Devlog #4:Lasers and splatters

Introduction

Welcome back to another Subject 13 devlog. This devlog is the start of a new series of smaller weekly updates designed to share more frequent and regular insights into the development process. This week's focus will be on two newly implemented features, dynamic splatter effects and the laser hazard.

Dynamic splatter effects

One of my recent objectives has been to enhance the visual feedback during gameplay interactions. To accomplish this, I've introduced dynamic splatter effects that trigger whenever the player's soft-body impacts another surfaces at high velocity. These splatter effects add a sense of physicality and immersion to the players collisions.

After exploring several diffrent ways of doing this i decided to use unity’s sprite masking system to handle the splatter visuals. Each surface capable of showing splatters, acts as a mask, defining exactly where the effects are meant to appear. This prevents the splatter sprites from visually bleeding onto other objects or the background, maintaining a clean and believable aesthetic.

Additionally, the splatters are also randomized in rotation, scale, and color. This was a design decision to try and prevent repetition, making the effects feel organic and less predictable to the player.

This flexible approach provides room for future customization, allowing easy updates to colors, shapes, and even behavior as development continues.

Lasers

The second major addition introduced this week is the implementation of the laser hazard. These lasers act as timed obstacles that require players to observe and react to its pattern to pass safely by. My goal was to create hazards with clearly indicated patterns, enhancing gameplay through timing based challenges.

The core design decision behind the laser system was to use a configurable timing sequence to define the lasers active/inactive states. This allows each laser obstacle to have unique behavior patterns, adding variability and depth to the puzzle designs.

Another important visual element of these lasers is a glowing effect that precedes activation. The glow gradually intensifies, clearly signaling to players when the laser is about to activate. This intentional feedback system provides players with fair and intuitive warnings, contributing to better pacing and reduced frustration.

This laser mechanic is modular by design, enabling easy adjustment and experimentation with different timing patterns and visual indicators. In future updates, I plan to explore additional complexity, such as lasers responsive to player proximity and additional environmental interactions.

Future development

This concludes the first of the smaller weekly devlogs. The upcoming weeks will continue to focus on expanding the interactive elements and refining gameplay mechanics.

Planned future features include:

• More hazards and dangers (turrets, security cameras)
• UI and menu systems
• creation of game assets and level design
• Music and SFX
• Saving and loading

As always, your feedback and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you for following along and i’ll see you in next weeks devlog.