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[Strife]

It's official - I've got this person's permission to use it as official artwork! And she's willing to draw more characters as well. ^_^



Also, the game is now on Indie DB, one of the largest sites for up-and-coming indie games. If you feel like bumping up our view count, you can find it here:

http://www.indiedb.com/games/freedom-planet

[BattleBeard]

PLANET FREEDOM

[Conker534]

Freeeeeeeedom
I love this game. Cant wait to play.

[JobLeonard]

It's like sonic, but without the annoying one-hit-lose-all-rings bit, and with more player control.


PERFECT.

[Strife]

Thank you everyone! ^_^

Alpha and Omega Radio has asked to interview me for one of their podcasts. We'll be talking about Freedom Planet's gameplay, artwork, and of course, the music. ^_^ The interview itself will take place tomorrow night and will be broadcasted to the public later in the week. I'm excited, and I hope my connection holds up for it (you never know with these USB modems).

[Strife]

This Mahjong minigame will be playable in the upcoming demo. To unlock it, you'll need to find and collect all 10 cards in Dragon Valley.



Carol is also fully implemented. You can unlock her by clearing Dragon Valley is less than 6 minutes or by entering a special cheat code. Follow us on Facebook to learn what it is!

The above screenshot also shows some of the graphical tweaks I've made to the stage. Some areas now have grass, and I've buffed up the color/saturation on the plants and trees.


The demo and the official website will launch in 2 days!

[Ishi]

Looking forward to it!

[Strife]

Our first demo is now available for download! You can find it on our official website:

http://freedomplanet.galaxytrail.com/

The demo lets you play through the first stage, Dragon Valley, as Lilac. There are also a couple of unlockable bonus features that you may know about already.

The journey has just begun for us, so what you see in this demo is by no means what it will look or play like in the final version of the game. Do we have something special on our hands? You decide!

[Ishi]

Really enjoyed having a go of this.

I had 5 lives. Died a couple of times on the boulder section because I was stopping at the top of the cliffs and letting the boulder go underneath, instead of just holding right, then I couldn't get back into the flow of it (kept hitting the right edge of the screen and slowing down) and the boulder crushed me.

Then I lost the rest of my lives on the snake boss. Was pretty close to killing him on the last life I think. Kinda hard to dodge the bouncing circle attack because most of it happens off screen. It was a little annoying having to go through the boulder section each time, too.

Great work though. Love the environments and characters especially. Feels like a quality 16-bit game.

[Strife]

Thanks Ishi! ^_^ The new version of the game should alleviate some of the difficulty issues with the stage boss as well as performing other tweaks based on suggestions I've received. It'll be ready in a day or two.


I'm extremely surprised and grateful at the media coverage the game has been receiving! We've been mentioned by the likes of IndieGames.com, Destructoid, and EuroGamer. Alpha and Omega Radio's interview with me has also been uploaded to their website.

There has of course been some flak about the game's similarities to Sonic, but the majority of players found them to be tributes rather than ripoffs and would gladly buy the game when it's released. So we're definitely going in the right direction, I think.

[Uykered]

Really nice, lots of effects polish.

[Strife]

Lilac's been given a visual makeover. She still has similar proportions to a Sonic character, but I've taken the effort to better highlight how she's different from him. I've ditched the hedgehog spikes and went with a look that's a more original, attractive, and easier to draw. I'm also putting a greater emphasis on her hair tendrils, as you can see by her new rolling animation in which she wraps them around her body and uses them like a wheel (instead of transforming into a sphere like Sonic, as was the case previously).

I'll get some new artwork for her to replace the art that's currently on our website.

[Strife]

Aaand here she is!



As you can see, we're going to aim for more anime-styled bodies than before, at least for full-sized artwork. The game will retain Sonic proportions because of its low resolution.

[Pineapple]

I'll be honest, I had some real doubts at first. But this game is getting to look pretty fucking awesome. 

[Conker534]

Am I the only one bugged by her outline?

Anyways I like the new design!

[Strife]

I'll be honest, I had some real doubts at first. But this game is getting to look pretty fucking awesome.  

Glad to have you on board!


Anyway, it just occured to me that I forgot to put up Carol's new artwork as well!



And, in other news, practically all of the Sonic-styled item boxes have had graphical revamps. This is most noticeable with the shield boxes, which have been replaced with self-demonstrating crystals:



Smashing them gets you the shield as usual, but now you can take cover behind the crystals and they'll reflect elemental attacks without you needing to collect them first.

[Strife]

I really should get better at keeping this thread updated along with the other threads/places I update. Anyway, moving along. ^_^



Carol now has a special Wild Kick ability. Holding the C button lets her attack with rapid-fire kicks as long as she has the Energy for it. She does not gain Energy by running fast like Lilac, but it regenerates slowly over time and by collecting crystals.

On a similar note, Lilac can now perform a weak kick by attacking while crouched down.

As for this particular stage, it'll be a practice dojo where the player can try out small time challenges. Upon entering the stage, they would be presented with a list of small maps to try out where the goal is to hit all of the targets as quickly as possible. Since I plan to have obstacles load dynamically in order to keep the stage small, this would also open up the possibility of a Dojo Editor where you can make your own maps/challenges.

[Strife]

This is just a mockup at the moment, but a level editor is surprisingly doable as long as I keep the features simple. You'll only be able to make small "break the target"-type rooms with it.

I'm not sure if it'll make it into the demo, but regardless, I should have Shang Mu Dojo and its target minigames in a playable state in the next build.

[Linkshot]

Looks like I have a new game to keep track of! Just played through the demo and honestly almost game over'd. Weird not having spin jump on command.

[Strife]

Glad to have you around Linkshot!


Anyway, Version 1.2 of the demo is now released!

http://freedomplanet.galaxytrail.com/download.htm

This version has several big improvements and additions, including the following:

- Lilac's sleek new design
- Carol's new special ability, the Wild Kick
- Elemental crystals that instantly grant you a shield
- A new stage, Shang Mu Academy, that contains 18 mini-maps where you must hit all of the targets as quickly as possible

We unfortunately could not include the map editor for Shang Mu Academy in this demo as it currently has too many bugs. We're not sure if it will be exclusive to the full version as of yet, but we'll see what the future holds.

Enjoy the new and improved demo!