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Stumblehill is here!
Posted on 2019-06-27 04:26

Finally, about a year after appearing as part of a Humble Monthly, Stumblehill has been released as a freeware game! It was a very exciting project to work on because I had never done anything quite like it before; using HD art was pretty much a first for me, and making a game as a commission was also very much new.

Anna Magdalino did excellent work on the audio, as did Lucy Green on the writing! Extreme thanks to them for their hard work.

Check the game out on the official site!

Tags: Games, Small games, Other

Progress post #121: Stuff
Posted on 2019-06-19 07:26

Another stream! Some Baba bugfixing and re-implementing things such as enemy behviour and editor tools in ESA 2. I’m starting to see some familiar patterns of aesthetical unpleasantness in ESA 2, and would very much like to deal with those right now so that I don’t have to keep developing the game with an increasing sense of not being a fan of the look of it. Hopefully something more concrete presents itself.

Tags: Games, ESA 2, Baba Is You, Streaming, Regular updates

Progress post #120: Bump
Posted on 2019-06-15 10:47

Another stream where I worked on three different games! ESA got a much-needed little fix, ESA 2 went forward some and Baba saw a couple bugfixes as well. I also implemented a system that makes it easier to understand what’s happening when an object tries to move but is immediately returned to its origin, as seen above.

There’s so much stuff to do! I had a vacation of sorts last week but had to spend it preparing for an exam – another week would’ve been very much welcome. As it is, progress on these various projects is ponderous but at least I haven’t burned out.

I’ve been playing Cultist Simulator again, and combined with Sunless Skies I’m feeling a foolish urge to try to make something story-driven. I don’t think I’d actually be able to make anything sensible story-wise, though.

Tags: Games, Baba Is You, ESA, ESA 2, Regular updates, Streaming, Plans

Progress post #119: INFINITY
Posted on 2019-05-27 05:30

Streamed again! I’ve been adding/fixing various things in Baba for consistency and to prepare for the eventual level editor. Today I polished a system that displays the above visual effect if the player would create a loop the game can’t resolve.

I also started working on the dialogue system of ESA2. That went surprisingly smoothly, I’m glad. I’ll try to go for a less rigid speech bubble -type design this time.

Tags: Games, ESA 2, Baba Is You, Streaming, Regular updates

Baba Is You patch notes (May 10th) – version 1.0.4
Posted on 2019-05-10 00:31

Switch patch notes for the new version!

Fixes & tweaks:

– Promoted Skull House to an extra level
– Added Lovely House to where Skull House used to be
– Some underlying work for potential future features
– The Linux build should work again
– Replaced Secure Cottage with Fireplace
– New level: Pillarwork! Located where Fireplace used to be
– New option to disable particle effects
– Shuffled levels a bit in Cavern
– Fixed a colourization error in one of the endings
– Fixed the area completion effect not staying in the correct place in some cases
– Made background particles appear & disappear correctly when toggling the corresponding option in the settings menu
– You can now adjust the game’s window size when in windowed mode by pressing Control + 1/2/3 etc (this might become a proper settings option eventually)
– Fixed a crash in Ultimate Maze (probably not fully)
– Reduced Garden’s required level count for clearing
– Fixed background particles in one particular case appearing wrong
– Added 3 new levels! I’ll try to refrain from adding any more because that’s not very elegant, but here we are for now. You can find one of them in Rocket Trip as a variant for Horror Story.
– Changed “Force default colours” to “Force high-contrast colours” and made the setting use a slightly altered palette. This’ll be adjusted further in the future if needed.
– “Fixed” a bug with Empty (that is, added a solution that doesn’t fix it fully but makes it less of an issue)
– Started implementing a larger code structure related to Empty in preparation for future use and to fix a particular bug
– Swapped the order of Garden’s extra levels since it makes much more sense that way
– Made control icon positioning work even if the player adjusts the zoom type during gameplay
– Added a pause menu control hint to Where Do I Go?
– Fixed level numbering in a lategame area
– Fixed the level cursor not recognizing a level in certain situations
– Fixed the undo & restart tips appearing wrong
– Got All This Stuff Here completely redesigned! The old puzzle was broken in multiple ways and caused crashes. The replacement is called Ruined Orchard.
– Adventurers redesigned; the idea is the same but in a less frustrating configuration
– Actually fixed the undo/restart message
– Fixed multiple syntaxes that worked despite not being supposed to (Baba Not Is You and so on)
– Fixed completed level outline effect appearing wrong for some players
– Made certain directional rulewords work slightly more consistently
– Made certain secrets behave more consistently
– Fixed a rare inconcistency in how Tele works
– Changed the way the game writes text in preparation for potential translations
– Fixed a situation where an object didn’t have a corresponding word
– Added a safety measure in cases where the game doesn’t know where to load the player into
– Fixed an issue where the game skipped the intro in certain circumstances
– Fixed an issue with undoing a Floating object being destroyed
– Fixed the area completion effect not staying in the right position in certain cases
– Fixed a case where the pause menu might not render text properly
– The game checks certain rules more thoroughly when you start a level
– Fixed a very very rare crash that mostly affected only my own development work
– Added a safety feature that makes the game not break if the player’s files are encoded in ANSI and not UTF-8
– Fixed the final instance of inconsistent level placement
– Fixed a couple cornercases with conditional rules
– Made certain lategame visual elements easier to read
– Fixed a very specific functionality related to Open/Shut

Level adjustments:

– Dead End
– Lock the Door
– Vital Ingredients
– A Way Out?
– Another Way
– Ghost Friend
– Pillarwork
– Entropy
– Horror Story
– Trapped
– Heavy Cloud
– Torn Apart
– Tangle
– Grand Stream
– Tectonic Movements
– Across
– Power Generator
– Bottleneck (adjusted to be slightly more forgiving)
– Seeking Acceptance
– Lovely House (removed a potential red herring)
– Skull House (removed a potential red herring)
– Heavy Words (removed a confusing extra structure)
– Got All This Stuff Here (see above)
– Adventurers (see above)
– Automaton
– Entropy
– Parade
– ???
– Condition
– Rocky Road (tiny readability improvement)
– Thicket (made Make’s functionality easier to figure out)
– Meta (just a small readability adjustment)
– Hostile Environment (not extremely happy about this adjustment)
– Delicate Star
– One-way Entrance
– Sky Hold

Tags: Games, Baba Is You

ESA update!
Posted on 2019-05-09 05:54

Whoa, would you look at that! I managed to update Environmental Station Alpha! There were some features that I had semi-promised to implement + bugs introduced in the previous update that I wanted to get rid of, so here we went. I streamed the process, since streaming is often a force that enables me to finish these kinds of tasks.

You can find the details here: https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791437735114/announcements/detail/1603756162536029681

Tags: Games, ESA, Streaming

Weekly progress post #118: Rise from the ashes
Posted on 2019-05-07 13:35

It’s real! I promise!! Now that Baba is out, keeping a weekly schedule could technically be easier(…?)

I’ve streamed ESA 2 development a couple times again and progress has actually been fairly good! Still in the early stages of the… remake? Let’s call it a remake. But the features I’ve added have mostly felt pretty nice.

Last night I worked on the triple shot!

Tags: Games, ESA 2, Procedural generation, Streaming, Regular updates

Baba Is You patch notes (April 8th) – version 1.0.3
Posted on 2019-04-03 00:25

These are the patchnotes for the Switch patch; it contains all the patchnotes for previous updates on other platforms.

Fixes & tweaks:

– Fixed a bug where certain interaction with the word Pull caused an infinite loop
– Repositioned “return to map” in the pause menu
– Fixed an issue with opening the pause menu while a level was restarting
– Fixed a typo in the credits text
– Fixed a bug where the level counter bugged out at 100 levels solved
– Fixed “Disable zoom” saying “Zoom mode” in settings
– Fixed a bug related to the word Tele
– Fixed an infinite loop in Chasm (one remains)
– Fixed the ability to get multiple [REDACTED]
– Fixed several achievements not working
– Fixed the game showing gamepad hints when gamepad is connected but player is playing using the keyboard
– Made the crash in “Love is out there” harder to get – it’s still there so this needs more work
– Fixed a lua error in A Way Out?
– There’s a new zoom mode – stretch!
– Fixed the ABABA bug
– Fixed a bug where the sound crackles when fading
– Fixed the general sound snap bug
– Fixed the bug where alt-tabbing reduces performance greatly
– Fixed an infinite loop related to “Word”
– Alleviated the issue with multiple Push objects in a row. Still ways to go with that, though
– Swapped two secret levels to make certain secret stuff flow better
– Two new levels! One is in the Solitary Isle area, one is hidden
– Coronation promoted to an extra level
– Levels shuffled around in Cavern a bit
– Fixed an infinite loop related to “Pull”
– Fixed a newly-introduced bug related to “Not”
– Fixed a bug where undoing didn’t revert certain qualities
– Fixed a bug where the main map included unintended areas as being required for completion
– New fix for audio issues
– Fix to an area not getting the “completed” flower
– Fix to the new zoom mode potentially not working
– Fix to save slots 2 & 3 sometimes bugging when you start a fresh game on them
– Fixed a level with “Cliff” not appearing properly as an object
– Fixed a lua error related to undoing when Float is involved

Level adjustments to at least these levels:

– Prison
– A Way Out?
– Ghost Friend
– Backstage
– Grand Stream
– Maritime Adventures
– Alley
– Further fields (promoted into an extra level)
– A way out?
– Got all this stuff here
– Meteor rain
– Stardrop
– Queue
– The pit
– Catch the thief!
– Endless Corridor
– Meta
– Tunnel
– Overgrowth
– Elusive Condition
– Condition
– The End
– Passing Through
– Coronation
– Metacognition
– Adventure
– Buried Treasure
– Depths
– Another Way
– Insulation
– Secret Garden
– Babas Are You
– Guardians

[Huh, I guess there was never a blogpost about GDC or Baba's release this year. Wild!]

Tags: Games, Baba Is You

Baba Is You will be out March 13th!
Posted on 2019-02-26 04:13

(Alternatively, check the official Nintendo version here: Yeah)

Right! Baba will be released very soon, and that’s great. I’m a week or so late with this blogpost, but eh, I’ve gotten some evidence that some people actually follow this blog from time to time, and I want to support that.

The game will cost USD $15, or 12.50€ if you prefer that. Wishlisting the game on Steam would be massively useful at the moment, so consider doing that if you haven’t yet.

I’ve ordered some Baba t-shirts! They’ll probably be gone after GDC.

I’m really excited about seeing videos & streams of the game – even though seeing someone get stuck in a game you made can be really frustrating/discouraging, there’s always some entertainment as well, plus I really hope I get to see someone appreciate some of the more inventive moments of the game.

I’ve also been slowly putting together the OST of the game. Due to various reasons, some of which were discussed in that earlier Baba post, there has been need for a lot of tweaking to make the music sound nice for the official soundtrack. The side-effect of that is that the in-game music has improved some as well, so while the process is exhausting, it hopefully increases the overall audio quality, little by little.

Anyway, there’ll be more news coming soon – I really need to remember to update here because I’m very fond of this blog. Slowly getting used to this block system of WordPress’, too!

[This post had a neat column setup in the original blogpost that I didn't bother to reimplement here.]

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