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[Hempuli‽]

Gnerp Gnerp, time for a devlog.
Oh well, it's a bit questionable why I should do a devlog since I have a blog anyway, but I got the feeling that more people might notice this if I made a devlog, too. Apologies.

So, this game is Beyong the Black Hole, a puzzle game that is sequel to FIG in more than one, but not every aspect. Practically the game gives you control over the green fella, thus allowing puzzles about doing also other stuff than just clicking. This also means a bit more complicated controls, but hey, I’ll put a tutorial in ‘n all. The reason I removed the lemmings-like movement was because in FIG it was used too much as an arbitrary time limit, resulting in hurrying in many levels. When that was combined with the fact that some of the hotspots were a bit tiny, a couple levels ended up rather hellish. I’ve also updated the graphical look a bit, and I’m becoming really fond of that “MSpaint-ish” look. The game will feature 35 (or possibly 36) levels placed on 7 planets like last time. Johan Hargne, who composed the musics for FIG, can be seen working on this one, too. I'm lucky to have not one but two amazing composer-"friends".

I'll probably release a demo of sorts eventually, but we'll see what this 'eventually' is. The demo shall probably have the first planet, that is 5 levels + the tutorial.

I've already got some nitpicks from the testers regarding both the scrolling system the game uses, and control scheme. Granted, now that you have to control the guy too AND you can throw stuff, the controls are far far more complicated, but I hope that it doesn't prove to be too much of an obstacle. For the scrolling, you may remember that one scrolling level in FIG, that was really out of place when compared to all the other levels. To be honest, I had to struggle a bit in order to keep the levels in the given borders. That's why BtBH will have horizontal scrolling around. That, again, complicates the gameplay a bit, but hopefully, again, not too much. Why am I telling this? I don't know.

Anyway, time for SCREEENSHOOOOTSSS:

[One of the Beatles]

Are those actual in-game screenshots or just mockups, either way, 

[Hempuli‽]

Are those actual in-game screenshots or just mockups, either way, 

They're actual, in-game screenshots! Nice that you like them.

[Gainsworthy]

Hempuli! A sequel to Floating Islands Game? How wonderful. FIG is, as I may have mentioned, a favourite of mine. So much charm, and some insidious puzzles. Good to see you've got the same musicians doing the new soundtrack, too. Because the music was quite nice.

Will be watching! 

[Hempuli‽]

Thank you gainsworthy!

I just realized that I will not have much to write here, other than reports when I've finished a level or something like that. Since there're already 10 levels, the game isn't exactly on the 'experimenting' -phase anymore, so I don't want to reveal everything yet. I'm working currently on level 11.

[iPope]

That is more than awesome, that is  awesome.

[TobiasW]

Then post more screenshots if you don't have much to write here. They look absolutly delicious after all!

[Bood_war]

Hempuli's GAME CHARM OOZE stat is ridiculously high.

Posting so I can follow

[Hempuli‽]

Wow.

I've been horribly bad at updating this.
I'll post some screenshottey goodness in a couple days, I've taken some time off the game, but it seems like level 11 shall be ready in a couple days. Until then, here's an apologetic picture to compensate:

[TobiasW]

I love it! When can we play a demo?

[Hempuli‽]

OOo-kay! Level 11 is now finished-like! It took a huge amount of time to get working on this again, but whatever, I managed to do it.

I think the demo shall be out when I reach level 14 or 15. Let's see.

Even more testers have complained about the scrolling system, so I guess I should finally do something about it. Bothersome, but I guess you can never make things intuitive enough (and this game isn't very intuitive for sure!)

[alspal]

Looking forward to playing it.

[Hempuli‽]

Work on BtBH continues steadily. In fact, it’s coming together very nicely! Level 12 will be soon finished, and I’ve also created the tutorial and a credit page. I’ve also fleshed out the main menu, to make it more understandable. The demo shall be out 18th of june, which happens to be my birthday. I’ll have plenty of time to finish things up before that!

More exciting posts coming!

[TobiasW]

I'm joyously expecting it!

[Hempuli‽]

Boo yah! Level 12 is ready, and I've got the demo quite much ready. I'll try to finish level 13 before the demo is released, because I'm filled with creative power and have a pretty solid idea of that level.

For your enjoyment (though man, I hope I'll get more comments on this after the demo is released!):

[Noel Berry]

Wow, this looks awesome! I love the colours you used and how the game, in general looks. Definitely looking forward to playing this one.

[PlayMeTape]

I love the look of this game, and since you're about to finish the demo I'm guessing you're going to submit this to Indiecade ?

I'm really looking forward to trying the demo!

[JaJitsu]

yay Hempuli, keep it upp.


fig was awesome, i'm sure this will be cool too.

[Hempuli‽]

I love the look of this game, and since you're about to finish the demo I'm guessing you're going to submit this to Indiecade ?

I'm really looking forward to trying the demo!

I haven't even thought of that! But it seems that the deadline passed on 1th of June, so I'm a bit late.

Thanks for the comments!

[PlayMeTape]

They extended it to the 20th. I definitely think you should enter it!