#sharkz.io

Some screenshots of sharkz.io v2. 

1/2 of exp comes from eating a creature, 1/4 for the killing blow, and 1/4 from the fight itself

There’s also a "whale shark” ai that swims around terrorizing the hammerheads (and everything, really) with a swarm of little fish.

I’ve taken out the jellyfish for now (not that anyone has seen it, its only been in the dev branch).

I really gotta stop adding stuff, so that I can balance a rogue, a zookeeper, and a warrior. When will it be live??? NO IDEA! My priority is to make the current set of things playable and balanced and not add anything else crazy. It is already pretty crazy tho.. there’s a full-on stealth system that works with the ai. All that and I’m not even sure that I even like stealth as a mechanic...lol... T_T

I’ve also had some network-programming-related breakthroughs. The version of nengi currently in sharkz has a mistake that makes the game jittery or rubberbandy. The newer version is ultra smooth, and can even conceal small amounts of packet loss. I’m honestly slightly embarrassed each moment that the current version stays online. And not that long ago I was so proud.. funny how that goes..

Sharkz.io is an addictive Agar.io-esque massively multiplayer browser based combat game in which players attempt to eat their way up the food chain.

Tried to make decorated hitpoint bar borders that hint at the NPC’s strength.

They came out looking like cyborg sharks. Undecided how I feel about that.

You’ll just have to imagine them unblurred, b/c I’m too lazy to rescale them all to tumblr’s liking.

When the border is decorated in white it creates a nice bone-y look (last screenshot). I think I’m going to use these to add some visual variety to the player-chosen builds. Basically the hitpoint bar is going to have a unique shape that hints at what the build the player has chosen. The last screenshot is an example of what the final ‘Devourer’ evolution might look like on the hitpoint bar. Meanwhile something with a poison tail might get something dangerous looking towards the back of the hitpoint bar, as a visual hint. 

The bone aesthetic almost looks like a parasite embedded along the shark’s spine -- and I like this, I feel like it represents and explains the player’s presence. They are the foreign controller, and as they chose evolutions the symbiote somehow manipulates the shark. 

 As for the ones that look like cyborgs, I like how they look but thematically I’m not sure. Perhaps I’ll save a few of these for a special boss encounter... a naval experiment gone awry and released back into the ocean... 

The beginning of Sharkz.io v2′s class system.

As the player chooses classes they get additional options for where to put their stat points. All sharks start with 4 base stats: speed, regen, health, and bite. If they manage to grow, they’ll be offered specializations at levels 5, 15, and 25. Depending on the build this will unlock another 6-12 types of stats. Usable abilities are also unlocked depending on the build. 

In this case I chose to go down the rogue path, and the two new stats are hide, and subtlety. There’s no art for ‘em, so you’ll have to take my word. Hide affects the speed at which a rogue shark becomes camouflaged when holding still. Subtlety affects how quickly the shark is revealed by moving again. Maxing both of these will result in a shark that quickly disappears when still, and is difficult to see when swimming slowly. Any significant movement will reveal the shark. 

The rogue is one of three RPG-inspired themes for the sharks. The rogue eventually forks at two mutations: ink sacs and offensive tails. The ink path grants the sharks the ability to cast an ink bomb (like if squid ink meets ninja smokebomb). From there the sharks can specialize into two final types of sharks: the escapist and the assassin. The escapist gains an ability to basically vanish and move while fully invisible for a few seconds. The assassin gains a chunk of damage after using ink bomb or becoming invisible, like an archetypal backstabbing rogue. Meanwhile the offensive tail path results in two combat-heavy style sharks. One, called the Thresher (that’s a real shark btw) can attack with its tail. The other gains a stingray-esque poison tail.

The hammerhead mini boss. Most hammerheads in Sharkz.io get eaten by players who have mastered the twirl. The twirl is a move that keeps you out of the hammerhead’s mouth (barely) while nipping the hammerhead’s tail. It is a frantic synchronized dance. Each tier of hammerhead (there are 5) can spin slightly faster. This mini boss politely declines your request to dance altogether with a special rage mechanic: each time this hammerhead is bitten it gains movement speed (uh huh) and turning speed (uh oh).