Hey guys! Krayfishkarl here and welcome to another Droplet: States of Matter update! Early Access 1.33 is now available! This update gives a refreshed look at the Sobek boss fight.
While the fight itself remains relatively the same conceptually, I’ve graphically updated the arena to match the narrative changes from the previous version. The area just outside the boss fight has a minor atmospheric sequence where a series of torches light up as you approach Sobek’s temple. The inside of the arena uses similar visuals seen in the Sandswept City level to better imply the two locations are part of the same world. You’ll also find Sobek to be lip synced to his dialogue which now features some appropriate, cartoonish movements.
I not only changed the graphics, but also some of Sobek’s behaviors. In addition to a new beam attack, the way Sobek summons enemies to his aid works much differently than before. Depending on where you are in the arena, either mummies or golden scarabs will spawn. When defeated, they will drop lemonade and burgers respectively so that you can refill your health and ammo during the fight. In a pinch, you can switch between Droplet and Molly-QL so that one can take over while the other gets a chance to rest.
The last major change was that the essence of Ra that spawns during the fight is no longer random. They will now spawn in a fixed order around the arena so that time trial challenges are more predictable on repeated attempts.
In other news, I did a minor onceover across the Haunted Shipyard level. I’ve rearranged all the atoms and enemies as well as a few of the puzzles to improve the flow. While the level can now be beaten more quickly than before, its pacing is now consistent with all the other levels in the game.
That’s all for now! And with that, thank you for following the development of Droplet: States of Matter!
Gameplay
- Reworked the Sobek fight. Sobek now has several new attacks and existing behaviors have been tweaked.
- Time trial times for Sobek boss fight adjusted to account for new mechanics.
- Fixed a bug where ground spikes could damage you even if they were retracted.
- New enemy: Golden Scarab. It appears in the Sobek boss fight.
- Adjusted level layout for Haunted Shipyard to make it smoother to run through. Atom placements redone.
- Time trial times for Haunted Shipyard adjusted.
- Reduced price of Remote Collect power up.
- Increased attack radius for seagull enemies.
- Fixed a bug where you could get stuck on certain NPC’s.
- Fixed a bug where charcoal pirates could destroy boxes but not reward atoms.
- Accounts for several more edge cases about the professor’s dialogue about mercenaries.
Graphics
- Graphical update to Sobek arena and its related assets.
- Sobek is now lip synced to his dialogue.
- Lightable torches now animate between being lit and unlit.
- Adjusted materials on ground spikes.
- Graphical update to seagull enemies.
- Fixed some floating objects in the Galactic Science Festival.
- Adjusted materials on Egg Ghost enemy.
Audio
- Adjusted sound attenuation on various enemies.
Menus
- Fixed a softlock where you couldn’t exit the options menu on the title screen.
- Reordered the 54 Xenia levels in the menu.
Text
- Reworded all hints from the superluminal scanner to be a little less obvious.
Update (5 May 2024)
- Fixed a bug where falling out of bounds wasn’t registering correctly in some situations.
- Slightly moved a floating box in Crystal Quarry.
- Fixed some geometry in Windswept Ruins to improve collision.