This is the ninth Procedural Note.

The eighth promised enhancement of Rampant on the Track's audio and graphics by 4/24 - this, a little more than a week after that, demonstrates the former and some of the latter.

The latest demo is available at my site:

To see and hear it, you can also watch a couple gameplay videos I've uploaded.

One's gameplay that ends in running out of fuel

and the other's gameplay where the Walker gets to its destination

(Thumbnail might look grainy - will probably have to render future videos with a higher FPS rate.)

There's graphical (and gameplay) enhancements.

Previously, I trimmed down the display dimensions and information communicated to the user.

I've continued along that line:

The previous H(elp) button has been replaced with a meter indicating the current Fuel of the Stop the player is hovering over with their mouse - here, that's the one the Walker is currently refueling at.

(A future update will add H(elp)'s clarifying information back, such that the player can easily consult it whenever they want.)

Notice the depletion of the bar that previously tracked how much time was left in Plan Mode - that mechanic is gone, replaced with a different one that still has a bar the player needs to keep an eye on.

Blocks are now placed like this

and Redirects like this

What was previously the Information panel has now become the Segment panel - left-clicking on any Track segment causes that one to appear there.

Right-clicking on the now " focused " segment's Junctions allows Blocking - left-clicking on the segment itself allows Redirecting.

Notice that the focused segment fades as the animated Action Bar dwindles - and that said bar is cut in half after a Block/Redirect is applied.

That's their limitation - they can only be applied when the Action Bar is above 25%:

The Action Bar dwindles to zero and fills back up in cycles - any action taken cuts its current level in half.

The player can take, in sequence, two-three actions at most - getting the Walker to its destination is a matter of making those actions count.

There's audial enhancements too.

Those are best heard on the gameplay videos/playing the demo.

The background music track was edited from here, with Audacity.

(The pitch shifts with the Action Bar, and the tune itself synchronizes with the strobing background.)

The sound effects were edited from here, also with Audacity.

(" Electric " sounds were chosen to harmonize with the electronic music track. The effect goes well with the game's dark color palette.)

What's next?

• Remaining SFX/UX enchancements: There's a few more points to address:

  • Better font for displaying digits/text
  • Displaying Help text/any needed user settings
  • SFX tweaks: any new ones needed? Any that could be improved?
  • UX tweaks: Could the Action Bar fade-out/in look better? Could the graphics look less grainy? (This may be a matter of how I'm recording them.)

  These will be addressed over the next several days, up to 5/15.

• Gameplay mechanic enchancement/bug fixes: The intent now is to have a playable game available by 5/22 - one where the player can keep challenging themselves to get their Walker to its Destination, with a different Track each time.
  • Enemy Walkers, as described previously, will not be in this iteration. Fixes here will be focused on optimizing Track generation, Fuel depeletion/replenishment, and Walker movement logic.

Subscribe to this newsletter if you'd like to know more about those when they come, or if you're just curious.