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[Nordanvinden]

#Update 59 - Magnetizing

Trying to get started with the third and last planet, I started making prototypes of some new mechanigs. So far I have added positive and negative magnets. I'm thinking that they could potentially be the core theme of the planet. Also conveying that the planet is a bit unstable gravity wise, so there are floating puddles of water and things like that. But well see..


Positive magnet.


Negative magnet.


Jumping on sliding blocks.


Attracting sliding blocks with positive magnet.


Deattracting sliding blocks with negative magnet.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 60 - Flapping

New energy cube
I added a new energy cube for planet 3 which makes is possible to... FLAP! I mean I guess fly a little bit. This combined with some new elements of floating water makes for some interesting interactions.

I went through 3 iterations before settling for the final version.
- First one felt like having a rocket boost on the back. More like levitating.
- Second one felt better but still confusing to people as it gave different results depending och when you flapped.
- Third one resets the y-velocity each time, hence gives the player predictable results. And it feels good.

I try to visualize how many flaps you have left with the pink dots. Not sure how close that is to a final version, but people seem to understand what is happening and what it means, which is the important thing for now.


First version.


Second version.


Third version.

New mechanics and interactions

I added floating water puddles that can be used for multiple purposes. As you can see in the first gif of this post, it resets the flaps. But it can also be used for jumping upwards and creating obstacles together with the magnets.


Jumping between water puddles.


Water puddles + magnet set up.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 61 - Slamming energy

New energy cube
I added another new energy cube for planet 3 which makes is possible to... SLAM!.. into the ground. I really struggled trying to find how it should affect the character. But I guess I found it by thinking of what the opposite of flapping was( ...  ). And its not as it is an uncommon ability. Anyway, it feels as though it complements the other abilities well and will hopefully be a fun thing. This is what it looks like at the moment:


Slamming into ground, water and wind.

One thing I am worried about though is how to teach the player that you will need to push the stick downwards before pressing the jump button. I have so far not introduced any visual tutorial for controls. By that I mean no images of "Press A to jump" or a controller-stick moving downwards while showing the jump button being pressed. Any suggestions?

Heres a list of the abilities that I thought of:
- Shoot yourself in a certain direction when let go of jump button.
- Being a magnet that shifts from positive to negative each jump.
- Slowing down time permanently. Or slowing it down depending on how fast you are running.
- Getting cloned, so you would have to move 2 characters at once (both listening to the same input)
- Change shape.
- Become a liquid.
- You can see sound as a fourth dimension.
- Teleportation.
- Invisibility.
- Starts talking and making sounds. Affecting the surrounding environment.
- Jump to a different dimension where you can pass certain objects.
- Turning into a prism being able to direct light.
- Moving between lights.

Many of these could be a core mechanic of a totally new game. I really wanted to avoid introducing something too advanced/complex.

Stuff I tried


What if you had a spinning magnet?


What if the cube changed your shape into a circle? (the collision geometry is a circle, not visible).


Other visuals for flapping (I think the old one is better).

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 62 - Magnetic mechanics

I have added some mechanics that are mostly related to magnets.


Spinning around magnet.


Magnet pushers.


smaller magnetic spheres. I am hoping to be able to make some kind of puzzles out of these by having them rotating in different directions.

Experimental features


Magnetic swing.


Travelators.

[desdemian]

A magnetic swingy tampon!

I like the direction you are taking with the magnets, but I suggest not to over do it, it can get confusing figuring out that many variations/features and things similar to each other but that work so different.

I also like the bit where you tried different shapes, since the character already is a little bit gummy it makes sense for it to reshape into appropiate forms for different circumstances.

[Nordanvinden]

A magnetic swingy tampon!

I like the direction you are taking with the magnets, but I suggest not to over do it, it can get confusing figuring out that many variations/features and things similar to each other but that work so different.

I also like the bit where you tried different shapes, since the character already is a little bit gummy it makes sense for it to reshape into appropiate forms for different circumstances.

Haha yeah, not really what I wanted to convey, but hey. Something to work on (:

I think you are right about the magnets. I need to make sure I dont overdo it and that the players find the different interactions interesting. AND not confusing, thats a good point.

Ah cool, I see what you mean. But at the same time, thats almost like a core mechanic on its own. I feel like I have to watch out with the scope if I ever want to finish this.

Thanks a lot for the feedback, I really appreciate it

#Update 63 - Birds and fixes

Birdie

I added a new enemy for the third level which will be sort of like a patrolling bird. I want the first world to be about the ground, second about water and third to be about the air. I mean in general.

This is what it looks like after the first iteration:


Bird attacking.

Magnetic transportation

I added this transportation system which makes it possible to choose which side of the transportation cube you will travel on. This becomes a minor puzzle and will hopefully work well together with the bird.


Transportation system.

Water surface walljump

I finally found a nice technical solution to find out if the character is at the surface. I have wanted to be able to let the player do walljumps when at the surface but not when under water. This is how it works now:


Water surface walljump.

Final

I still feel like there is something missing in this world. Probably gonna try doing something with a homing-orb-spitter and also some type of enemy that works well together with the ground slam ability. Also need to watch out for what @desdemian wrote about not overdoing the magnet theme.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 64 - Bullying homing orbs

Homing Spitter
A spitter for the magnet world has been added and it shoots.. homing orbs! I hope the color switching of the orbs is intuitive. But I will see after some play testing.


Final version after iteration 1.


When the game is bullying you (earlier when it was a bit OP).

Updated floating water


Map 1 of magnet world

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 65 - Floating water and magnets

I finished level 3_2 yesterday and made some changes. Both to game mechanics but also to my "tools". Here are some new obstacles that I put together using the new mechanics:


Flap obstacle 1.


Flap obstacle 2.


Flapping hard when jump cube picked up.

I also updated the magnets, removing the collision with the center piece.


Traumatized from getting flung around in the magnet.

Added features

So I finally got so annoyed or afraid of this happening in a final build so I added some stuff:

- I added a beam drop off point that only happens if you are in the editor and have checked a box. I did this so I wont have the character beam down somewhere random from when I was developing. (See teal label for "EditorDropOffPoint" and blue label for "BeamDropOffPoint").

- The camera will always move to look at the beam drop off point before the level fades in. This way the experience will be consistent across maps as well.

- I added level 3_1 and 3_2 to the third planet and updated all the related logic.

Finished Level 3_2



Play test

I also did a play test of these two new maps and the floating water puddles were very unintuitive. I am not sure how to solve this.. they kind of work like a swing, but you can access them from below and the sides. And I really like how they behave.. hmm 

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 66 - Looking into art style again

I started out yesterday by finishing up level 3_3 and 3_4. I added and updated transports to the levels. It ended up looking like this:


Getting transported.


Level 3_3.


Level 3_4.

Prototyping new art style



I really like the direction this is heading. And it feels so much more plausible than the old direction did. Also a friend (ItsMadsTalking) made a  mock up of what he though it should look like:



I think it look really cool with the organic environment in contrast to the alien cube. What do you guys think, should I go towards this style?

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 67 - Deeper art style

I started the day with some play testing, then continued by fixing a few issues that had appeared from changing different things:

- Added damping to the wind again, since removing it led to all sorts of bugs and unpredictable behaviour.
- Bug fix for ChuChu not getting pushed enough after changing kick force.
- Resetting flaps instantly when new cube is picked up.
- Made wind more visible on light background.
- Changed color for slam cube.
- Fixed bug where levels on planet 3 did not get completed.

puh, all these "minor things" takes so much time, but adds so much to the experience.

Art style direction

I finished the day by digging into the art style. I wanted to make sure that the new art style direction was actually gonna work for the other planets as well. Here are some images from that:

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 68 - Upgrading slam

I felt that I had find another way of activating the slam ability. Pushing the left stick down and pushing A(jump), while in air, is not very clear. So now I have a visual queue that shows the player when its charged up and when it gets activated. It gets activated by pushing the left stick down. This has turned out to work really well, and every play tester has found it by themselves (so far).


Slamming in wind.


Slamming in water.

I also had:
- A meeting with Erik Odendahl from Fast Travel Games who helped me out with my narrative
- Play test with a friend
- Fixing stuff from both of those sessions
- Worked on the upcoming 3_5 level

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 69 - Deeper art dive

So yesterday I continued digging into the art style and it is starting to feel really good. Here is a list of what I accomplished:
- Added particles to make the scene feel more alive.
- Added wind to the trees and foliage to make the scene feel more alive.
- Played around a little bit with music, ambiance and sound in general.
- Made the main path through the level unlit with a custom lightning model.


Final particles and wind.

I did a few tries of adding geometry along the path to make it come alive more. Also got inspired by ItsMadsTalking in update 66.


Path geometry 1.


Path geometry 2.

Also madness when the wind is too damn strong!

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 70 - Character sounds

So I did two things other than play testing and fixing a few minor level design things:
- Updated the walking path.
- Started adding new sound to the characters movement.

Sounds





I really like how the sound feels alien. It correlates well with the environment and I think this is the way to go. I tried having "regular" footstep sounds earlier, but it just didnt feel as good to me.

Path

I tried out different versions of the path to make it feel a bit more alive and not so stale.


Original straight path.


Wobbly path.


Masked out path.


The path geometry.

I ended up using the wobbly path. It really gives you the sense of being out in the forest on a more natural and organic path.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 71 - Merging and color schemes

So I mainly merged branches and fixed things that arose from play testing. I also tested out some color schemes for the forest level:







Any opinions so far? 

[JobLeonard]

I just stumbled across this, love the minimal aesthetic!

[alaNintendo]

Haha very cool stuff! 

[Nordanvinden]

I just stumbled across this, love the minimal aesthetic!

Thanks a lot! Great to know the art style is moving in the right direction

Haha very cool stuff! 

Thanks! Glad you like it   

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 72 - Color scheme tool and world map rework

There was a lot of visual progress happening the other day.

Color scheme tool
I created a simple tool that can read different color scheme settings and set them instantly to the whole scene.



World map remake

The world map needed to resemble the new art style so this is the result of that work at the moment:



Detracting energy flower

I used to have flowers next to the energy cubes to explain where they actually come from. But there was a big problem that people though they were pickups. Now the flower retracts when the energy has been collected. I think it adds some value story-wise and creates a nice effect:



Final forest color scheme

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 73 - Final version of level 1

So I mostly polished things and fixed minor issues yesterday. So not too much to show, but here is an image of the final level 1:



Things I polished were:
- Made flower withdraw slower
- Updated sound for picking up energy
- Updated beam visuals
- cleaned up level 1 and updated the visual layout
- Updated world map level color

[AaronB]

Prototyping new art style



I really like the direction this is heading. And it feels so much more plausible than the old direction did. Also a friend (ItsMadsTalking) made a  mock up of what he though it should look like:



I think it look really cool with the organic environment in contrast to the alien cube. What do you guys think, should I go towards this style?

Yes - the alien nature of the main character immersed in a natural environment is evocative and threatening - in a good way.