Droplet: States of Matter – Sill E. Con Boss Rework

Hey guys! Krayfishkarl here and welcome to another Droplet: States of Matter update! Early Access 1.39 is now available! This update gives a second pass to the Sill E. Con boss fight.

Found in the Radon Industries hub world, Sill E. Con is the fifth boss in the game. It is a unique encounter in that you are locked to a 2D axis. Using the power of a dark energy-based weather machine, you must change to the appropriate state of matter to get past his defenses while avoiding his attacks.

While the Sill E. Con boss fight was positively received by players, I chose to give this encounter another coat of paint so that its visuals more closely fell in line with the game’s narrative. Sill E. Con now wears a lab coat and glasses to better convey the fact that he’s one of the lead scientists working for Lord Krypton. The background itself was also redesigned to indicate it as some sort of test chamber for a weather machine.

The 2D sidescroller mechanic is a remnant of a time during development when there were more sidescroller levels in the game. These were cut in 2022 when I had to descope the game, but given the fact that these systems were still fully functional, I thought I would keep it specifically for this boss to make it a more unique encounter.

That’s all for now! And with that, thank you for following the development of Droplet: States of Matter!

Patch Notes

Gameplay

  • Changed some mechanics of the Sill E. Con boss fight to fit the game’s narrative.
  • Updated Sill E. Con’s movement path.
  • Sill E. Con’s nuke attack will now spawn ammo if you are low at the time it detonates.
  • Already collected green and pink crystals and artifacts no longer reward lives. Instead, they add 10 “atoms” to the 250 needed until the next extra life. (Dev note: This is to address some feedback about acquiring too many lives over the course of a natural playthrough.)
  • Tweaked some collision on the breakable boxes.

Audio

  • New music track for Captain Salty Peter’s pre-boss battle theme.
  • Tweaked the Deep Sea Mines theme.
  • New sound effects for Sill E. Con.

Graphics

  • Graphical update to the Sill E. Con boss and his arena.
  • Sill E. Con now has visible animations when firing projectiles.
  • Animation adjustments to TV Robots.
  • Fixed a bug where checkpoints would show the character in the wrong state of matter.
  • Graphically updated the dark matter weather machines.
  • Turrets that activate when in range are now gold colored, while those that activate based on surveillance cameras are now silver.
  • Texture update on Hint Board.