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[coah]

I have been reworking the entire first passage and it's pretty much done at this point.

The stages progressed in a pretty boring way. You walked from left to right and all stages lined up in a really dull way, it pretty much looked like this:



With the changes I have been working on the passage now has a structure like this:


What really changed was the introduction of vertical transitions in the from of elevators that end some of the levels. There is even a level that has you going from right to left.
Many changes to the artwork as well has improved the sense of place as you progress though the stages.

The original passage featured some general ruins and a cathedral (click to enlarge);


In the new layout, you begin underneath a broken old bridge, get on top of it, find an old cathedral at the end, and begin to delve down into it (click to enlarge) ;


Overall the new passage feel a lot more like an actual place.

Here's a preview of the new second passage:

[jean]

I just played it for a very short bit. I will some more when I have time, but it's really cool and fun to get into. The graphics is excellent. It makes me wanna play some Castlevania. I like your fire-ignite checkpoints (I've been doing something similar on saves in a game I am working on)

Like others, I too like the colour matching in the levels and the details (the green growth) especially in this last image.

[Quicksand-S]

It's nice to see some negative feedback, It's just a shame that it's not very useful. It's certainly valid as far as a personal opinion, but most of your criticism reads to me as the result of you imposing your own values on the game, without listening to the games design in order to understand it on it's own terms.

I think the reason is that "listening to the game's design" led me to the statement, "the gameplay works well enough". Apart from the headache-inducing sound at the beginning, I didn't find anything I thought was "wrong" with the game. It works. I like how, as someone mentioned, each scenario feels like a puzzle. The game has fairly unique gameplay and looks quite good.

It just seemed that in a thread posted in a Feedback forum, I might as well share my other thoughts and opinions on the design choices that were made. After all, there's always the chance that stating an opinion about a gameplay element might cause you to look at your game from a new perspective. I would also think that mentioning how the controls and pacing feel seems pretty important when giving feedback on a game. Naturally, you don't have to agree with anything I say, though. It's your game and you're obviously capable of making it a good one.

[coah]

I have updated the demo again. It has all the reworked backgrounds and in addition to that you could mess around with some alternative difficulty settings.

There are many small tweaks to many small things as well.

So, check the original post for the download links.

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I've also begun using my twitter account, it's @monocosm. I wont be using it as a personal account at all so it serves more like an rss feed of game updates, a bit like this, but not entierly the same. Very infrequent updates I would imagine, so it's probably pleasant to follow that.

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Also, as a result of using twitter, a little write up on Indie Statik.
http://indiestatik.com/2013/11/10/screenshot-scrutiny-9th-november-2013/

[coah]

I have a website now, it's http://monocosm.net/index.html.

It's not 100% yet, there might be a few issues so I was hoping that some of you might be interested in checking it out and seeing if it falls apart.

It's built on the HTML5boilerplate so browser compatibility should not be an issue since I don't do anything strange with the layout.

There may be a few small things I add, maybe an 'about' page could be important, but I really don't know about that yet.

...

There will be actual GAME updates soon, I promise!

[Rat Casket]

Sick.

[coah]

I've been struggling with a mental model for difficulty. I'ts been hard to preserve an understanding for how the game feels to new players and to figure out where the lines between easy, challenging and 'fuck you' are.
I've been thinking that the line between easy and challenging was very delicate, but the reality is that I just have impossibly high standards for the game that I can't meet. It's stagnated development for a while.

The demo will be easier, the game at large will still be hard.

New stuff

Eyes spawn from the right at a fixed interval.

This level is really great. It has really simple rules but it creates a very nuanced challenge of pacing and positioning. I think it might be the best bit of level design the game has to date.

The eye designs are just stand in, they will still be eyes though.

[coah]

I an currently re-writing pretty much all the code in the game. I have wanted to move away from Javascript for a while and was always thinking that it would be good to do after this project is done. But I have recently realized that I should be re-writing or at least re structuring most of my code, so its kind of a good time.

So that's taking some time, but it's making sure the project files and code is all structured a lot much better. Things are going well.

#screenshotsaturday

[Prads]

Loved the game. I can spend hours playing it!
At first couple of minutes I didn't realise he was holding a shield and I was trying to dodge everything that was coming at me. I thought he was showing off his biceps at first and then the knife hit me at the front then I realised it was a shield. haha

[coah]

Loved the game. I can spend hours playing it!
At first couple of minutes I didn't realise he was holding a shield and I was trying to dodge everything that was coming at me. I thought he was showing off his biceps at first and then the knife hit me at the front then I realised it was a shield. haha

Thanks. I am always thinking of ways to add small things into the game that could increase replayability and generally add a sense to discovery to the levels, something that would make it worthwhile to really engage with the game beyond just beating it. That's not in the current demo, there are a few secrets in the demo, but Id like to add more things.
Also it's a she, like all the games characters, But I guess it's not too obvious really.

Damn this looks cool, keep up the good work!

I really appreciate that. Your work is very inspiring to me.

[coah]

Passage 2 is really shaping up.
Stage 14 might be the only vertical level in the game.

[Rat Casket]

Ahhh this demo is so good I love it. Keep up the good work.

[Derqs]

I've been playing the demo alot in between classes, loving the colour palette

[coah]

Ahhh this demo is so good I love it. Keep up the good work.

I've been playing the demo alot in between classes, loving the colour palette

Thank you both, I really appreciate all the positive comments. It helps me feel like I'm doing something right with this.

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Developments
Recently its just been a bunch of level design, not a lot of art, and generally some random tweaking all over the place.

One good thing I've added recently is an option to disable the gamepad. It stops the game listening for inputs from it so that you can use some external keymapping software for whatever gamepad you are using.
I guess the ideal long-term goal is full support and re-mapping for anything, but I am not sure it's worth the effort.

--

It was #screenshotsaturay

[coah]

Haven't work that much on the game this week, but the development at this point is all about content. So I'm just working on finishing this thing, then I'll talk to some composers while I do general polish stuff.

[coah]

[coah]

It's time for me to go dark for however long it takes to finish this thing.

I would love testers, if anyone is interested please PM me and we'll sort it out. It would be especially great if you can record yourself playing things for the first time, but its really not a necessity. Just tell me what you like, don't like, etc.

Wish me luck.

[coah]

It's been a while.

I am going to be testing a large part of the game this week. It's not done, but it's got a lot more than the initial demo ever had.

Passage 1 is done, and had been for some time.
Passage 2 is done BUT it has no boss at the end.
Passage 3 has all but one level no boss, still all that's there is very experimental.
Passage 4 is all in my head and none of that's been implemented yet.

If anyone would like to test this week that would be great. It doesn't require all that much, but however detailed you want to be about it will be appreciated.
The game now has a replay system so by just playing the build you will be able to give me a lot of useful information. As long as you give me the replay files of course.

email me, or send a PM if you are interested. (email is in my profile)