Swamp is a dark and rainy place. It contains a lot of various plants and monsters. We’ve completed 2 swamp levels so far, if everything will be ok, Stonerid will be finished in next few weeks.

However that will happen in future, now it’s time to show you a few screenshots.

In the previous post I’ve written a little about new functions and modifications that we did, to make Stonerid a better game. Today I’ll write more about the main modification – two parallel worlds.

At the beginning (over one year ago) Stonerid was a really simple game, and it’s mechanics was very simillar to other platform games, like Super Mario Brothers. However we decided to improve something, because our game had not any really good features (except quite good graphic, in my opinion of course).

That is why we wanted to implement two parrallel worlds in Stonerid. This is not a typical feature, but we had to ask ourselves: Is it really worth to do that? Will this mechanism significantly improve our game? Right now, I can tell that was worth to spent a lot of time and add “two worlds” feature, but there is no rose without spikes. To create a good level, with two parallel worlds I need to spent a lot of time, much more than I needed previously.
 
Place your cursor over the images to see the change.
 

 

 
Main advantages of “two parallel worlds” system.

1. Game offers 2 playable characters: stone character and demon. Each of them has his own world. These worlds aren’t the same. There is a lot of differences between them (you can see that at our last gameplay video). We can easily switch between worlds (just by pressing “R” key).

2. Player can freely change world, but it is impossible to use this ability in all places. It works this way because these parallel worlds aren’t identical, so when you can’t perform the change, it can means that there is some obstacle (for example wall) in this place, in the alternative world. Additionaly, if you can’t switch, there is a small, red cross, appears over main hero’s head.

3. Freely changes can cause some problem for the player, like unexpected death. That’s why you have to be carefull when you switch between two worlds. You never know what kind of dangerous thing can be hidden in the alternative world.

4. Sometimes you can feel a little lost. When you do something in the first world it can affects on the things in the second world. You have to remember about that. If you don’t know what should you do next, maybe you have to look for an explanation somewhere in the parallel world. What will you do, if locked doors blocks your way? Where is the key? It can be hidden in one of two worlds. This feature gives really a lot of interesting possibilities.

5. There is many situations in our game when you have to decide quickly and there is no time to think if you want to stay alive. Stonerid very often requires quick reflex and players shouldn’t forget about that.

6. Each level is bigger and looks more open, when you have an option to switch between two worlds.

7. Now Stonerid is a quite difficult game. It’s not easy if you want to complete all levels, especially if you want to collect most of availabe items. We are not sure if the fact that game is difficult is an advantage, but we don’t prefer easy games, so we don’t want to make our game too easy.

8. Time doesn’t affects on an alternative world, it passes only in a world, in which you currently are. Each object, like a monster or trap, just stops when you leave the current world and switch to the parallel area. It’s a very usefull feature if you know how to use it properly.

As you can see “two worlds system” can be really interesting, because it provides many different possibilites and makes gameplay more complicated. Don’t forget to like our Facebook page, or subscribe our Twitter channel if you want to recive the newest information about our game.

Over the last year we did not post any entries on our website. The lack of any signs of life was due to the fact that we changed meaningfully the system of our game. There was lots of work and the results were often modified. Consequently, there was no sense in providing information about something that was to be changed.

For the time being, the game is 85% complete. Everything is stable and we do not assume introducing any major modifications, in fact, what left is only the last land.

Why did we decide to modify the whole game’s system?

At first, we created a really simple platform game with particularly simple mechanics.Additionally, there was not a possibility to upgrade one’s records, we did not store game statistics and the difficulty level was not a great challenge for an average player. We wanted something more.  We decided to think what precisely should be added to the game and which elements need improving.

Below there is a list of changes and improvements we have implemented to Stonerid.

1. Unconventional style of play. Instead of one world, the game proposes two parallel worlds of different construction.

2. High level of difficulty. We decided that the game will be relatively simple in the beginning but continually more difficult with the progress of play. Further levels of the game make a meaningful challenge even for experienced players.

3. NPCs. They may prompt or direct us.

4. Possibility of getting achievements. Due to this, one may set one’s records and moving back to already visited levels does not have to be pointless.

5. Toxic substances are everywhere. The previous version of the game offered toxins in barrels and there were only few of them for a level. Now toxins are everywhere. All in all, we clean the world from toxic substances.

6. Main hero’s diary. Our hero, after completing some levels, makes notes of the most important information in the diary.

7. Bonuses. Not extensive but very hard levels, prepared especially for hardcore players.

8. Profile statistics.

They are the most important modifications regarding the old version. And what about the old version? It may be seen in the film with the first gameplay or it may be summarized in three points:

1. One-world levels.

2. Low level of difficulty.

3. Few elements to collect.

Was it worth implementing changes?

We believe it was. The changes have made our game much better. The only problem is building the levels. It requires much more time than previously, as creating a satisfying level made of two parallel worlds causes lots of problems and difficulties. Nevertheless, the effect is outstanding. Besides, we hope you will have an opportunity to judge it soon.

Don’t forget to watch the last Stonerid gameplay,  you can also see the newest screenshots at Media page.