Hey guys! Krayfishkarl here and welcome to another Droplet: States of Matter update! Early access 1.29 is now available! This update gives a second pass to the Cirrus Harbor level layout and aesthetics.
Cirrus Harbor takes place in a steampunk-themed area in the sky where you’ll find a variety of moving platforms. In the latter half of the level, you’ll go so high in altitude that you’ll find the temperature has dropped, causing you to go to ice form.
One of Cirrus Harbor’s main mechanics includes some very tricky platforming. The evil sky pirates have decided to move around the weather machine drones, meaning if you touch one while standing in the wrong place, you’ll fall to your demise. This is a twist on the game’s established formula so that the player becomes more cognizant of the level’s environment before touching a drone.
I wanted to revisit Cirrus Harbor for a couple of reasons. I had gotten feedback that the level was too difficult for its placement in the game. To address this critique, I made the platforms wider and easier to navigate. For thematic reasons, I also moved Cirrus Harbor to a different hub world swapping it with Arctic Rig. I felt that Arctic Rig was more thematically in line with the modern, urban themes of Radon Industries, while Cirrus Harbor felt more appropriate in Xenon Lagoon, an area that had more of an adventure fantasy aesthetic.
The other issue I wanted to address was theming. I felt the level needed to be more distinct in its appearance from Chrome Skyscrapers. As such, switching to a steampunk theme coupled with introducing brand new enemies helped to give this area its own identity. While Cirrus Harbor has received a visual overall, unlike other previous level reworks, this one is still heavily inspired by the original layout. You will find the platforming to be a mostly similar experience as before, just with a lot more polish and a new coat of paint.
That’s all for now! And with that, thank you for following the development of Droplet: States of Matter!
Patch Notes
Gameplay
- Revamped layout for Cirrus Harbor.
- Moved the entrances for Deep Sea Mines, Arctic Rig and Cirrus Harbor.
- Fixed a bug where certain whirlwinds were moving when they weren’t supposed to.
- Slightly moved the area in Arctic Rig where you would heat up.
- Added a radioactive area to Radiant Reactor for consistency.
- Bug fix where slimes were immune to the wrong state.
- Cloud Blower gusts have slightly extended volume.
- Fixed bug where Cloud Blowers could blow you around during the player’s death animation.
Graphics
- Cirrus Harbor now has a steampunk theme.
- The Xenia system now has a second moon.
- Recolored the explosive slime enemy.
- Cloud Blowers now have gust particles when they are breathing out.
- Droplet and Molly-QL at checkpoints are now colored based on environments with different temperatures than the rest of the level.
- Fixed a small geometry issue on pirate ships.
- Fixed a corrupted texture on Xenia’s planetary ring.
Audio
- Sound attenuation added for yetis.