Working on the 4th world

I've started working on the world 4 the other day. It's gonna be called Sleepy Village (not so sleepy, as you'll be able to see) and it will be split into three zones; there will be transition from swamp to forest surrounding the village, then meadows and fields and gardens, and only in the end, the village itself. After having all those hard jumps in world 3, we're going back to "action" sequences with lightweight environment puzzles, as can be seen in this video showing off the brand new level 4-1:

I've already finished level 4-2 (available in the build 0.1.2.0) and it offers the player to solve some problems in order to continue further along the path, but it's still pretty much linear and action-oriented. Now, after the forest, goblin will enter the fields and that will introduce even more traps and enemies... That I have to make first. Here's what farmers will look like (from draft on paper to working enemy in game):

Anyway, world 4 is planned to have the most variety in appearance of its levels, and so far it looks I'm gonna achieve that.

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Alpha!

I've declared the latest build alpha. This comes after a year of development and 36 pre-alpha releases. The game is definitely stable enough, there's 60% of planned content already and all the reported bugs have been fixed. Next - improvements, more content (2 worlds left), testing, more improvements, more testing...

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Minor improvements, Alpha coming soon!

After the initial feedback on the last version, build 0.0.3.8 is available for download in Windows and Linux (Ubuntu) edition. There's nothing new content-wise, but there are some important improvements that plyers have been asking for for a while now.

• Added a short pause after re-spawn so players don't accidentally die again by sliding into a nearby trap. This was the most wanted function lately and I think it will help casual players a lot, but am not sure if I should also keep it for the "old school" difficulty level. I have time to think about it and gather feedback as my focus for now is on the casual mode, with intention to define rules for old school at a later point.
• Added ability to reset keyboard keys to default setting. Not many people asked for this but it should be useful.
• Added support for D-pad on gamepads (alongside analogue stick). Apparently I forgot this basic function before, so it's here now. Really hope it works as intended, as I don't have a gamepad yet so I can't test it. Thinking of getting Logitech F310, it has Xinput and a nice shape.
• Improved tree tiles in world 3. Basically I re-positioned the holes in the trees and made them a bit bigger, but more importantly, I added "transparency" to emulate entering the shadow that the tree is casting.
• Improved ghost sprites in world 2. Added more shades to make it look more natural and changed color of secondary variant completely... Might reverse that based on feedback.

Please note: Promotion to alpha is long overdue. There's no known game-breaking bugs for months now, game works just fine and graphics have been improved a lot lately. I'll change development status from pre-alpha to alpha as soon as I'm happy with the amount of testing this version receives.

Demo has been updated as well.

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World 3 complete, game content at 60%

Build 0.0.3.7 is available now and with that, world 3 is finally complete. After some testing and potential fixes, I will change the status from pre-alpha to alpha. It's been overdue for some time now. Anyway, here's what's new in this version:

• Brand new level 3-7
• World 3 boss fight
• 2 new story screens for world 3
• Fixed tree openings graphic for world 3
• Fixed some tile placement on world 3
• Added an underwater detail to hint that depths are dangerous
• Fixed a small inconsistency in level 1-7
• Added a tutorial hint for opening doors in level 1-1

Some World III Gameplay:

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New level, knock-back reduced. Alpha coming soon!

Hello! There's a new version available and it brings many major and minor improvements and additions. Two most important are a brand new level 3-6 and knock-back from enemies and traps being greatly reduced. This means if you're standing on a narrow platform and a bat/ghost/wasp touches you and hurts you, you won't bounce off it like before and end up in lava/spikes/water depths. Instead, you'll just bounce in place, become invulnerable for a time and destroy the enemy that hurt you.

The rest of changes are minor but not negligible:

• Fixed some misplaced tiles in world 1
• Mine shaft lamp in world 1 animated
• Changed the hurt effect and destruction effect for the Golem King boss
• Added new background tiles for world 3
• Added new type of destructible platforms for world 3
• Changed the look of vine leaves platforms (again, world 3)

Please note: Promotion to alpha is long overdue. There's no known game-breaking bugs for months now, game works just fine and graphics have been improved a lot lately. I'll change development status from pre-alpha to alpha after the world 3 is done. That means one more level, 2 story screens and a boss fight. I might also improve animation/looks for the ghosts in world 2 for this occasion.

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New level available: 3-5

Version 0.0.3.5 is now available to the early supporters and it brings a brand new level with many smaller improvements, mainly for the world 3, Gassy Swamp. It also introduces spiky vines for the first time, which is something you'll encounter more and more during the travels though the world 3.

Here's a short list of all the things new and improved:

• Level 3-4 moved to 3-5
• Brand new level 3-4
• Fixed some problematic tiles for a first tree on 3-1
• Moved the first snake on 3-2
• Fixed leap of faith on 3-5 (former 3-4)
• ROUS nerfed (speed, sight)
• Floating leaves synced better (to be seen and potentially finely tuned)

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New level available: 3-4

A fine day for a new update! Apart from a (weird) new level, there are some minor improvements to the story graphics (you know, static panels that are shown while there's some story being typed by an invisible typewriter) and maybe even more importantly, I've reworked the parallax scrolling backgrounds for the world 2, Cursed Graveyard... to make it more "graveyardy".

See, there are dark purple tombstones as the first background layer now, and the hills are lowered a bit. Is this better now? I can't tell...

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New level available: 3-3

Pre-alpha 30 is now available to the early supporters through their respective download pages over at itch.io and it features a brand new level for the Gassy Swamp. I wanted to add some new gameplay elements to the third world but only one of the things I've been working on was ready for this release, and it's a new kind of trap, so be careful out there!

I've also used this opportunity to fix something that has been bothering me for a long time, and that's positioning of some coins in level 2-6. I've intended them to lead the player through some challenging jumps but never actually moved them to the final positions... Well, that's done now. The rest of the changes you can find in the list below, it's nothing game changing... or maybe it is, who am I to judge?

[Major] Build 0.0.3.3

• New level (3-3)
• New trap (mechanical spears)
• Improved shading on the falling stalactites in world 1
• Changed the tone of ax throwers so they are more easily distinguished from regular skeletons
• Added new announcement sounds: Ax thrower, Rous, Wasp, Milipede
• Added new tiles (transition grass2stone, decorative shell)
• Changed coin placement in 2-6 to better lead the player through some challenging jumps

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