HELLO FELLOW GAMERS AND HORROR FANS
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a fantastic new years! Star Wars 7 was brilliant, wasn't it? It's Kitty's first news post of 2016 and boy do I have a huge load of information to share, so let's get to it!
Right away, I want to let you all know that multiple solutions have been discovered in regards to fixing that lighting issue that was mentioned in my previous news post. What a relief! We can all rest easy now hahaha! But that isn't the only good news! I was able to save a huge substantial amount of memory in Kitty's project file! What does that mean to anyone new to these posts? Let me explain.
When I first started the ambitious and difficult task of creating Kitty, I ran into a huge problem in regards to memory. This problem came about because of how large I wanted Kitty to be. I had discovered that the program I use, has a limit on how much memory I can store in the program in order to create the game. So I can't have graphics, sounds, etc that take up a huge amount of space or else the program will eventually run out of memory and lock me out of creating levels and stuff, it was absurd. So what did I do to solve this conundrum? I did a MASSIVE cleanout and got rid of useless graphics, backgrounds, etc that were taking up space. I also compressed the sounds and music (No worries! I made sure the compression process did not ruin the sound quality). Long story short, I was able to save loads and loads of memory that I can now put to good use in creating the future levels. HOWEVER, that still didn't mean I wasn't still concerned by this memory limit. I feared that I wouldn't have enough memory in the program to make Kitty as long as I wanted it to be, so I ALMOST opted into splitting Kitty into 3 episodes/parts...
BUT! FANTASTIC NEWS! I have just recently did an even more thorough cleanup of the files in Kitty.....
The result this time were so amazing and effective, that I now think I can expand Kitty's narrative and gameplay even longer than before! Pretty cool huh? So now I can officially say, that Kitty will for sure be a single video game (no install required) and not split into multiple parts as I had originally feared. I want to put to use all of this new memory!! So be prepared for one epic narrative folks! :)
*Phew* Now with that little announcement out of the way, let's get to the meat of the news! "Metroid" inspired level layouts? What am I talking about here? Well! It refers to something interesting that I had just created for Kitty.
Rooms can now be revisited and multiple paths will branch out the levels. Before, Kitty was actually just a linear platformer (Point A to point B). Once you left a room, you couldn't return to that previous room, you were actually "forced" to progress forward no matter what. It was actually kind of a ridiculous restriction to have in a game like Kitty now that I think about it... But that is all out the window now! I reworked the levels in a way that implements exploring multiple rooms and paths in order to solve puzzles and such. So this means you will have to sometimes (mildly) backtrack through levels in order to solve puzzles. No worries! It won't be boring backtracking I promise! The world will change around you the second time you visit it, and it might become more dangerous and hazardous (It may be the same path you visited... but there is something different about it). I want to say however, the game is still very much a linear experience, so don't expect to get completely lost and stuck during a level/world. The way I designed the levels now, just add a depth to the world and I think you are all going to like the hint of "metroidvania" feel the game now has. Puzzles will now require you to go to branching pathways/rooms to solve them.
Where the "Metroid" inspiration/influence comes from, is how the powerups you receive are used/implemented. If you are an old follower of Kitty, you already know that in this game, you will gain multiple powerups that alter the main character. But now that rooms can be revisited and backtracked, I've made it so that these new powerups will allow you to reach new areas within the revisited ones. It's a bit difficult explain in text form but you will see/experience what I mean once the game is complete and launches. :) Still no official release date though, sorry about that! Still pretty early in development. Expect more news in the future! Until then, stay tuned!
-DangerDeckman
