Hey folks! Today I’d like to shine light on a feature that I suspect many of you will pass over, but for some may make a huge difference to their enjoyment of the game - and that’s the Boosts feature.
Difficulty & Being A Kid
Back when I was growing up in the late 80s, games were punishingly hard with a requirement to beat whole games without any sort of save or continue system and with very limited checkpoints; usually meaning starting from the beginning after a game over. Thankfully, this isn’t so much of a problem for most games these days as game design has moved forward to give players more frequent checkpointing whilst still preserving individually challenging segments.
However, when I was a very young kid, even this might not have helped much - I didn’t really get the concept of accurately landing jumps and couldn’t really see patterns through levels. I just liked making the on-screen characters run around a brightly coloured world, and that’s something I still see whenever I’m with kids playing a game - the act of just controlling something is joy enough.
Usin' the Boost to Get Through
To this end - and for players who would otherwise stop playing the game completely on reaching a point of frustration - Boosts allow you to give yourself infinite bubbles, full invincibility or even skip a level entirely. These can be turned off again at any time, so if there’s one particular section you just can’t beat and want to get past it, but then play as normal, this will give you that option.
Here's a very tricky section of a World X level without invincibility...
...and here it is with invincibility!
With infinite bubbles, you can fly over levels, which is pretty fun in of itself!
You can play through the entire game if you so wish with Boosts enabled, without having any of the main game restricted. At present, you don’t earn stars or achievements while using Boosts, blocking access to some hats and the unlockable super hard bonus levels - though I’m kind of on the fence about keeping cosmetics locked! What do you think? Should I loosen these requirements a little?
The Other End of the Spectrum
...and for those of you who are thinking this all sounds like it makes the game too easy, I’ve got something for you lot too. Check out the next devlog for information on the ultra difficult World X Levels - follow and wishlist the game to get these updates as soon as they’re out!
You can also follow the game's development on Twitter, where I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have about the game or game development in general.
Until next time!
Johnny
Team Cats & Bears