Private Alpha Release
March 11, 2019
Private Alpha Release
It’s been two months since MAGFest, so I’d say it’s about time for another one of these. With plenty of time since our last large public appearance, we’ve been developing the alpha build for our mailing list subscribers, which we sent out last Friday. The game has come a long way since that showcase with some new features, so let’s take a quick look at what Runaway veterans can expect:
Two New Game Modes
We’ve created a new Capture the Flag game mode in which players compete to steal the opposing team’s flag and bring it back to their base to score. Whoever reaches the max score first wins. We’ve also added a free-for-all version of our Last Gang Standing mode called Deathmatch. In this mode, players lose a life each time they are sprayed and replenish lives by tagging signs scattered across the map. The last player alive wins.
A little sneak-peek at Capture the Flag when it was first developed
A New Level - Peak
A new level called “Peak” is playable in single-player Time Trial and two-player Tagging Race. The level is our take on a parkour race: each player competes to reach the top of the symmetrical race track first. This level placed a larger emphasis on verticality than past levels so that players feel like they’re climbing and not just running.
A preview of the level layout
A HUD Overhaul
The heads-up display (or HUD) is all the text and graphics used to give the player information about what’s happening in the game. The most basic example in Runaway is the arrows that point toward tagging targets. The HUD has gone through a major overhaul to improve readability and accessibility to all important information. Before, each player’s screen only gave a small amount of info relevant to that player.
In every team-based mode, we now show the team logo above each player’s head as well as every sign they’ve tagged. This was a move for accessibility because color-coding doesn’t work well for color-blind players, and the color coding made it hard to see any details on the characters or their tags. Now, you only have to compare the logo above your head to the logo above what you’re looking at. If they’re not a match, then spray away.
We’ve also changed the way we show score in each game mode. We’ve shifted away from showing only each player’s score on their own screen to putting all the score in the center. For example, the Deathmatch mode used to show each player’s lives at the top of their part of the screen. It wasn’t hard to see how many lives you had, but you’d only know how everyone else was doing by looking at their screen. We’ve since made it so each player’s lives left are shown right above their character's head. That way, you only need to get in view of someone to know whether you should chase them. We’ve also put headshots of the characters into the center of the screen where it’s easy for everyone to see. When a player loses, their headshot is grayed out. Down the line, we’d like to also add a giant X graphic to make it more noticeable at a glance, but this was a good start.
The Deathmatch HUD in action
New Artwork
Just about everything in the game has gotten a face lift in a new style. The characters have a whole new set of animations that we like to call “graffiti in motion”. The background has shifted away from pixel art to an illustrated style. We have new tag artwork (a lot of which came from the graffiti board at MAGFest) as well as a concrete tileset. While the concrete is a placeholder, it gives a better sense of the style we are going for than the pixel bricks we’ve had in the game up to this point.
A total of 58 views and 30 downloads of our alpha so far in a week and a half.