This update reverses the previous updates.
- Backflip has been disabled
- Turtle, Moon, Dropspikes and Worm have been removed
This update also reworks the settings.
- Settings are remembered between sessions
- Submenus with more detailed settings have been added
- Option to disable the effects of the Director’s Cut Update has been added
Additional patchnotes can be found at the bottom of this post.
This update was supposed to add new content to the game. Like with the previous updates, there were some interesting ideas:
- A new world (purple)!
- Three new tools (themed around bees)!
- A new modifictaion (sometimes spawning bee themed segments into existing levels)!
I prototyped them, but they never really worked. These things would have needed a lot of care and attention and experimentation (a lot of iterations!) to become as solid as the base game. I found myself unable to focus on them. They never developed to a point where I would’ve been happy with them. Just like with the previous updates.
But I didn’t stop, because I was convinced that Mosa Lina was perfect for a live-service kind of development and that I should do it. It was thanks to a call with Fynn (we’ve been talking about the ideas that are in Mosa Lina for years) that I finally was able to stop adding stuff to the game and look at the wider situation:
- Despite all my ideas about randomness and hostility, Mosa Lina works because it is carefully fine-tuned. The new updates were simply not as refined as the base game.
- While I did take breaks from working on Mosa Lina, I never really relaxed after the launch. I was running out of energy reserves and stopped being able to really work and think and iterate.
In a situation like that, trying to “just work harder” is just going to hurt you. I had to step back. No new Features. I could not iterate over the already existing updates either because I was so deeply exhausted. Now my final contribution to Mosa Lina is not new content, but a clean cut.
The Future
Rollin’Barrel is taking over the project from here. He’s the amazing mind behind the Level Editor, the Workshop Support, the Button Remapping, the Linux & Mac Builds, the Performance Fixes and pretty much every other thing that makes the game actually run on your computer.
I don’t know what i’d have without him over the last months. He’s also handled all bug reports and many community questions, absorbing the exact kind of pressure that I can not take at all. Oh and he’s also made the new Menu that’s the cornerstone of this Update.
Big love. <3
Thanks & Goodbye
This is the end of my direct involvement with Mosa Lina.
This has been the most successful game I ever worked on and it has been extremely gratifying. Fynn & me have been discussing the ideas behind Mosa Lina for years. To see them realised (and actually being enjoyed) feels surreal. Thank you all so much, it’s been amazing to see your experiences with the game.
To see that people really deeply connect with the underlying ideas, while also having such a good time that they then recommend the game to their friends so that it kind of organically reaches it’s audience… it’s a lot to take in.
I think that I will only be able to really understand how amazing all of this is when I have a bit more distance from the game. I’m going on a vacation now and after that, it’s time to move on.
Sure, I’ve spent the last months working on Updates for Mosa Lina, but I haven’t been thinking about the game for months. The next game has been living in my head since January and when my brain wanders, it wanders there.
Thanks for your attention.
I love you +1
Josh
Additional Patchnotes
- Gungun is heavier and bounces
- Menu system supports Submenus
- Settings are now saved between sessions
- Credits don't repeat untill exhausted
- More dynamic Sound & Music settings
- Mouse aiming is now enabled through the settings
- Keyboard button remapping can now also be accessed throught the settings
- Background rotation can now be disabled in the settings
- Random Fullscreen disabled
- Director's cut can be disabled in the settings (Adding Backflip, Worm, Turtle, etc back into the game)
