Devlog 2-6-20: This game is still alive!

Hello!

I know I haven't touched this page in a while, but believe it or not I'm still alive! While I don't have a new build for people to try out, I wanted to post a few gifs of the stuff I've been working on! 

Quick disclaimer: None of the features below are available for download yet:

New Enemy Death Animations

When enemies die, their corpses go flying into the nearest wall and EXPLODE! You're probably thinking "alright alright, not bad, but is that what you've spent the last few MONTHS on??"

Well well well, how about....

New "Dark Traverse" Ability

A new ability: Dark Traverse! Fly freely through the air (using the Dark gauge) and relentlessly pursue enemies! Killing enemies / reflecting / performing a full combo fully refills the Dark gauge, allowing you to traverse again!

I'm really excited about Dark Traverse. I think it'll address a lot of issues people brought up earlier relating to the player feeling a little sluggish/immobile. I wanted to create an ability that would give the player mobility and allow you to quickly close the gap on enemies!

But wait: There's more!

New Boss Battle!

This boss is the first encounter with the main antagonist of the game: D4RK! This boss is meant to be pretty early in the game, so it shouldn't be TOO hard. He does have a pretty killer desperation move though, so be warned!!

Major Updates

I plan to completely rework the intro to the game in the coming weeks. I want to focus more on level design and a smoother difficulty curve. For example, (those of you that played the Fragment Edition will know how hard the Sniper is): I plan to move the sniper to be a mid-game boss (Currently he's planned to be the 3rd boss battle). I'm working on introducing 2 more bosses before him to smooth out the difficulty curve a little. I'm also moving away from the "stage-based" structure of the game in favor of more complex levels with some MINOR (very MINOR) metroidvania elements.

In summary: I'm still alive! None of the above is available for download yet, but once I finish reworking the intro of the game, I'll upload a new demo and take down the fragment version of the game. From there, I'll try to stick to an "every-other-week" dev log schedule.

Thanks to anyone out there who's listening! I'm still really excited about this game!!

Abhi Sundu