Back to work (5/17)

So about two weeks ago, I released a new build of the Maya platformer to my patrons. Ever since then I've been taking a little bit of a break from things here, just getting some time to recharge (I tend to go through these cycles lol, work really hard for a few weeks and then just stop, working on trying to be more consistent). But that's enough break time, now it's time to get back at it and get ready for the next build release! And today I'll be covering what I did for the current playable platformer build, what I plan do to with it when I get back to working on it, and what I plan to release two weeks from now

To start out, I'll go over exactly what I added to the game with this last update. Like I had been talking about before, my main goal was to create the first playable levels for the game, and to this end I made two new levels. Unlike the original prototype where the two levels were more designed as these open sandbox areas for testing movement mechanics, these levels are explicitly designed with a start and end in mind. Maya runs through a short section of obstacles, collects some coins along the way, and eventually reaches a Resonote that opens a portal to the next level for her. For these two levels in particular, the obstacles are designed explicitly to teach the player how to play the game, and take advantage of the unique quirks of Maya's movement.

The first level is focused on Maya's base movement: her ability to run, jump, wall jump, and interact with slopes. It's a pretty short level, maybe like half a dozen basic obstacles that you can run through in under a minute if you know what you're doing, but each one is meant to teach those who don't know how the game works. My favorite of these being this long flat section with a platform just out of reach:
It's a short section, but here the platform is meant to immediately grab the player's attention and have them wonder why they can't jump high enough. Unlike say a Mario game, Maya doesn't gain extra height from jumping at top speed, but by reaching the end of this section you'll learn that she does gain extra height by jumping off of a slope (a core aspect of her movement in this game). Immediately following that is another high jump made possible by a slope, and should the player clear that as well they'll be brought to an optional section of the level showing players just how far this mechanic can be pushed. This sort of thing was technically present in the original game, but I wanted to make a more intentional effort to highlight the movement, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Additionally I wanted to keep the levels approachable since I originally made them too hard without realizing, which is why this section is optional and not needed to clear the stage.

For the second level, the focus is all on Maya's fat form, and learning how to bounce around in that state. It also features a handful of ladders as well due to the stages greater emphasis on verticality (a large part of it is designed almost like trying to climb a mountain, since I found that large open vertical spaces seemed to be the most interesting ones to bounce around in). But in the exceedingly rare occasions I actually got to watch someone play the game for the first time, I noticed that they would often struggle with the bouncing mechanic, and not really get how it works. So to that end, I created this section so that I could be absolutely certain that anyone who passes it understands the timing element to bouncing:

I'll likely have to add all sorts of tutorials as I give Maya more complicated powerups and transformations, so whenever I do I aim to have them be as unobtrusive as I can get away with. After this point in the level, the rest mostly focused on simply getting used to bouncing and playing with the mechanic in a more open space. It also has unique interactions with slopes, and in this level slopes are used almost as a slight obstacle, deflecting bounces in ways that a novice player might not be expecting (though a more advanced one can potentially take advantage of).

And lastly a part that took a lot longer than I honestly expected, the sequence that plays out when you beat one level and move to the next one:

This is more or less everything I wanted to cover as far as the levels go, I'll leave the rest for you to discover yourself whenever the game gets a free release. I'm aiming to do one sooner rather than later once I've got more content going for it, but until then it will remain patron exclusive (think if it kinda like early access). As for what that content will be, my next order of business is to finally get my level editor fully off the ground. It was used to help create both of these levels, and in the process I constantly ran up against it's limitations. It's still only half-functional, as the coins, ladders, fat fruit and all other objects still had to be added in after the fact through the Unity editor. Next time I work on the game I'll be aiming to fix that, as that'll allow me to make and test the next few levels much faster.

But before that, I'll be returning to Suki Game! Mabo has been hard at work drawing up art assets for the game and it's very nearly feature complete, so in 2 weeks I plan to put out another update for that. In the meantime I'll be hard at work trying to bring that project to a close, so I'll see you then. Thank you for reading! ...And potentially being patient with my very irregular updates, lol. Later!