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[Matt Thorson]

I've started a blog about my game design adventures!  And my first (real) post is about...






New areas!
New hearts!
One more upgrade!
New difficulty changes!
New other stuff!
New bug fixes!
And probably some new bugs too!
Look at the blog above for more info!

New Content:
Added a third toughness upgrade.
Added rectangle foreground effect to every room in Blancland.
Added new rooms and areas (14 new rooms total).
Added 5 new hearts.
Added a book to Library.

Difficulty Rebalancing:
Made it so you can hurt the Grotto eye boss without divebombing on Regular and Simple.
Added one bubble to the last room of DeepDive before BlancLand on Regular, and two on Simple.
Made the next purple ball in the BlackCastle jumping puzzles partially visible.

Misc. Changes:
Changed the Heist Mode font.
Toughness upgrades on ability pause screen are now numbered.
Changed the pink bird font.
Halved time you need to hold up or down for quick-scroll on pause menus for abilities/hearts and slowed down scroll speed.
Added quick-scroll to teleport select screen.
Changed Crystal Ball/Floretta font.
Made the RainbowDive sign text box a bit more attractive.
Changed boss music on Insanity mode.
Made the player always bright red on Insanity mode.
Added markers to some rooms in The Curtain and CloudRun, so you can see when the moving platforms turn around.
Moved BlackCastle and FinalClimb over two squares, to the edge of the map.
Added version number display to main menu.

Bug Fixes/Optimizations:
Fixed countless memeory leaks related to the particle system.
Fixed transparency bug with the transition to the pink bird conversation cutscene.
Fixed area name field being too small for some area names.
Fixed slight visual mismatch between two DeepDive foreground images.
Fixed being able to get stuck by beating FireCage before getting the teleport ability.
Fixed small fish in DeepDive getting stuck in frozen enemies and freaking out (now they're destroyed if they get stuck).
Moved player color update code out of step event to reduce CPU use.
Refactored teleport destination data storage to reduce memory use.

Also, my site has been redesigned! http://www.mattmakesgames.com

[AuthenticKaizen]

great 
gotta play this again. when it was first released i played a good dose of it...but then got stuck somewhere...

[Terry]

Excellent! Bookmarked

[Levin]

Hell yeah!!!  :handshakeR: I'm downloading

(also, + 1 in Google Reader  )

[KennEH!]

How could you make this game any harder? The main reason I put this game on hold was it's madding (yet attractive) difficulty. I'm going to try this again and see if I can get any farther.

[Matt Thorson]

How could you make this game any harder? The main reason I put this game on hold was it's madding (yet attractive) difficulty. I'm going to try this again and see if I can get any farther.

I actually made the main game a bit easier!  The new areas are 100% optional and lots of players won't even find them.

[Valter]

Blargh!

Are old saves compatible with the new version? I've got a save at the final boss on impossible difficulty. With the extra toughness upgrade, I might actually be able to beat it. 

Then it can stop haunting my nightmares.

[Matt Thorson]

Blargh!

Are old saves compatible with the new version? I've got a save at the final boss on impossible difficulty. With the extra toughness upgrade, I might actually be able to beat it. 

Then it can stop haunting my nightmares.

They should be compatible.  But back it up just in case something terrible happens.

[Valter]

Yeah, it worked.

Now to start rooting around for new secrets! 

[Matt Thorson]

Also, I just did a minor update to fix all the bugs the hardcore players already found in this update ( ).

It isn't necessary to redownload, but is recommended.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed crash after beating final boss if you shoot at the right moment.
• Fixed being able to leave the final boss after starting the fight.
• Fixed the crystal ball not giving you hints if you have 90 or more hearts.
• Fixed BlackCastle Heist stage being unlocked at 90 hearts, rather than all hearts (currently 95).
• Fixed ending screen showing wrong totals for hearts and abilities.
• Fixed crash on playing a Heist mode stage containing red energy.

This new version is v1.11.  You can tell what version you have on the main menu.

[Matt Thorson]

Rather than make a new thread, thought I'd just post this here: I just finished redesigning my site

http://www.mattmakesgames.com

[KennEH!]

How could you make this game any harder? The main reason I put this game on hold was it's madding (yet attractive) difficulty. I'm going to try this again and see if I can get any farther.

I actually made the main game a bit easier!  The new areas are 100% optional and lots of players won't even find them.

I guess it's just me then that can't beat firecage. i probably should've played the game on regular before difficult.

[Valter]

I agree with KenneH's statement. Firecage is one of the most ridiculous levels. It's already really hard to get the heart door on the way to the boss, but you don't get a save point before the fight, so you have to do most of the level over again if you mess up. It's also there somewhat in Skysand (although it's a bonus point level, so it's probably not quite as necessary to make easier). Since it's necessary to get the power up from Fire Cage to beat the game (I think  ), I think its difficulty should be toned down a little bit, preferably by making the save point at the end accessible before the boss fight.

[KennEH!]

It's the yellow energy cluster upgrade.

[Valter]

I was trying not to spoiler. I just don't remember if you actually need the yellow cluster to beat the game. I know you need it for a lot of power ups and hearts.

[KennEH!]

Whoops sorry. Don't think it's too much of a spoiler though. Yeah, you need it I'm pretty sure.

[Matt Thorson]

I'm planning to do another difficulty update soon (mostly for Simple mode, but a few Regular changes too).

There's two reasons FireCage is so difficult:
1. It is optional for a long time (you can get quite far before having to beat it - it's actually entirely optional on Simple mode I believe), so it's possible to have quite a few hearts before attempting it.
2. One thing I was experimenting with when I made AUS was making the difficulty spike when the storyline had a major "climax" - the idea was that the player would be more drawn into the story if the difficulty rose and fell with it.  And FireCage has a pretty major plot happening when you beat it.

That said, I'll probably tone it down just a bit on Regular, and more so on Simple, in the next update.

[KennEH!]

I must apologize. I finally figured out some puzzles and got some upgrades and was finally able to beat it. My bitching was unnecessary. Sorry about that.

[Gold Cray]

I think the difficulty is just fine for the Fire Cage boss. The problem is the repetition. It's like Monster X: instead of restarting the boss fight immediately after you die, you have to go through a long segment of platforming where it's easy to take damage that can cause problems with the boss. The same is true of the ninja. Maybe some sort of temporary autosave would fix the frustration problem without affecting the difficulty too much.

The cloud run boss is still challenging with the save point right before it. If that save point weren't there it would be frustrating, but not significantly more challenging.

[Noyb]

I think the difficulty is just fine for the Fire Cage boss. The problem is the repetition. It's like Monster X: instead of restarting the boss fight immediately after you die, you have to go through a long segment of platforming where it's easy to take damage that can cause problems with the boss.

This. Exactly.

The level design is brilliant. The platforming is incredibly tight and precise. I just absolutely hate the groundhog day effect in games, where you need to repeat a moderately lengthy "easy" part to get to a difficult section. And past the one-quarter mark in the game, this seems to describe nearly every section. Made it up to the third save point in BlackCastle on "regular" difficulty (the one starting with all the falling purple blobs) before getting too frustrated at the moment. It's a testament to how good the rest of the game is that I'll probably return in a few days, but right now I'm really feeling the "maso" part of "masocore."

Part of the problem is how long it takes to restart. Escape + up + X + down + X is 3-4 too many button presses to return to a checkpoint, especially if you're trying for a heart door.

I understand if you want platforming skill to be a modifier for boss difficulty, where performing better in the section leading up to the boss makes the boss easier since you have more health going into it. Maybe there could be temporary checkpoints, which don't restore your health and can't be teleported to? Maybe before each boss could be a heart door leading to a teleport to a save point (since there isn't room to shift around areas to add a separate save room)? This would make it so if you perfect a platforming section before the boss, you do not have to repeat it, and offers a tangible subgoal to make the platforming a little more interesting the Nth time.