Github

This project is now running on Github. 

What wacky process were you using before hand you might be asking? 

Manual backups before any big changes, synced to Google Drive (I have tons and tons of these), which worked well... until it didn't, when updating my MacBook to the latest OS caused Google Drive to flip out, duplicate, rename and move hundreds of files everywhere. It was no fun at all to fix, but needed doing, nothing was lost and a better process is now in place.

Newgrounds

Inspired by other GBS projects, I popped the web version of Fall from Space on Newgrounds. I didn't expect much since it's up against modern engine games without harsh constraints, and to be honest, I don't really know what Newgrounds is... it's for Flash games right? However it's proved to be a great resource for honest feedback from players which really is super valuable and has already influenced some changes/improvements. I'd recommend it for other devs that can get a web export out there.

Just don't forget to tell players what the games controls are like I did.

Changes in Beta 0.45

A big limitation for the game is a limited number of projectiles (5) allowed. A lot of these in FfS are used in the background for combat, with invisible projectiles for collision.

Having enemies attack rather than just have their bodies being damaging takes up one, projectile based enemies another, the teleport cubes 'fake player' and explosion effect, and two for attack quickly use them all up on a level with two types of enemy.

This mean I had to lose, a while back, a confirmation hit effect on enemies. I've managed to bring this back by dropping a cool but unused hanging from one hand animation of the player, using these freed up frames to bake in the teleport explosion effect into the player sprite, freeing up a precious, precious projectile and frames from levels.

So now if you hit an enemy, you'll get a little explosion effect on DMG and Color+.

Aside from this, a few systems were made more efficient in the background. It still runs at its best on the Color, but it's a little better on DMG now. Also a few minor bug fixes.

Current development

I'm working simultaneously on three varied planets and their look and feel. It's fun having more license to get creative as unlike the starting planet of Pandæmonium, they're not barren wastelands.

It's a challenge trying to convey, water and other tile sets in the DMG palette, so tile swapping and sprite animations are being liberally used to hopefully make each planet feel very different and full of life.

While non of these planets make it into the demo (or are complete yet), they're shaping up nicely and there's some cool stuff to show off in the future and I have big plans for the planets.

https://twitter.com/joeljgames/status/1718315325207334997