Flashy Friday!

It’s been an eventful time for the Soft Not Weak team! We’ve been busy at work polishing up some LOVELY snippets to show off, and we boy oh boy are we excited to show them off! In addition to that, we have an UPDATED DEMO for you all to try! Ready? Set? GOOOOOOOO:

[h2]Indieland 2022 and our UPDATED DEMO![/h2]

First things first! We’re lucky and honored to be a part of Indieland 2022!



Not only is this event an amazing fundraiser for a good cause, but Jirard and the team behind Indieland always curate a fantastic showcase filled with indie games to keep an eye on.

To celebrate, we’ve decided to release an updated Endless mode demo, chock full of polish and juice we’ve been working on to help bring Samar’s forest to life! Below we’ll break down a lot of the details that you’ll see, but if you’re itching to get going, you can start playing the demo now on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1592170/Spirit_Swap_Lofi_Beats_to_Match3_To/

A couple of additional notes about the demo:

• For MAC users: Some Mac users might encounter controller issues due to Mac driver compatability. If that occurs, please use the keyboard!
  
• For Keyboard: You can use WASD or ARROW keys to navigate as well the inputs described in game!
  

Otherwise, read on to learn about what we’ve been working on, and tune in to Twitch on Saturday at 7 PM PDT to watch as Jenny (our producer) chats with the team at Indieland about Spirit Swap!

[h2]Polish Based on Your Feedback![/h2]

Okay, so first thing is we’ve been doing a lot of UI/UX polish (major shoutout to Réjon for all of the work designing this and to Morgan for hooking it all together). We really wanted to make sure that different elements of the game, different states of play, all of it will be communicated to you as clearly and quickly as possible.

This began with the game board! Because your eyes will be focusing on the spirits, you need to be able to, at a glance and with your peripheral vision, be able to determine your health and general status. Here, we have our latest iteration of the board:



You’ll be able to tell when it’s getting a little hot and you’ve gotta make some matches and quick, as well as see when everything’s a-okay and you have time to chill.

Elements like the SpellMeter have been updated to also more clearly indicate as segments fill when you make matches:



Even the spell bubble has some extra polish so you know when it’s time to cast!



[h2]Press ESC to pet the Frog[/h2]

We’ve also been working on dynamic button prompts, which was another big feedback point during our previous survey and demo (thanks, y’all!)



We now have the ability to make those buttons match whatever controller you’re using, and it’ll switch to match dynamically as well! Catch how this dialogue looks in action with a few snips from our revamped “How to Play” section of the Endless demo:

[h2]Take a Breath in the Endless Forest[/h2]

You’re familiar with the Endless Forest, as it’s where our demo takes place… but you haven’t seen it quite like this!

The original background is beautiful, but with just a little bit of parallaxing, and some time and energy, we’ve got it looking more in-depth in time for your eyes to enjoy -- huge thanks to Abelle for adding that extra magic and style to the woods (and our other backgrounds).



[h2]Vibe? Chill? SHEEESH?![/h2]

Here’s a more comprehensive look at the settings in our Endless mode. When you’re getting ready to swap forever, you’ll be able to adjust the speed level, difficulty, and spell loadouts before you play, to ensure it’s exactly the experience you want.



[h2]AND MORE![/h2]
There’s even more to enjoy, like a brand-new song from the ever-talented meltycanon, additional VN UI/UX updates to make our cast *pop* during narrative scenes, and (if you’d love to help us) a brand new survey you can fill out to let us know what you think of the polish after you play!



[h2]What do you think? [/h2]

Hopefully you enjoyed seeing everything we’ve been working on! We love sharing with you and are so excited to hear what you think about the polish we’ve added to the Endless mode demo. If you’ve got any questions or just wanna say hi, find us on Twitter (@softnotweak), our Discord, or here in the comments!


Love,

The Spirit Swap Team