Height Meter, VIP Target Prototyping, Polishing (Patreon)

Originally I planned to get back into asset creation mode, to add a few more details to the city, but instead I've spent the time improving "playability," messing with balancing, adding a height meter, and prototyping a VIP target system... essentially, anything but.

Height Meter

In the top-left corner of the HUD you can now find the height meter: Finally, you have a rough idea of how tall the characters are!

"But what about metric units?"—do not worry, friends, I've got you covered...

Of course, there will be an option to switch between metric and imperial units.

If I have learned one thing from Inch By Inch, then it's that this is the most important, single setting in any size-related game.

The Scale is a Lie

Anyway, you see those numbers in the height meter? Wish I could say they are an exact representation of the characters' size, but actually... they're kind of made up.

The characters, buildings and vehicles aren't actually built "to scale."

If you look at the doors on the buildings, you'll notice that they are smaller than you would expect, i.e. when comparing them to the cars...

This is for two reasons, basically:

• Realistic proportions are harder to work with... for instance it's better to have wider streets so you have more space to walk, but at the same time you don't want the cars to be too small, and so on
• Building everything to scale is a pain, so I kinda sorta eye-balled it—whoops!
  

Because the game has a somewhat cartoony style, I think I can get away with it; the perfect crime!

But since I now have to put a number on it, I had to find a plausible compromise. Which I have achieved, in part, by introducing my own intermediate unit: Cars.

"Ah yes, her height is 3.25 cars" –no one, ever.

Long story short, scales and sizes are a bit fuzzy, here: Please, no one grab a ruler!

VIP Targets

The VIP Target System is something I've finally started prototyping.

After a while, VIP targets will pop up, each for a limited time: Hit them in time, to get a decent $$$ bonus!

The idea behind this system is to add more short-term goals to the game, as well as add a little more challenge/reward, for instance for managing stamina well or pulling off a nice throw to hit a VIP target.

In local multiplayer, I also want to use this system as a bit of a catch-up mechanic: For this I plan to spawn the VIP targets closer to players with lower scores, to give them a better chance to boost their score.

(Otherwise, catching up when you fall behind is a lot more difficult, because players with a higher score will also be bigger, and when you're bigger you deal more damage, and more damage means a higher score, and so on.)

Hope you enjoyed the update, and thanks for your support!