Pale Night News

This is it! It's finally time to announce the release date, so without further ado, Pale Night will be releasing on June 20th, in two weeks!

Checkout the release trailer:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Speedrun Contest[/h2]

But that's not it! For the release, I'm hosting a speedrunning contest on the demo of Pale Night. And the winner will get a Steam key of the full game on release day!

[h3]Key points:[/h3]

• You are eligible for entry to the contest if you can beat the demo and find the 16 hidden prisms, between June 6th and June 20th 23:59 CEST.
  
• You need to record a video of your run and upload it (Youtube prefered).
  
• Submit an entry via the following google form. You can submit as many times as you want.
  
• Prize: A Steam key of the full version of the game Pale Night.
  

[h3]Rules:[/h3]

• Get all 16 regular prisms for your run to be valid.
  
• No game loading allowed, the run must be done in a single playthrough (don't come back to the main menu once the run has started).
  
• The timer starts when you start a new game and ends when you reach the score screen at the end of the demo.
  
• The time is measured in real-time, you're encouraged to add a timer to your video, but it's not required (Livesplit for instance).
  
• The game version in the top-left corner of the screen must be "demo v0.3.11-speedrun".
  
• The fastest time wins. In case there's a draw, both participants will get the prize.
  

That's it! I'm so excited for release! See you then!

Version 0.3.6 brings lots of improvements for the game. Most of which are things I could only fix thanks to the many bug reports I received during the recent full game Playtest. Here's the changelog since release 0.3.0 which was the version played during the Playtest.

Thanks everybody!



[h2]Bug fix:[/h2]

• Fix new tree lights visual being off and on inversely to their actual light.
  
• Fix double input in main menu when the jump button is the same as the submit button.
  
• Fix bug where we could move for a second in the transition between baboons village and baboons feast cutscenes.
  
• Fix incorrect cloud color (was always black since a recent patch for some reason)
  
• Can now skip the first death cutscene
  
• Bumping from a mushroom while sliding off a wall won't do a walljump instead of a regular bump jump anymore
  
• Fix a bug where you could get a black screen (and softlock the game) when dying on a moving platform in very rare situations
  
• Fix stack of music tracks at crystal boss
  
• Fix a bug where moving platforms would unstick the character sometimes when sliding off a wall
  
• Fix a bug where the character could get stuck within the sand when dashing towards a corner while being perfectly alined with the wall because of infinite bounces
  
• Fix a bug where the character could die when initiating the dig move too close to the wall in third boss during phase 2 and 3
  
• Remove invisible ground in biome 4 screen 8
  
• Forces the resolution menu to show the current resolution on first launch.
  
• Biome 4 boss button will now trigger (once active) even if the player reached it before it was active (as long as they stayed on the button)
  
• Fix biome 4 boss bridge hitbox so that it can stop light as expected
  
• Light intensity slider sounds doesn't spam itself when using a mouse anymore
  
• Momentum should now be kept in almost all cases when exiting a dig section (sometimes it would stick the character to the ground instead)
  
• Disabled pause menu during area transitions. Pausing during an area transition could hardlock the game.
  
• Glass tiles in cavern frame 9 where missing a collider.
  
• Fix a bug where the game would hardlock at the Press Start screen if there was an old save with an incompatible checkpoint.
  
• Fix an infinite invincibility glitch that could be triggered when spamming dash and jump against a wall for a couple of secondes.
  
• Fix an other infinite invincibility glitch that could be triggered by quitting to the main menu during a dash.
  
• Cloud safe spot now cover Pal's center (can't die if only a corner is outside the cloud shape).
  
• Fix unpause gameplay with menu during baboons feast
  
• Remove some hidden sand tiles in biome 5
  

[h2]Improvements:[/h2]

• Clean up main menu social icons.
  
• Lots of level design tweaks in tree level.
  
• Crystal boss tweaks (increase buttons size and make them glow, tweaks on the arena)
  
• Improved lava 4's performances by segmenting and disabling interatible parts (moving platforms, lava spawner, ect...) based on player position.
  
• Improved lava 4's performances by sanitizing light and shadow layers (keeping the only one that's actually needed).
  
• Improved lava puddles performances.
  
• Improved general performances by merging static ShadowCasters into one mesh.
  
• Add a checkpoint in biome 5 between the two zig-zaging platforms sections
  
• Added a shortcut to go back to biome 3 from biome 4
  
• Added a couple of prisms in biome 4
  
• Slightly changed jump animation to prevent the visuals from looking like Pal hits his head against ceilings
  
• Reduced hitbox of tree checkpoint 11
  
• Lava drops are now deactivated when out of reach of player (prevents weird visual with lava drops not moving even when on screen)
  
• Feedback menu confirmation message now display in realtime seconds (meaning it doesn't pause when activating the pause menu for instance)
  
• Rounded eyes of Pal, Pook and baboons. Also rounded corners of Pal when digging.
  
• Remove "corner walljump". When Pal would try to walljump from a corner of his head, it would do a regular jump instead. This was confusing and was removed.
  
• Fix a couple typos in French language
  
• Increase shadow area and move checkpoint closer in "elevator" level to make it less frustrating
  
• Add a few platforms after elevator level to make the transition with the next room smoother
  
• Light intensity slider can now increase intensity all the way up to 1 (increased the step size)
  
• Add a text with the recommanded setting for the light intensity slider
  
• Add hints of the path of zig-zagging platforms
  
• Increase prism counter size
  
• Jump button can now be used as Submit action in the menus (allows for the same key to be used for both actions)
  
• No more step sound when running against a wall
  
• Prism pickup cinematic is more consistant (only possible on first collected prism)
  
• Improved mushroom sprite
  
• Mushroom collisions from the side now bump correctly to the side
  
• Improved compatibility with old save formats (add current sceneName to save files)
  
• Increased shadow size by a tile in biome 4 at the difficult platforms section.
  
• Add full translation for French language.
  
• Temporarilly disabled map buttons. They were confusing and could lead to loss of current checkpoint progress. We'll fix it and re-enable them in a further release.
  
• Pook name color is now pink instead of orange
  
• Biome 4 level design improvements (easier to read)
  
• Improve clarity of some checkpoints in biome 5
  
• Improve performances of a specific attack of a certain boss
  

This is already the end of the beta. I just wanted to let you all know that this is the final day for playtesting Pale Night. The playtest will stop being accessible around midnight tonight (midnight your time, whatever your time zone is).

I also wanted to welcome newcomers who arrived recently from the reddit post! The post got over 900 upvotes and was viewed 150,000 times, which is still hard to believe. I was overwhelmed by the number of comments and I received more feedback than I can even sort (which is a good problem to have!) so I can't thank you enough. Thank you everyone for playtesting the game and for providing so much feedback!

I've been waiting for this moment for so long. It's finally time to playtest the whole game! I'm so excited! I'm opening a beta-test session with a limited number of participants for a week starting today, so grab your seats early! As a way to thank you for play testing the game, you can get your name in the credits as a beta-tester if you provide enough feedback and fill the feedback form!

[h3]Key points:[/h3]

• When: From Monday 4th of April to Monday 11th of April
  
• Why: I need as much feedback as possible to improve the game before release. I'm counting on you! In order to provide feedback you have two options:
  
  1. hit the F8 key anytime during your playtest in order to open a feedback menu with a screenshot of the game (this is most useful for bugs or weird thing you notice within the game).
     
  2. fill the feedback form after your playtest. There is a link to this form within the main menu of the game as well as when you quit the game. Just in case, here it is as well. This is super important, so please do it!
     
• How: Request access through the button from the game's store page (see screenshot below). You will see the game in your Steam Library once you've been approved for the playtest.
  

I'm so excited to know what you think of the game. As we're getting close to release, the pressure ramps up, and it starts to feel like all this work was not for nothing. I'm really happy of the road so far. I hope you will like it too.

So while I was polishing the last bits of the game and preparing for a large playtest I thought to myself: Did I ever tell them about the cloud ability?




It's another way for Pal to play with light. And this time, you'll create the shadow yourself! Like a fancy umbrella, the cloud shape is hovering above Pal at all times (once you acquire the cloud powerup) and you can 'drop the cloud' with a button press to create a safe space for yourself. This leads to new puzzles and difficult platforming sections where you'll have to combine the strength of the dash and the cloud to move forward.



That's it for today. I'll just add that I'm looking for beta-testers! Sign-up here to playtest the game before it comes out.