Good day to you! Welcome to this new Weekly Updates blog entry! Last week was, overall, pretty packed. After a short strategy time, I managed to come up with a plan that I think will be more impactful than before. So without any further ados let's get this thing started, shall we?

Platforming

The main theme of this Weekly Updates post is probably platforming. Players could always jump but, so far, these were mostly used as a defensive technique. These were really helpful for range players but literally useless to everybody else...

To fix this, I decided to sprinkle the levels with a bit of platforming. Basically, some tunnel rooms will now spawn stairs. These will, in turn, lead to platforming challenges that'll reward players with good-old-fashioned loots.

Similarly, I'm also planning to have hidden shortcuts scattered around too. The idea is that some normal rooms will contain super secret stairs under breakable props that will allow the player to skip some rooms. The difference here is that instead of loots these will open up to an exit.

Platforming Challenges

Each platform challenge will be created by hand. To spice it all up, there'll be level-specific challenges as well as generic ones. When generating the level, those challenges will be randomly picked. Some challenges can also include a puzzle to solve.

These challenges will be composed of several platforming elements. The idea is above all to offer a lot of diversity and to propose several unique challenges while simplifying their conception.

Let's take a look:

Moving Platforms

First, let's look at moving platforms. These types of platforms move along a predetermined path. Most of the time, this type of platform moves linearly from one point to another.

Players can, with good timing, jump on it to enjoy a free ride. At any time, players can land from them by jumping or simply dropping them.

Some platforms will move rather in a cyclical movement (for example, making circles or following a predetermined circuit). Players must, therefore, time themselves correctly and use these platforms to their advantage.

Rotating Platforms

Secondly, there is another type of platform not very different from the previous one: the rotating platform.

Basically, they are functionally identical to moving platforms. They too allow players to enjoy a free trip. However, unlike mobile platforms, they rotate rather than move.

Some turn on themselves and others turn on different axes. They can also rotate at different speeds. Therefore, players must again use timing while dealing with them.

Ladders

Finally, here is the last one: the ladder.

Ladders are, like in real life, practical tools for reaching things that are normally too high to access.

In the game, players can climb ladders by simply approaching them. Once mounted, players can now move both vertically and horizontally on the ladder. Players will automatically dismount the ladder once they reach any of its extremities. To rapidly drop from a ladder, players can press the jump key. This pushes players off the ladder.

Since the game takes a first-person perspective, ladders behave almost identically to those found in Source Engine games (Half-Life, Counter-Strike, etc.). Thus, players are free to look anywhere they want while still being able to freely use any ladder.

That's about it for platform challenges. Here's a video showcasing a placeholder simple platform challenge:

Puzzles

Secondly, I've managed to refine puzzles and add a new puzzle piece. There are still two types of puzzle pieces but now there a new sub-type of the pressure plate.

Now there are two types of pressure plates: round ones and square ones. The idea is to have two distinctly different models for two different types of pressure plates.

The round pressure plate acts like your typical button. This means that once it's pressed down it stays down.

The square one needs constant pressure to stay active. Usually, players can use some kind of weight (like a pushable block) to keep it on while solving other puzzles.

Minor Updates

Added some pressure plate animations and transitions

Remapped puzzle pieces UV maps to use different tints

Changed most puzzle pieces shader to offset UVs to vary the model's colours a bit.

Next Week

To be honest, here, I'm hoping to really get it going with platforming challenges and puzzles. I really want to get these things started and see where this will go.

Aside from that, it's your usual suspects...

Otherwise, I'm still constantly thinking about what to do next... It's been so long without any conceivable revenue and perhaps it's time to do something about it.

What it is is still unsure. Perhaps it's to either create some kind of Kickstarter campaign or something alike... Perhaps it might even be taking a bit of work on the side to stay afloat. I really need to think about it because any false move could put the game in a bad position. I really believe in what I'm working on right now. It has a very unique approach to Vaporwave that I haven't seen a whole lot of. Usually, designers stick with either neon colours on a dark background or retro PSX aesthetics. However, I didn't see any love for Memphis Desing nor 90s design. This really makes me think that I'm on to something.

But anyway, let's try to make it work in the first place!