Hey folks Our puzzler After Light Fades has a new trailer and a much more polished demo up on its Steam page Check out the trailer here [previewyoutube=bbElbULQO8E;full][/previewyoutube] We're a while away from release so it's still all WIP, but as always we'd love to hear your impressions Remember to wishlist and check out the demo Cheers!

Hi folks! We've entered our sokoban puzzler After Light Fades into the DevGAMM Awards and we'd love your support! Its easy to vote for us: 1 Head to https://form.fillout.com/t/hZWP7Kgy7Aus and log in with your email. 2 Find our game in the list and submit your vote! Feel free to share the link with your friends to spread the word! Remember, its one vote per email, and the last day to vote is October 27. Check out the free demo here, and remember to wishlist! Thanks for your support!

-fixed level skip bug on level1-13 -fixed issue with menus not responding to cursor in story scenes. Now you cant open the menu in story scenes. Problem solved

Many people have requested this feature, so here it is! You can now freely skip levels via the menu - so what are the ins and outs? you'll still need to collect enough droplets to enter later worlds that require droplets to unlock. This means you can't just skip your way through the whole game special levels can't be skipped - eg boss fights and special puzzle levels if you skip a level you never have to return to complete it - unless you want to search for droplets or try for a gold rank. But if you want to, you can return to complete it once the world has been completed

Hey folks, Check out our first Dev Plays video where we do a playthrough of all Qualifier and Varidia levels, getting all golds in each level. No droplets collected so as not to spoil any secrets! [previewyoutube=-dL0cn_rexs;full][/previewyoutube]

Joon Shining has launched! For those of you following the game's development, this means we're now out of Early Access and have released an official version 1.0 Soundtrack has also just launched! The game's amazing soundtrack by composer Angus Barnacle is also now available on Steam Get the Soundtrack here Or you can get the Game + Soundtrack Bundle Here Happy gaming! We hope you love the game as much as we've loved creating it, and remember to brace yourself for a challenge!

Fixed "restart level" button in menu (it was previously not unpausing the game) added "exit game" from title screen fixed menu-pausing when picking up a slow-motion gem, so those two things don't interfere with each other fixed tutorial level 2 and 3 so slow-motion in those levels doesn't interfere with game pausing when opening menu

the game now officially has an ending! While the bosses were previously in the game, there's a bit more clarity about how the two different paths to completion work, and there's a narrative conclusion to it all added proper pausing when you open the in-game menu, so you can now completely pause gameplay

Gold ranks are now only achievable when easy mode is off This was a tricky decision, but we landed on this because ultimately, Joon Shinings sweet spot is as a challenging game, and the gold ranks, especially in later levels, are carefully formulated puzzles which didnt translate to easy mode (because par is more generous in easy mode, so theres no need to puzzle out an optimal route to get gold, and so one of the most rewarding and challenging aspects of the game would have been lost). We hope this encourages you take the time to transition from easy mode to not-easy-mode, and to master the games high skill ceiling and shoot for golds in all the levels! A super-challenging but richly rewarding journey!

Officially announcing Joon Shining's release date of February 17! Check out our new release date trailer here Release Trailer What started as a tiny experiment in creating a minimum loveable product game has turned into an epic two year development journey, culminating in a game, atmosphere and experience that has far exceeded our expectations! Joon Shining first launched on Early Access back in March, 2021. Since then, weve been hard at work improving it with frequent gameplay, visual, musical and story updates to truly organically evolve the game far beyond the seed it started from. The positive feedback and stories we've seen and heard from players and press so far has meant the world to us, and we'd love you to be part of that experience as we bring it out of early access and launch the full game on February 17

The final boss is in! For the first time ever you can (technically) complete the game! Ok cards on the table it's a bit rough, but it's all coming together quickly so we'll have more updates soon! Other than that, lots of tweaks throughout, massaging the new environments in and more adjusting of all the gold-rank difficulties.

Fixed issue with invisible collisions blocking gameplay in world 7 (regalia)

Hey folks, We're excited to reveal the second big environment art update to the remaining worlds 5 to 8. The game is really starting to shine from start to finish! There's a few tweaks still to come, but from here we're mostly focused on getting the story into the game. Oh and the incredible soundtrack is pretty much done! But we're keeping that under wraps until the official release date, so stay tuned we'll also have the OST for sale on Steam on release day Other general updates in this patch include improved UIs for the tutorials, opening scenes, and world map, and a bunch of audio tweaks Happy shining!

Hey folks, We're excited to reveal the first big environment art update to the first 4 worlds! We've been in early access for a long time now, so it's a huge milestone for us to finally show you what the game is really meant to look like! Plus updates to all the characters, some victory and loss animations and lots of little difficulty tweaks. We hope you love playing in these worlds as much as we love creating them! More coming very soon

level6-7 fixed a bug that wouldn't allow you to progress in this level world 6: in the proc gen system we replaced the hard-to-use magnets with much easier-to-use grapples changed a few of the later droplets in world1 to purple-types

Tweaked some of the gold-times in worlds 1, 2 and 3, to make golds more achievable (particularly level1-12) Fixed the camera in world 2 so if you are below the surface of the water, but close to it, the camera corrects downwards, so the water-surface doesn't obscure your view of the ball

All Achievements are now live! There's some truly epic journeys of discovery to be had. Happy searching!

Fixed a bug in world 8 where the controls are locked at the start of a level

We've hit a great milestone today all 100 droplets are now in the game and waiting for you to discover. And we've created some ingenious challenges around collecting them all, including the new purple-type droplet which is...well I wont spoil the surprise. Happy hunting!

Put new player character model into the game. All gameplay remains the same, this is just a purely visual update, and your first introduction to what the hero Joon looks like!

Hey folks, Following the world 2 polish last month we've given a lot of attention to world 4, the cave world. This is a favourite of ours, and some really interesting gameplay mechanics and level designs come into play here. However because building these levels is a lot more time consuming (the cave levels are both vertical and horizontal, whereas most other worlds are primarily horizontal) we didn't polish the difficulty as much as the other worlds. Replaying this world again I don't know how I managed to get gold on all these levels, so it was good to get some perspective and realize the bar was set crazily high! So as with world 2 these levels are still an awesome challenge, but now gold is much more achievable for the experienced player. We also gated world 4 in the overworld so you now need 10 droplets to enter. This is just to get you in the rhythm of collecting droplets before you hit the last few worlds where a large number is needed to enter. We hope you're enjoying Mage Drops! As always come and join us on Discord, we'd love to hear about your experiences: https://discord.gg/zHXDg65Gr8

Hey folks, We're starting to go back over the core levels and deal with some of the difficulty issues. World 2 and 4 were definitely at the top of our list! For today we've done a thorough pass on World 2: reduced the drag and increased the gravity when underwater. Overall this makes the underwater movement a little faster, and allows you to hit further. This means there's more scope to adjust your shot in the air, and to roll further on the ground added in some support-structures to allow for this slightly altered underwater physics changed up the arrow-bubbles for underwater. This was a tricky one. Essentially the old arrow bubbles (the both the auto ones and the ones you can manually rotate) took into account your current velocity while you're inside the bubble. So even though these bubbles shoot you out quite quickly, you could get wildly different results depending on whether you were falling, moving upwards, sideways, etc. This made accuracy/consistency extremely difficult. So instead we replaced them (just the ones in this world) with zipper-bubbles, which cancel out any previous velocity you had, so they reliably shoot you exactly in the direction they're pointing made the water a little more transparent added in a powerup that gives you temporary slow-motion. This is mainly for transitioning from above to below the water-surface, where the slow-motion gives you more time to react to what you couldn't see from above the surface generally tweaked the pars and time-targets to make getting golds more fair in all the world 2 levels

We noticed that most non-english speaking players weren't understanding how the brakes and roll-on functions work, so we've updated the tutorials for those two things, to illustrate them without words as far as possible

Hey folks! Happy to be back with you in 2022! While all the core-gameplay levels are complete since December 2021, we're now working on a few unique levels that will tie in with the story (which is also coming soon) These unique levels help to give the game a sawtooth-wave kind of shape, where the difficulty ramps up as the levels progress, then peaks at a boss-confrontation, then drops down again at the start of the next world, and so on. While Mage Drops, and Orchid of Redemption as a whole, has a non-violent philosophy, our story still has important conflicts for our hero to overcome. Our solution to this is to create boss-fight-puzzles where, instead of trying to kill some enemy, you're confronted with a larger scale puzzle to unravel, in the midst of trying to dynamically evade danger. For those who have already progressed far through the game but want to go back and try these levels out, they'll already be accessible from the Course Select screen as the last level in their respective worlds. The boss fight puzzles added in this build are: Arogana World 3-13 Jenola World 4-13 Ex Machina World 5-13 Eris World 6-13 Let us know how you go, we'd love to hear about your experiences!

Orchid of Redemption is proud to announce that the eighth and final world has been added to Mage Drops in Early Access on Steam and Itch! The enchanted, golf-like platforming gameplay of Mage Drops has evolved in this final cosmic world and the challenges have escalated to match!

• Defy gravity and soar through the Celestial Void to rescue the last remnants of a magical species from the physical forces of extinction!
• Control velocity and momentum in null gravity to streak across the void and navigate away from abyssal threats.
• Push back against extinction with new arcane abilities that allow for a new dimension of options in solving the puzzles of the Celestial Void.

• Serene music, beautiful nature, and low-pressure gameplay. The perfect game to relax with.
• Gameplay is simple enough for a complete beginner but rewards seasoned players for honing their skills.

• A unique scoring system combines the traditional strokes/par of golf with timer-based scoring. So you need to be precise AND fast to discover all the game has to offer.
• Collectibles and platforming puzzles: Master ingenious golf-style platforming challenges to win gold in each cup, unlock all eight worlds, and discover all the secret artefacts.

• Master the use of magic: fire, water, wind, earth, electricity and much more to find the fastest way through courses and discover all the secrets!
• Eight unique worlds including forest, underwater, machine and cosmic realms!
• Each world is themed, so new gameplay possibilities, tricks, and traps unfold as new worlds are unlocked.

The Celestial Void is the final world in the Mage Drops adventure, and for those with the grit to make it this far it's worth the wait! This is a radical shift from the gameplay of all the worlds before it, as you make a clean break from both the golf and the platforming paradigms, and instead slipstream around a gravity-free cosmic wonderland, towing asteroids, dodging flaming meteors and portalling the dodos to safety from their seemingly hopeless fate.

fixed bridge in level1-5 where there was a phantom collider various audio updates to UI and interaction sounds fixed a bug with droplet collectibles in world1 that were not properly saving. If you had collected some but not all droplets in world1, some of them may now be jumbled (some you had collected will be not collected and vice-versa) Apologies for this! However, any droplet that you collect from now on will properly save fixed some paths through various levels in various worlds. This corrects a few instances where certain puzzles could be bypassed

Welcome back to the Orchid of Redemption devlog! This week were looking at some of the inspiration sources for the gameplay and design of Mage Drops! If you are yet to dabble in the enchanted golf-like physics that define Mage Drops, you can find a free demo here! While of course golf and mini golf are very much part of the Mage Drops formula, a few less apparent inspirations are traditional pinball games and an obscure indie gem, I Am Level, where all the diverse interactions in the game are powered by a single button press.

Bumpers not Bubbles:

Its all in the Shift:

Connecting the Pindots

Fore-ward:

Fixed a bug in world 2 where, after falling out of bounds and being reset to the previous checkpoint, gravity would be effectively doubled, greatly reducing shot distances

Your progress in an incomplete course is now saved, so you can return to the world map and play other courses, then return to your incomplete course at the furthest level you reached If you repeat a level and get a lesser rank, it now doesnt override the highest rank youve previously achieved for that level General sound design upgrades New post processing effects in world6

Hi everyone, Up until now Mage Drops has had major world updates every month bringing new courses and mechanics to the current Early Access build. We are currently hard at work on World 8, the final world, which requires a little more time in the oven, as well as a couple other elements we arent quite ready to announce yet. Unfortunately, that means no world update will come in early November, but we will keep you updated on when to expect the final world in the Mage Drops odyssey. In the meantime, if you havent picked up Mage Drops in a while be sure to check out the many cosmetic and quality-of-life changes weve made to the already available worlds. There are new difficulty options accessible via the menu to make courses easier, as well as new traversal mechanics added to earlier levels that werent there before! If you are yet to enjoy the magic of Mage Drops, a free demo can be found on Steam via the link below! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1552600/Mage_Drops/ If you have dabbled in our enchanted golf-like platformer, please consider leaving a Steam review of your experience as every review on that platform helps us out a lot! Cheers, Orchid of Redemption.

changed behaviour of droplets - you now need to successfully land and come to a complete stop to collect them (wont affect any droplets youve previously collected in your save-game) fixed a UI error when starting a new game with no previous save updated UI images for gamepad in qualifier levels updated all UIs in in-game menu

Fixed a bug that wouldn't allow you to progress from level7-4

The incredible Royal Armada world introduces a whole host of platforming-gameplay favorites, re-imagined in Mage Drops' magical style! Double jump, grapple, use fire magic and flight rings to soar through this theme-and-variation world, where you keep returning to the beginning, until all the eggs are saved from the sly magic cat. This build also adds controller rumble/vibration. Please note rumble compatibility is currently dependent on controller type and operating system. Please check the following table for compatibility: Gamepad Rumble Compatibility

Two new game modes have been added, Easy Mode and Tourist Mode. These are available from the game select screen when you start a new game, as well as being toggleable in-game. We wanted to keep difficulty settings as flexible as possible, so if you're finding the game too challenging, or even just a particular level, you can switch on Easy Mode at any time (even in the middle of a cup) and cruise through. Any new ranks/awards you get in Easy Mode still count, so if you want to cheat a bit to get all golds, that's fine too! Or if you just want to forget about scores and awards altogether, just switch on Tourist Mode at any time. This means no shot-counts, no par, and no ranks/awards. You can just enjoy the journey.

Welcome back to the Orchid of Redemption devlog! This week were going to dive into the design principles for each of the six currently available worlds in Mage Drops! If you are yet to enjoy the magical odyssey that is Mage Drops you can find a free demo here! These design elements serve to provide each world with a unique character that matches with the overall tone of Mage Drops while still providing dynamic and evolving challenges to keep engaging and rewarding the player. World 1: Forest World
World 1 introduces open spaces with new risk areas and applies the basic physics of Mage Drops in more complicated designs than the Qualifier Cup (tutorial). Players will start to see more intricate, aerial based puzzles showing the scale for growth in worlds to come. Here the focus is on interacting with organic elements - growing trees to use as platforms, evading sentient bushes, bouncing off bubbles and sticking to slime. World 2: Ocean World
World 2 both impedes and enhances your shots with greater height but reduced distance due to the physics effects of being underwater. Level design incorporates low overhangs and moving obstacles to quickly communicate the adjustments needed in this drowned world. Levels soon come to balance both underwater and above-water areas adding the challenge of shifting play styles as well as introducing the fun of layered levels. World 3: The Ruins
World 3 introduces health management and risk/reward playstyles to the player. The Gun Ships, ancient cannons and explosive barrels can harm you. Use your magic to remotely detonate certain artillery so, if angled correctly, the explosion can launch you to new areas. In a slightly different style, the cannon fire can be controlled to create a launchpad where you need it most. Some cannon fire can even be ridden across the level but look closely to see if it's the safe kind - if it's flashing it's dangerous! Be sure to heal yourself after taking damage by collecting health. World 3 will also ask players to pick up the pace a little in a few select levels. The water is rising! Players will need to act cool under pressure, plan their shots and stay ahead of the rising tide. World 4: The Haunted Mines
World 4 offers a new challenge, rather than scaling lofty heights players must venture into the ominous depths below. Unlike any other world so far, how you descend is of absolute importance. A few new tricks help you on the journey including suspended pools of water to drop through and helpful Cave Jellyfish that will keep you on the right track. The Enchanted Skulls also present a new form of consequence. Just one touch will send you back to your last checkpoint so plan accordingly. There's not much time between activating their totems and their deadly embrace so aim fast and true. World 5: Machine World
The constant rain of World 5 is not just for show. This automated world is one big safety hazard! The wet metal surfaces will cause you to roll further and faster. Perfect for gaining extra distance but dangerous when navigating the cramped aerial platforms and lofty metal structures. Luckily your magic can influence this mysterious technology, activating barriers to create safe zones. World 5 also introduces levels with full 3D freedom of movement that return the player to previous worlds but with a whole new perspective! Enjoy some of the styles of iconic earlier levels with the added challenge of navigating in full 3D! But remember the rules of those worlds as they're still in play! World 6: Trickster World
We have spoken at length in our previous devlog: The Mystical Art of Procedural Generation, about the chaos that is World 6. Not only are the level layouts randomised but players will see obstacles and affordances from all previous worlds collide for intense platforming gauntlets that will test everything the player has learnt. In World 6 the focus is purely to survive the madness. Players have all the time in the world to navigate some of the most vertically and horizontally dynamic (and challenging) levels in Mage Drops! It is also in this chaos that a new ability is found. Collect shields to protect you from future damage, a perfect counter to the nefarious Cat that chases you across world 6. The projectiles the Cat hurls your way are incredibly powerful and will home in on you and launch you skyward upon collision. Use the shield or place an obstacle in the way of the Cat's projectile to save yourself! However, in the chaos of World 6 even your enemy can help you on your journey if you are brave enough to try. Fore-ward: That's all for this week's Mage Drops devlog! We're very excited to soon be involved with the Variety Level Up for Kids charity stream as part of the Melbourne International Games Week come the 2nd of October!
If youre a content creator looking to engage with some excellent Australian indies and do something to empower kids who are sick, disadvantaged or living with disability you can find more information here. Mage Drops is available now in Early Access on Steam and Itch or Wishlist for our (tentative) late 2021 launch: Steam: [url=http://bit.ly/372pEwZ ]http://bit.ly/372pEwZ Itch: [url=http://bit.ly/2WnT8TW]http://bit.ly/2WnT8TW Until next time, Orchid of Redemption.

This fixes a bug introduced in the last patch, where starting up the game may have loaded the lowest visual quality setting if the player had a previously saved game

fixed a bug with rising water level speeds across various levels in ruins world revamped the design of the options menu added options for visual quality settings, so can lower quality to run better on slower machines improved resolutions-selection in options menu added more droplets around various levels in worlds 2 to 5 added some dangerous fires around the place fixed some glitches with cat-teleporting behaviour in world6 juiced up cat-teleporting with new particles and sounds

Welcome back to the Orchid of Redemption devlog! This week were going to dive into some of the design philosophies and gameplay functions behind the many wonderous creatures that help and hinder your journey through the magical world of Mage Drops! The magical, fantasy setting for Mage Drops provides a broad canvas from which to draw inspiration in creating magical lifeforms that breathe both fun and character into the world. Creatures serve multiple roles as you travel through the world courses, from providing additional challenges to subtly teaching the player about the passive elements of the level design. Magical Bush
The Magical Bush is one of the earliest critters you will come across in your journey through World 1. We had a lot of fun creating a sentient obstruction that not only fits the world of Mage Drops but also represents a logical obstruction for real world golf! Magical Bushes will watch your shots from afar and scurry to conceal the ball when it falls within its territory. This not only helps define non-ideal paths for level completion also but builds a sense of urgency. Magical Bushes also help communicate that the non-sentient bushes seen around future levels will impair shot velocity if the orb lands in one. Flying Fish and Giant Starfish
The local fauna of World 2 waste no time in getting players to change how they think about usable surfaces. The predictable motions of the Flying Fish not only create unique landing zones but condition the player to be more aware of the timing of their shots. Giant Starfishes provide a similar focus on timing and surreal surfaces to take your shot from but also the importance of flat surfaces. Landing on a Giant Starfish is easy, staying on one is another matter entirely! Gun Ships
While not technically a critter, the Gun Ships faced in World 3 teach a very important lesson that will be critical for players to learn in order to complete some of the more arduous levels seen later in Mage Drops or to collect those sweet gold medals. The bombs dropped by pirates can be remotely detonated via your magical powers and it is only through willingly inflicting damage on your orb that you will be able to complete these levels. With this function, health management and recovery become integral to goal completion. Within the world of Mage Drops, you must balance risk with reward. Giant Spider
A fan-favourite for any magical world, the Giant Spider. Both deeply ingrained in fantasy world building and immensely suitable for cave habitats, the Giant Spider was a no-brainer addition to the cavernous depths of World 4. Via silken stands Giant Spiders can rise and fall to obstruct shots. Contact with a Giant Spider is painful and will launch the orb in the other direction, which may be exactly what you need Enchanted Skulls
Giant Spiders arent the only threat deep in the dark caves of World 4, Enchanted Skulls take on two forms to impact your journey. The Giant Crystal Skulls serve to block critical passages but can be lured out of the way by activating magical totems. Be careful with your timing however as just one touch will end your run! The smaller Enchanted Skulls dwell in the background shadows, and although they lack the lethality of their larger cousins, their forceful glare will fling you from their domain, but it can be used to your advantage! Cave Jellyfish
As with all things Mage Drops balance is key. While the Enchanted Skulls and Giant Spiders of the caves threaten your journey, the playful Cave Jellyfish only wants to have fun. Aim your orb near a Cave Jellyfish and they will playfully volley the orb back towards you or whatever angle the shot came from. The Cat
The newest critter to impede your journey will be arriving in Mage Drops on August 31 with the launch of World 6: Trickster World! The Cat is not only magical in nature but in function, throwing arcane projectiles and teleporting around level to hound you on your journey. While a cowardly foe that will flee if approached, The Cat presents a new persistent and chaotic challenge that synergises well with the madness of Trickster World. The Cat is a key character in the narrative of Mage Drops but we will have more on that as we approach the full launch. Fore-ward! Well thats all for this chapter of the unofficial Mage Drops Bestiary! Well have more magical creatures to feature on the road to launch so keep an eye out! If you havent already, be sure to check out our previous devlogs on difficulty tuning, and procedurally generated level design: The Road to Easy Mode: https://bit.ly/3jiCvlO The Mystic Art of Procedural Generation: https://bit.ly/38e1cJB Mage Drops is available now in Early Access on Steam and Itch or Wishlist for our (tentative) late 2021 launch: Steam: http://bit.ly/372pEwZ Itch: http://bit.ly/2WnT8TW
August 31 marks the launch of World 6: Trickster World, adding 12 new levels, abilities and challenges. If you have any feedback or questions, be sure to drop by our official Discord found via the link below: Orchid of Redemption Discord: https://discord.gg/nAQfxKJ6vu Until next time, Orchid of Redemption.

Get a taste of our magical platform-puzzler that gives golf a fantastical twist!

• Master the basics in the Qualifier Cup
• Put those skills to the test in World 1: Forest World, the first of 8 magical worlds
• Shots can cling to jelly walls, bounce off bubbles, be propelled by explosions, float on clouds and so much more!

World 6: Trickster World is now available! The trickster cat chases you around its procedurally generated world, using its magic to try and foil you at every turn!

Welcome to this weeks Orchid of Redemption devlog, if you havent already, be sure to check out our insight into difficulty tuning in The Road to Easy Mode. This week were diving a little deeper into the level design and thematic structure for the upcoming World 6: Trickster World update which will be going live for Mage Drops in Early Access on Steam and Itch on August 31. World 6: Trickster World brings a realm of chaos to contrast the otherwise structured courses of Mage Drops. Set in a shifting dimension, players will also come face to face with the first antagonist available in Early Access. Chaos, Adaption and Procedurally Generated Level Design
Technical Breakdown Warning Trickster Worlds procedurally generated level design is loosely based off of Spelunky's proc gen structure, described in Derek Yu's Spelunky book. We start with a floor plan of 4x4 or however many rooms we want in our level (our harder levels have larger floorplans). The rooms themselves are hand-made, each with different layouts and interactive elements. The procedural generator then randomly picks rooms from the pool (of however many rooms we made, at present we have 18) and places them into our floorplan and randomly selects a rotation (0, 90, 180 or -90) for each room, and randomly mirrors the room (ie sets it to X scale of -1). As you can see from the screenshots, the word "room" is used pretty loosely here, as the rooms don't have outer walls. We found the best use of procedural generation was in creating large spaces between areas of stable ground, rather than packing those spaces with walls and obstacles. This suits the golf-like gameplay of long arcing shots, rather than tight confined spaces which would better suit a character-based platformer. In our case the level's start and end rooms are always placed in the same pre-set position on the floorplan (start room in bottom left corner, end room in top right). Each level has 3 switches that need to be found and triggered to open the exit. These switches are also randomly placed each room has one or more hand-placed 'potential switch positions' and when the level starts we randomly choose 3 of these. The 3 switches ensure we always have an interesting journey from the start to the end of any given level.
Design Principles From the outset Trickster World was always intended to live up to its name and present wild and unpredictable challenges to the player. Early puzzle design toyed with the idea of vanishing platforms, level elements that would expand and contact, or known elements that would behave differently while in World 6. Procedurally generated level design is something Orchid of Redemption has dabbled with numerous times in the past in many different game prototypes. The simple efficacy of creating scenarios with functional randomness to keep players engaged while still maintain the level of detail, character and complexity is a major asset in the Mage Drops toolkit. In recognition of the unique randomness World 6: Trickster World presents and how it mitigates pattern memorisation, we decided to remove the par-shot structure while the player completes these levels. This also allows players space and time to play with their own unique solutions and non-linear paths through any given level. While the levels generated from this procedural generation system have exceeded expectations, there are still a few kinks to work out. Despite randomized levels, the overall world (as it is presented in Early Access) can appear less distinct in character than other worlds in the game. That said, once we add the rich narrative that guides the plot of Mage Drops and a certain enemy-focused encounter, we believe World 6: Trickster World will be a showstopper! Fore-ward!
Thats it for this weeks insight into the development of the magical golf adventure that is Mage Drops! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for an even deeper dive into our procedurally generated level design and next weeks devlog which will be all about the various critters that you come to face! Mage Drops is available now in Early Access on Steam and Itch or Wishlist for our (tentative) late 2021 launch: Steam: http://bit.ly/372pEwZ Itch: http://bit.ly/2WnT8TW August 31 marks the launch of World 6: Trickster World, adding 12 new levels, abilities and challenges. If you have any feedback or questions, be sure to drop by our official Discord found via the link below: Orchid of Redemption Discord: https://discord.gg/nAQfxKJ6vu Until next time, Orchid of Redemption

Added a new tutorial level at the end of the qualifier cup to explain free-cam mode

Hello all and welcome to our first run of weekly devlogs that will help share some insight into how Mage Drops is being developed and how the game experience is evolving around player feedback. As with most things that are still a work-in-progress, the ideas, inspirations, and features that we discuss in these devlogs may or may not make it into the final product. First up for discussion is the implementation of an Easy and Tourist Mode for Mage Drops.
Since Mage Drops appeared in Early Access on both Steam and Itch, feedback has fairly consistently identified strong level design, beautiful environments and a steep if not sheer difficulty curve. Difficulty and a rich diversity of challenges formed by obstacles and evolving abilities is a core feature to the identity of Mage Drops. That said, we want Mage Drops and its story (more on that in future weeks) to be accessible to a wide range of players, not just the S-Rank Super Meat Boy masochists! Players should be able to clear levels at their own pace to enjoy the full magical journey of Mage Drops and then return to earlier levels to develop their skills and aim for higher rewards. However, it is important that we manage that difficulty tuning so Mage Drops doesnt become an extended tutorial-like experience that lacks in challenge and loses the thrill of overcoming said challenge. To this end, we have already added additional checkpoints to some of our longer levels to ensure a bad shot doesnt mean losing all your hard-earned progress. We have also calmed down the aggressive rising water levels that occur in World 3: Ruins World, though the challenge is still very present. That said we believe there is still space to develop a more accessible option for players to enjoy Mage Drops so we are hard at work on developing a true Easy Mode to be selected from the main menu screen, as well as a Tourist Mode for even more accessibility. Easy Mode: Additional paths and traversal elements per level (more clouds, bounce pads etc.) Additional checkpoints Additional health recovery tokens Tourist Mode would be an option for players who dont want to be distracted from the story and gameplay. In this mode there would be no stroke counts or rankings at all and would have the Easy Mode level layouts.
We dont have an ETA yet on when Easy Mode and Tourist Mode will go live but we are hard at work on getting the balance right, so Mage Drops remains an engaging, skill-developing experience regardless of your game mode preference. Mage Drops currently has 5 unique Worlds on offer to players with over 60 challenging levels to enjoy. If you have any feedback or questions, be sure to drop by our official Discord found via the link below: Orchid of Redemption Discord: https://discord.gg/nAQfxKJ6vu Mage Drops is available now in Early Access on Steam or Wishlist for our (tentative) late 2021 launch: Steam: http://bit.ly/372pEwZ Next devlog well take a look at how were using the mystical art of procedurally generated level design to help evolve the future levels of Mage Drops!
Until next time, Orchid of Redemption

World 5: Machine World is now available! This world introduces electrical hazards, giant magnets that pull you around the levels, artificial upwards-gravity, and a mysterious portal to some paradigm-shattering places!

added a button to toggle a free look camera as this was a frequently requested feature. For details on how to use, open the menu and go to Options > Controls fixed a bug with Current Level UI where it didn't properly display level numbers with 2 digits

A few more quality-of-life updates: aiming now accelerates so the longer you hold an aiming direction, the quicker it moves added an additional alternative brake-button (so braking doesn't interfere with aiming removed time-limit and timer-display (but gold/silver rankings are still time-dependent) added a UI to show current level with the current cup (eg level 1 / 12) changed the sticky swing-orbs to green, for visual consistency added additional checkpoints in various world1 levels

If you've previously completed world 3 and can't access world 4, please go to course select screen and complete the last level of world 3 again and world 4 will then be accessible

World 4: The Haunted Mine is now available! This world disrupts the usual horizontal-level flow by introducing rich verticality as you descend down into the atmospheric mines. Face glowing jellyfish, giant stalking skulls, and haunting glares. Use the bites of silver spiders, the winds of thermal currents and gravity-flip rings to propel yourself through the darkness...

A few quality-of-life updates in the course-select screen: after completing a course, when you return to the course-select scene you can select individual levels, see what your last rank was for each level, and any individual level again. This more easily allows you to try for gold in each level, and go back to search for droplets and other secrets after completing a level, if you've previously completed its parent-course you have the option to exit back to course select (eg if you just wanted to get gold on a specific level, then return to course select and go to an unrelated level) on the course-select screen, after completing a course you can see how many gold ranks you have total for that course In the levels: we've removed most of the pesky pinball-flippers from world 1 and 2, which never really worked quite right

This is our first major Early Access content update! World 3: The Ruins Cup is now available, and if you're looking for a challenge you're going to love it! Additional updates: some general set dressing and level-design tweaks around World 1 adjusted some time-limits in World 1 and 2 that were too hard to get Gold in added more droplet collectibles in various World 2 levels

A small adjustment to the difficulty ramp, adding in some more generous checkpoints in early levels, and some easier alternate paths through more difficult levels (where the easier path costs extra strokes)

Added in "R" key to quick-restart a level, and added new tutorial level for this Continued set dressing and beautifying world 1 Simplified some of the more difficult levels in world 1, added some additional checkpoints Fixed and refined some of the gold-rank pars and time bonuses in world 2

Mostly set dressing and beautifying in tutorial and world1, difficulty balancing in world1's later levels. Fixed a bug in world2 where one of the bell-jar switches didn't open it's door

Refined the tutorial cup (the qualifier) so each tutorial level is more singularly focused on demonstrating its key aspect Adjusted the difficulty, making the tutorial easier, and some of the forest cup (adjusted some of the pars and time-limits) Done a lot of set dressing around tutorial and forest cup Included a linux version

Hey folks, Development of Mage Drops is powering along smoothly so we're getting ready to launch on Early Access on 20th March 2021. We're looking forward to having your input, so remember to Follow and Wishlist to receive announcements about how you can get involved!