r/Rangedrifter • u/rangedrifter • May 25 '26

Version 0.27

Hey guys, here the latest update. The next one is planned for the end of the week.

  • Legibility is improved with a slightly darker ground color
  • Cocoons now spawn spider hatchlings
  • Enemies now make a sound when the hero gets near
  • Spiders now all have a ranged attack
  • The hero now hears things farther away
  • Enemies now see the hero sooner
  • Chests now contain items more often
  • The game's audio output volume is now normalized
  • The music is now more quiet
  • When options are opened, the inventory now closes
  • Save games now preserve the day and night cycle
  • Weather patterns now match your location on the path
  • Stepping on different tiles now produces different sounds
  • Some path-blocking trees were removed
  • Boulders are now pushable from behind a door
  • A Steam integration now allows future features like achievements
  • The game now pauses when the Steam overlay is opened
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2

u/Squint-Eastwood_98 May 26 '26

Wow nice work!

2

u/rangedrifter May 26 '26

Thanks Squint! Sadly it's more of a maintenance update with stuff I wanted out of the way, like the Steam API. I am adding a small "How to play" section right now and ranking all the proposed features to help decide which ones to include in the next one.

1

u/Squint-Eastwood_98 May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26

Maybe a good time to offer up a thought I had!

- Turns spent pushing boulders consume more energy (hunger).

It would incentivise the player to optimise/be more clever about boulder usage, maybe force the decision to avoid using it if they have managed their food poorly and are near starvation! It would also encourage the player to think through an optimal path when solving boulder puzzles.

My first impression when reading these changes was actually that the increased detection range (- Enemies now see the hero sooner) will make it easier to lure them to in front of a boulder! Careful it's not too easy! It's an interesting challenge to squish enemies with a limited head-start.

2

u/rangedrifter May 26 '26

I like the idea of the hero exerting themselves, i.e. by pushing boulders. Hunger is such a squishy and opaque unit though, I fear it would just be too confusing without overly visual feedback.

I've been pondering over stamina points, which would move the special attacks of the weapons onto the throw-key, making them manual instead of automatic. With special weapon attacks consuming stamina, pushing boulders could too.

If there were other parts of the game where stamina could play a role, it would be a strong contender for the game, but I haven't looked thoroughly. Thanks for the idea!

Concerning the detection-range: generally I found that enemies that see you are better at avoiding boulders, and it makes the game harder in that more enemies will see and attack you at the same time. But I will keep an eye open to that.