devlog week 4 - visual effects

This week I focused on adding visual effects and other feedback to make the game easier to understand.

First I got some new icons that more accurately show what they mean.

Next I added coroutines that would delay actions. By running things in sequence it became much clearer what enemies and game-effects were doing, especially between turns, which are no longer instant.

Adding coroutines gave the opportunity to give some effects upon getting hit to player and enemies, I gave them a shake and color effect. The size of the shake depends on the strength of the attack, and during the shake I colored them red or blue depending on whether the attack got through the target's defense.

Hit shake effects and coroutine delay, the effects are exaggerated in this recording so they can be seen more clearly.

Responding to feedback, I heard repeatedly that the intent system was unclear, to remedy this I decided to add a particle system.
 Each time a player or enemy acts, some particles are generated and sent towards the target, particle colors correspond to their effect.


Particle effects for each action

In future, the particle system could be extended to feature unique actions and card effects with unique particle configurations to add flavour.

The last thing I want to add to help with visual feedback is mouse over text that explains what cards and enemy actions do.

The next step is to implement the win/lose screens and equipment system, after that it'll just be a matter of adding more types of cards and enemies.