All of the start of 2020 has been work for the Astrolarix; I finally managed to get to version 2.0, with this, I thank those who supported the title since its day of release until the sales of last season that I helped a lot.
Corrections and improvements have been made that make the Astrolarix experience much more dynamic, here is the list of improvements that were made to the game from version 1.1 to 2.0:
- Floor textures have changed in levels, are now more suitable for differentiating the ceiling from the floor.
- A lot of graphical resources have been added to bring the ship's setting more life, more than 60 variations on the containers that are across all levels, barrels and various environment items were added such as sheets of paper thrown into the soil, food cans or breakouts make maps look much better than before.
- Changed the appearance of the title menu screen and now looks better.
- A new device was added, a side elevator on the walls, which allows you to progress faster or eliminate backtracking, some are well hidden others are easily accessible, they are very useful; added also a new sound for this.
- Directional events have also been created, they are monitors that show directional arrows in the form of signals, so, you will know better where to go or if you go the right way, they are set systematically along the levels.
- Thanks to this month of extra development it was also possible to add a total of nine music tracks that make the game more unique and entertaining than before.
- I have also added a series of in-game information panels that give you clues or tutorials about the goals and progress you have, some are "hidden" by the maps others in plain sight. They'll be a big help to you. They also have a new turquoise background for the text.
- Designs improvements were added to devices, such as modular control of generators, to make it more distinctive and special.
- The chances of avoiding falling into a dead end room have been improved, depending on the difficulty, when captured by robots in chapter four.
- Danger alarms have been added for low levels of any resource, such as food. If a resource is dangerously low an icon animation will appear telling you what resource you have extremely low until you recover it. It is especially useful with HP (health points).
- Icon animations over resource changes are now faster and more efficient.
- Now when you turn on a health checkup, the icon animation you've recovered HP appears.
- The ability to find an empty locker or container on the normal difficulty has been lowered, so it will be much easier to gather the resources you need.
- A melody effect was added each time you get a key item in the game along with a message.
- A numbering was added to the generator image so you can better understand the clue given in the key item description for the generator key.
- Now when you decide to erase all the data, the messages will automatically appear and disappear so you don't have to go pressing accept each time.
- The "lag" in the main menu options menu has been removed.
- Details were added in the first part to make it much easier to understand the progress of the story and the game, there was also a problem with a bed that was simply disappearing, now, in its place a trace of debris appears indicating to the player that something has happened there.
- A new informational text message was added to the game's computers, because once you activate them you need to reselect the menu to access its contents.
- Helen's character was better done to better appreciate her expression.
- At the beginning of Chapter 3 there was the possibility that the player would go off course just to end up in a dead end and have to return to the point of progress, which has been avoided by blocking that access in addition to giving him a visual clue of what to do. Icons have been placed on the maps you get in Chapter 3 for easier identification.
- A better depth effect has been created on rail levels with transports as well as a better indicator whether the ground is broken or not.
- A small "secret" area has also been set to entertain the player a little at the beginning of the last chapter.
- Finally, some last spelling corrections were made between the three languages.
By the way, the final credits section of the game does not contemplate the work that has been done since the release in May 2019, including everything done in this version; it has practically been about a 10 months of work that has been given to the game.
News about the future
with this new version I want to give a good end to the Astrolarix, now that I finally have some free time to invest in the creation of video games and together with some economic sacrifices I can start the development of a new title.
With some luck, I'll have enough money to fund about 10 or 11 months of work, so the title would be available by the end of this year if all goes well; If I had infinite money I suppose I could work on a project for two years or more but that is not possible, what scares me the most is the beginning, brainstorming and conceptual prototype can take a long time.
With the Astrolarix I already had a prototype so I more or less knew what I had to do but now I am on tabula rasa, although I am desperate to start the new project already, I would not want to have to go back to overwork because of the health consequences.
Finally, even if you already finished the Astrolarix try to play this version, the details do shine quite a bit, with new music tracks I added is luxurious (and were also added to the Soundtrack DLC of course).
Thank you for your support! Happy Indie Gaming!