Ver 0.1.8

First of all

Thank you for so much interest in our prototype and for the extensive feedback! We read and watch everything. :)

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Version 0.1.8 of our prototype

We have recently updated our prototype to version 0.1.8. In this update we made some slight improvements to the controls and fixed a number of bugs. Also, there's now an alternative way for destroying the boss. You can find the full list of changes at the bottom of this post.

We are looking for publisher

We're working on a more concrete plan for the game's future, taking all of your feedback into account. Once we find a publisher we're going to start with a major refactoring of the codebase.

Controls

For anyone who has played cinematic platformers in the past it's probably clear that these games' history has been rather complicated. With many beautiful and important titles THE CONTROLS have always been difficult. How to refresh and make the controls more fluid while maintaining a sense of nostalgia? It will be a long journey full of experiments.

Nerdy stuff:

0.1.6, pre-release important changes

• upgraded input system making the game extensively compatible with keyboard and a variety of gamepads, classic and modern alike (PS4 colored diode included!);
• added automatic aspect ratio adjustment; for aspects other than 16:9 the image is scaled and put between cinematic frames, so the game can be reliably displayed on a variety of devices (most notably on 16:10 Macs and 4:3 displays);
• added intro cutscene into level 1 (animation, music, splashy sound effects);
• improved musical sequence during boss-fight, the main track is silenced when both generators are down and only the ambience of heartbeat can be heard; After beating the boss atmospheric music smoothly fades in during outro sequence;
• added the sound effects of assembly line in level 3;
• added drone sounds emitted by working generators in level 2 and 3;
• fixed code of presses playing their sounds out-of-sync;
• fixed issue where possessed enemy could shoot immediately after releasing COVER button before the character’s animation could transition into its combat idle sequence;
• fixed bug where escape button did not restart the game during credits;
• plenty of tweaks in AI;
• fixed plenty of minor bugs with sprite-masking, character animation transitions, level collision and pixel-grid inaccuracies in positioning of objects;

0.1.7

• added sprite-mask to left-oriented vent enterance that obscures enemies standing next to it, preventing them from “stepping-in” into the vent system,
• fixed swapping forest background into desert background in level 2 when player was moving back and forth in vertical vent of lower alternate path,
• a bug where character was stuck under bars after abandoning possessed enemy was hopefully prevented by resizing colliders of enemies and bars themselves; enemies should not be able come close enough to the bars for the bug to occur,
• shadow zones were expanded to overlap with vents, making it safe to possess enemies facing these vents;
• added the possibility to blow up the reactor in level 3 by throwing main character into the core; the alternative animation of core explosion and following cutscene were created,
• presses can only crush characters when operating in CLOSING state; presses won’t crush main character, when it climbs into their collider in their CLOSED state (closed press expels main character out of its killing zone and forces it into falling, hanging or wall-sliding state); 
• removed leftmost landmine in final upper screen of level 2 so that possessed enemy can now be abandoned safely and leaves more room for players to reliably position themselves before making an escape; graphics and masking of the level were adjusted accordingly;
• animation of respawning essential member of the primitive faction is now less glitchy;
• fixed glitch where main character was walking through bars while on the ceiling and pushing against them to the left;

0.1.8

• fixed bug with visor overlay not showing up when immediately going into cover with successfully possessed enemies;
• fixed bug with main character remaining deactivated if unsuccessfully possessed enemy was killed during counterattack animation;
• fixed bug where enemies unpossessed while in covered state lost theirs ability to turn around while in patrolling state; this could be averted by re-possessing enemies and exiting them in their combat idle state; bugged enemies would “moon-walk” to their patrolling nodes and could get stuck on scanning doors when pacing against them backwards;
• fixed plenty of animations being cut too soon between state transitions;
• fixed bug where unpossessing enemies possessed in shadows left player invisible to enemies; this could be averted entering and exiting the shadows;
• enemies can no longer be possessed when in cover during fire-exchange between factions;
• fixed bug where main character would die from fall damage when falling into lava / molten metal areas;
• bullets now scan for potential targets on collision, affecting only the one closest to the marksman; this prevents from killing enemies standing on the other side of closed doors, killing two or more enemies at once standing close each other, allows for killing enemies extremely close to marksmen;
• fixed vents layout in level 1, preventing main character from wall-sliding against external wall of vents (issues with parallax, masking and animation offsets); updated animated glyph on the second screen to better communicate the need for sprint-jump across the second gap;
• fixed Boss reset consistency after player’s respawn;
• added glyphs in stage two
• buttons and computers can no longer be activated from the ceiling;
• fixed bug where pause menu sometimes does not show up after level selection;
• added quit submenu to main menu and pause menu of the game, asking player if they want to quit;
• added “Visit Us” allowing player to visit community websites related to our team and this project;
• deactivated QUIT option from menus in WebGL version;
• fixed bug with controls screen not loading in main menu;
• small tweaks about how main menu works during level selection (work still in progress);
• fixed bug with boss music playing after first death in level 3;