Welcome to the second BATTLEMENTS devlog! BATTLEMENTS is a 2.5D top down shooter centered around building vending machines that grant you perks, protecting said machines from mutants that attack in waves, and slowly unlocking new rooms to reach the end of a map with all the machines intact. 

As of writing this, devlog 1 is roughly 3 months old, and so much neat stuff has happened since then that I've been dying to write about! If you aren't caught up yet I'd advise reading devlog 1 to get a better grasp on the game, since I won't be explaining everything here again. 

Promo art I did to lay some ground rules for the game's style! I wanted to emphasize the muzzle flashes and the onomatopoeia, background's a bit shabby and I promise the actual environments will look much more detailed. High rez version available here.

SHINY NEW UI!

During the past couple of months I've designed some basic HUD and UI prototypes. These won't reflect the final versions obviously, but they roughly show what I'm aiming towards for the final product. 

So far I've got most of the main menu done alongside the in-game HUD, I won't show everything  here but if you're curious you can check out this Twitter post to see all these designs in sexy high definition!

The following are only mockups and not in-game screenshots.

I've also made a couple of other designs that are related to the UI but aren't necessarily part of the HUD. 

The design below is the Upgrade menu's cover! I want the menu to be a little magazine that slides on screen when activated, and you can flip through the pages to access the actual upgrades. I also want to do a similar skeuomorphism effect with the build menu and have it be some sort of electronic PDA.

This second design is gonna be a little card pack that contains rewards. Rewards will be granted once you beat a map and are not randomized, instead they're based on what difficulty you beat the map on, how many times you died or how many of your machines were destroyed, etc. I want every item icon to eventually be a card as well.

THE NEW MUTANTS!

I've made a whole 2 new Mutants since the previous devlog! I won't bother explaining their stats here since those are nowhere near finalized yet, but I will talk about how they'll generally behave like. I also have a third mutant in the works but I haven't gotten around to modeling him yet.

MUTANT TROOPER

The most common foot soldier in the world of BATTLEMENTS. Armed with powerful ray guns, laser shotguns and pistols, these troopers may not be highly strategic, but their sheer strength in numbers makes up for it. 

Their design is much bulkier compared to the previous 3 Mutants. I wanted to go for an almost riot armor look because the troopers are specifically designed for infantry combat. I really like how this guy turned out, especially compared to my old sketch I showcased last devlog.

EYESORES

The Eyesores are strange eyeball bat hybrids that will spawn in packs of 2-4. Once they spot their target, they'll stop in place for a few seconds and boost forwards, and upon a successful hit, will deal some afterburn and knockback. If you manage to hit an Eyesore while it's charging it's speed boost or while it's boosting at you, it'll get stunned and receive additional damage!

I had lots of fun designing these guys. They're simple but very effective, and I think they're a stand out compared to their fellow Mutants. Here's a concept sketch. As you can tell they didn't change much because I already liked the design alot.

OTHER CONCEPTS 

Here's a concept sketch of the Rebreather, a lanky scheming Mutant that can heal his teammates when they’re in close range! He'll also periodically shoot out bolts of electricity that can push you away and can hurt you. If given enough time, the Rebreather can also turbocharge a single enemy, which makes them turbo and makes them deal crits.

The Rebreather will also spawn in with a shield that needs to be broken before any damage can be dealt. The shield can be destroyed by dealing 5 consecutive hits. It recharges quickly, so aim is key to getting it down. 

Here's a sketch of the Marauder's semi-finalized design. The Marauder is the mysterious entity commanding the Mutant hordes. It is rumored amongst the resistance that he's not even conscious at all, merely being a construct designed to decommission Plastic Platoon figures.

TERRIFIC TURRETS!

In Devlog 1 I had a very rough idea of how turrets would actually look and behave like, but now I thankfully have a much better grasp on them. So far I've only modeled 1 turret but have a couple other ideas in the works, such as a shotgun turret and a flamethrower turret!

This is the ROCKETEER! A highly durable but extremely slow turret that can shoot rockets and deal additional splash damage! The design is highly influenced by vintage tank toys from the 60's and 70's and the sentry gun from Team Fortress 2. All turrets will also share the same base with the four legs in case you were wondering.

We're also working on a 3D version of the rocketeer for use in-game, you can thank our new modeler Craity for it!

MEZMERISING MAPS!

TRAINWRECK is BATTLEMENTS' first official map! We're still lacking proper textures and props for it, but the basic layout is mostly finished. 

Obviously the map will evolve as we actually add and balance everything in-game, what I've made so far is more so meant to be a test map to tinker around with mechanics and lay some ground rules for the style. 

Trainwreck (once in a more presentable state) will be modeled after a trainyard constructed with Plastic Platoon playset pieces. It used to be a key location for transporting resources from base to base, but it has now gone under siege by the Mutants, and it's your job to push them away.

Maps in BATTLEMENTS are meant to be linear with minimal backtracking. The closest comparison I'd personally make would be a COD zombies map combined with a TF2 payload map, you're always trying to push deeper into the map and closer to the finish line, while stopping to carry your vending machines and defenses closer to the end, which in this example function as your "payload". 

GAMEPLAY LOOP CHANGES!

The main gameplay loop has changed a lot since last devlog. Now that I've had time to properly reflect on the game I've realized that a lot of my original ideas weren't the best, and I've taken the time to refine and solidify them. I'll try my best to explain how matches now play like: 

MATCH BEGINNING - At the start of a match you'll be instructed to place down your 3 vending machines, these can be interacted with to give you Perks, special abilities that can be swapped around on a loadout out of matches. You obtain Perks from the machines with TOKENS which you get by killing Mutants. Perks are removed when you respawn and get pricier the more you buy them. 

The main objective of BATTLEMENTS is to protect your machines at all costs from enemies, and to get them from spawn all the way to the end of a map. If any Mutants succeed in destroying one of your machines it and the perk will be gone for good, and if they destroy all of them it's game over. 

ROOMS - At the beginning of a match you'll always spawn in a starter room containing a small selection of purchasable weapons (usually 2-4). These will be scattered around the room and require TOKENS to purchase. Once a gun is bought you'll equip it and it'll get added to the Upgrade menu, and once a turret is bought it'll also pop up in Upgrades and get added to your Build menu to await placement. I should also mention that weapon buys are randomly scrambled every fresh match.

WAVES - After buying a handful of shiny new guns and placing down your turrets, you're finally ready to brave the Mutant hordes! In the first wave, only a specific selection of Mutants will appear (typically 3-4 types), but after every 5 waves a brand new type will be added to the roster. 

SPECIAL WAVES - These occur every 5 waves alongside the new Mutant type being added. They basically give both you and the mutants buffs and de-buffs depending on how well you performed the last waves. The Special Wave effects include temporary buffs to your stats, TOKEN and JUNK discounts, and de-buffed or buffed Mutants. If you performed spectacularly bad a mini-boss can also be unleashed into the battlefield, and you're required to kill it to beat the wave. 

UNLOCKING ROOMS - After getting sufficient points from downed Mutants, you'll be able to unlock brand new rooms to progress deeper into the map. Preferably, you'd also want to move your vending machines and turrets deeper into the map, but this varies depending on your playstyle. 

Anyways, each new room doesn't just count with weapon buys, but also with new Mutant spawns. Every room has Mutant spawns, and most of them can be walled off using JUNK, you can also use JUNK to repair turrets and machines. JUNK isn't earned by killing enemies, but spawns in-between waves during the grace period. 

UPGRADES - By this point in a match, you should have unlocked a large majority of the rooms, and strengthened your defenses. You can access the Upgrade menu at any time by pressing Q, in here you'll be able to individually upgrade the stats for your weapons and your Trooper.

BOSS BATTLES - After unlocking every room and finally reaching the end you'll be met with a buyable BOSS FIGHT. After purchase, you'll have to fight a boss inside an arena, or defend your vending machines in an assault. To be able to begin both of these events all your current vending machines must be present inside the arena. After successfully beating the event you'll be able to exit the map and claim your victory!

WRAPPING UP.

Thanks for reading Devlog 2! I'm extremely satisfied with the progress we've made, there's alot of awesome stuff in store for the future of this game, and I think it'll turn out extremely fun. I already said this in Devlog 1, but while we may not be working at the most ideal pace, we're still making very tangible progress with the game every month.

Next Devlog I'm aiming to showcase new weapons, animations, assets and hopefully some more finalized gameplay. Until then, thanks for reading!

If you wanna follow development on BATTLEMENTS closer, I'd advise following our Twitter and YouTube for "daily" updates and news! Check out our site too.