Hey guys! Krayfishkarl here with another Droplet: States of Matter update! Early Access 1.12 is now available! This update primarily focuses on bug fixes and early game balancing which includes a graphical once over to Mangrove Marsh.
Although Mangrove Marsh was already converted from BSP brushes to static meshes, I took a second pass at it while rebalancing its difficulty. I’ve added much more detail to better convey this location as a tropical rainforest.
Alongside the graphical update, this level as well as Autumn Hills received enemy updates in response to player feedback about the game’s difficulty. Prior to this update, many players were unsure of how to approach the plant-based pitaya enemy. While the game stated that plant enemies rooted into the ground were immune to water form, I felt like this could have been communicated in a better way. So what I did instead was make all plant enemies, rooted or not, immune to water form.
Of course, a blanket change alone would have made some early levels too difficult for beginners, so to balance it out, I added several new enemies to these levels. Mangrove Marsh received a poison dart frog, and Autumn Hills received a grasshopper. Additionally, I redesigned the acorn enemies to look like giant pumpkins so that it was more obvious that they were supposed to be plants. They were made to look this way to match an upcoming Autumn Hills graphical rework that will be implemented at a later date.
If you would like to support my endeavors as a game developer, feel free to subscribe and follow me on social media! Don’t forget that there’s a free demo available to download, too! The demo contains the introduction and all the main levels of the Helium Valley hub world. Upon purchasing the full game, you’ll be able to continue where you left off. And with that, thank you for following the development of Droplet: States of Matter!
Patch Notes
Bug Fixes
- You can no longer infinitely jump while crouching.
- Fixed a floating rock in Tiki Tectonics.
- You can no longer get out of bounds in Mangrove Marsh. At the spot where the glitch would have been done, you’ll now find something else instead.
- Fly Traps no longer slightly float above the ground.
- Fixed an unintentional skip in Frozen Fortress. (Two well-aimed charge shots could remotely trigger two switches without doing most of the level. While this would have been a fun skip, there are actually secrets in the game that make use of this sort of crazy mechanic, so it was important to make the distinction as to what was intentional.)
- Fixed some pansies in Frozen Fortress that were getting stuck.
- Fixed a bug where freezable moisture would incorrectly be marked as safe to respawn on.
Graphics
- Graphical updates to Mangrove Marsh.
- Adjustments to foliage patterns throughout the game.
- Adjusted textures of sinking platforms.
- Updated the appearance of the announcer at the Galactic Science Expo.
- Updates to Cockroach enemies.
- Updates to the Pitaya enemy.
- Adjustments to hydrothermal vent particles.
Gameplay
- There is no longer a distinction between plant enemies rooted into the ground and other plant-based enemies. They are all immune to water form now. Affected enemies include the hopping pitayas and the skating pansies. The update to the banana enemies will come at a later date.
- New enemy added to Mangrove Marsh: Poison Frogs. This is to balance out Mangrove Marsh’s difficulty from the Pitaya’s new immunity.
- Minor changes to Temple of Sobek to support the Pitaya enemies.
- Acorn enemies replaced with a new pumpkin and grasshopper enemy to balance out Autumn Hills’ difficulty after the above change.
- Buckets in Industrial Junkyard now alternate.
Text
- Changed some tutorial hints.
- Changed the text “Demo Mode” to “Demo Version”.