Hello and exciting times! I am prepping Mr Figs for a demo which I'm hoping will be available in a couple of months. I'll update on here when it's nearing release and ready but until then you'll have to wait and endure these monthly updates instead. As I'm prepping for the demo, there's been a good amount of attention paid to the first area. I've also fixed a bunch of bugs and added some more mechanics/content. - Speed up pathfinding of slimes in third area - Add animation to gates in third area - Add screenshake on death of Mr Figs - Add screenshake when a bomb explodes - Add levers to raise and lower walls, fun! - Start work on conveyor belts for the 4th area - Fix longstanding bug with outlines where they were inset by 1 pixel - Improve buttons on menus - Give buttons better sounds when rolled over - Blur the screen on certain events - Improve icon for interactive with objects - Make rolling balls detonate bombs - Store the user's save and config in the "correct" place depending on platform - Make rocks falling into holes a lot smoother - Make bombs block rocks - Add stage 1 puffy slug - Add 3 new levels to stage 1 - Fix arrows going through some walls The focus going forward will be on getting stage 1 demo-ready. That means more content and polish. While this is happening the other areas won't be getting as much love but at least it means we can get Mr Figs in your hands quicker :D Ciao for now and keep your eyes peeled for more demo updates!

[ 2025-04-17 11:47:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello hello! I originally thought this month had been pretty unproductive but after checking the logs, I've actually done a fair bit. This month has been very heavily focused on the third area (again) and coming up with mechanics and content. This mainly involves trying to think of fun enemies and objects that are different to ones you have already faced in the game. The visuals for the third area have also had a significant touch up. We're at a place where we don't need to fiddle with them much more which is a massive relief because I was dissatisifed with the art for this area for a long time. Anyway, I digress... On with the show! - Added new slime enemy with two different variants - Added worms. Very deadly, be careful - Added gates and levers - Improved the art for all sprites in third area - Added the ability to interact with things (see 'interactivity' below) - Added 4 new levels to the third area - Added a nicer/consistent way of doing "tweens" - Rejigged how events are handled which should in turn improve performance

Interactivity

This is perhaps the biggest change in the update and one of the biggest changes in the game! For the longest time, Mr Figs could only run and bomb. To interact with things he would simply walk into them until they do their thing. This felt a bit clumsy in some cases. For example, you could accidentally push a rolling ball when you didn't mean to. Now, you have to explicitly press a button to interact with an object. Currently there's not many things that can be interacted with as it's quite a new mechanic but expect it to grow. That's all for now, see you next month!

[ 2025-03-19 14:57:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Howdy howdy, Without furher adieu, let's dive straight into this month's updates! This month has centered around content for the third area of the game. This means making mechanics, making levels around them and seeing how they feel. Ultimately, a lot of ideas get scrapped because they might sound fun but when you actually go to play it, it doesn't translate. This is by far the most frustrating part of the game's journey but it's necessary so we can eventually find the diamonds in the rough and build good levels off of fun mechanics. I've also fleshed out a few prior areas with a few more levels and spruced up some sprites. Overall it's been a productive month with not much to shout about. Here are the changes: - Added more secrets - Added ability for music "themes" in levels so we can have different atmospheres depending on level vibe - Added rotating turrets to third area - Added 2 new levels to the second area - Added 4 new levels to the third area - Redid the walls/floor art for the third area - Made gelatinous blobs on second area bombable - Improved portraits for certain characters - Improved mine sprites and added visual effects when they're stepped on - Improved first area's turret sprite - Improved performance of bullet collisions a bunch - Improved performance of pressure plates massively - Properly fixed rotating to a sprite (this affects ballistas) If you want to follow this journey a bit more closely, you can join us on Discord. I frequently post snippets of works-in-progress there. That's all for now, I'll see you next month!

[ 2025-02-19 12:27:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome back to another episode of Screaming Into The Void. This month has been pretty productive. I thank my holidays over the Christmas period for that one. As a result, we've got a fair amount to get through. Once again, there is no video devlog this month. They take time and to me, the game is higher priority. I will get to doing one eventually... On with the show! This month:

• Add speech audio for all characters
  • Mr Figs (and other characters) now have cute (or not-so-cute) voices to go along with their dialogue!
• Add third area "chasing-square" mechanic!
  • These have been lifted and shifted from the second area to the third area. They're quite devilish but I'm sure you'll have fun with them
• Add fast flowing lava
  • Run before it gets you!
• Add poison status effect
  • Stay in the green sludge for longer than 2 seconds and you're out!
• Add particles to ballistas when they're exploded
  • This is a fun one. When you blast a ballista, parts of it will fly out everywhere!
• Fix a 3 year bug with pushable rocks
  • I've finally gotten around to spending some actual time with my loveable rocks. They are now entirely foolproof. Previously, you could probably refer to them as "janky" which made me sad
• Make sound effects play more sensibly
  • We no longer play sounds out of view. Or too many instances of one sound. And we nicely randomise the sounds so we don't get the same one playing multiple times in a row
• Add more portraits for dialogue
• Make foreground particle effects correctly span the entire playable area
• Polish the end of the second area with some more scripted dialogue and intermediary levels
• Add more hidden things to a few levels
• Improve the pressure plate sprite for the second area
• Rework the shading on my main man, Mr Figs
• Add more sound effects for a whole lotta stuff
• Make ballista arrows hitboxes more forgiving so death feels fair
• Get ordering of level select correct
• Add support for hidden levels
• Fix a crash in the keybindings menu
• Shrink Mr Figs game size down to ~100mb

There's some boring stuff I omitted but that's all the good stuff. We're getting ever-so-slightly closer to a demo which should be exciting! Catch you all next month, remember you can find me Discord, X, and here Ciao for now!

[ 2025-01-15 11:55:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Aloha! This month has been another busy one though it may not seem like it. A lot of work was going on behind the scenes. The update this month is more "admin" than "fun" but I still managed to squeeze some fun in too! The following has been added: - ballistas - missiles - localisation (more below) - sound effects for fists - sound and particle effects for ice - complete overhaul of level select menus - finessed the music player a bit more so it pauses and resume music across areas correctly - added more music for the second and third areas

Localisation

Mr Figs is a pixel-art game and that is by design. Unfortunately this means some languages don't play nice with these constraints but I've managed to find a font that will suit all these needs so I'm happy to say that on release of Mr Figs, Russian, Simplified Chinese and others (to be confirmed) will be supported! Hopefully this gets Mr Figs out to a larger playerbase as a large portion of my wishlists are coming from the Russian Federation and various parts of Asia. A devlog is coming to highlight all of this and last month's work but as the holidays are approaching, we'll probably be looking at the new year for that to be released. See you the same time next month!

[ 2024-12-18 09:15:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Good morning once again, Before we get into it, the trailer for Mr Figs has been released! This is likely to be superseded at some point by a trailer that shows more of the game but for the time being it's doing a good job of showing _some_ of the mechanics present in Mr Figs. You can view it here: [previewyoutube=ok3-NbCYyW0;full][/previewyoutube] On with the show... This month I spent a lot of time working on the second area, new levels, more hidden items, a new boss and a new dialogue system instead of the old cut-scenes that were present previously. I'm hoping to get these ironed out so I can then begin work on the third area mechanics The most significant changes were: - A new dialogue system with character portraits, zooming and other niceties - New levels to establish the story - hidden rooms. These are hard-to-spot rooms on levels which may or may not contain certain items - 10+ new levels - A new ghost enemy - moving platforms - Started work on second area boss - New walls for the first area - Bombs now shake when about to explode - Bombs now explode when placed onto spikes that are "up" - Improve pushing sprite a bit more for figs - Re-added in a death sound/animation for figs when he's hit - Added sounds to portals being used - Big performance improvements on holes (19fps increase) and "stressed tiles" (10fps increase) - Consistent font everywhere P.s. There'll be no devlog video this month simply because I would rather spend that time on the game. When it arrives, expect the next devlog video to be a big one! You can watch previous devlogs on the linked YouTube channel at the bottom of this post. See you all next month!

[ 2024-11-22 12:54:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Good morning all, The focus this month was mostly on content. As such, there's been a fair few enemies/hazards added. Once these are ironed out, I can then start making some levels with them The changes are as follows: - Added animations for rolling ball on first area - Added arrows that change the rolling ball's direction - Added a mech/chasing-square enemy to the second area - Added a Gelatinous blob enemy to the second area - Added a fist enemy to the second area - Added a TNT mechanic to the third area - Added rough floor/wall tiles for the third area - Got carts working again on the third area - Made it so that carts work on anything, not just Mr Figs See you next month!

[ 2024-10-16 10:26:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Afternoon folks! This is the first in the monthly updates for Mr Figs. In this, I intend to give a brief update of what I've been working on for anyone that's curious. This month has mainly been focused on the second area (Ice Caverns) and some performance optimisations which were deemed necessary Without further ado, let's jump into it!

Fixed slugs accidentally going over holes

There was a bug on the first area where a slug could walk over an uncovered hole. This has since been fixed

Redid portal sprites

The portals for the second area have been given some TLC and are using some brand new sprites which fit better with the rest of the game

Redid second area floors and walls

The entire second area's art has been redone. The atmosphere has had a massive improvement because of this and I can wait for you guys to play it

Added timed spikes

I've added in some spikes on timers for the second area to keep things interesting.

Added pressure plates which can trigger multiple spikes

The second area has more complex pressure plates which can trigger multiple things and also affect each others pressure plates!

Added sprites for when Mr Figs is pushing up/down on a rock

Previously, Mr Figs would always show a "left push" sprite when pushing a rock. This has finally been remedied so he now has all directions covered when pushing rocks.

Added 7 new levels to the second area

The second area has been given a lot of love this month. We've got 7 new levels exploring all the new mechanics I've added in. I'm sure some won't make the final cut but it's progress nonetheless

Added animation for when Mr Figs is sliding on ice

Mr Figs was not animated before when sliding on ice, now he is!

Added a new turret and bullet type to the second area

The second area now has a much deadlier and faster turret than the first.

Added snake enemy

The first area has a new enemy! The snake will idle until you get close and then begin to (sort of) chase you and spit venom.

Lots of performance optimisations (particularly around particles and events)

This month has seen a lot of excellent performance optimisations. Even the heaviest levels now run at a smooth 60fps on a 10 year old laptop. I call that progress. For the nerds among us, these were the optimisations: - Used a spatial grid to speed up bullet collisions - Used events less and relied on timers more to switch between states - Object pooling for particles - Caching around image loading - Chunked updates where necessary (only update what's in view)

[ 2024-09-18 14:01:24 CET ] [ Original post ]