A brief status update on that Godot game. I think we’re pretty close to a finished 4-1 level. The underground section has been built, and the level has been decorated. I’ve also added a couple of secrets, which needed a few new mechanics — like doorways, which are used to transport the player around the level — plus some refinement to existing ones. I am a little concerned about the amount of waiting involved near the end of the first half, where the player will need to make their way across a large gap by jumping on the slow cycling “layer 2” tile layer. I’ll see what feedback I get from play-testers about this.
I’ve also filled in the backdrop of all the levels to date. The grey default background colour has been replaced with a sky made of colour bands that came with the asset set I’m using. It’s basic, maybe too basic, but as long as it doesn’t clash with the interactive elements, and in the interest of “merely shipping something,” I think it’ll do for now.
Finally, I made some changes from feedback I got from play-testers. Movement can now be made using WASD, along with the inverted-T arrow keys. I’ve also bound jump to the Enter key for those that want to use WASD. I made some changes in how secrets are telegraphed with the goal of making them more consistent. This is always a bit of a balancing act, as I don’t want to make them too obvious: they’re secrets after all. I added a tiny bit of “slip” to the player’s movement, so they don’t stop dead whenever the key is released. I didn’t want to go too far here: adding too much inertia introduced the risk of the player just falling off a platform after landing from a jump, which I don’t think is a great experience. And I fixed a window resizing bug (Godot enables window resizing by default, for anyone else who needs to know this).
I think the next thing to do is to organise another version for play-testers, just to gauge what they think of level 4-1. Then it’s either on to level 4-2, or even introduce a new level between 1-1 and 1-2 to reduce the ramp up in difficulty between the two levels. Fortunately I’ve got some ideas on what I want to do for both of theses, so they’ll be easy starters. I’ve still got nothing for level 2-1, but I have a few ideas on what I want to do for 2-2, so maybe I’ll start that too.