Christmas chaos--so many fast choices (Patreon)

Hello, this is a post about Version 45 of Lethal Company. Spoilers for that. All throughout this post you'll notice cases where I had an initial idea of how I would do something, then quickly changed to the second option.

So the Nutcracker was the first thing I planned for Version 45. I had planned to make the nutcracker during the week before the game came out but was basically bedridden for three days, so I was only able to make the bees that weekend before release. Then I was worried the baboon hawks would never be created if I ever lose steam somehow (since the baboon hawks were a monumental task but one of the most important ideas for me), so I decided to make them next. Now, though, I could finally make the nutcracker.

So, I instantly modelled the nutcracker and its shotgun--a huge win for discipline. Then I procrastinated animating it, then procrastinated coding it--all the meanwhile, making other things for the game such as the radar booster flash command, spray paint, and the signal translator. 

The radar booster was going to have a "zap" command and would act like a tesla coil. Then I realized how this might act when players used the radar booster offensively; if a player was holding the radar booster when the command was sent, would it zap the player only since they were the closest, or would it zap both the player and enemy? That didn't sound very fun if zapping just slows you down. The other idea was the "flash" command, and I decided on that because it would be more fun for players to get flash-banged, since that's something you can technically play around if you want to hold the radar booster like some magic staff to ward off creatures, like some drunk or blind wizard.

The spray paint is something I'm kind of proud of technically (though it has some glitches right now.) The alternatives were glow sticks or signs, but those obviously aren't as fun. The signal translator has a history; it was almost released in Version 40 as a button which looked exactly like the ship teleporter buttons. When pressed, it would display an "ALERT!" text on every player's screen with an alarm audio which could be spammed. This was completely finished, but I decided the button was really boring and replaced it with the pull cord and horn, which is now a different item. This update I repurposed the signal translator to what it is now. As an aside, I realized the items in this game kind of fall into three categories: communication items, productivity items, and defensive items. This update kind of doubled up on communication items, and I don't have any more ideas for them, so the next update will probably focus on the other types.

Back to the nutcracker. I decided to code the nutcracker's shotgun as a player item first, then it turned out easier to make the nutcracker simply hold the exact same shotgun item and call its exact functions. Coding the nutcracker was fairly easy as I expected, although I didn't realize its animations would be a little complex. It had to hold a gun, and it had to turn around to look in 360 degrees (which I wanted it to do without ever moving its legs.) The nutcracker still has some things that can be changed or lessened about it, such as its weakness, but I was honestly not able to test it very organically with friends, since the mansion kept generating very unlucky maps. Luckily I upgraded the test room at the start of development for Version 45, and that has helped a lot.

At this point I would have released the update. But I was a little too late to get good testing and bug fixes done before the weekend, so I gave myself another week, which I'm glad I did. The first thing I did was add in four new scrap items suggested by my friends: chemistry flasks, the drama "comedy and tragedy" masks (not actually inspired by the SCP), a trashy "DIY" flash grenade, and a whoopie cushion. While making the mask, I first thought you should be able to wear it as a gag. Then I got the idea it could possess you. While modelling it and making the player animation for wearing it, I debated whether it should kill or even possess you and what it should do. 

Then came the shortest time ever between a creature being conceptualized and completely finished in Lethal Company's history. (Although I had been prepared to eventually make a mimic for the ice planets which would be found outside only, since at least a month before the game released. Mimics were not off the table.)

If for some reason you want proof, I was honestly referring to the masks here in the discord patreon channel.

Part of why I was able to make the mimic so fast was because it uses most of the player animations as well as the player model; the majority of time spent was on the item and just spawning the enemy. One hard choice was whether the possessed players should drop the mask off their face to become totally disguised; for a while, the mask would slowly fade in as the masked crewmate got closer to you, but that was mistaken for a glitch and just didn't work for dramatic effect. It turns out the mask doesn't compromise the mimic idea too much. It's small enough that it doesn't change the enemy's silhouette from that of a normal player, and sometimes you just can't see the mask if the enemy is turned around or their face isn't lit.

I'm very proud of this update, especially after the extra week took it from "enough" to "more than enough" in my eyes. I'm going to have to take a break, so I don't know how long it will be before Version 50.