I finally started with Blue Ville. Actually I only finished the puzzle that lets you enter the village once and for all.
I've also added a lot of other puzzles and things to the rest of the world. I wanted to release that as an update but I ran into a problem...
Before entering Blue Ville someone robs some of your tools. I had to get rid of some gameplay options for a moment because a cool puzzle could otherwise be solved in a way too boring simple way. You'll get your stuff back a bit later, but if I released this now and let you get to the early access ending, you would not have all abilities and couldn't go hunt for chests. Or if I gave you the abilities back, your progress would be screwed up once you picked the game back up, because you would have the abilities while you should not have them.
For that reason I will only put out another update once I'm at the point where you got all abilities back.
But then it will be a huge update.
Right now the changes list already requires some scrolling down. I did so much polishing work in many areas.
The changes most interesting to dev blog readers are these:
- Hero souvenir system
I added 5 more fallen heroes (9 in total now). And now you can pickup a piece from them and it will be stored on your shelf at home. When you found all of them (should be 12 in the end), you will be rewarded with something cool. I haven't thought of anything yet. At least there will be an achievement.
- I like the concept of having puzzles in early parts of the game that you can technically solve, but you don't have the knowledge yet how to do so. You're not missing any items or abilities, just the knowledge of how certain things work. That's why I put in a bunch of puzzles in that style in Red Town and around the Supraball Pitch.
- A couple of new puzzles. For example a new puzzle in the facility right before you get the float buckle will teach you a new mechanic that you didn't know exists. I've also added a completely new way to use the force beam. So far it's not explained how and it's only needed to get an optional chest. But it's so much fun that I will make it mandatory at some point.
- The strength upgrade will let you destroy pixel bricks with your sword - no more pickaxe needed.
Regarding the last bit and similar mechanics I've run into a bit of a problem.
If you for example find a pixel brick somewhere else in the world, but you don't have the optional strength upgrade, you could get the idea that you would need to carry a pickaxe all across the map. Same for carrots and purple flies.
I always provide a solution that is right around the corner. But in those cases it's possible to solve puzzles by carrying things a very long way. I'm not fully sure how to prevent all of this in a satisfying way. I just don't want you to do tedious, boring tasks.
So even if I somehow prevent you from getting the item all across the map, many people would still try and have wasted time. For example there are now waterfalls you need to run through, and purple flies would be killed there to prevent you from taking them past this barrier.
So you will now find flies in other regions of the map too, so if they are needed somewhere they will be close by. I hope I will get it right.
Progress will probably be a bit slower at the moment, because I also have to take on another project that should take me some weeks to finish. One of the books I wrote was translated from German into English and I have to do the layout for 280 pages and translate all the 120 graphics. This will have priority until it's done.
Thanks for your time!
David