DevLog #27 – Polished user interface and better tutorial!
Hello everyone!
I’m glad to be back from my summer break and to release a new patch for the demo! Version 0.9.2 brings a lot of polish and I hope you will enjoy it. As always, detailed patch notes for the demo are available here, but let’s review together the main changes!
User interface
The user interface got a huge rework. I polished every sprite of it to make sure everything look consistent and nice. I also remade the icons of the current 78 items implemented in the game. That tool some time, but the result was worth it.
Polished HUD
New items icons
Also, I reorganized the interface of the different challenges like the lunar balls or the race. I think the new layout makes the different rewards tiers clearer. At the end of the challenge, I added loot animation (similarly to when an enemy die) to better convey that you won some rewards. The NPC will also recall your score after the challenge so that you can see how you did compared to the different tiers goals.
Challenge new layout
After the challenge
Challenge rewards are still prone to be balanced further but there are now better than they used to be. The lunar balls challenge is cheaper too.
The map also got some improvements. You can now hover icons to show a tooltip and see what they mean.
New tooltips on the map
The UI may still need some tweaks here and there but it mostly has its final look. Portraits and achievements icons are the last elements that still need to be polished as well, but I will do them later.
Status menu
Tutorial
I added some “player ghosts” to the tutorial to show how to do things. Hopefully it will be easier to understand how to traverse the level and get to the end without being stuck at the very start of the game.
Player ghosts showing the way
The dummies in the tutorial are now destructible! It is more satisfying and it better shows that you are doing things right when shooting and smashing. The dummies respawn immediately so you can attack them as much as you’d like 😉
Shooting a dummy
Finally, the height numbers will now be hidden by default. Many people said they were kind of unnecessary and added a lot of visual clutter. If you need them, you can still turn them on in the accessibility options.
What is next?
We are getting closer to Q4 and thus to the Early Access release! I will now focus on polishing the in-game sprites (e.g. everything that is not UI…) and adding as much new content as possible. This means mainly items and synergies, and maybe a few enemies. Moreover, there is still a lot of optimization work to do to make sure the game runs smoothly. This patch also contains some under-the-hood changes for a future new challenge I’d like to add, so stay tuned!
Thanks for reading, and see you next time!
DevLog #26 – New logo and artwork!
Hello everyone!
Today I would like to share a brand new logo and artwork I made for Skycliffs! I’m very happy with the result and I feel it conveys the ambiance of the game a lot better than the previous one! I hope you like it 🙂
New logo and artwork for Skycliffs
Demo changes
Since last devlog, I uploaded a few patches. Here is a summary of the main changes.
Starfly new animation and attack pattern
I reworked all enemies of the second zone to address fairness issues and balance their behaviors
I made some changes to the tutorial since some platforming sections were a bit too difficult for newcomers
The controls panel has a new option to choose which controller key names you want to display between Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo
I reduced slightly the player running speed and tweaked the speed ramp up (some people felt the fast movement was causing to fall a lot into the void)
Critical hits are now x2 damage and not x4 anymore
I added two new equipment items, one related to critical damage and another to pushing enemies into the void
As always, detailed patch notes for the demo are available here.
What is next?
I’m working on implementing more items and synergies. Also, I’m trying to update some item sprites that are really old and do not fit the UI theme anymore. There are currently more than 70 items in the game so maintaining the icons consistency is not an easy task!
The patch frequency will slow down a bit in the upcoming weeks as we enter midsummer. Preparing the demo release was a lot of work as a solo as I have to handle both development and PR / Marketing. Ultimately, I need a healthy short break! But once well rested, I will be back with more news and content to share so stay tuned for that!
See you next time! -Radiant Sloth
DevLog #25 – Fixes and new synergies for the demo!
Hello everyone!
[NB: Starting with #25, I will post all Skycliffs devlogs here on Steam as well! If you'd like to read previous ones, you will find them on Radiant Sloth website.]
It has been ten days since the release of the demo of Skycliffs! First of all, thanks a lot to everyone who gave it a try and shared feedback so far! This helps me a lot to improve the game. I already uploaded a couple of patches since the release, so here is a devlog to detail a bit more some of the main changes.
Enemies tweaks
I reworked all the enemies of the first zone so that their behaviors feel more fair. I also introduced new sprites for Lumbricus, and a charging animation for Squibull. The latter makes it more obvious you should not stand in its way!
Squibull new charging animation
Mole is now weaker, but I added a stronger variation as a new enemy.
Mole and Godmole enemies
Finally, Pandoney is not static anymore, it can teleport away from the player. Also, the honey missiles now behave differently. They were too brutal and hard to dodge for the first zone of the game. They are now harmless but the honey puddle they produce summons a new enemy: Bombee. It is basically a kamikaze bee as you can see below. You’d better kill it before it reaches you!
Honey puddles summon bees
New synergies
Some items, when equipped together, trigger a synergy and activate some unique additional effects. The core system was already implemented at the time of the demo release, but they was only one synergy available. I’m working on drastically increasing this number. Last patches introduce 9 new synergies, for a total of 10 at the moment. Here is below one of them that looks really cool!
Piercing + boomerang bullets synergy. In reality, enemies are rarely static and aligned like this, but it still feels pretty strong, right?
Other improvements and fixes
Apart from this, I fixed a critical issue on Windows where the game would freeze on the generating screen. I also made some optimization to reduce lag spikes when first opening the game menu or when enemies die and drop their loot.
The UI got some improvements. It is now much easier to rebind controls (keys do not need to be available anymore, they auto swap if the new selected is already bound elsewhere).
Controls rebinding is now more practical
I added explicit close buttons to all menus as an alternative to pressing the Cancel key. I also made it clearer that some buttons are disabled because of not having enough money. In the status menu, I modified the lines in the background to emphasize that the last system controls the number of equipment slots available.
Status menu tweaks
Finally, I reworked the smash and jump animations of the player to have more frames. I reduced the base player gun spread since people found it too wide. Also, I added short invincibility frames at the end of a teleportation from the void. I hope this makes it easier to move away and not fall again right away because of some enemy!
If you'd like to read the complete patch notes of the demo, you will find them on the Steam forums here.
What is next?
Now I’m planning on making some tweaks to the enemies of the second zone to balance the difficulty and address potential frustrating aspects. In the meanwhile, I’m working on implementing more items and synergies. If you have any cool ideas that you’d like to see in the game, please share them in the comments!
Thanks for reading this devlog, and see you next time! -Radiant Sloth
Demo Release
Hello everyone!
I am pleased to announce that a demo for Skycliffs is now available!
Content
In the full game, a standard run consists of going through 5 different zones and facing a final boss.
In the demo, you explore the first two zones and fight a weakened version of the final boss. However, you have access to 70+ equipment items currently implemented in the game, and can encounter 20+ existing weather events and 3 optional challenges, along with a few secrets. Skycliffs is meant to have a very simple meta progression system to unlock different classes and start runs with various configurations. In the demo, tokens are easy to get to make sure you can unlock classes and test all the content.
Bug and feedback reporting
If you find any bugs or want to share any suggestions, please post a topic on the Steam forums. I will do my best to patch issues in the demo and I am looking forward to hearing your feedback to improve the game before the early access release later this year!
I hope you will enjoy the demo and this new trailer I made for the occasion :)
