Riftaway News

[p]Since I've just realized these can appear to anyone without much context or anything lemme add this at the start...[/p][p]Hi! I'm Vikku, or Mahou Boshi if you prefer to be official. If you stumbled onto this randomly, first, thank god the algorithms are working for me for once, and secondly, welcome! What you're currently seeing is a Devlog/Newsletter for Riftaway, a 3D platformer focused on narrative and exploration of spaces in space, and my love letter to, like, a good half of all 3D Mario games. Learn more about it here![/p][p][/p][p]Now let's get to business![/p][p][/p][p]Heya! It's been shorter-than-usual-but-still-kind-of-a-long-time-relatively-speaking! We're here once more to report our progress with world 1 as well as some decisions I've made.[/p][p][/p][h3]Defo Moving the Movement Demo[/h3][p]I've been thinking about it and the more I add to the game I go like "Damn, that 'Movement Demo' (Also known as the Itch.io Demo) is gonna be short as heck", yeah even with the clarifications, you never know when someone is watching... I've been doing progress at a surprising speed while the final pieces of the tutorial get finished, so why not just add it all together to have a more complete and satisfying first impression? [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]So I'm glad to inform that we're rebranding the Movement Demo, now it's just a plain old Demo! I don't know if I'll still make a shorter demo on Itch.io or go all in for June's Next Fest, but in either case you will be able to experience more than just the tutorial![/p][p][/p][h3]Dessert Island... Yummy[/h3][p][/p][p]On the design aspect of things everything is going rather smoothly! That learning/experimentation phase of making the first island is helping the second's production speed and quality immensely. Waxing Moon Island, or just Waxing Island, takes the name quite literally being an island whose main landmark is a massive candle forming hot liquid wax lakes and falls, and from which emerge other smaller candles.[/p][p][/p][p]Work in progress. Also, the candles are not edible.[/p][p][/p][p]I've also done some reworking of the main village where you start on the planet, but I don't wanna be showing absolutely everything or there will be no surprises! And it's not like it's close to being in it's final iteration yet I may go and change it again... Anyhow, I'm still not thinking a terrible lot about the narrative of this place, I have the broad strokes, but I want to focus on the gameplay fun first, no one wants one of those games where someone has to go "Yeah trust me bro it sucks but the story is worth it!!1!" ...Thinking about it that'd be a first probably, someone saying that about a platformer of all things.[/p][p][/p][p]That's about it for this time! Not very exciting news I know, other than "I'm still working on it", hopefully next month's newsletter has something more interesting, non? I'll be working my butts off so it is that way! Cya next time, wax off![/p][p]- Vikku (Mahou Boshi)[/p]

[p]Dear lord I knew I shouldn't have said January- Oh, hi! You didn't hear anything, right? Of course not, this is text silly.[/p][p][/p][h3]Time to get more time[/h3][p]So yeah, unfortunately I haven't been able to release the Itch.io demo on January. Now you may be wondering, why is that? Well, it's 'cause I'm an idiot and I don't know how long things take! The build is mostly complete, however it's missing some polish on my end and some art that I could've probably commissioned way earlier if I had had the foresight to do so (Shoutout to Kada! Thank you a lot are important after all.[/p][p]However, I'm not willing to rush anyone putting their sweat blood and/or tears into this project of mine, so I cannot give a definitive answer as to when will the Movement Demo be happening, so stay tuned to the Steam news and the game's socials to be the first to hear about it. [/p][p]Take a look at the wonderful work Kada's been doing and let's move onto the part where I tell you the good news![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]The part where the good news are told[/h3][p]After some deserved (debatable) winter vacations I've been able to pick up the pace with World 1 surprisingly well! I've managed to make some upgrades to systems that were already there, as well as some huge progress on the first island compared to the previous months, to the point that I may make a build to get player feedback soon-ish! (Not promising any dates again). Not to be persistent, but you really should follow the socials if you want to catch wind of it as soon as it happens, there's some tiny cute buttons at the end of the post that will send you there.[/p][p]I don't have any screenshots of how the island looked before (I really should start documenting things more), and there are still some placeholders, but this is how it's looking as of now![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]And what you're seeing is not all! There is stuff hidden inside and more parts will appear as you explore, I'm quite content with how it's turning out so far and can't wait for you all to try it out. Seeing it from this angle, the shape of that island is quite interesting, hmm...[/p][p][/p][h3]OH GOD 100!!!![/h3][p]I want to close out this month's newsletter by thanking all 100+ people that have decided to wishlist Riftaway! I'm amazed at how many people are showing even the slightest interest for this game (Tbh I was expecting like 0), and at how consistently you're doing so, like, ever since the game page got released here on Steam there's been very few days where there wasn't at least one wishlist, what the heck. As a treat, allow me to share some backstory about this project![/p][p]This game concept derives from another that I made last year in a game design class. Back then it wasn't even a platformer, but rather a shooter about grabbing elements of the environment and using them as projectiles, where you could find secrets by bringing the correct ammo to the right place. [/p][p]This is some very rough and rushed concept art I did for the One Page of the game![/p][p][/p][p]Damn Rico is looking weird in here[/p][p][/p][p]It was a weird mix of platforming, collectathon and games like Neon White or Ultrakill (I hadn't played Ultrakill at the time, but in retrospect there are very similar ideas there), but in the same way I extracted the platforming and collectathon elements from there to make Riftaway I feel I could return to the other bits I left behind and make a game using those some day, however that's a problem for future me to think about.[/p][p][/p][p]That about does it for these news! I'm sorry there isn't still anything you can play yet, but rest assured that I'm doing everything in my power so that when something does come out, it's the best version it can be. See ya away! In... the Rift! Damn that doesn't work either... Cya![/p][p]- Vikku (Mahou Boshi)[/p]

[p]Um... Hi! With the year coming to an end I wanted to do some sort of announcement to keep you all updated since I feel I'm rather bad at all this social media thinge. [/p][p]Also, before we start, thank's a lot for all the wishlists! It feels surreal to have people interested in my sillies.[/p][p][/p][h3]A Demo of a Demo[/h3][p](Now for real) First and foremost, there is a very small Movement Demo (as I like to call it at least) that I have almost completed. However, for the actual Official Demo of the game I'd like to have at least all of World 1 ready so there's more meat on its bones, so the release schedule, so to speak, is to release the smaller Movement Demo on my Itch.io on January of next year; While I'll aim for summer's Next Fest for the complete/big Official Demo, although I can't make any promises, since as a novice and mostly solo dev, my pace can be rather inconsistent, so apologies :< Still, hope you look forward for these demos![/p][p][/p][h3]Say that again about World 1?[/h3][p]On another note, yeah, I'm making World 1! I've been taking this slowly and carefully since it's my first time constructing a full on world, and especially with December's festivities I've been slower than usual, however, despite it all being yet in an early prototypal phase, I am content with what I've got so far![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]World 1 will be set on a lunar archipelago, where both the islands and culture are all centred around a huge Moon-like asteroid, to the point of naming the islands after its phases, which are static and dependant on the perspective where each island sees this central rock. You will be able to uncover its secrets for free when the Official Demo launches, but for now, have this screenshot of prototype New Moon Village :>[/p][p][/p][h3]The Youtuber Bit[/h3][p]As a final note, if you want to support me financially during this journey, I do have a Patreon I will shamelessly plug now! Being a member will guarantee you the opportunity to test out beta builds of the game, as well as a special channel on the game's Discord server. You can still participate on beta testing if you're not a member however, especially now that we're still building up a community, but you do need to be on the Discord for it, so be sure to check out the buttons at the bottom of this post.[/p][p][/p][p]That's it for me then, thanks for reading to the end, happy early New Year and late Christmas, hope to see you in the Rift! (Wait, wasn't that someone else's goodbye message? I'll have to work on that...)[/p][p]- Vikku (Mahou Boshi)[/p]