Alright, so this is my first Devlog and general update about the game, alongside a little bit of me yapping about it. First of all, thanks for the support! We still have a long way to go, but here is what has changed since our last version:
Visuals & Shaders: I added tons of shaders to make the game look more beautiful and vibrant to capture that cartoon vibe. We now have an improved "Painterly Shader" which adds a little paper texture over the screen. I also added depth to the scene using Godrays and blurring the background images based on their distance (all done with the help of shaders, of course). And it works! :D
Movement & Balancing: On top of those visual changes (which are already huge), I made some improvements to the movement. It is now more fluid, connected, and responsive. I also tried to balance the max combo level and figure out what points the player should get for each action. Just typical balancing stuff, which is up for testing, of course.
Interior Environments: We have interior sprites now that cover the background. Even though they aren't heavily detailed, they give the scene nice depth and vibes. I split the lights to give the feeling that the "player is inside a tower," added sprite shadows to the platforms, and made Godrays leak through the cracks and gaps in the interior walls. It really changed the game's vibe in the best way.
Player Effects & Combos: The player now has a speed trail. It uses the same principle as a speed afterimage, but it's made with a line renderer and changes color according to your speed. We also have new screen effects and combo tiers! New effects include screen tilt, text pop-ups for each new tier, and a very nice, subtle screen shake for each new combo level. It gives a very satisfying feeling.
Demo End Screen: Lastly, I added a demo end screen so players won't see broken levels that still need polish! :D After the first level is cleared, the game transitions to this end scene, which concludes our current changes.
More will come, like different animations, more detailed sprites, UI improvements (because there is almost none right now!), and adaptive sound. I probably need to look into getting FMOD working for WebGL builds because it's causing me problems (I don't know the software that well yet), but I will figure it out eventually.
Thanks for reading my yapping and my thoughts! If you want to support us, please consider wishlisting our game on Steam. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please reach out to me—let's talk about it. I want to include the community in this development cycle so we can build a great fast-paced, precision platformer together.
Godspeed,
Kaljal is out ːVSnakeː
Itch.io Demo: https://kaljal.itch.io/jazzwitch