the player moves between them by clicking on the corresponding buttons, like so:

Let's cover some of these menus, at least the ones that are currently implemented:

THE START MENU

This is the starting menu the player sees when starting the game, and it connects to every other menu in the game, as well as granting access to the profile save/load system. More on that later.

As of now, of the 4 menus on the sides, only the Settings Menu is implemented and operational. The Credits Menu is a work in progress, and it'll probably be until the very last stages of development. The Database Menu will hold a wide array of player stats, achievements, lore, and more, and it won't be adressed until the demo has been released and more content is available. About the last menu on the bottom left corner, that belongs to a future addition, not ready to be disclosed yet!

THE SETTINGS MENU

Well, it's a settings menu, and therefore allows the player to change settings, like you would expect a settings menu to do. The following things can be changed in here:

• Several video quality settings, like screen resolution, texture resolution (can look crisp in up to 4K resolution screens), and bloom intensity (can go from no bloom at all, to disgustingly strong. Pick what you like).
• Audio levels of sound effects, music and ambience, as well as master volume.
• Every single control setting can be customized, including mouse. It doesn't matter what kind of keyboard you have, or if you're right-handed, left-handed, etc.
• Language can be set either to English or Spanish.

I’d like to make a remark about language. I made sure to build from scratch a fully integrated localization system, which would allow me to easily add or remove languages from the game. At first, the only supported languages will be English and Spanish, since those are the ones I’m fluent in, but more could be added in the future with little additional effort! Well, little effort besides the actual translation, that is.

THE PROFILE MENU

This menu can be accessed by pressing “PROFILES” on the main menu screen. It allows the player to create as many profiles as they want. The player profile holds every single bit of data about the player settings, their game progression and their achievements and highscores. If for whatever reason they feel like starting from a blank slate again, It’s just as easy as creating a new profile. The first time they start the game, the player will be forced into this screen, as a profile must be created before they can play. Profiles are saved locally on the player’s system, and they can be retrieved or backed-up like any other file.

This is where the fun part begins. The game menu displays the current progress of the player, and allows to choose what episode, stage and difficulty to play, as well as checking all possible unlockables and scores.

• Episode Selector: On the top of the screen, the arrow buttons allow to scroll through the different episodes of the game.
• Stage Selector: Every episode has a variable number of stages. At the left side of the screen, a scrollable list displays all the stages available within the currently selected episode.
• Mode Selector: On the right side of the screen, the info on the currently selected stage is displayed. The tabs at the top of this window allow to change between Story Mode and Endless Mode.
• Difficulty Selector: The 4 buttons below the stage info window allow the player to choose they want to play on. The 4th and last difficulty will require to beat the game first before being unlocked.

The contents of the stage info depend entirely on the chosen difficulty, meaning the scores and unlockables you get in one difficulty do not carry over to other difficulties. Each difficulty counts as an entire playthrough on their own.

STORY MODE

On Story mode, the following stats are displayed:

• Badge of the Swift: Awarded for completing the level without being hit by enemies.
• Badge of the Undying: Awarded for completing the level without dying.
• Badge of the Reaper: Awarded for completing the level with a full combo. More on combos and the score system in a future devlog, those aren't even implemented yet!
• Chip: The chip is a collectible item that can be spent to upgrade the player’s stats (health, damage, cooldowns, overheats) on the “UPG” button at the top right. Can only be obtained once per stage, and it’s difficulty-dependant.
• Score: The maximum score obtained on the level. Underneath the play button is a Highscores button. It’s very likely this button will only be available on the Steam version of the game, and it’ll use the Steam username to register the scores, not the profile name.

ENDLESS MODE

On Endless mode, given its nature, only 2 stats will be displayed, maximum score obtained, and maximum time survived, which will both appear on the Highscores as well.

I’ve also taken time to upgrade and polish the UI displayed during the actual gameplay. Enough of those dull, boring boxes! Programmer art is very, very useful, but sometimes you have to let go.

All previous elements of the UI have been reworked and polished. Also, a custom crosshair has been added, along with a score counter and a combo counter on the bottom right. These will be able to be disabled from the settings menu, since they might end up being distracting.

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With most of the UI done (or, at the very least, the difficult parts/systems done), I can finally start work on the actual game progression, the score/combo systems and the cutscene system. Once those are out of the way, I’ll be all ready to start spitting out new enemies, new tilesets and new stages, and getting this thing looking like an actual game!

So, stay tuned for future updates if I managed to pick your interest. Any feedback, no matter how trivial, will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you for reading!

Full Threaded Games, out.