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Week 5

Making a splash

Ash learns to swim underwater, water gets real waves and ripples, ice reflects whoever walks on it, everyone casts a shadow, and the first flying enemy takes to the air.

Versions:v0.17.0v0.18.0v0.19.0

Leggi in italiano

A week about water, light and the little details that make a world feel solid: reflections, ripples, shadows.

Swimming

Until now water was a lid: Ash floated on the surface and that was it. With the new Acqua Boots (sold at the test-world market) he can dive and swim underwater. He sinks slowly, and each press of the jump button is a stroke in the direction he’s swimming. To try it out there’s a new flooded cave, the Grotta Sommersa, reached by diving down a shaft dug under the pond of the first test area.

Ash swimming in a deep blue flooded cave, with the area name "Grotta Sommersa" in the corner
Down in the Grotta Sommersa, with the Acqua Boots on.

Water that moves like water

Water is now drawn entirely by the game instead of using tiles. The surface follows a wave made of three overlapping sine waves, one of them travelling the other way, so it never repeats the same shape twice, and it calms down near the shore. Anything that falls in (Ash, an enemy, a coin) makes a ripple sized by how fast and how big it was. The view shimmers while Ash is underwater, and the air above lava wobbles with heat.

Reflections and shadows

Ice reflects whoever walks on it, upside down and tinted blue, fading with depth: Ash, enemies, NPCs, coins and blocks. Ash, enemies and NPCs also cast a soft shadow on the ground. It shrinks as you jump higher, which makes it much easier to see where you’ll land, and for a flying bat it’s the only clue to how high it is.

Ice blocks reflecting a snake and a mushroom upside down
Everything that walks on ice is mirrored inside it.

Enemies get smarter

  • The corrupted bat is the first enemy that really flies, and swoops down on Ash.
  • Walking enemies come at you when you get close, instead of patrolling blindly.
  • The snake of King Barkwood’s castle has real pixel art, and the last red square became the Corrupted Fungus.
  • Enemies now die on screen with an animation instead of vanishing.

Sword and shield

Ash got new animations for walking and standing with sword and shield, and for raising the shield. With the shield up, an enemy walking into him from the front bounces off. Like the sword, the shield now has to be bought. When Ash dies, the world fades to black around him, ready for the death animation that came later.

Smaller things

  • The jump is lower, no higher than a doorway, and every platform in both worlds was moved to match. The jump arc is now a real parabola.
  • The last heart pulses when you’re about to die.
  • Six save slots instead of four.
The new game screen with save slots stacked in a column and an arrow showing there are more below
Six save slots, four visible at a time.

By the numbers

  • 51 commits.
  • Versions 0.17.0, 0.18.0 and 0.19.0.
  • One new cave, one flying enemy, and a shadow for everyone.