Happy Holidays Everyone!

This update post will bring you up to speed on what's happening in the forest update for Autonomous Anarchy. We've done a lot of work over the holidays and want to share what we have accomplished. 

We have also made some changes to our plan for the update, with the biggest being decreasing the number of forest rooms from 15 down to 10. We want to have quality over quantity for these rooms, and they are going to be larger and have lots of things going on with them. We have a video which showcases the first 5 rooms as they are right now. We also have a name and soundtrack for the new area, known as the Rainforest Redoubt.

Levels 1-5 Progress:

Besides some minor tweaks that need to be made, levels 1-5 in area 2 are nearly complete. We have been experimenting with some different graphical effects and have placed them throughout these new rooms. Please let us know what you think of them!

We've posted a complete playthrough of these first 5 levels to our Youtube channel and we have the video linked above in this post if you are curious how the levels turned out. Please note that these are not 100% complete, and there may be some differences with the final release.

Levels 6-10 Progress:

Levels 6-10 will have you entering the dark part of the forest as the rainstorm develops. We've just started to work on the first level of this part and so far it's coming along very well.

Enemies and Boss Progress:

We've created 3 new enemy types we were planning to introduce in the forest area. 

The log golems have already been implemented into the first 5 levels of area 2. The choppers are pretty much complete and we will be adding them to the first 5 rooms soon. We have almost completed the grenadiers as well but we are planning to replace them with a new enemy type and wait until area 3 to introduce them. 

Two more enemy types we are planning are the snipers and war golems. They will be introduced in levels 6-10 so we will work on them once we are further along with those levels. We have not created any assets for the end boss for Rainforest Redoubt but we have a plan of what it's going to be.

New Enemy Type in the Works:

We've decided to replace the grenadier enemy with the buzz saw thrower. These guys look similar to the chopper but one of their arms has been replaced with a buzz saw launcher. They launch buzz saws that bounce off walls making them more of a threat than standard shots or rockets. We are very close to completing this enemy and we are planning to add them in level 4.

Estimated Timeline:

In our last update post, we discussed the potential release date for the forest update being the end of 2020. We had to spend a lot of time transitioning to a different version of GameMaker Studio, which ate a lot of time for the forest update, and so it's not really possible any more. Now that we have finished that and have a better idea of what work is left, we are hoping to have it released by the end of February 2021. 

While we continue to work on the second area, we are still making small changes to the first area we released in the beta. Please give it a try and send us your feedback so we can make it even better! 

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. Stay tuned to our Twitter, YouTube and devlogs for more info as we continue to develop Autonomous Anarchy!