Crab Champions News

Today marks exactly 2 years since Crab Champions was first announced: it has come a long way and is a completely different game at this point!

Here's a fun look at how the game has evolved from a basic prototype in 2018!




Last month it was announced that there will be small beta in the future and if interested to add a reaction on Discord. This system broke because of too many reactions which is crazy!

Due to this response I've created a proper mailing list over at crabchampions.com/beta where you can sign up if interested in getting beta access when it launches.




Grenades add a really fun dynamic to the game: lining them up so that they explode into powerful damage areas around enemies. The longer an enemy lingers in a damage area, the more potent the damage effects get.

It's really satisfying to see the different damage over time effects stack up while also dealing weapon damage on top of that. Grenades are part of the ability system in Survival mode, so you would choose a grenade over another ability such as the Sentry Gun or the Crystal Strike. Here are some of the grenade types added this month:

[h2]Fire Grenade[/h2]
Deals rapid damage over time.



[h2]Acid Grenade[/h2]
Weakens enemies heavily meaning incoming damage is far more lethal.



[h2]Lightning Grenade[/h2]
Stuns and damages enemies, causing them to deal chain lightning damage to nearby enemies.



[h2]Ice Grenade[/h2]
Turns enemies into ice cubes (can't move or shoot until they thaw while also sliding helplessly around the level).




This month I remade every visual effect in the game from scratch for better performance, clarity and punch. They still need a second pass but in general are a huge improvement from before.

[h2]Improved Enemy FX + Explosions[/h2]


[h2]Improved Bullet Trail + Impact FX[/h2]


[h2]Improved Water Material + Caustics[/h2]


[h2]Improved Projectile FX[/h2]



Battle in this close quarters map with tight cave corridors, slippy ice floors and no room for error!




In addition to customizing basic game rules for custom Duel matches, I've added the following gameplay modifiers to switch things up. More will be added in the future!

• Low Gravity
  
• Instagib
  
• Low Friction (All surfaces behave like ice)
  
• Speed Up Time
  
• Tiny Players
  
• Tanky Health (Players have 5x the normal HP amount)
  

• Improved enemy aiming: enemies now lob projectiles in a nice arc and predict where the player will end up, making fights more challenging and interesting.
  
  
• New Perks
  
  • (Common) Anchor: Deal 100% more damage to enemies that are in water
    
  • (Common) Collector: Get a damage bonus for each perk you have
    
  • (Common) Paycheck: Get crystals after clearing each level
    
  • (Common) Sharp Wings: Deal 50% more damage while you are in the air
    
  • (Rare) Scary Mask: Elites and bosses start with 20% less health (renamed and nerfed from the previous version)
    
  • (Rare) Sledgehammer: Single shot damage over 85 gets increased by 50% (works well on slow firing, high damage weapons)
    
  • (Rare) Checklist: After every 10 eliminations, get a damage bonus
    
  • (Rare) Bullseye: Increases max health by 1 for each enemy that is eliminated in 1 shot
    
  • (Rare) Water Balloon: Increases damage dealt to wet enemies
    
  • (Epic) Gemstone: Get a damage bonus after clearing each level
    
  • (Epic) Stacker: Increases elemental damage stacks applied by 50%
    
• Water has been added as a new element type: I've added destructible water rocks to biomes that don't have water flowing naturally so if you catch fire in the lava biome, there's a way to extinguish yourself. Enemies covered in water take more lightning damage
  
• New challenge level types such as enemies that fire a random spread of projectiles, spawn other enemies or explode into a damage area when eliminated
  
  
• Weapon chests are now guaranteed after completing the first level
  
• Starting max HP has been increased from 100 to 250 for now- since health doesn't regenerate, it feels much more balanced to have a larger health pool that is harder to deplete but also harder to gain back when lost
  
• A health chest is guaranteed after each boss in addition to the legendary chest. This will allow players to heal or if they barely took damage they can instead go for a heart which adds 50 max HP
  
• Added red crit damage numbers
  
  
• Enemies now can't spawn too close to the player and have clear FX and sounds when spawning
  
• Greed totems have been made into a new Greed perk rarity (red). Special greed chests will spawn occasionally through each run and offer a very tempting perk that comes with a cost- greedy players beware!
  
• A shop is now guaranteed before each boss
  
• Added a healthbar animation to show recent damage dealt to enemies
  
  
• (Bonus) Overkill stress tests. What happens if you are on Island 99 with hundreds of rockets per shot? This isn't a situation I expect anyone to get into but it's still fun to try out and see if the game stays stable. Luckily nothing crashed and I had a lot of fun with all the chaos (don't worry the game won't look this broken, this is a beyond worst case scenario test!). The game can handle a LOT of projectiles!
  
  

Thanks for reading, now time to get back to work on the beta!

Join the Crab Champions Discord server: https://discord.gg/crabchampions
Follow Crab Champions on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crabchampions
Join the Crab Champions subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrabChampions/

This month went by quick! Lots of juicy additions this time around, lets get into it!


This is something that I've wanted to try out for a long time and it's been one of the most requested features to add. Here's a quick look at a sword which does huge damage up close. I'll continue to add various melee weapons and ensure that they have a viable role in the game.




UI work continues, with a focus on keeping everything as simple and minimal as possible. Have a look at the redesigned main menu:




This is a fun new mechanic that allows players to deal damage to enemies by knocking them back into the environment. Check out the new Gravity Cannon: this weapon freezes and blasts enemies away, dealing damage each time a frozen enemy ricochets off something.





While playtesting, I felt that Survival mode could have more player choice. For those unfamiliar, Survival mode takes the player through a series of islands set on different biomes, each island containing a number of randomly chosen levels with enemies to defeat in order to progress. Previously, after clearing each level the player was given a random piece of loot and had no control over what kind of level came next. This could feel like they were relying on getting lucky in order to advance rather than being skillful and strategic.

To combat this, I've added choices in every place it makes sense in order to let the player strategize and focus on a particular build rather than just being forced to play with whatever random loot was given.

[h2]Multiple Choice Chests[/h2]
Now all chests spawn a number of pickups, but only one can be chosen!



[h2]Multiple Choice Portals[/h2]
Playing the same kind of levels over and over was starting to get repetitive when playtesting: clear waves, move to next level, clear waves... repeat infinitely. Now, players get a selection of different level types via portals that spawn after each cleared level which have varying rewards and levels of difficulty. These new level types really change the pace and flow of the game, and enable the player to make important decisions: "do I have enough health to take on this challenge level or should I play it safe and go to the shop instead?"



[h2]Greed Totem[/h2]
This totem is occasionally found in the world and allows the player to gain a powerful passive upgrade that comes with a downside. These choices can quickly end your run so watch out greedy players!



Some of the potential rewards offered by this totem include:

• Brute Force: Increase damage by 50% but lose 25% max health (can be chosen up to 4 times in a row)
  
• Leap Of Faith: 50% chance to gain 25% max health, 50% chance to lose 25% max health (can be chosen up to 4 times in a row)
  
• Glass Cannon: Gain 100% more damage but take 100% more damage
  
• Hoarder: Get an extra chest after each level but double the amount of enemies spawn
  
• False Confidence: Normal enemy health is halved but boss health is quadrupled
  
• High Roller: 50% chance for 2 chests to spawn after completing a level, 50% chance for no chests to spawn
  
• Instant Gratification: Instantly spawn a chest of a random rarity but lose 33% health (can be chosen up to 3 times in a row)
  
• Impatience: Upgrade a random perk tier but lose 25% health (can be chosen up to 4 times in a row)
  

Between a boss and a hard enemy lies the elite enemy: with more damage, health and attack options than other enemies, they are a dangerous foe to face.




I've added many perks this month to further increase variety from run to run. This brings the total number of perks in the game up to 60 with more to come! Names are subject to change.

[h2]Common[/h2]

• First Impressions: The first 3 enemies on a level have 1 health (doesn't affect bosses)
  
• VIP: Purchases are discounted at the shop
  
• Special Delivery: An additional 2 items are on sale when visiting the shop
  
• Gifted: Damage needed to move to the next combo level reduced
  
• Autoload: Reload instantly when swapping weapons
  
• Safety Net: Bullets are only spent if hitting enemies, missing enemies uses no ammo
  
• Uppercut: On every 6th shot fired, deal 300% damage
  
• Painkillers: Take 50% less damage when at low health
  
• Leafy Greens: Increased movement speed when at high health
  

[h2]Rare[/h2]

• Danger Close: Deal 50% more damage to enemies up close
  
• Wisdom: Damage increased after clearing each level
  
• Assassin: Damage increased when eliminating enemies in one shot
  
• Oil Can: Deal more damage to enemies on fire
  
• Ice Cube: Deal more damage to frozen enemies
  
• Acid Vial: Deal more damage to enemies covered in acid
  
• Metal Rod: Deal more damage to enemies being shocked
  

[h2]Epic[/h2]

• Adrenaline: Increased movement speed and fire rate for 3 seconds after eliminating an enemy
  
• Earthquake: Increased knockback damage + strength
  
• Medic: Max health increased when eliminating enemies in one shot
  
• Gambler: Chest rewards can be re-rolled (once per chest)
  
• Restock: All items in the shop can be re-rolled (once per shop)
  
• Bargain Hunter: One random item in the shop is free of charge
  

[h2]Legendary[/h2]

• Charmed: There's now a chance for unchosen rewards in chests to not disappear
  
• Combo Breaker: Damage is multiplied by your current combo (up to a max of 4x)
  
• Gearhead: Fire rate increases with your current combo
  
• Hot Iron: The amount of crystals dropped per enemy is multiplied by your current combo
  

As work on the visuals continues, I've added an entrance level and short cinematic at the start of each biome: here's a look at the Sand biome entrance level at night (work in progress):




- The combo meter from the gameplay trailer has been re-added to the game. The higher your combo, the more crystals enemies drop when eliminated. If you take damage, your combo is lost.
- Nightmare difficulty can now only be played when the game has been beaten on Normal or Hard difficulties.
- Elemental enemies now take more damage from the opposite element (for example ice enemies take 2x damage from fire based attacks). Conversely, they are immune to damage matching their element (for example fire shotguns will still deal base damage but won't ignite fire enemies)
- Load times have been improved dramatically between each level
- Secret areas have been added to many levels with collectables that count towards challenges
- Enemy attack speed now increases alongside health and movement speed after each level is completed
- Added a slomo effect when the last enemy in a level is eliminated


This map is located on the buried shell of an ancient crab. 1v1 me on Crust, swords only!




I'll be hosting a small closed beta via the Crab Champions Discord server in the future: https://discord.gg/crabchampions



The beta will start when Survival Mode is complete in terms of core content. Participants will be hand chosen based on their interest on Discord + Twitter. If you'd like to get involved, be sure to let me know!

That's it for this month, now back to work to get closer to shipping the beta!

Join the Crab Champions Discord server: https://discord.gg/crabchampions
Follow Crab Champions on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crabchampions
Join the Crab Champions subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrabChampions/

Lots of new content has been added to the game this month, it's shaping up on all fronts!


As work on the visual style continues, lighting has had another pass to improve consistency across all maps.




As explained more below, I'm tweaking the Survival mode game loop which includes adding new pickups and a shop that appears on each island. Meet Tony the shopkeeper.




He rolls and rolls.




Kick ass and celebrate special occasions at the same time!




Launches a cluster of acid balls that explode after a short time. Each projectile deals both proximity and explosion damage.




I'm happy to say that Crab Champions has been wishlisted over 100,000 times on Steam! Thanks to all for the incredible support and continued interest.




Spent some time this month trying to make the UI as simple as possible while still looking decent: here's a look at the Survival mode UI- I have changed to a much more chunky text style which I think works a lot better compared to the previous more generic style.




Bullets deal splash damage at the impact point, damaging nearby enemies and allowing hitscan weapons to deal AOE damage.




Shoots 2 extra bullets per shot with increased spread. Hugely beneficial on all weapons especially those that have a slow rate of fire like snipers.




I'm currently revamping the Survival mode game loop- here are a few notable changes:

- Added a shop which contains guaranteed weapons, perks and other loot
- Added a new achievement "Heartless" which can be completed by defeating the shopkeeper (it ain't easy!)
- Chests are now opened with keys which can be dropped as loot or purchased in a shop
- Crystals (currency dropped by enemies) are now spent solely in shops
- Chests now come in 3 sizes and drop more than one piece of loot (The current potential drops are weapons, perks, keys, crystals, health potions and hearts)
- Added 2 new consumable loot types: Health potions (refills a % of your health) and Hearts (increases max health)
- Health regeneration is now disabled: this was done to stop players being able to run away from the action and heal up and also to support some of the new loot types
- The core game loop has been changed: previously there were 5 waves on each island that would happen one after another, but there was very little incentive for players to move around the island especially if playing fast. Now, 3 high intensity hordes must be cleared at different locations on each island (chosen randomly) in order to complete the island. The player is constrained to an area around these locations while fighting and can't leave the area until either the horde is cleared or the player is eliminated. After completing each of these hordes, a chest containing rewards is dropped. This greatly improves variation per island and also creates a more intense and action packed game loop.



As part of the journey towards a stable release, I had to face the mountain of bugs that had stacked up over the last few months, big and small. After a 3 week bug fixing marathon I'm happy to say that all currently known bugs have been fixed! While fixing these bugs, many quality of life improvements have also been made. Lesson learned: fix bugs as soon as they are found!

That's all for this update, thanks for reading!

Join the Crab Champions Discord server: https://discord.gg/crabchampions
Follow Crab Champions on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crabchampions
Join the Crab Champions subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrabChampions/

I'm super excited about the work done this month, it's opening up all kinds of cool possibilities for the future of the game and is massively increasing replayability!





While playtesting Survival mode, I noticed that I was getting bored of the islands that had been made months ago- the fresh feeling of discovery and exploration wore off after playing the levels a few times. It was easy to predict loot and enemy spawn locations which ultimately led to boredom.

The solution to this was something that I've always wanted to do but for various technical reasons hadn't fully attempted yet: procedurally generating all islands. This allows you to always sail to a fresh, unfamiliar and exciting island, not knowing where enemies might be, what loot awaits and what other secrets there are to unveil.

I know what you are thinking: procedurally generated levels often feel very samey and lack the fun of a handbuilt level. I spent a large portion of my time this month making a very modular and extendable generation system to tackle this problem. There are separate generators per biome for different types of levels (caves, forests, cliffs, open plains etc.) which allows me to get the variation that breaks up the samey feel of procedural levels while keeping each level unique. I'm happy to say that it is working really well and is generating varied maps not only for Survival mode, but also has allowed me to add a new endless Racing mode as a bonus!

As soon as I playtested the generator prototype, the fun factor of the game was back! Each run now feels like a unique and memorable adventure rather than playing the same sequence of levels over and over. Emergent gameplay is far more common with unexpected cave layouts filled with heavily guarded loot or packed with explosive fire rocks!

The thing I'm most happy about is that the generators seamlessly integrate new content into levels with each update, so you'll notice fresh additions and new secrets showing up all over the place, leading to a constant sense of discovery as the game moves through early access development. Updates won't be boring: "added one new level to the endgame" but will be more like: "added 20 new potential assets to the Tropical biome pool as well as 3 new sub biomes!" which will make updates more meaningful and worth checking out.

Here's a quick example of a barebones generator with 4 input assets: a terrain, some grass, a tree and a rock. While it's not hugely interesting, it already provides enough to explore.



So with this basic example (a single generator with 5 input assets), some variation is already possible by changing the seed as seen below:



This is only one type of generator however, and each island is made up of multiple generators that themselves spawn sub generators leading to a huge amount of meaningful variation that only deepens as time goes on and more content is added. Add that to different times of day per island, various weather scenarios, unique enemies and assets per biome, gameplay modifiers, dozens of potential secrets and more: there's a lot of content that can be experienced in interesting ways and can make each run play out differently!

Here's a quick look at some more varied examples (still using a very small asset pool):



As an added bonus, this has allowed me to make a Survival Daily Run mode which lets all players play and replay the same seed: this means that the maps, loot, enemy types and any other events based on chance will play out exactly the same each time which allows for a strategy to be developed both for speedrunning and to see how far you can get. The seed and leaderboard for this mode reset every 24 hours, so it's a fun way to play the game in a different way. There'll be a dedicated channel in the Crab Champions Discord server which will allow players to chat about the seed that day as well as show off their run and share strategies / discoveries in that particular seed.



Fire Improvements
Fire now interacts with the environment and spreads: it is much more powerful but must be used with caution: I have been burnt to a crisp while trapped in a cave many times while playtesting!



New Survival Mode Enemies
As seen in the first GIF on this post, I've added new skull variants that shoot a bunch of bouncing explosive mini skulls at the player! Also added this month are fire ants that move extremely quickly and can easily become a problem with their fire trail that can block off pathways, giant armored crabs that shoot high damage homing blades and explosive coral creatures that reside underwater in caves.



Duel Mode
Duel mode is pretty much complete at this point with just more maps needed for variety. I am still finetuning the bot AI to be both challenging but fair: I plan to eventually allow these same bots to be an optional companion in Survival mode if playing solo, as well as a high tier enemy: a rival crab that happens to be exploring the same island as you. Prepare for an epic duel in these situations!

That's it for this one: see you next month for another update, hope you had a great holiday season and here's to an amazing 2021!

Join the Crab Champions Discord server: https://discord.gg/crabchampions
Follow Crab Champions on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crabchampions
Join the Crab Champions subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrabChampions/

It's been a busy month working on Crab Champions- lots of great progress has been made. I've been mainly focusing on getting Survival mode finished as it is the main mode of the game with the most content to add. Here are a few things I worked on this month:




Perks are passive upgrades found around each Survival map in chests that can be opened in exchange for crystals (enemies drop crystals when they are eliminated). Perks only last for the current Survival run- when you are eliminated, you start the next run fresh with no perks. If you get a duplicate perk, it levels up and makes the effect stronger.

Here are the "basic" perks that are in the game so far. I have a long list of more creative and interesting perks that'll require more work to implement and will be added with future updates.

[h2]Common Perks[/h2]

• Fortitude: Max health increased
  
• Efficiency: Shots that hit enemies return ammo to the clip
  
• Time Is Money: Earn crystals over time
  
• Scavenger: Heal when collecting crystals
  
• Vitality: Damage increased when at full health
  
• Shield Siphon: Damage blocked by your shield heals you
  
• Haste: Ability cooldown time reduced
  
• Endurance: Heal after completing each wave
  

[h2]Rare Perks[/h2]

• Adrenaline: Health regeneration speed increased
  
• Souped Up: Ability leveled up
  
• Second Wind: Damage increased when at low health
  
• Speed Demon: Move faster and jump higher
  
• Personal Space: Max health increased for each enemy eliminated at close range
  
• Stunner: Enemies are stunned for a short time when hit
  
• All You Can Eat: No ammo is used for 2 seconds after eliminating an enemy
  
• Grim Reaper: Heal after eliminating enemies
  

[h2]Epic Perks[/h2]

• Claws Of Fury: Increased weapon damage
  
• Sharpshooter: Increased weapon critical damage
  
• Supercharged: Increased weapon fire rate
  
• Grave Dodger: Invincible for 3 seconds when at 1 health
  
• Rare Treasure: Enemies have a small chance to drop a random perk when eliminated
  
• Bonus Crystals: All crystal drops contain bonus crystals
  
• Bulletproof: Chance to completely block incoming damage
  
• Strength In Numbers: Gain an extra use of your ability
  

[h2]Legendary Perks[/h2]

• Exploding Enemies: Enemies explode when eliminated
  
• Splash Damage: Bullets deal splash damage to nearby enemies
  
• Storm Cloud: A lightning bolt strikes low health enemies, dealing AOE shock damage
  
• Piercing Rounds: Bullets pierce through enemies
  
• Firepower: Shoot 2 extra bullets per shot with higher spread
  
• Powerslide: Sliding surrounds you with fire that burns nearby enemies
  
• Ice Flip: Flipping freezes and knocks back nearby enemies
  
• Care Package: An asteroid containing perks and weapons drops in a random location at the start of each island
  

I've been looking at switching up the gameplay to avoid the repetition that many wave based survival games suffer from. One way of doing this is introducing different types of islands which dramatically change the pace of the game, keeping players on their toes. While one strategy may work great for standard islands, a challenge island may require something very different, forcing players to adapt.

The goal of Survival mode is to reach Crab Island and complete each of the 4 (more will be added later) biomes on the way there. Players can choose to keep going endlessly after Crab Island and loop back over the biomes with tougher enemies. Each map starts with a random time of day, randomized enemies, randomized loot locations and more. Currently to complete a biome, 5 islands must be survived and they follow this structure:

[h2]Island 1 + 2[/h2]
Standard Waves: Mixed enemy spawns at a normal pace.

[h2]Island 3[/h2]
Challenge Island: The island has a specific gameplay modifier that switches up gameplay in a challenging way, here are a few examples:

• Low Gravity: You and enemies can fly meaning you can reach certain areas of the map more easily but can be left vulnerable floating in the air
  
• High Gravity: It's harder for you to jump and your projectiles are more affected by gravity
  
• Speed: Everything moves faster (including enemies and their projectiles!)
  
• Instagib: All enemies are eliminated in one shot, but so are you
  
• No Shield: All shields are disabled, so certain enemies become a much larger threat
  
• No Health Regeneration: All health regeneration is disabled- playing carefully here is a must
  
• Lethal Liquids: Watch your step- touching water, acid pools, lava or other liquids results in an instant elimination!
  
• Invisible Enemies: Enemies are almost invisible so it's much easier for them to sneak up on you
  
• Tiny Enemies: Enemies are much smaller than usual which makes them harder to hit
  

Here's a look at the Low Gravity modifier in action:



[h2]Island 4[/h2]
Horde Island: Enemies come at a much faster pace in one long intense wave. This is a great island to get a lot of crystals to loot up before the boss.

[h2]Island 5[/h2]
Boss Island: Beat the boss to complete the biome and move on to the next one with a legendary perk and weapon dropped as a reward.


The weapon selection is starting to feel nicely varied- check out the newly added flamethrower, complete with fire propagation!



I'm also currently working on a Gravity Cannon, a Boomerang Gun and a bunch of other fun weapons- more on those next time!


Here are a few things that aren't quite ready yet but will be explored in future updates:

New Survival Lobby
The Survival lobby used to be a boring menu- now it's a fun map where you can practice shooting, choose your abilities for the run, find secret areas and even listen to a crab band while you wait for more players to join!



Abilities
These are chosen in the lobby before the Survival run begins and more can be unlocked by leveling up- I'll be diving more in depth on the progression and rewards system in a future update. Abilities are intended to allow the player to choose a certain playstyle- the Sentry Gun works for players that like to set up a defensive position and hold it down while the Dab Of Death is for those that like to get up close and personal. There are also defensive abilities such as Burrow- this allows you to hide in the sand and not take damage for a short period of time- more on these in the next update!

Soundtrack
Work on the soundtrack continues, I keep adding new songs! Currently there are at least 15 tracks with a few more that I'd like to add before release.

Bugs
As always I'm also spending a decent amount of time fixing bugs as well as cleaning up and refactoring the codebase as it shapes up for release- I figure it's better to spend extra time doing this work now than having a mess to deal with later. This way I can add new features and content much faster in the future, building on a solid foundation.

Thanks for reading, see you next month for another update!

Join the Crab Champions Discord server: https://discord.gg/crabchampions
Follow Crab Champions on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crabchampions
Join the Crab Champions subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrabChampions/