Injecting the Juice Into Kasplat!

Welcome back to the Geekabye Games Devlog. This week we talk about juiciness in games and how we are injecting juiciness to create an engaging and viscerally satisfying Kasplat! As always please check out our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to show your support and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more video updates and gameplay!

Juiciness might seem like a strange word to use when talking about games, but understanding what it means and how it impacts the way players perceive and engage with your games is vital. In essence, "Juiciness is sort of a catch all phrase for things that make the game feel good to interact with". Things like cute or exaggerated animations, fun sound effects, crazy particles or any number of other elements can all contribute to the juiciness of a game. If you are interested in more ways to inject juiciness into games, be sure to check out this great presentation on the YouTube channel grapfruct.

This week, we have been hard at work pumping some much needed juiciness into both the UI and the paint splatter effects of Kasplat. Check out this new gameplay video that shows some of the new additions and updates, then read on as we delve into more details of this week's progress below!

If you've been following the development of Kasplat you will see that this week has yielded a much more visually interesting and capturing game experience.

Most of the user interface is now animated! The users score text wobbles and pulses as new points are scored, there are UI pop ups when you miss or pop balloons, and the new color-combo scoring system is integrated to reward the player with a "SPLAT BONUS" when they create large splats of the same color, giving the player some dart back in addition to the normal bonus of extra points. We also added a proper game over screen which is also fully animated to juicy effect. 

One of the biggest changes this week was also the simplest; when being popped balloons now rapidly expand for a fraction of a second before disappearing and leaving behind their juicy splatter of paint particles. This simple change drastically improved the "pop effect" and helped to make bursting balloons an enjoyable and satisfying experience. 

Finally you may have noticed the star shaped balloon stamped with a "?" toward the end of the video. The star balloons are tied to the new powerup system currently in development and upon being popped, explode in a sparkling array of star particles. Popping star balloons will soon yield a powerup effect to the player for a short while. Though we can't say too much about the powerups just yet, check out future devlogs for a full rundown!

So there you have it, Kasplat with a little more juice! There is still a long way to go and nothing is final, you can look forward to seeing future updated like sound effects, more animations and more particles added to further amp up the juiciness of Kasplat. But for now, we hope you enjoyed reading and can't wait to have you back next week for the fourth edition the Geekabyte Games Devlog!