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[Ishi]

Does the steepness of the rope slope matter? That is, can Leilani roll up shallower slopes, or at least make it farther before she starts reversing direction, or is it strictly a matter of reversing her after a set time or distance whenever she's rolling uphill?

No it doesn't, I felt it'd be more predictable to be simply a slope, or flat. Ropes that are perfectly flat can be traversed in either direction. Ropes that have any kind of slope will cause Leilani/enemies to immediately slow down and turn around if they try to roll uphill. When I place ropes in levels I'll avoid including ropes with a very gentle slope where it feels silly to not be able to roll up it - so it's always very clear how the rope will behave.

The exception to this is that ropes attached to moving platforms have some leniency over what constitutes a flat rope. So as the angle of the rope changes, there'll be more leeway to travel along it rather than Leilani being reversed the moment the rope has any kind of slope to it.

[r0ber7]

Hi. I rarely visit these forums, but I really like your game so I just wanted to say well done, and really cool to see that you are still working on it. 

[Suttebun]

you're doing a great job, keep it up *sniff*

[oahda]

Wow! I've been sort of offline for a while so I've missed a lot of updates, altho I did see the ropes between platforms on Twitter, really cool. You've gotten so much done, I'm in awe at the constant progress of this thing. Looks so good!!

[Tanz0rz]

That's great to hear, thanks! I'm not sure how I would approach a devlog post specifically about the creation of sounds. In this post I briefly covered which sources and tools to create sounds. Generally, I either spend a lot of time hunting through freesound.org for a sound that seems to fit, or for synthesised sounds I spend a lot of time tweaking parameters to get something that sounds about right!

Beyond that I don't really have the vocabulary to describe the kinds of sounds I want to create or how I go about creating them - as it's mostly trial and error. My editing of existing audio files is also pretty limited - the most complex thing I'll do is make a sound loop seamlessly.

If you have any ideas of what I could talk about or more specific questions about the process I'm happy to try and answer!

Actually, that post was great! Thanks

[diegzumillo]

Wow! I've been sort of offline for a while so I've missed a lot of updates, altho I did see the ropes between platforms on Twitter, really cool. You've gotten so much done, I'm in awe at the constant progress of this thing. Looks so good!!

Me too! I would love to know more details about your project organization. It can't be just a todo.txt

[Ishi]

Thanks for all the lovely comments everyone

Me too! I would love to know more details about your project organization. It can't be just a todo.txt

Well it's not a .txt but pretty much:



I use this notebook for short-to-medium-term todo lists. Some are planning out the steps to implement a new feature, some are lists written while watching playtesting, it varies. But each page looks pretty much like this:



And I tick each one off when it's done! I'm aware that it's not the most efficient method of keeping a todo list (and isn't backed up anywhere either) but I appreciate being able to draw little diagrams as part of the notes if I need to.

For longer term project planning the only thing I really have is a spreadsheet where all the game's levels are planned out. Some are finished, some are just written in the spreadsheet as ideas, and some are empty but with space reserved for where a level should be.

Self-playthrough finished!

So far I've spent 1h30 on the playthrough and made 4 1/2 pages of notes in my notebook! I estimate another hour of play to finish everything that's currently in the game. 2h30 will be a pretty good amount of playtime I think, considering I can rush through most of the levels since I know them already. And there's still more content to be added!

Surprisingly my estimate was spot-on: the playthrough took 2h30 in total. I finished watching back through the playthrough and making notes and ended up with 7 pages of todo list in the notebook.

I'm roughly 3.5 pages through implementing all the changes and fixes. They range from the smallest of adjustments - making a single sound louder - to overhauls of sections of a level. I'll cover a couple of interesting changes below.

Challenge Medals

One thing I noted during my playthrough was when I came to this screen in the Challenge mode:


Before

I found it kinda hard to parse what the screen was telling me - what do the three numbers represent? Since I made the screen, it's a bad sign if I'm struggling to understand it. You can read the text to get the idea that the smaller time is probably the best target to aim for, but it's awkward.

I improved it by adding colour to represent the three medals that can be earned:


After

I also took the opportunity to make the three medals different shapes to make the challenge UI more colour-blindness friendly. Here are a couple more before-and-after screenshots.


Before

Before


After

After

Poison Pipeway improvements

Poison Pipeway is a level that I'm trying to document the development of in some detail. See previous posts here, here and here.

A couple of sections have had an overhaul based on the notes from my self-playthrough.

Rainbow drop section

This section with a rainbow drop collection challenge felt a bit lifeless to me. There's not too much going on, especially compared to the rest of the level:


Before

And if you avoid triggering the rainbow drop sequence then it's even more empty:


Before

I packed some more stuff into it, added a poison waterfall to avoid, and made the rainbow sequence a secret bonus. You have to bounce off the enemy to reach the platform where the rainbow hoop appears:


After

3rd Chip Section

The section immediately after also had some tweaks.


Before

Due to the way the platforms move, you almost collect the computer chip by default - it's actually harder to avoid it than to collect it.

I made the second ring of platforms rotate the other way and put the chip on the other side of the waterfall, so you have to consciously make the decision to go and collect it. The first ring of platforms is also faster and more spaced out to offer a little challenge.


After

I'm aware that the changes to this level could lean too far towards making it too intense - but I'd rather go into the playtest with a challenging version of the level that I can tone down a bit later rather than a boring version of the level that I'm not sure how to make interesting.

Thanks for reading!

[JobLeonard]

I use this notebook for short-to-medium-term todo lists. Some are planning out the steps to implement a new feature, some are lists written while watching playtesting, it varies. But each page looks pretty much like this:

I also took the opportunity to make the three medals different shapes to make the challenge UI more colour-blindness friendly.

My ADHD side is green with envy. My colorblind side loves you

[Ishi]

I spent this week finishing up the rest of my current to-do list items! I then did another quick playthrough, which only generated another half page of to-do items, which I also to-did.

This basically wraps up my big push to get a playable build together, which as mentioned before I'll be giving to a small number of people - to start with just the people who already played it before. Apart from uploading it to steam, the build is done, which is exciting!

There are a couple of changes from the rest of the to-do list that are worth showing.

Powerups interacting with boost rings

This doesn't happen often, but occasionally a powerup would get chance to collide with a boost ring, but would just float through it. This always felt a bit odd and disappointing, so now powerups can be boosted by the boost ring.



Course List page-changing animation

The world map pause menu has a Course List option, to review your progress through the game. Each of the game's worlds has its own page. Previously, changing page instantly swapped to the next one:


(Level names redacted because I didn't feel like showing them all )

This was a bit hard to follow. I improved it so the pages all exist at the same time, and are quickly flipped between, with movement. It now feels much nicer to navigate through the worlds.



Also... Poison Pipeway Full Level Playthrough video!

Thanks to all the recent polish that's gone into the game I feel comfortable showing off more complete gameplay. Here's a full (but not 100%) playthrough of the Poison Pipeway level.

[oahda]

That playthrough looks AMAZING. The platforms breaking the waterfalls is such a cool mechanic. Does make me wonder what the story is behind Leilani ending up in these wacky worlds! Also congrats on the playable build!!

[mindless]

The play through looks really, really great! The only thing that I noticed was that when Leilani went through the rainbow ring, I was really expecting a different musical theme to start up - something with more urgency that feels like you’re on a timer. Any thoughts of maybe fading out the main level theme quickly when starting the rainbow drops and playing something “bonusy” until the player either catches the last drop or it falls off the screen?

[Ishi]

That playthrough looks AMAZING. The platforms breaking the waterfalls is such a cool mechanic. Does make me wonder what the story is behind Leilani ending up in these wacky worlds! Also congrats on the playable build!!

Thank you Someday I'll get back around to designing the World Map and figuring out how the level locations fit together! I'll probably be redesigning the world map - or at least giving it a significant overhaul compared to last time I showed it. The current build just uses a placeholder world map which isn't much more than a list of levels.

The play through looks really, really great! The only thing that I noticed was that when Leilani went through the rainbow ring, I was really expecting a different musical theme to start up - something with more urgency that feels like you’re on a timer. Any thoughts of maybe fading out the main level theme quickly when starting the rainbow drops and playing something “bonusy” until the player either catches the last drop or it falls off the screen?

Thanks! This is an idea worth keeping in mind. The Mario games have always done this, whether it's for P-Switches or when Red / Green coins appear. It would definitely help to get across that there's some urgency in collecting the rainbow drops.

[Chuckster32]

Gameplay looks fantastic! Not sure how possible this would be, but I wonder if the pipes you roll into could have a bulge at the very entrance and exit? To me at least, just looks a tiny bit odd having the bulge all throughout the center but then for the final part of the pipe immediately before you exit, it just vanishes.

[diegzumillo]

Wow that video really shows the quality of this thing. It has a Nintendo level of shine that is very hard to pull off. And looks amazingly fun.

[MondayHopscotch]

This playthrough looks great! It's very cool to see the pacing of a full experience to compliment the various mechanics you've showed us in isolated blog posts.

One thing that caught my attention is the sound of collecting shells --- it feels very 'harsh' compared to the rest of the sound. Not in a bad way on its own, but it just stood out as having a very different feel compared to the rest.

That said, this looks like a lot of fun to play. The spinning platforms make for some interesting arrangements -- such as the one where you need to go through the pipe above and climb down to get the collectible. Looking forward to being able to play this myself. This only got me more hyped.

[l0bster]

gameplay looks very cool
i like the length of the level a lot. feels exactly right, to be able to explore a mechanic, do some things inbetween, like collecting some extras etc.

[Ishi]

Thank you all ^_^

Not sure how possible this would be, but I wonder if the pipes you roll into could have a bulge at the very entrance and exit? To me at least, just looks a tiny bit odd having the bulge all throughout the center but then for the final part of the pipe immediately before you exit, it just vanishes.

I think I avoided this because I didn't want to deal with animating bulges on the tube ends that have a cap over them (one-way exit-only tubes). The cap is also animated and the position where the cap attaches to the tube would change as the tube bulged. It seemed too messy to deal with. I've added it to my feedback list anyway in case I want to deal with it in the future!

One thing that caught my attention is the sound of collecting shells --- it feels very 'harsh' compared to the rest of the sound. Not in a bad way on its own, but it just stood out as having a very different feel compared to the rest.

Made a note to look at this, thanks!

[Ashedragon]

I'm so insanely proud and impressed, wow.  Your updates really motivate me to keep working on my own project, seeing what it is now versus when I first started following it at the very beginning.
 

[emscape]

Looks really cool so far, keen to see how it turns out

[andos]

Looks great!! Loving the details on everything, and can imagine myself playing it already.