It’s been a while since my last GUN WIZARD update! That’s partly because I didn’t feel as though there was quite enough progress to warrant one any earlier, and so as you might expect there’s now quite a lot that’s changed:

• Probably the most important update: I’ve switched out the Kenney game assets for some fresh, new, animated sprites by Yaroslav Novikov created just for GUN WIZARD!
• Enemies now turn to face the player. This obviously makes the best use of that sweet, sweet animation, but on top of that it also gives them a wider range of behaviour. Previously the only difference between enemy movements was speed, but now some will race directly up to you, others will plod along with a wide turning circle and…
• There’s a new enemy type that’s much faster than any of the others. However, it also turns comparatively slowly, causing it to “joust” with the wizard rather than charge in and latch on like the rest. These ones only turn up in the late game, and you’ll need either a hefty arsenal of guns to shoot them down or enough speed upgrades (and free room) to sidestep them when they appear.
• Related to the above, I’ve revised the enemy spawning system to increase the proportion of tough enemies rather than merely throw out more and more and more over time. (There will still be more over time, but this is no longer the main source of additional difficulty.)
• Enemies now occasionally drop ammo, making it easier to conserve your favourite guns if you’re using your arsenal efficiently.
• I’ve made countless more minor tweaks to the game’s workings. These include things like ensuring each bullet can only strike one enemy, bullets won’t ricochet endlessly within a crowd of armoured enemies, and that enemies can’t become permanently “stacked” in the exact same position as one another. This was actually a big chunk of the progress since Day Four: it’s not flashy, but it makes quite a difference.
• I have also added some more flashy things. The game has quite a bit of new audio, damage now produces blood spatter, and guns eject casings when fired.
• The game now has a narrative! Just check out this still from the swanky new opening cutscene:

The jam is now well into its final 24 hours - we’re just into the last 20 at the time I’m writing this - so I’ll mostly be making use of the remaining time to do some last-minute fine tuning as well as ticking off some (hopefully!) minor tasks from my to-do list:

• The game really should have leaderboards. This isn’t a significant challenge by any means, but I didn’t want to add them to the public work-in-progress because the scoring system itself was almost certain to change before things were finalised.
• Upgrades could do with some indication what level they’re already on. In particular, it would be useful to show that the pistol and rifle start off a few levels up, and that the assault rifle won’t even have a chance of spawning until it’s upgraded at least once.
• “Completed” upgrades shouldn’t be offered when levelling up. This is pretty low-priority, though. In theory there’s a point at which upgrading a weapon won’t produce any further benefit, but in practice you’d have to level up an impractical number of times even if you were offered and chose the same upgrade every time. (But still, if anybody gets that far in I feel as though the game should reward them by not offering junk when they gain a level.)

But there’s always more I could do! If you’ve got any final thoughts on the game, now’s the time to share them. I spent all last week on this, so I’m keen to polish it up as much as I possibly can!