Happy Summer/Winter everyone! We've made the first major change to the Hub World since the demo's launch in May last year. We felt the meta structure of the level sequence needed improvement. The update will improve game pacing, offer more interesting and varied mechanics earlier, blur the line between early and mid game content and make Trifoil moreish for the player by showing previews of what's to come next. Players wanting more challenge earlier on can get to the harder puzzles faster. However this comes at a risk, because players can get to more difficult puzzles before they are ready for them.
I designed Trifoil to be non-linear from the start, because I want the player to explore different areas at their own pace. I love games structured like. I hope the new balance is right. But we'll see with the next round of play testing. Here's what the start of the new Hub World looks like when viewed through the new map feature.
A problem with the Trifoil is all the levels look the same and this does not make for interesting store pages or screenshots. Usually indie games would solve this with different looking biomes. Eg, desert level, snow level, forest level or similar. That does not fit with the lore of Trifoil. So we've been experimenting with different concepts, that do fit the game's lore. Here's one that work in progress:
The backgrounds for a puzzle game are difficult to get right. We want them to be interesting but also not distracting. So the above spikes coming out of the dark spheres, moving very slowly. I hope people like it. A small treat for those who notice! As always feedback is very welcome.
That all for January, but stay tuned as I'll have some news about a new demo soon.
-- Andrew