Hey guys! Krayfishkarl here and welcome to another Droplet: States of Matter update! Early access 1.25 is now available! This update reimagines the Gale Vale level as a brand new area: Windswept Ruins.
In addition to rebalancing the difficulty curve, I wanted to bring this level up to standard with the rest of the game by fleshing out the worldbuilding. The goal of the overall design of Windswept Ruins was to create a level where players could take advantage of cloud form’s abilities to jump long distances. To add some challenge so that players aren’t always in cloud form all the time, there are stone-based enemies that are immune to attacks from cloud form. Combining the idea of a sky level with stone-themed structures led to influence from Greek mythology. I imagined the area to be some sort of road to Mt. Olympus or perhaps an ancient obstacle course intended for Droplet athletes.
Some of the obstacles you’ll encounter along the way are dark clouds that will disappear underneath you upon stepping on them. There’s also windmills which blow gusts of wind that can push you off ledges, though if timed correctly, you can use these windmills to leap greater distances than normal.
In addition, I’ve introduced several new enemies to encourage multiple approaches. The cyclops is a giant enemy that is immune to punches and has a lot of health. You can either expend most of your ammo taking one down from a distance or you can go up close and low kick them to take them down more quickly. The gorgon is an enemy that attacks from a distance and will turn you to stone if you are hit by one their projectiles. And you might find the existing goat enemy to be much more aggressive than before.
Lastly, in response to some player feedback, I’ve added a new menu to help out new players learning the controls. If this is the first time Droplet: States of Matter is launched on your PC, the menu will appear before the game’s title screen, and it will allow you to configure button prompts to show either keyboard or gamepad controls.
That’s all for now! And with that, thank you for following the development of Droplet: States of Matter!
Patch Notes
Gameplay
- New level: Windswept Ruins. This replaces Gale Vale in order to better explore the abilities of cloud form.
- Tweaked the logic of windy areas. Hiding behind certain objects will now prevent the player from being blown around.
- Goats move much faster, have higher health and are much more aggressive.
- Slight change to how enemy line of sight works.
Graphics
- Updated Neo Kryptopolis’ sky background to have the correct planet.
Audio
- New music for Windswept Ruins
- New music for Neo Kryptopolis.
- Sound effect change for Pistol Shrimp.
- Spatial audio enabled for goat and stonehead enemies.
Misc
- First time players are now prompted what control scheme they want to use.
- Updated the hint board to display more accurate hints.
- Slightly changed the text formatting of time trial times.
- Fixed some misplaced objects in Crystal Quarry.
- Sprites and Elves now shows the correct planet during the loading screen.
- Healing crystals will no longer block certain enemies’ line of sight.
- Minor performance improvements with spline-based objects (i.e. vines, bridges, etc.)