Week 10

Welcome to the first polish sprint devlog for our game! This week, we dove headfirst into refining core elements of the experience, from visuals and mechanics to audio and visual feedback. While we had to say goodbye to a few features, the game is now smoother, more readable, and more fun to play. Here's everything we improved this sprint:

Art

Ocean Overhaul

 You will notice a quite drastic change with the look of the water, we finally got a different type of material to work, so now it looks closer to what we envisioned! The same goes for the wave at the bottom of the screen, they feel a lot more coherent now.

Respawn Rework

Players don't die immeadiately if they go far ahead. However at some point there is no point to steering anymore, the rat is lost at sea at that point. 

Particle Effects

Some particles were added to flesh out the player feedback, while some others received a rework or were more worked out.

Textures Upgrades

Nice and crispy textures! We wanted to improve our watercolor-like islands so we re-textured it. Now the characters will pop out even better! We also made the ramps bigger so that you can focus on running to the treasure instead of worrying about falling off of that plank.

We also improved our crates. Visible bombs definitely make it easier to understand what's waiting for you in the water! And the red paint makes it even more visible.

Foliage & Interaction Shader

It's alive! the flora on and around the islands now flows with the wind in a soothing, subtle motion. Visible in this video is a new shader that makes interactable object subtly pulsate with light, to draw the eye and improve clarity of the scene. 

3.. 2.. 1.. SAIL! 

A new intro animation has been added to give each player some time to prepare themselves to plunder! No spoilers here, you'll have to see what that looks like in-game!

Game

Bug Fixing

This sprint squashed a lot of bugs:

• Main screen no longer shows up during level switches

• Control screen now grabs focus correctly

• Animation triggers fixed

• Boat collisions refined

• Coins no longer sink, they now properly float!

Mechanic Revisions

Some tough decisions were made. We’ve dropped support for 3-4 player matches and focused entirely on delivering a tight 2-player experience.

Movement in water has been slowed to prevent players from swimming to victory, and boat movement has been reworked to feel more natural and dynamic. Steering now feels responsive and true to the game's theme. We also improved the transition from main menu to gameplay and enhanced disembarking with visual effects, including shrinking boats and juicy new particles.

Sound

 Soundtrack Update

A new, more adventurous track now plays in the main menu, setting the mood before you even set sail!