Droplet: States of Matter – Pompeii and Circumstance update!

https://youtu.be/9lgGvJuDqiM

Hey guys! Krayfishkarl here with another Droplet: States of Matter update! Early Access 1.8 is now available! Key features include a graphical and musical rework of Pompeii and Circumstance, a level found in the game’s third hub world Neon Badlands.

Pompeii and Circumstance, like the Waterworks level, is one of the earliest levels ever created for the game. The idea behind it was to have a level that took place in a location that was so hot that you would start out in cloud form. This would mean the player would approach the way they changed states of matter. If you are in ice form when the timer expires, you go to water form, then to cloud form as if you’re melting away. Naturally, a classic lava level was one of the easiest ways to illustrate this idea. Switch to ice form to freeze the lava around you to create pathways before you melt from the heat.

As the level was an older design, when I updated its graphics, I also took the opportunity to rebalance its difficulty and layout. I reimagined the area to be covered in the ruins of an ancient civilization. Fallen pillars and rubble must be traversed in this area where you’ll find some paintings and statues scattered all throughout the ruins. And the latter half of the level was almost completely redesigned with new terrain. You’ll navigate a treacherous cliffside with falling meteors and then cross a lava river to finish off in a coliseum.

You’ll also find a brand new enemy: the fire slug. Being a non-solid entity, it is immune to ice form. They’re here to add some extra challenge and to make the area a little more interesting.

The musical update, while it retains the same melody as the original, was reimagined with a completely different tone. While the original was an old-school rock theme, I changed the instrumentation to sound more organic to better evoke the level’s new atmosphere. In this new theme, you’ll find heavy use of sitars, tabla drums and mandolins.

In other news, I’ve addressed some player feedback about the controls in this update. Many players found themselves immediately going into the options menu and changing whether the camera was inverted or not. Thus, I changed the default to be what most people were choosing just to streamline the new player experience.

If you would like to support my endeavors as a game developer, feel free to subscribe and follow me on social media! You can also wishlist the game on Steam in the link below! That really helps me out! And with that, thank you for following the development of Droplet: States of Matter!

Patch Notes

Bug Fixes

  • Various sound effects are now properly affected by the volume controls.
  • Box symbol decals now completely disappear when the box is destroyed.
  • Fixed an issue where you could fall through the world in Neon Badlands.

Gameplay

  • New default camera controls in response to player feedback.
  • Pompeii and Circumstance layout updates. New enemy added: Fire Slug.
  • Performance increases by adjusting the way atoms play their rotation animation.
  • Smoothened out the movement of player triggered platforms.
  • Player triggered moving platforms now reset upon triggering a hazard event.
  • Changed spawn and rate and collision of meteors. Code refactoring to improve FPS.

Graphics

  • Graphical update to Pompeii and Circumstance.
  • Updated appearance for Helium enemy.
  • Updated shading of jumping fireballs.
  • Updated effects of the planet in the Neo loading screen.

Audio

  • New music for Pompeii and Circumstance.

Menus

  • Some default options changed in response to player feedback.