Dear Play With Gilbert Friends!
As most of you have probably noticed, the game has been receiving a constant stream of updates throughout the past week or so.
I have been rolling out the new DLC update in small bursts. These updates contain a lot of changes, fixes and new features. I've taken my time to take a good look at all the feedback and have done my best to address concerns and issues people have been experiencing, all in the name of making "Play With Gilbert" a much more fun experience for our kids. Well, not just our kids of course. ;)
Besides the new DLC map the main goal was to address these issues and to attempt to bring the game to a higher quality standard while retaining the original feel of the game.
This will be a lengthy update news post containing all the new features and updates! I will cover the ones from the previous post as well since I tweaked some of them but first of all I wanted to point you all to a recent interview I did courtesy of Julia Couture from IndieGames.com who approached me asking me if I would do an interview. Of course I was more than happy to do so!
Play With Gilbert Developer Talks Game Design With His Daughter
Gilbert Visits The Moon - Gilbert In Space Free-DLC
While thinking about the future of Play With Gilbert I thought about fun places to visit and the moon was pretty much the first thing I thought of. With a much lower gravity I thought it would be a ton of fun.
Another aspect I wanted to introduce was a slightly more challenging gameplay experience. Slightly more difficult jumps are required to get all the fishies, yet, making sure it's not too difficult. Depending on the feedback I might go back and adjust these if needed. My little girl has been testing the map as usual but she just keeps flying around with the jetpack, she seems to love it.
I hope you all will have fun with he new map, but there's a lot more to talk about of course.
New Features
The Jetpack: The jetpack, well, is a jetpack. I was considering making it a pickup or power-up but felt that that was not needed in this case. I might still tweak some of the values, regarding speed,etc. and will be looking as to how to further improve maneuverability.
New Camera Options: I added a new camera option that you can toggle to go between the old camera settings or the new ones after some people asked me about changing it back. I hope this will please both parties.
You can find the new option under the |Controls" option.
Pink Fishies Updated: The regular pink fishies have gotten a proper update as well. They have gotten a new 3D model, which I think looks a whole lot better but the most important update is that collected fishies are now saved when you pick them up.
Once you have collected all the fishies in a level they will all be re-set once you leave and come back. So if you want to hit the win state in a level, make sure to also find all the kittens and the golden fish.
I believe that this was a much needed feature, as these fishies can be the most time consuming to find.
Kitty Sense: Kitty Sense has been covered before but in general it will display an outline of all the pink fishies, ninja lady and the golden fish. This feature was suggested by one of our awesome community members and I'm glad she did.
Ninja Lady Tweaked: Ninja lady has been tweaked to make it a lot more easier to get the golden fish. I realized that it takes a lot for kids to get it and it was a long time coming.
Changes include a longer wait time in-between her running from one spot to another. She also now staggers longer, giving players a bit more time to get to the golden fish. And I also adjusted where the golden fish spawns. Again to make life a little bit more easier.
Fixes
I have fixed numerous small issues, such as humans getting stuck when trying to walk out a door. Small tweaks in some of the levels.
The left thumb-stick has now also been properly fixed and should be working accordingly.
Another big fix was regarding the fact that video options weren't actually saved besides the screen resolution. I also added a full-screen option as well.
Final Words
I will continue to listen and update and iterate where I can and where I feel it makes the game a better experience. I've watched a few videos on YouTube where the game gets slandered and treated as some joke or a Goat Simulator game.
It feels that these content creators seem to not have taken a look into who this game is aimed for, nor anything else about it. Just a "cat simulator, lulz" reaction and then tearing the thing apart.
At face value I can udnerstand that. Especially looking at the kidns of games that get dropped into the Steam store these days. It makes it even a lot tougher to release a game like this where it's easy mistaken as one. However, I have added a new message for those above the age of 13 when you first start the game.
Hopefully with all these changes and new content the game might be taken slightly more seriously.
Having said all that, I haven't forgotten all the awesome feedback I received as well. Mostly from you guys right here on the forums. Reading about parents telling me their child genuinely enjoyed the game is worth all of it.
A Huge Thank You For All Your Support
For now I will go back to my main project:
STARDROP. But as I said, I will always listen and fix issues where I can.
Thank you all for your time and meow on, you awesome people!