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[Zack Bell]

I'm in the process of a slight redesign.

-The world will be more open, and less linear
-On average, 1 in 4 rooms will be the difficulty of the ones seen in the demo

Here's the catch: after each difficult platforming section there will be a fairy. These fairies are used to open doors that let you go to different parts of the map. So you can bypass the hard stuff and explore, but eventually you'll have to pick and choose your challenges until you find enough fairies to progress.

How does that sound to you guys? The door cost will progress as you get further on into the game. the reason why you're stuck in the caves on the demo is because the door cost for the first and last rooms are set to 3000

[Theon]

Just tried the new build (you've got to tell me when you release them, man! :O)!

The bigger areas really let you explore the jumping mechanics, and it's giving me a Super Meat boy-feel. Which is a very good thing!
I just can't get over how delicious the grass looks when you touch it...so smooth 

A downside with having such huge ares visible at the screen at one time, is that those previously mentioned pixels don't get the visibility I feel they deserve, and also, it slightly removes the feeling of exploration..., though that could probably be fixed through just making huge fucking dungeons!

What I'm wondering most of all is, what approach will you take from here?
Will you make a metroidvania, where the focus is exploration and combat, or are you going with the Super Meat Boy speedrun-gameplay which seemed to get spotlight in this last build?

You could of course go in the direction VVVVV took; with a big map to explore, and areas that required precision-platforming to pass.

I, for one, vote for much explorations. My fingers are tingly from hunger after more of this world; I want to see more, and I want to to be a world, and not just an arrangement of skill-based arena maps.

Just my opinions, anyway

Looking forward to seeing more! Let me know!

[Zack Bell]

My plan is to make each area four times larger than originally planned, but only one out of every four (ish) rooms will require the precision platforming. So it will be exploration with traces of the difficult platforming.

Hope that makes sense. 

[Happy Shabby Games]

What about exploration "hubs" or exploration geared areas with challenging platform routes to each? I enjoyed some of the more claustrophobic moments.

[Zack Bell]

Hmm, very cool. I'm sketching out a TON of level design right now and it seems to be a good mix of open, claustrophic, easy, and super difficult. Hahaha 

[Zack Bell]

Sorry for the additional bump, but THIS made my day.

Background for the cave levels as well as the first piece of music.
I just plastered them on the original build, so I apologize that all of the mentioned problems are still there.

This one is for your eyes and ears.  
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29279751/TUNES.exe

EDIT: Doing A LOT of level design tonight.
EDIT2: SHIT, did not notice that I tried some new lighting in the fourth room. Ignore  


Updating Room count: 24 -> 30 -> 41

[Franklin's Ghost]

Had a quick play through and really enjoying it so far. Think the spike's need a definite change though, cause died a few times without realising that I was hitting the spikes. Continue save spots wasn't working for me. And think when you add the death animation since it will really help bring the game together.

Great job so far though, loving seeing the constant progress you're making on this.

[Theophilus]

This is looking really nice. I lovvvvve it

[Zack Bell]

Thanks guys 

Adding the background and the music really brought it to life. It gave me a lot of motivation and I'm hitting the level design HARD. Of course, you feedback is motivating as well and I'm glad that people are enjoying this!

And I agree, that the spike colors will need to change now. I have to figure out what to do for a death animation soon! I don't want it to be violent or gruesome in any way, haha.

[Zack Bell]

How do you feel about this background color? More of an olive instead of the straight black.

[Windybeard]

Just played through. Great game! Looks awesome, plays smooth and very challenging

[Ashkin]

I don't feel that the olive works very well- is it supposed to be indoors or outdoors? If it's indoors, make it darker and add some more blue- not completely black, but dark.

[Zack Bell]

@Windybeard: Thanks, man! 

@Ashkin: Ok, cool. I'll mess around with darker blues or something. Thanks!

[Zack Bell]

[Zack Bell]

The map is getting large. How do you adventure and metroidvania folks keep track of such large maps? 55-60 rooms/screens and I'm already getting a tad lost.

[FK in the Coffee]

Design doc.  When your maps get to be huge, you'd best start loggin' em.

[Zack Bell]

Yeah, I've basically been drawing out the whole damn thing on graph paper. Scaled to one block represents a 64x64 area.

[SolarLune]

Yeah, I've basically been drawing out the whole damn thing on graph paper. Scaled to one block represents a 64x64 area.

You draw them to scale? I just draw room 'concepts' and how they fit together - I don't worry about the sizes. I'm sure that's not to my benefit, but it's working alright so far...

[Zack Bell]

To scale...ish. Enough that I can recognize which room it is without having to pull it up on my computer. 

[Zack Bell]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29279751/Games/TUNES.exe

Again, same demo as before (I don't want to spoil all of the changes that I have made  )

BUT I added the cave music to the demo instead of the title screen music. BREAK BEATS.