Greetings explorers! I just pushed a new update for Veil's demo for you all to enjoy. The update mostly focuses on smoothing out the demo's first impressions. There is also some balancing and polish of movement abilities.
Big Level Changes
Added a new, easy waterfall cave at beginning.
Added a longer gliding tutorial.
"Will help less confident players lean into game. I wish for Veil to be an approachable adventure game before diving into intense parkour."
Added voiced narration, revealing some lore.
"The voice is a placeholder, will have proper voice acting in final game. Enjoy the sultry whispering for now."
Removed puzzle after gravity cavern.
"I've found people don't like my puzzles when there is parkour action to be had. I know how to improve them, but I'd rather focus on what feeds into the game's sense of movement."
Removed scary encounter with the "dragon" (for now).
"Will be polished for final game! A dramatic moment, but not everyone's favorite part of the demo due to some communication issues, anticlimactic ending, lack of interesting navigation, etc.., so I'd like to cook on it longer. If feeling left out, you can check out the encounter here from funny youtuber man."
Spes Intera: moved entrance to lava tower. Now it costs stars to enter.
Spes Intera: reaching end takes you back to tutorial, not demo end.
Spes Intera: Added stars (thanks to Zayd the intern).
Ability Changes
Wings now use their own energy bar.
Glide rings added to open area. Wings are refilled when flying through them.
Wings have a "flutter" mode when out of power. It's fun!
Wings are now triggered by a single button press. Way more straightforward than pressing dive twice.
Diving midair is no longer possible with glider immediately deploying, but it still works on the ground!
"I want to encourage players to mix parkour and gliding together for the most amount of fun, instead of gliding being 'the only move to use'. I hope the compromise keeps the fun. PLEASE FORGIVE MEEEE-"
Wall hover no longer shoots players up walls.
Added a new hover VFX.
"Before getting up cliffs was trivial with wall hover. Cool at first, but makes the rest of the game boring."
Air jumps now recharge mid-air, as indicated by a meter at bottom of screen.
Air jumps provide some horizontal speed when tilting stick.
New animations for air jumps when tilting stick.
Improved wall jump animations.
Jump heights and wall jump values rebalanced.
"You'll notice Temple's jumps have some added speed."
Improved grappling hook animations. You can now hang upside down like a bat. A bat with a hat.
Added new hand VFX when grapple node is close by.
Not a new feature, but there are places to try out swimming now.
Misc. Changes
Customization: fixed some sections of clothing disappearing in the thumbnails
Customization: you can rotate Temple now using IJKL or right thumbstick.
Menu's tilt according to highlighted button selection
Tutorial hints are now separate from dialogue box, allowing Temple to talk while hint is displayed.
Added more sound effects.
Added new death VFX.
Added new level transitions.
Broke off gravity cavern into its own level instance for performance.
Fixed camera acting weird when you jump out of grapple hook towards camera.
Shortened demo end sequence.
"I'm sure I forgot something."
Dev Update: Still Going
Veil used to be a full-time project while I lived off savings. I realized I couldn't keep this up. It's a hefty endeavor more suitable for a small team than a solo dev, placing the end out of reach. Having already made Castle on the Coast, it's less of a question of competence, but one of time.
Despite this, Veil has remained a passion project while I do normal work. I still add levels, bits of art, polish movement, etc..
For example, here is a WIP desert level I've been cooking up, eagerly awaiting final art:
The dream is to get a publisher and funding, allowing full time work with some helpers, bringing Veil into your steam library in all its glory. Will this happen? I can scheme all I like, but only God knows the future.
So please don't wait on me! Enjoy life, enjoy the new games coming out! If Veil wraps up someday, a wishlist email will come your way.
If you like lurking though, I'm most active on discord.
https://discord.gg/Zr6HzmgUNU
Enjoy the update!
-Peter