I added a feature into the game that was suggested by a player; so that once the player had hit and object or an enemies bullet they would have a debuff effect, I also considered adding this into the game when I first research into how games deal with the player colliding with the enemy. I decided to make a few changes to the player once they had taken damage inspired from the game Mario.
First the players sprite will be translucent with each stage of the gif getting more and more transparent this is so the player can easily see that they are still damaged, this is also a feature that is commonly used in games such as Mario and the feature works well in that game so it should work well in ours, also because of how popular games like Mario are; even if the player doesn’t use the tutorial they can quickly understand what’s happening to their character.
The players speed is also slightly reduced this is one of the debuff mechanics this is to penalize players for touching the enemies or blocking the base from a bullet, this is also a way that the player will be able to tell that they have touched an enemy and that, that leads to consequences.
Another debuff that I added is that the player can’t shoot for 2 seconds after they hit an enemy/bullet, this is big problem for the player as they will need to kill the enemies before they reach the base, because of this it will encourage the player to keep their distance from enemies.
These features will need a play test to see if players feel that the debuffs are to harsh and need any nerfs such as the players speed is too slow, or the time the effect is on for is too long and changes will be made depending on results of the feedback given.
After play tests players said that they liked the update however felt that the time of the debuff was too long, because of this the time will be lowered to 3/4 of the original value (2-1.5 seconds.) after this was tested again players felt that the time was long enough and so no more changes will be needed
Here is a video to show the players damage effect in game.
Evolution of Defence 