Windswept News

Howdy gamers, it's that time of the month where I talk about gamer things and y'all smile, nod & clap.

🍦 Updates, so good! 👏

As of this update I still have 2 months of my arbitrary deadline remaining and at a glance from my previous update there's still a lot of stuff to cover -- Laamp's Bulb, The Jukebox, Minigame 4 & 5, Laamp's Stand, The Scoreboard.

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There are heaps of game dev tricks out there designed to trick you or elude your focus, sometimes the tricks are just there to save time. What the player doesn't know won't hurt them, right? The Fallout 3 Train Hat is a classic example of where I'm headed with this.

If you wanna keep the magic and mystery of game dev alive scroll to the next heading - I'm gonna briefly touch on some lazy dev shortcuts I'm taking and why they'll lead to a better play experience in the end.

[h2]Laamp's Bulb (Coin Finder)[/h2] - Functionally this would be a vertical menu listing a bunch of stages, if you've played our demo just imagine the pause menu but ~60 lines long. Upon selecting each line you would be able to select a coin you haven't collected yet and Laamp will show you where it is.

That's yucky - nobody wants to navigate a menu that long, and it's boring! But you know what this menu has a lot in common with? The overworld.

The sidescrolling overworld you saw in the demo won't be in the final game, that was just something quick I threw together because I needed something - I used it as a placeholder to format & position the stage names, clear times and coins collected.

The actual overworld will have a top-down format like all the platforming classics - it also presents the opportunity be leveraged as the menu for this service. Instead of the player appearing in the overworld you'll get to control Laamp the moth and guide them to the stage your missing coin is located. The overworld menu already shows you what's missing so adding extra functionality on top of it is a chill afternoon's worth of work.

We do absolutely nothing, save time/resources AND offer a more interactive form of menu navigation - Shoutout to Funky's Flights for serving as the inspiration.

The Jukebox, Laamp's Stand, The Scoreboard - A menu here is unavoidable, HOWEVER I can just make one menu that fits all three. The Jukebox will be a paginated grid menu where you can select music to play. Laamp's Stand is where you buy/view action figures, that too will be a paginated grid. And lastly The Scoreboard will -- you get the idea...

By making a simple shell menu that has 4dir + confirm + cancel functionality it doesn't matter what I populate it with or the coat of paint I put on top. We get three menus for the price of one!

Minigames - There was a reason I wanted all of the minigames to be different takes on the platforming genre. It lets me completely leverage Windswept's core systems - collisions, enemies, player control, pause menu, etc. The hard truth is these minigames are just standalone stages with no key items. The player's character and control scheme gets swapped out and a progress + score counter gets slapped over the top.

With that being said, I'm super proud of them all and even more proud that putting them all together was super easy with minimal dev time required.


Here's how Laamp's Shade is looking right now... No sounds because sound is always last.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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Y'all need to know this entire minigame came about because one of our community members and buddy of mine Jorbs13 dropped this meme format on us one day.


Considering how many other memes I've worked into the game so far; one more couldn't hurt.

Slicko, My Beloved is a bit of an oddball amidst the minigames because it's technically still a platformer, but you're stuck climbing up and down a heavily nerfed version of the gate climbing found in Super Mario World. Nonetheless, you play as a Slicko trying to climb to the top to reach your beloved (wow).

By holding [up] you'll begin your ascent - after some distance you will start flashing to indicate you'll slide down a short distance after letting go. This is a super awkward and slow paced minigame that will test your timing and patience, it's also the complete Slicko experience and I hope you gain a new appreciation for their struggles the next time you decide to use them as a stepping stone.

The other minigames offer ways of gaining lives but this one is a bit too slow-paced and doesn't offer consecutive jumps - for the sake of balancing you'll start with 3 lives! Make the most of them!

Presenting... Slicko, My Beloved
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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Seeing as I shouted out Jorbs13 earlier I'm gonna do it again because my game dev white whale so far has been trying to reach 60fps on his laptop and I finally did it! I've never shied away from admitting I'm a first-time dev with a lot of transferrable experience from other fields, and that I started this project to learn Game Maker.

Laptops with integrated graphics are very easy to bottleneck and a lot of that can be attributed to performing calculations of any kind during a draw call. I have read a lot of dev resources over the years and one of the most common bits of starter advice is always keep code out of draw calls and limit the number of draw calls you make.

For the most part I was okay about doing that, but I got into a bad habit of performing calculations like coordinate rounding which adds a lot of useless noise to the already-limited onboard GPU. The toughest part of learning about it is not knowing how big the impact from small calculations can truly be.

The GOOD NEWS is my lack of knowledge about the CPU/GPU split resulted in me spending a week or two back in June refactoring big chunks of Windswept's code. The game as a whole has seen a massive performance increase that wasn't carrying over to laptops until now. Hooray!

I'm certain things can still be better though so every now and then I dedicate a day to see what could be improved.

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And with that we're at the end of this month's update.

Let me know your thoughts! Is there anything you like/don't like/wanna know more about? Just ask!

I think now is as good a time as any to talk about the purpose of Laamp's Shade, the minigames, and why I chose to design them this way.

Arcade Life vs Home Life

Arcade games of the 80s -> '00s like Adventure Island, Metal Slug, The Simpsons, TMNT and so forth were inherently anti-consumer by design, but they were still fun! They'd give you just enough of a chance to gain a feel for the game before all your lives ran out, forcing you to choose between forking out more coins to continue or to try again from the beginning instead. This later became the norm for the NES era of home gaming.

Gaming of that era was no joke, and while I don't personally like it when games are designed this way there is an overwhelming sense of accomplishment when you eventually beat one of them. Incidentally a large part of my youth was spent playing DDR - a game that would rob you of the song you were playing and all future songs the moment you missed too many steps. I still play it to this day, but I wised up and bought an arcade cab when I was 19 because of how much of a money sink it was.

Windswept's minigames are being designed with this sort of approach in mind.

If you die in a minigame you have to start from the beginning! They're only short games but their longevity comes from trying to reach the end in one piece. I didn't want to put a financial restriction on them like an actual arcade would so the only thing they'll cost you to play is time.

You can earn extra lives by either collecting 100 coins or by jumping on 8+ enemies consecutively. With extra lives you'll be placed at a designated checkpoint making your path to progression much shorter. This way you get more chances to practice where you failed (Super Mario Bros. 1 style).

To make things more arcade-y I added a score to keep track of everything you do - you'll lose points for finishing with a slower time but gain points for finishing with more lives. I'll leave the rest up to high-score runners to find the most optimal route for the highest score possible.

There's also a progress bar so you'll know exactly how far through each game you are. It's sure to make some players nervous as they approach the final few hurdles!

[h2]Hop Prince[/h2]
Our first unlockable minigame is fully complete! I had a lot of fun making this lil' frog course and I hope you enjoy playing it too!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Quick Pip Runner[/h2]
This one is functionally complete but is still waiting on its visuals. Still, I think it's another banger of a game while being completely different to Hop Prince in terms of how you play.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



You can see from this super early shot there's a lot of room for stuff...

I want Laamp's Shade to be a respite from your journey, sort of like a player hub where there's no real pressure to do anything.

Relax, spend time... and coins!

Laamp isn't just here to collect your Moon Coins from bonus areas, after your initial payment they head inside and run all of the stalls. By the time you first reach this place you should have a modest collection of star coins - here's where they'll be used!

None of this is in the game yet so I'll give a brief summary now and go into more depth at a later time.

[h2]1. Laamp's Bulb[/h2]

For a nominal fee you can gaze into Laamp's crystal ball-- I mean, lightbulb. In a bright flash you'll be shown a location where a missed collectible still resides. Now, you might be thinking "It costs Moon Coins to even get in here, why is the collectible-finder locked behind finding collectibles?" - Simply put, I don't want this feature to be used as an initial crutch. I want players to try their hand at finding things first. Exploration and problem solving is a big part of Windswept's core experience and structuring it this way means players can experience much of the early game the intended way before taking matters into their own hands for the rest.

[h2]2. The Jukebox[/h2]

When a track has been unlocked it can be played right here! I'm still debating if tracks should be discoverable in stages the same way Music Sheets are in Shovel Knight, or if I should make them unlockable by spending Star Coins - I'd love to know your thoughts!

[h2]3. The Minigames[/h2]

A row of arcade cabinets - all of them are Out of Order! Looks like they won't work until their cartridges are found. There's one cartridge hidden in each world, good luck finding them all!

[h2]4. Laamp's Stand[/h2]

Each area of the game has you encountering a variety of different characters. At Laamp's Stand you can buy boxed action figures of each one, view your collection and play with them too. If you regret unboxing them Laamp conveniently has a reboxing service too. 5 of our Kickstarter Backers paid for a Custom Action Figure, they'll be available as part of a special set once they're all made.

[h2]5. The Scoreboard[/h2]

A bunch of in-game stats will appear here along with Windswept's achievements. Not all platforms support achievements/trophies so having this it in the game will ensure everyone has the same experience.


I've mentioned before that I'm trying to get all the side stuff out of the way by the end of the year before focusing fully on the main game. Well, THIS is all the side stuff.

I don't expect to have everything fully finished and feature complete by that time but so long as I have a foundation to work from, I can polish everything passively alongside other game elements.

That's all for this month's update, though!

It's that time again - this month didn't have a lot of flashy stuff going on like previous months but there's value in the process so I'll be talking a lot about that while introducing 3 new stages I made during the month.


This is one of two stages in World 1 that introduces an animal buddy to ride on. This is also how stages look when I'm prototyping them. My process involves plotting tiles in MS Paint (1 pixel = 1 tile), and using different colours/shapes to represent different things. Once I'm happy with a plotted layout I transcribe it into the room editor and make tweaks as I go.



This process is a huge time saver because I can design stage layouts months in advance and wait until all necessary elements have been made before getting started. I can also design stages from virtually anywhere without the need for dev software. When I have a bit of downtime but aren't able to work on Windswept directly this MS Paint approach becomes a neat lil' creative exercise.

Before we explore water a little deeper - I wanted Feesh Frenzy to feel super similar to a DKC2 swimming stage, complete with hidden pathways to discover. Obviously it's hard to tell what'll be hidden in this state but you get the idea. One thing I still need to flesh out is the "reward" for bringing an animal buddy to a destination. You'll get a cloud coin for your successful escort mission so I just manually dismount where it's supposed to happen.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



EX stages are unlocked by paying a Moon Coin toll at Laamp's Shade, when you do a warp appears that lets you challenge something much harder than everything else you've been doing. These stages also introduce the Soul Link mechanic. In EX stages and the postgame both players are needed in order to beat them - when you enter these stages your souls are linked and any hit one player takes applies to both. If you've been playing multiplayer with someone up to this point you're in for a bit of a workout!

Playing the Duck only / Turtle only game modes will lock you out of these stages for obvious reasons but there's a small warning of this on the selection screen.

Each of Windswept's 5 areas will have its own EX stage and in order to advance through to the postgame you must beat all 5. Think of it sort of like the Star Road in Super Mario World that serves as a gateway to the Special World.

With all of that said, here's Thornado! A stormy, thorny gauntlet requiring practice & mastery of some core mechanics such as Attack Jumps and Piggyback Throws. To assist with frustration and to serve as a good teaching tool there's more than one checkpoint so you won't have to do the whole stage again every time you reach a new thing you haven't experienced before. I didn't get around to it in time but the stage will also feature a tornado whipping around in the background.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


Remember last month's update where I introduced PipPop?


Well, this is a classic example of me sometimes going off-script to pursue something silly. PipPop was never planned for Windswept but I had a mighty need. But why pursue this on a whim out of nowhere?

Welcome to game dev, baby!

Scope Creep is a bit of a scary thing and an easy way to lose focus on what's important. But what if we put scope creep in our scope? Is it still scope creep then???



My Master Doc touches on every part of Windswept and I leave little pockets of wiggle room for myself. Stages are typically themed around a specific enemy, mechanic or setting - leaving blanks in the stage list gives me a chance to put my new ideas to the test. Generally the better an idea is, the easier it is to make a stage. If I want to introduce a new enemy that wasn't in scope it needs to offer a lot!



So here's Pop to the Top! - A postgame stage and deep exploration of just how versatile a single enemy can be if the idea is good enough. Granted, with a new idea things won't always go according to plan!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


A lot of the time has been balancing last month's animal buddies for their respective stages. It takes a while but isn't tangible enough to talk about at length. You'll see more of them when I have more so say though!

See ya 'round ~

Another month just zoomed past. Time flies when you're having fun, as they say!

Continuing from our last update I have been working through all the side stuff in order to get it out of the way. Getting as much done as possible now gives me the opportunity to focus on the core part of the game all the way through to the end of development instead of risking burn out by leaving the "less important stuff" to the end.

Anyway, let's get into it!


This mode is often created by dedicated fans of their respective game and involves a lot of messing around, testing and error handling to reach even a minimum viable product. I'm a fan of randomizers and wanted to bake one into the game to avoid all the instability that comes with modding.

If you've played any rogue-like game you should be familiar with seeded randomness to some degree - that is, a seed number is supplied so all future randomness delivers the same result every time.

Simply put, aspects of the game that are usually static get randomly changed based on the type of randomizer you want to play, let's take a look at the options that appear when you start a new file!

Seed - [SET | RANDOM] --- Lets you choose a seed for yourself or lets the game decide one for you.

--> (if set) Set Seed - [####] --- Set the value!

Explorer Mode - [ON | OFF] --- When enabled, bonus warps can lead to bonuses that belong to different stages which in turn spit you out somewhere else. Likewise, entering a stage in the overworld may send you to a completely different stage in the game. Finding your way home suddenly gets much harder!

--> (if off) Stage Order - [ON | OFF] --- You can switch Explorer mode and toggle the specifics individually

--> (if off) Bonus Order - [ON | OFF] --- Same as above

Exclude Space Stages - [ON | OFF] --- Understandably, not everyone will want to play the post-game stages in their randomizer so this option means only the easier main stages will be used.

Position of Baddies - [ON | OFF] --- Take all the baddies in the stage and scatter them around all over the place. Some parts may become easier but other parts may become way harder!

Position of Bonus Warps - [ON | OFF] --- Same as above, but for bonus warps of course!

Position of Collectibles - [ON | OFF] --- All the other stuff is now anywhere and everywhere!

Position of Player - [ON | OFF] --- When you select a stage, this determines whether you appear at the start as usual or if you appear in a random location like everything else.

Random Music - [ON | OFF] --- Your typical stage music will be something else (!!!)

Chaos Mode - [ON | OFF] --- It's not my place to say you can't do a randomizer and chaos mode at the same time. Do whatever you want!

I took some time to look closer at some of the options popular randomizers of other games use to make things both fun and fair. If there are options missing that you think would greatly benefit this format leave a comment! There are some things I've chosen not to do due to the workload involved but I'm still interested in hearing your thoughts.



And there's the result! If you want to experience a different Windswept every time then look no further than Randomizer Mode!


Most baddies in the game so far have been more like functional prototypes so every now and then I might just cut to talking about some that were completed during the month. I had a bit of a backlog to get through so there's quite a few this month, awesome!

The goal of every foe in Windswept is to have purpose, most of them are designed to fill different roles that affect how the player approaches them. I'll detail their purpose below to give you an idea of what I mean. Future updates won't mention it though, you can try work it out for yourself ;)

[h2]Horumoru[/h2]



Remember those Diggin' Chucks from Super Mario World that would flick balls of dirt at you? Windswept has a whole mining operation thing going on so you'll see a bunch of these dudes eventually. Their helmet protects them from above so you'll have to find another way.

Purpose: Can only be attacked and deflects jumps. Fires a projectile to protect itself from attacks.

[h2]Peppastep[/h2]



That alligator's head is on fire, be careful! And if that wasn't bad enough, its mouth is wide open and its back is covered in spikes. Maybe this one should be avoided.

Purpose: Can't be attacked or jumped on. Moves quickly to force sudden player reactions.

[h2]PipPop[/h2]



Another Pip variant! They're everywhere! Inspired by Balloon Pikachu in Pokemon Yellow and the balloons that drop enemies in Yoshi's Island, PipPop just floats there minding its own business. If you pop it, Pip will fall and run along the ground - if you defeat Pip instead, the balloon will fly away. Just watch out for the [!] Balloons, they pop automatically when you get too close, dropping Pip onto you from above.

Purpose: Forces the player to slow down and think. Provides additional movement options.

[h2]P. Shooter[/h2]



And now they have cannons? Who gave them cannons??? P. Shooter has a horizontal and vertical variant. They fire a cannonball periodically so be sure to avoid them.

Purpose: Super vulnerable but fires long-range projectiles to protect itself.

[h2]Thrillhex[/h2]



Thrillneck may be a thrillseeker, but not without consequence! Thrillhex are the ghosts of Thrillnecks that met their unfortunate end doing what they loved most, spinning! Unlike other baddies these ones don't actually hurt you though. In fact, their spirit lives on through you!

Purpose: A sense of relief from typically dodging everything. Provides additional movement options.

Every character you encounter is there to make you consider your best plan of action. Can this one be attacked? Can this one be jumped on? Does this one shoot at me? Swoop at me? Fall on me? Chase me? Mimic me? They are designed to be simple and predictable, so you know exactly what to do every time you encounter them after the first time... Unless the situation you're in changes, of course!



Wowwowwowow wow Windswept becomes more DKC-like by the day!

Believe it or not, rideable buddies weren't intended to have as much of a presence in Windswept (there was only one), I decided to expand their roster after reading through feedback for our demo. I had mentioned in a previous update that some players felt the game was too reliant on our heroes teaming up, that losing one of them made the game feel a bit stunted and less enjoyable - incidentally the demo features very few mandatory team-up moments but if that's the impression it gave then some more work needed to be done in that space...

Rideable buddies solve this because they are hero-independent, meaning it doesn't matter which hero you're stuck alone with. The controls will be the same when you're riding on one - and likewise there's no team mechanics. They also serve as an extra hit you can attempt to retrieve when they run away, achieving the secondary goal of keeping your hero structure intact during difficult moments. More hit chances, more gameplay variety, more stage puzzles! Can't argue with that!

Throughout development we've never been shy about admitting that Windswept is trying to mimic a lot of the original Donkey Kong Country series, even going so far as to call Windswept a DKC-like, but we're also doing our best to change the gameplay enough for it to establish its own identity.

Much like the baddies, these rideable buddies each fit a specific purpose with little overlap. It turns out there are very few purposes a mount can offer in a side-scrolling sort of setting without becoming too powerful. You're about to see a lot of similarities with other well-known animal buddies, but I have plans to vary up the way you'll use 'em that are quite different to their inspirations! Let's dive in...

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[h2]Skree the Bat![/h2]



Squawks Clone, BUT... A lover of music and all things retro, equipped with a cassette player they fling tapes at baddies and carry our heroes through stages just like the source inspiration, but unlike DKC's character, and sorta similar to DKCR's version of Squawks, Skree has a secondary ability to alert you when there's hidden stuff nearby.

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[h2]Hue the Chameleon![/h2]



Yoshi Clone, BUT... An artisan at heart. A poet and a painter, but are they any good? Hue technically borrows qualities from a bunch of different characters, but Yoshi will be the first thing that comes to mind due to its main attack being a tongue whip. Unlike Yoshi who eats baddies, Hue's tongue is more like an extended punch that knocks things out from a short distance ahead. The trade-off? Hue is quite frail and can't jump on baddies at all. They also can't Tongue Up, sorry Yoshi's Island fans!

Their secondary ability looks to Mario 3's Tanooki Suit which lets you turn into a stone statue to escape damage at the cost of no longer being able to move. Hue's ability is the same except it paints itself onto a canvas. I also borrowed an idea from Kirby's Rock ability where it takes on different forms, some rarer than others. When Hue paints the canvas the painting will be a different image each time, some much rarer than others!

(and yes, while we're nodding to animals from other games it was a conscious decision to include a purple bat and green chameleon - if you know, you know)

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[h2]Nippa the Crab![/h2]



Squitter Clone, BUT... baby. Despite being called Nippa they don't use their claws for anything. Their abilities borrow everything from DKC's Squitter, they shoot bubbles instead of Webs and they create water spouts that can be used as temporary platforms. However, unlike Squitter, Nippa is much heavier/sturdier and can jump on enemies making it quite the powerhouse. Additionally, their floaties let them do platforming underwater instead of just sinking to the bottom. If you've played Bubble Man's stage in Mega Man 2 or any water stage in Shovel Knight you should get an idea of how it'll feel.

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[h2]Nugget the Dog![/h2]



Rambi Clone, BUT... Well, nothing really! Nugget is my stubborn headstrong dog that will be immortalised forever in my game. His only ability is Rambi's stampede, but all the time! When you ride Nugget he doesn't stop, he charges in the direction he's facing and smashes through everything in his path. You have some control over his speed but it's up to you to make safe, calculated jumps to avoid danger!

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[h2]Bluppo the Dolphin![/h2]



Enguarde Clone, BUT... A weathered seafarer. Not sure if they're actually a captain or if they just found the hat somewhere but that's not important. Just like its DKC counterpart, Bluppo can swim in all directions and has a corkscrew attack that propels it horizontally through the water PLUS a charged spin that propels it forward until you hit a wall, take damage or cancel out of it.

On the surface this isn't much if a stretch from the source material, largely due to the limited nature of water levels in platformers but the devil is in the details. Despite being functionally similar, a forward lunge vs a corkscrew lend themselves to different ideas. I have a bunch of stage puzzles that'll use these mechanics in a way I hope you'll find fun and engaging.

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Touching on that last point. I have omitted how the abilities of all these buddies will fit in to stage puzzles. You'll have to wait and see how their Attack + Secondary abilities can be used for more than just what I've described. If I say more it kinda spoils the puzzles, right?


Until next time...
Be good!

Welcome to the first of many dev logs showcasing things that I have spent the last month working on as part of my commitment to our Kickstarter Backers. These updates arrive for them a month before you'll read them here because they paid for the ~perks of exclusivity~ but this is your next-best source for info about what's being worked on and how things are playing out.

Howdy gamers!

In order to focus on the rest of the game I prefer to knock out a bunch of the little extras first. They will be the focus of these early updates as I venture to get them around 90% complete. Fleshing these systems out into something usable this early on means the game can be structured to support them much easier than if I tried to add them at the end of development.

With that said, here's an informative overview of everything added since the last update...


The system for chaos mode is done and fully functional. Let's deep dive!

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SPOILERS AHEAD
YOU'VE BEEN WARNED
YOU CAN RESUME READING AT THE NEXT DOT POINT

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Chaos & Randomizer Modes will be a "secret" accessible via the file select menu

The social media typically goes hand-in-hand with everybody's gaming experience so nothing is truly secret these days. Still, I wanted to make a nod to DKC2's game start menu by granting players access to a secret file select screen if they run against the side of the screen for a short time. DKC2 did this to reveal Music Test and Cheat Mode if you continued trying to scroll the menu past its end point.



A much later stage in the game takes place in some foggy ruins where there will be a hint to this secret carved in the stone walls. Even if someone manages to dodge this secret knowledge the game will show them eventually!

If you're reading this and wish to unlearn the knowledge you've got 2 years to try and forget, good luck!

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SPOILERS OVER, LET'S GET BACK TO TALKING ABOUT CHAOS MODE

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[h2]The "Rules" of Chaos[/h2]

Balancing a mode like this is a tricky one due to the nature of how it works - Chaos Mode actively messes with your controls, movement, visibility and other aspects of the game to make playing it a much more frustrating experience than the vanilla game ever could. Each of these effects is called a Modifier.

However, we need rules otherwise it becomes an unplayable mess. Fun can be had during frustrating gameplay but if you can't even play then what's the point, right?

Rule #1 - Only 3 modifiers can be active at once. A new modifier gets applied every 7 seconds, so each modifier only lasts for around 20-seconds or so.

Rule #2 - Similar modifiers are grouped into pools, only one modifier from its pool can be active. A modifier that disables the jump button belongs to the "Disable Controls" pool. No other controls will be disabled until the first modifier is no longer active. Some other mod pools include: Gravity Changes, Object Magnetism, Player State, Weather Effects

Rule #3 - The chaos timer stops in the pause menu. You won't be able to just pause the game and wait some of these effects out. You're in it for the long haul.

Rule #4 - Chaos resets in the overworld. You will always start a new stage with a clean slate and by the 20-second mark chaos will be in full swing once again.

Those of you who backed the tester reward should be able to experience Chaos Mode right away when I issue keys out. I'll find out pretty fast if changes to these rules need to be made, but it's a start!


[h2]The "Language" of Chaos[/h2]

Each chaos modifier is represented by a tile with a symbol on it. It's hard to communicate what each of the effects could mean so for extra assistance the name of the modifier will appear for a couple of seconds. Alternatively, you can enter the pause menu and hover over the icons.



But if you don't like the distraction of text or you just don't like the default rules, the Chaos Options menu lets you switch things up!




Arguably less fun but still in the same realm as Chaos Mode, the Assists + Modifiers menu is accessible via the Gameplay menu. These settings apply to the game as a whole allowing players of varying skill levels to tailor their experience.



[h2]Positive Modifiers:[/h2]

Create Checkpoints - Lets you place a checkpoint anywhere you want. Great tool for speedrunning also!

Create Buddy Bubbles - Lets you immediately restore your team if one of your partner runs away.

Infinite Jumps - Lets you jump anywhere, even in the air.

Invincibility - Prevents you from taking damage, but doesn't protect you from pits, lava, etc.

Skip Stage - Sends you back to the overworld and lets you move on to the next stage.


[h2]Negative Modifiers:[/h2]

Remove Checkpoints - All checkpoints disappear. Using the "Create Checkpoints" option also fails.

Remove Buddy Bubbles - All buddy bubbles disappear. Using the "Create Buddy Bubbles" option also fails.

No retries in bonus stages - If you fail a bonus, it kicks you out - just like the DKC games!

Coins KO You - Challenge runners can attempt no-coin runs that automatically KO them so their counter stays at zero.

KO'd Baddies KO You - Once again, challenge runners attempting pacifist runs will get KO'd if they let an enemy get KO'd. Even if it's not their fault (such as an enemy falling in lava).

These modifiers also have icons similar to chaos mode and are visible on the overworld so they don't get in the way during regular gameplay.



A cheekly lil' shortcut I decided to take when conceptualising these games was to make them function using the same physics as the main game - for 2 reasons:

Efficiency - All I need to do is tweak a few values to get a working prototype
Familiarity - You're used to Windswept's physics just by playing, so let's just change the controls!
Functionally these minigames are complete but I'll be leaving development of the stages & "rules" until we get closer to the end to ensure there are as many of Windswept's features available as possible to make use of.

Until then, let's take a closer look at how some of these minigames work as, well as their inspirations...

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[h2]Hop Prince[/h2]



You can't walk, only hop! Your jump height is determined by how long you hold the jump button. Sounds an awful lot like Jump King, right? Well, there you have it!

Hop Prince stars one of our early frog characters, Hoppet, as he tries to reach his crown at the end of an obstacle course. It won't be quite as hard as the game it's inspired by but you'll still have to work for your glory!

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[h2]Quick Pip Runner[/h2]



As the name once again implies; the base inspiration is Bit Trip Runner, but really any runner game of its type could fill this spot.

You play as one of our characters from Area 2, Pip, known for running non-stop and jumping when it reaches a ledge. In a similar fashion you take control of a Pip running non-stop through a course. The only thing you need to worry about is jumping!

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[h2]Slicko, My Beloved[/h2]



Conceptually this is sort of like Frogger with one slight difference - you can only move upward! You may also remember Slicko from one of our demo's extra stages if you collected everything - you get to play as one now, woo! In this rapunzel-like game the goal is to climb to the top of an ice sheet to reach your... crush? beloved? queen? I dunno, lizard love is weird.

The catch? Every time you stop climbing after travelling a certain distance you'll slide back down a short distance. If you're familiar with Zelda BotW/TotK you'll know of this mechanic from trying to climb something when it's raining. This minigame isn't quite as cruel - you're in complete control of when you'll slide back down, just don't stop and you'll be fine ;)

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[h2][/h2]

???

This one doesn't actually exist yet on paper. The part of Windswept this game will be based on has a lot of characters that are either too similar to previous areas or don't lend themselves to a simple control scheme. I have some ideas in mind that I can fall back on but I'm leaving this slot open in case something better comes along!

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[h2]Chime Runners[/h2]



The final game is a bit of an anomaly. Firstly, the name is swiped from the Shine Runners minigame from Mario Kart DS. And unlike the main game of Mariokart DS & our other minigames that are based on reaching a destination - this one is based on achieving the highest possible score.

You get the duck and turtle duo you're most familiar with and must ring bells as quickly as possible to drive up your score + keep a multiplier active. My hope is for those of you who are fans of Smash Bros. Minigames like Break the Targets & Home Run Contest find a similar joy with trying to optimise a route for a perfect run.


Still with me? Awesome! I expect a lot of these early updates will be rich in content as I meticulously over-explain everything I'm working on, haha.

What are you most looking forward to from this update? Got any feedback or requests based on what you've seen for the assists/modifiers menu? Leave a comment or join our community discord server and talk about it more there.

Until next time!