Smaller update this week than I would have liked. I received my booster covid-19 shot last week and it took a lot out of me. Still better than getting the virus though.
Anyway. This week I have finally finished sketching up the last level of the game. It’s going to be one heck of a level. It spans 4 floors and involves just about everything the game has to offer. It’s certainly going to be very interesting playtesting it in a few weeks time.
As well as that playtesting of the World 4 maps continues and I believe we’re just over halfway through. I myself have tested all the levels in world 4 but I use my results to work out the 3-star timings rather than as proof that the average player can complete them. For that, my friend steps in and plays. He has a very different way of looking at the puzzles and that helps me to make sure that things don’t go wrong and that the puzzles do actually make sense. After all, as I designed the puzzles I know the perfect way that they’re supposed to be done but it’s not necessarily the right way.
While my friend works through world 4 levels I’m still going through the world 5 maps. I’m currently halfway through. My process includes making sure that the shadow maps and lighting are positioned correctly; if something is off I have to adjust the level and try again. Once the shadow map is correct I can then bake it into the game so that the engine doesn’t have to regenerate it each time. It’s time-consuming but it meant that I could get the same visual fidelity on the Android version as I can on the desktop version.
For those not in the know, the game was designed specifically for PC but with the plan of releasing on Android a month or so after the final release. The game works really well on Android despite being touch-based. I don’t have access to Apple devices so I have no plans to release on the Apple App Store.
