Let's get right into it! After far too long, I'm gearing up to release a new update to Cloak and Dasher this Thursday! This update is the culmination of a lot of work over the span of a couple of years, and is more of a feature update. Here's what to expect.
New Features
Ghost System
Easily my favorite new feature of the game. Now, as you play, Ghosts will automatically be saved locally and, if you're online, pushed up to the internet for others to race against! When you beat a level or marathon with a new best time, the ghost will automatically be updated to match. The whole system has been designed to be seamless and run in the background. The game features a variety of options for your ghosts.
When playing, you can opt to race against your personal best, the global best, the person closest to you in the global leaderboards, and your friend's best/closest runs. You can also select to race against only ghosts who have gotten all the gems. Use the ghosts to push yourself and become the greatest dasher out there!
Assist Mode
Accessibility has always been a concern of mine, as I believe that games should be for everyone. To that end, I've worked hard to create an "Assist Mode" for players. Whether you're looking for a slower paced experience, training to beat the harder levels, or just want to have fun flying around, there's now all sorts of options to help get you into the action!
While in Assist Mode, your times/ghosts will not be submitted to the online leaderboards, and you won't be able to earn Medal related Achievements, for the sake of fairness. Beyond that everything else is set to work the exact same! You can also return to a level you've beaten in assist mode and overwrite your best time with assist mode off. Assist mode times will ever overwrite your non-assisted times, meaning when you're feeling up to the challenge, you can tackle anything you had assistance on without have to start over!
New Environments
As part of this update, two new environments have been added to help make the game look more diverse. In addition to their new looks, each of these environments also contain new music for both their normal and hard levels, created by the legendary @744music.
The Simulator
Before tackling the ruins, Cloak needs some training! Join them in the simulator to learn the basics of the game in a more controlled environment. Some familiar levels have been repurposed for this environment, and some new one have been added to teach you more. Study the ways of the Dasher and become a true master!
The Cathedral
A mysterious new area of the ruins containing strange gravitic anomalies and portals! Left in much better shape than anything before it, this area seems to guard many secrets of the culture that created it. What can you learn here?
Everything Else
In addition to the new environments, every new environment has gotten a fresh coat of paint. New background details and art have been added to previous levels you know and love. See if you can decipher their meaning to understand the ruins in a new light.
New Levels
This update features many new levels with new mechanics, primarily, you'll find these levels in the newest chapter taking place in the Cathedral, but there are a few others scattered along the previous chapters as well.
Revamped Physics
By far, this is the reason the update took so long to come out (more on that below). Largely, the changes should be imperceptible, as that was the goal, but you may notice Cloak glide a bit more smoothly throughout the levels. These physics changes were largely to enable new features that were impossible before, such as diagonal springs, outside forces and "patrol" systems for objects (you may notice some Gooncopters actually moving around now!)
Developer Update
So, many of you who are here are probably wondering "what the hell took so long!?". As with most things in life, the answer is complex and multilayered. The easiest cheat would be to just say "life happened", but there's much more to it than that.
COVID
Mentally, COVID hit me hard, as I know it did many of you. For the majority of COVID times, I was trapped in an apartment working from home. The problem was, my apartment didn't have an office space, just a living room and a bed room. So, in effect, for about 2 years, my life was my living room. On paper, that sounded awesome, I mean, who doesn't dream of doing work in their pajamas and having the TV on in the background? Well, the thing you don't think about is what kind of mental toll it takes on you to never change scenery. I'd wake up, go into the living room, work all day in the living room, spend night hanging out in the living room, then go to bed... for years...
Around the tail end of the 2nd year, I could barely recognize what my life had become. Months blurred, I couldn't maintain a schedule, couldn't focus, snapped at the smallest things, I was quite literally losing my mind. I would seek distractions and escapism where I could, but gamedev just wasn't one of those distractions, it just felt like "more work in the living room". I'm sure my story isn't all that unique, I know many of you have gone through the same thing, and I hope you're all able to break out.
For me, things changed last year. My wife (she was my fiancee when I started this game) and I finally decided that for my own sanity, we needed a house with an office. We were very lucky, and managed to find just that, and I have to say, it has made all the difference in the world. This year, I've been far more productive, far less stressed, and just overall incredibly happier. Since then, I've been able to really sit down and crank away at the game, but....
Burnout
Look, refactoring sucks. If you've ever worked on any sort of software project, you know it. It's like looking back at your past self and yelling at them for their bad decisions, except they're not there to yell at, so you just yell at yourself. Cloak and Dasher is my first full fledged game, and I've learned so much about it. Through all that learning, I've made mistakes, tons of mistakes, it's the nature of learning. Sure, that means I'm a better developer now, but it also means I have to deal with those mistakes if I want to make a better game. Sometimes dealing with a lot of those mistakes makes you lose love for the project, and I'd be a liar if I said I haven't thought of shelving Cloak and Dasher a couple of times.
What keeps me going is, I know that this game is a lot of fun. I mean, I still play it for testing, and everything still hits just right. Whenever I see someone else play it, seeing the emotion it brings out in them everything from frustration, joy, and a sense of accomplishment, there's just no feeling like it. That's what keeps me going. Not being able to bring the game to conventions (thanks again COVID) really bit into my ability to see that sort of reaction, but live streams have been a great substitute. All in all, I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's a good thing.
Technical Reasons (aka, LEADERBOADS!!!!!!)
As I mentioned above, this update came with some "Physics Revamps". I'm oversimplifying things here a bit, but I basically had to COMPLETELY rewrite how Cloak moves to get this update out. I had new mechanics I wanted to add in, and the old system was holding me back too much.
The problem with making any sort of change to the game's physics model is, it means it will require a Leaderboard Reset. The reason is, I can't guarantee with 100% certainty that times are achievable with the "old way" of doing things compared to the new one, and it would be incredibly frustrating for newcomers to see times they think they can beat, only to not know it's impossible.
In addition to that, I knew that Ghosts were coming soon, but adding them would ALSO require a Leaderboard Reset, because the old times wouldn't have ghosts attached to them. So, that's two major changes that both would require Leaderboard Resets. Resetting the Leaderboard is not something I take lightly. I've attempted to avoid it since I've released them, but sometimes, they're just unavoidable when a project is so in-flux. To that end, I wanted to try to get every change I needed to into a single update, to prevent multiple resets.
I believe (aka really really hope) that this is the last time I'll need to do any sort of Leaderboard Reset. I worked hard to ensure that the physics system is on very solid foundation, and that no tweaks to Cloak's movement, should ever be needed again. In addition, new features that I add should not require any tweaks to the movement system either. This is truly one of the main reasons it took so long to get an update out, I needed to be sure that I squeezed every change that could break the Leaderboards into a single update, and I think I've finally achieved that.
The Future
With this update out, the future is bright. The goal for the game is to have one final MAJOR update BY OR CLOSE TO Q1 NEXT YEAR. It's time to finish this game, and I'm ready and motivated to do so. So, what's left to do?
More Levels
While this update was feature focused, the next update will be heavily level focused. The goal is to get another 2-3 chapters out with one final environment to accompany them.
In-Game Level Editor
This is the big one. In the background, I've done alot of prep-work for the level editor. This is no small feat, because in addition to editing levels, I've also got to develop a method of sharing them in the game. Since creating this game, I've always wanted to give the players the tools to create their own fun, and I can think of no better way.
MOAR HATS!!!
What's the point of dashing IF YOU GET NO HATS!? Madness I say, and I won't have it.
In Conclusion
Look, if you're still reading this, then you know I say it every time because it's true. I do this for you. You, the fan who actually stops to read the long-winded ramblings about the madness of game development. This game has been a labor of love since the start, and while it's been a trial in some ways, I think the end result speaks for itself. So thank you. Thank you for playing it, thank you for reading, and thank you for supporting me in this.
Until next time, happy gaming.
-Highsight