Hey all! We've added in Steam Achievements after a few requests for them, and also fixed up a few graphical bugs along the way. As a reminder we would love to have you at the Kirisame Jump discord!
Hey all! We've added in Steam Achievements after a few requests for them, and also fixed up a few graphical bugs along the way.
As a reminder we would love to have you at the Kirisame Jump discord! https://discord.gg/jkY97xH
Hello! Launch week has been a hectic time. Thank you as always for sticking with us! We have launched a Discord server for Kirisame Jump, which many of you have already joined to give us feedback. Please, come in and talk with us! We appreciate every story you all can tell us, an
Hello! Launch week has been a hectic time. Thank you as always for sticking with us!
We have launched a Discord server for Kirisame Jump, which many of you have already joined to give us feedback. Please, come in and talk with us! We appreciate every story you all can tell us, and would love to chat with the community.
https://discord.gg/jkY97xH
Thanks to a few of you who gave us initial bug reports. We've looked into them and fixed them up in this quick patch.
Patch Updates:
Dope,
kev / kirisamejump
Iwate Mountain Dance is releasing tomorrow. It's been a journey! From starting out as part of a monthly game jam, Iwate has grown from a demo to a polished release. Iwate represents a large chunk of my beliefs in game design, especially regarding boss fights -- every fight is a s
Iwate Mountain Dance is releasing tomorrow.
It's been a journey! From starting out as part of a monthly game jam, Iwate has grown from a demo to a polished release. Iwate represents a large chunk of my beliefs in game design, especially regarding boss fights -- every fight is a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
For me personally, it's an anxious but exciting time. I've poured my sweat and tears into Iwate over the past year. And although I've polished again and again, there's always that little bug that escapes. All I can say is, I've done the best of my ability. With a smile, here is Iwate.
I hope you all will enjoy the release.
As always, join the Kirisame Jump discord for beta builds, to give feedback, or for raging at the devs. https://discord.gg/jkY97xH
Hi all! We're finally on Steam! It's exciting to see the game grow to an almost-ready state and at this point, most of the core gameplay has been finished. I am now mostly working on polishing the fights, the decorations, and putting everything together. This week was focused on
Hi all!
We're finally on Steam! It's exciting to see the game grow to an almost-ready state and at this point, most of the core gameplay has been finished. I am now mostly working on polishing the fights, the decorations, and putting everything together.
This week was focused on the Iwate Beautification Project. The world map of Iwate has already been through a bunch of iterations, and each time I try and make things a little bit cleaner.
> An old iteration of the map
> Another iteration... ignore that placeholder picture please.
Through the weeks, I have been re-drawing the sketches of the map and tidying things up. Since the world map of Iwate is so small, I'm doing all the art for the decorations on a single image, to make it easier to see the overall composition.
Here's the current iteration of the map! Most of the background is drawn in a painty style, while I hone in on the smaller details, objects, and NPCs with pixel editor.
A lot of time was also spent on drawing and animating the various NPCs, along with the various scripts to make them eventually disappear :(
(For more info on that, checkout the post on Feelings of Loss https://steamcommunity.com/games/1256660/announcements/detail/1722002921927669576)
But yes, things are looking good! I have settled into a better work rhythm of planning and then doing, and productivity is increasing. Next week, we go into polishing the boss fights!
In many games, defeating tough enemies is an event to be celebrated. But really, the defeat of a tough foe also comes with a sense of loss -- a character in the world has been removed, and will never be back. Iwate Mountain Dance focuses on this feeling of loss. I wanted to explo
In many games, defeating tough enemies is an event to be celebrated. But really, the defeat of a tough foe also comes with a sense of loss -- a character in the world has been removed, and will never be back.
Iwate Mountain Dance focuses on this feeling of loss. I wanted to explore how to get players to feel a sense of melancholy and nostalgia for past times, like the feeling when remembering old summer days as a child.
I think boss-fighting games naturally align to feelings of loss, since while the boss is alive, all you can think of is the intensity of the fight, and how to defeat them. But the moment you release them from the world, that's it -- they're gone forever.
In Iwate, I make a few key design decisions to accentuate this feeling. First, when designing the overworld, I sprinkled many NPCs around as spirits of the land, minding their own business and going about their lives.
But when the boss of the area is defeated, all these NPCs slowly disappear, one by one. Once they're gone, they don't come back. Instead, you're greeted by an empty scene, with only a few memories of those who once lived here.
Second, I really emphasize the contrast between the fights and the aftermath. Iwate is a land of ruin, but it's easy to forget that when you're busy running around challenging bosses. During boss fights, the music is always intense and hype-inducing, along with bullet patterns that fill the screen.
But right as you land the finishing blow, the music cuts. There's no victory fanfare, no level up, no item drops. The spirits just disappear, leaving only a simple landscape and the sound of rain.
Now, this whole bit of chasing after feelings of loss can seem unnecessary. To be honest, this is mostly me being curious in alternate views on game mechanics. But I do believe that there is a bit of beauty in loss -- for example, cherry blossoms are beautiful in that they only bloom one week a year.
The fact that something is temporary makes it worth that much more in the moment. And I want players to enjoy the boss fights in Iwate to their fullest extent.
At the end of the game, all that is left of Iwate will be an empty mountain. But it's not a sad thing -- rather, we can be remember the memories we had here and smile.
The final boss might even have a few words to say about this ;)
