Hey! Since it's been another while, I wanted to take another moment to share some talk about our game, SUPERBUG.

It should be no secret by now that SUPERBUG's first major update, Mutations, was heavily delayed beyond the promised time. To be honest, Fall 2022 was incredibly ambitious even for the small original scope of the update - but the main reason for the delay is that the scope has simply gotten much bigger. We wanted to combine Mutations with the second-planned Major update, and throw in all of the effort we can to make SUPERBUG the best game it can be in one giant push. Thats why, when Mutations finally drops, it will be SUPERBUG's 2.0 update - almost an entirely new game.

In the last 2 years, much has changed about the game that I'd love to discuss! I'll avoid making promises or sharing things that aren't already done; so devlogs like this one will be rolled out slowly until SUPERBUG 2.0 releases.

Superbug Sunday Specifics #3 - Score & Combo

The score and combo system of SUPERBUG is perhaps its singular most central mechanic. In 1.0, the combo system simply gets the job done, but it could be much better. I always found the combo display difficult to read, and maintaining a high combo could often be unintuitive.

First, let's start with the combo display. As of 1.0, your combo is shown in the top left corner as a piece of text, which reads your combo multiplier and remaining combo time in a single string.

In order to get information from the combo display, you must read this text, split the information into its two component halves (multiplier and time remaining), and then additionally interpret the time as a portion of the max combo time.  The end result is, sure, something that works - but it's clumsily implemented, and overall slow.

In the first of Mutations' combo changes, we've added a beautiful...

...combo meter!

With the new combo meter, the amount of information you have to process is dramatically reduced. Instead of needing to interpret the time, the combo meter displays all of the information you need as a proportion of the fill bar. Thanks to this, we can display your combo multiplier in heavy contrast, making it much easier to read overall.

Additionally, since the combo time is abstracted now, it allows us to get creative with how we display that information. A clever trick lets us make the combo meter deplete faster when it is more full, and slower when it is less full. This means that, when it looks like your combo meter is about to run out, you actually have a little longer than you think you have to refresh your combo. As a result, we can increase the combo time significantly while still keeping tension, which helps make the game easier for less experienced players but still exciting for everyone. In addition to this, there is now also a hidden "grace period" beyond when the combo expires, allowing you to still claim a score bonus for a very short time after narrowly missing the combo refresh.

One final feature that was only made possible thanks to the new combo meter, was that we can now flash your final combo upon completing objectives.

Objectives

Another of my issues with SUPERBUG 1.0's combo system is that it had very little interaction with the greater gameplay - it only rewarded you for killing enemies. Because of this, it was technically best to kill every enemy before leaving the level, even if you had to lose your combo to backtrack.

In 2.0, we added a new mechanic which I call "Objective Score". When you complete an objective, you receive a large sum of base-points - which is, of course, increased by your combo - then your combo resets. Objectives include infesting the core at the end of a level, as well as other actions to-be-revealed...

As a side effect, this also fixes an issue with completing levels in version 1.0, where your combo time could persist between level completions. It would allow you to get absurdly high combos, if you were lucky enough to play a level that could finish fast and then load a level that could start fast. This is how I got my insane high combo of 59, where normally a level would give you a 30 or so.

Now, in 2.0, you are incentivized to build a high combo and then immediately finish it with an objective. This is great for making levels play faster, as well as allowing us to invent new ways to play SUPERBUG that mesh with its core design of speed.

A New Feature...

Lastly, I want to share a morsel of the new content to come in Mutations. This feature was added in part to help enable combos on longer maps, while adding an extra layer of decision making to gameplay. Everybody welcome: the brand new Boomer enemy!

.... uh, name tentative.

The Boomer was conceived in part because of a change we made to Clusters (the destructible object that produces explosive Chunks). In 1.0, destroying Clusters grants the same combo and score bonus as killing another enemy, which was probably unintentional. Since we consider Clusters to be more of a weapon than an enemy, we didn't want to reward players with combo/score directly for the simple action of destroying them. As a consequence of changing this property of Clusters, it made it more difficult to maintain a combo on some longer maps like Level 2 (the level with an optional loop to the left containing extra enemies and Clusters). We needed something that could give you combo without attacking you out of your spawn. Thus, the Boomer was born.

As described, the Boomer enemy has truly no attacks. Instead, when you kill it, it produces a circle of slow-moving bullets following a short delay. They create a large amount of persistent hazards, combined with incoming fire from Turrets and Troopers, making for a uniquely deadly threat. I often find myself losing lives to these guys on Level 2, they are no joke! Still yet, I kill them every time, because I need that delicious combo.

The Boomer is one of many new enemies to come in SUPERBUG's Mutations update. I hope you're excited to hear more just as I am to talk about it! But in the meantime... I've got some crazy shit to work on x3

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Happy Wrath Month! (With love, Borbo and friends)