Hey guys! Krayfishkarl here and welcome to another Droplet: States of Matter update! Early access 1.26 is now available! This update reimagines the Sprites and Elves level as a brand new area: Aether Isles.
The new level is inspired by the real world scientific phenomenon known as upper atmospheric lightning. The different patterns in the sky are named after a variety of mythical creatures such as sprites, elves, trolls, gnomes and more. Just as how I gave anthropomorphic features to the elements of the periodic table, I applied similar design principles to create a variety of fairy tale characters. Thus, the level turned out to be a fantasy world taking place high in the sky.
The goal of this update was to improve upon the level's design and mechanics. The original level had a strong focus on hardlight platforms, and they were introduced as if they were the first time the player was encountering them. As the recent Autumn Hills rework already introduced hardlight platforms to the player, I found it necessary to add some new challenges to build upon the player's knowledge.
In Aether Isles, you'll encounter several new obstacles. Most notably, rainbow bridges that only plasma form can stand on. Additionally, you'll find rotating cloud platforms that as the name suggests, only cloud form can stand on. And around halfway through, you'll have to climb a castle tower to avoid deadly traps and solve puzzles.
Most of the level's enemies were carried over from the original Sprites and Elves level. However, I reintroduced several enemies from areas that were previously removed from the game. In the tower section, you'll find some wizards that shoot math symbols at you as well as knights that can block your path.
Although Aether Isles is much shorter than Windswept Ruins, it is considerably more challenging. Thankfully, there are plenty of health pickups so that you have the ability to quickly retry the tricky platforming segments as many times as you need.
That's all for now! And with that, thank you for following the development of Droplet: States of Matter!
Patch Notes
Gameplay
- Replaces Sprites and Elves with a new level: Aether Isles.
- Weather Machine drones no longer block the line of sight of enemies.
- Pixies now taunt you when they hit you with an arrow.
- Camera no longer passes through giant mushrooms.
Graphics
- Brought back the knight enemy with new graphics.
- Graphical updates to pixie enemy.
- Trolls and pixies no longer leave their weapons behind when they are defeated.
Audio
- New music for Aether Isles.
- New SFX for gnomes.