DevLog #22 – Will you escape the Skycliffs? – Beta v0.9
Hello everyone!
Last time, I presented the content update for the Wetplains archipelago. Today, I’m glad to share that I finally reworked the last zone of the game. Which means Skycliffs is now complete in terms of game content and enters beta state!
This new milestone features new enemies (including a true final boss, but I won’t spoil how to get there and what it looks like…), new items, new weather events, but also some technical work. In particular, the game now officially supports most common controllers. This was quite a challenge since it requires to make sure all the interface is user-friendly for both controller and mouse/keyboard. That’s why I had to change how I display the map to allow for both drag-n-drop and scrolling. Controller support looks good enough for now, but I will make more tests (and debug) in the future to ensure everything is fine.
You will find a changelog at the end of this post if you want to see all the additions and modifications in detail. Also, here are below some screenshots of the new content 🙂
What is next?
Now that Skycliffs is content-complete, it enters the last development stage. That means I will focus on polishing, testing, debugging, checking performances, balancing the difficulty, etc.
In the meantime, I will invest more time and energy into promotion, starting with making a new trailer, updating the Steam page (please wishlist if you haven’t already!), and pitching to publishers. I may also write more devlogs to show some particular features or share technical details.
Reaching beta stage is a huge milestone for this project, and I am very proud of it. There is still plenty of work to do, but Skycliffs is one big step closer to release. I am looking forward to improve the game for v1.0 and share with you this passion-project of mine (and let’s be honest: polishing is one of my favorites phases in the creative process!).
For now, thanks for reading this post, and stay tuned for the new trailer that will come soon!
See you next time!
Milestone v0.9 details
- Reworked Crystal palace visuals and environment
- Added 5 weather events
- Added 12 items
- Updated Crystal palace arena for final boss
- Updated OST with 4 new tracks
- Introduced a true final secret level
- Added 7 enemies and a true final boss
- Added 1 trap
- Included more lore entries and info tips
- Reworked the tutorial
- Tweaked the smash input handling to (hopefully) feel more responsive
- Implemented rare item drops for some enemies
- Added NPCs to Hub zone once already met, with unique dialogues
- Introduced a vanity shop in the Hub
- Fixed soft lock and gamesave issues during and after boss fights
- Reworked the internals of the map display system to allow mouse drag-n-drop + scrolling with movement keys
- Added an intro cutscene with lore (text only for now)
- Added more achievements
- Locked achievements now display their description (but not hidden achievements)
- Added support for most common controllers
- Updated the controls menu, and reworked the input action hint display in the tutorial
- Added ‘cancel’ input action to the list of remapable keys
- Menus can now be closed using the ‘cancel’ input action
- Enemies and players now can’t hurt themselves when shooting projectiles with AoE (but enemies will still hurt other enemies)
- Fixed a soft lock issue where player could collide in narrow places and get stuck: the player now gets auto teleported to a safe place when detected as stuck
- Added a menu to choose the language at very first game startup