I've got to admit that I find it scarcely believable how much my pixel art has improved over the last four years. Even given that the original (bottom) sprite for this fellow was meant to just be a placeholder, I don't think I ever could have produced something remotely half-decent at the time that I first made the mechanics of this boss around the time of Queen Victoria.

It also helps when you've got the handling of the game events done, you're free to draw things without worrying that it's taking time away from doing anything that feels more important. Games aren't like any of the other projects that I release to the Internet - making a game is a virtual pentathlon of individual things, having to code, draw, write, compose and generally design and piece together everything that goes into the combination of those assets. This is one of those projects that I probably would have thought of as ludicrously ambitious if I'd known everything that I would attempt to cram into it from the start - as it is, it shouldn't really have taken four years, but it's by far the biggest project that I've ever done in any medium, and - after being unsure and going back and forth on whether I even liked the game enough to finish it for a long time - I'm really pleased that the few people I've had try it so far seem to really enjoy it.

I've had an immense amount of help from the testers, who over the last couple of weeks have assisted me in turning what I do in my free time into a carbon copy of what I do at work, receiving bug reports and suggestions at a rapid rate every time I turn on the computer and fixing things as they come up against them (because goodness knows I've had no time to play it myself). With two of them very near the end of the game, however, I think that the flood may be subsiding, allowing me to pull some of the game about a little and making the last changes to the balance.





I have a heap of things to draw, a boss to work out the mechanics of, then - comical as the idea may sound given the massive nature of the game already - I'm going to do a couple more of them, to break up the later stages of the game. And then, not a moment too soon, it will be genuinely complete.

In the interests of demonstration, here is the list of issues fixed in each beta release so far. It is enormous.

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VERSION T9a
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- Fixed crash when you had all the synth rewards. I think this might have been something to do with the game assigning rewards to all the items in the list in the pause menu and then being unsure what to do when it reached the end of the list, but I'm not certain - I've fixed it by adding another (invisible) space for a reward that's never used. Thanks for sending your save to me three times, Jared...

- Fixed Walnut Creek C flowers mission - it was using the same variable for time and for the number of flowers.

- Luck Ring changed to correctly be a trophy item when you pick it up! I confused myself with the system I use for doing this, and I was honestly quite lucky that this was the only mistake.

- Fixed Superpotion sprite being wider when it wasn't highlighted

- Fixed slightly off positions of Earth Amulet, Magic Battery, Hourglass in the synth menu

- Time limit added on Azure Cliffs C Yellow

- Counter fixed on Azure Cliffs C Purple

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VERSION T9
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- This will mess up your save if you've already got the recipe in Magma Falls B! I've added the Superpotion recipe into the game - it replaces the recipe in MFB, and the Red Solution recipe is now in Walnut Creek B. If you've already got the Red Solution recipe, going to Walnut Creek B will just let you pick it up again and you won't have the Superpotion recipe - send me your save and I'll poke around in it to fix this.

- Another thing that I have to fix in saves for people late on in the game - Reach has now been replaced with Bubble. Reach was intended as another "access" spell, something to activate remote switches from a distance, but I never really liked or indeed used it. It's now been replaced with Bubble, which is a new ability spell that gives you one free hit from an enemy without taking health off, or - crucially for some missions - halving your gems. I'll replace it in people's save files if they need it.

- Fixed the following cheat, an incredible catch by Rakarr... if you completed a mission that brought the gem to you and quit the level as it was fading in, you could then go to any level (including missions you hadn't completed) and the gem would complete fading out there, giving you a free pass for the mission. The gem's property that told it to reset wasn't being set back until the player had actually collected the gem.

- Changed the mission select so that a mission only comes up as "???" if you haven't previously entered it. This needed a change to the save file to give it a concept of the maximum attempted mission as well as the maximum completed one - existing saves won't get the "???" placeholders on untried missions, but they'll start appearing after that mission has been completed.

- Fixed a major bug in the decision of whether or not to award you an instrument at the end of a boss. Before the change to the mission select, bosses used to know whether they had been completed before or not - I let it slip past with the change, and bosses would now just inherit the latest decision that had been made in a normal level as to whether the level had been completed before or not. So if you had gone back to try an earlier mission and then immediately done a boss afterwards, you would get no instrument for completing the boss.

- The arrows are now coloured depending on what type of level they're pointing to (with an inverted black and white one for bosses) and no longer reel about like Tony Kakko in a music video

- Fixed the strange score dip at the end of levels. I believe what was happening was that it would use the score from the time that the game was last saved (when you last got a synth item or did anything else of much significance). The game now saves when you touch the orb/gem.

- Prevented cranes on FFB/C from pushing you through walls - the animation may still be off sometimes. (I apologize, but as you can probably imagine, my arsedness level is rapidly diminishing)

- Finished and activated the spinning torch things in Haze Sands C.

- Corrected the way that Spark didn't fire if you were jumping, if you had it in slot 2. It was a copy and paste error (bah).

- Corrected the way that Water++ would fire backwards if you hit it too much. It was an MMF error (grr).

- Replaced only time Reach was used in the entire game with a Fire receptor instead.

- The Bridge spell can now be used as an alternative to get the recipe in Magma Falls B

- "Get X gems in combos" missions reworded to "Get X combo bonus points" because I can't remember enough about my own game to be able to disallow points gained from synth items.

- "Finish with X shards or more" missions now give you a "failed" X icon when there are no longer enough shards in the level to be able to complete the mission

- All synth rewards are now drawn

- Fixed crash in Dust Hill A after not beating the ghost. I'm still unsure how it happened, but I think it might be to do with its path movement (one of the very few things in the game that uses this) taking it outside the play area. The ghost is now destroyed when it reaches the gem.

- Reworked missions in GRA to make at least some of them possible by human hands

- DHA missions reordered to encourage finding the Boost spell

- Site: Completed the entire Rewards list on scorecards and neatened it up.

- Fixed long-standing mistake in Walnut Creek A where a synth item appeared on the scorecard instead of the Magic bottle

- Fixed other long-standing mistake in Walnut Creek A where the water didn't go all the way to the edge of the playfield

- Fixed Megapotions and Superpotions being the wrong way round on the Game Clear screen

- Fixed Risen walking off platforms in Haze Sands B

- Stopped explosions from appearing on mummies when jumping on sandticks

- Couple of graphical fixes to the very first boss

- Fixed purple lines in Music Castle! I misinterpreted the original report and was looking in the wrong place.

- Fixed bug in Magma Lizard where he could be reactivated once dead.

- Redrew Magma Lizard, which now looks fantastic

- Fixed dodgy wall platforms in Walled Garden C

- Stopped Haste shadow appearing when player is invisible

- Prevented access to inventory screen until you've had the Synthesizer conversation

- Drew the last of the synth rewards - all done now

- Corrected joystick control on ingredients menu

- Extended the maximum size of the scorecard menu - later players ran out of room(!)

- Fixed background on MFA

- And GRA

- Unterribilized the start of Grassland Ruin B

- Blades at the top of IWC now go up a bit more

- When you went to the Ingredients menu and back, the spell under your cursor on the spells page would become selected. That's been fixed

- Fixed fake spring in Dust Hill C

- Fixed scrolling past the end of the list in Rewards menu

- Fixed joystick movement in Rewards menu

- Site: Added note for 90% completion, as people are now getting this far D:

- Fixed extra synth item in TTC - a Synth3 was placed in the level by mistake instead of a Synth2, so it didn't count as anything. The correct synth item is in the same place now as the old one, for those who found it.

- Synth markers should now be destroyed correctly if there's no synth item there

- ACA Violet text changed to match at 5000 points

- Secu-orb in FFC moved to correct layer

- FFC Violet mission text corrected (now consistently says 8 seconds)

- Fixed start-of-level text in ACC

- Activated boost arrows in ACC

- Added restart point in Music Castle for ACC (it put you back to the start of the game once you exited it!)

- Withered the flowers in Walled Garden C

- "Finish with 100 shards or more" now works in WGC

- Added more magic vials to WGA

- FINALLY redrew the placeholder Music Castle symbol at the start of the level

- Probably fixed inactive receptor in IWB

- Gem now comes to you in ACA Creeps

- Uploaded the spell icons to the site

- Fixed restart point for Lava Tank

- Added more (i.e. some) health and magic vials to LTC

- Probably fixed double jump on the platform at the start of TTC

- Made magic blocks fade instead of disappear in WGB, FFC

- Adjusted WCC to make completing it without magic remotely possible

- Haze Sands C crooks added to make getting to the finish possible without magic!

- Fixed background in Music Castle near Kilopede

- Virtually doubled Lava Tank's health

- ExtraHoriz (on boost/jump off wall) should now be reset when you're standing on a platform, preventing sliding across the floor if you only just make it to a platform.

- Removed accidental mission select on final boss - spoiled the mood somewhat!

- Pause screen changed to show boss names correctly when in boss levels

- WGC checkpoints mission difficulty balanced. (To "very difficult")

- Changed Grassland Ruin A layout to remove most of the descending-platform sections

- Fixed Reveal-O-Wraith actions in Grassland Ruin

- Portal Opener should now re-open the bosses immediately on getting it

- Added button sounds everywhere

- Really fixed the persistent item in FFA this time

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VERSION T8
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General important things in rough order of increasing mundanity

- There is now a mission select screen every time you enter a portal to a level, rather than just after the eighth time when you've already done all the missions. Missions that have been completed are selectable again, and the cursor defaults to the latest incomplete one, which is given the description "???".

- Added display of reward items and medal to mission select screen

- The synth list is now sorted rather than displayed in the order you picked up the recipes. Recipes that produce reward items (like Quartz Flask, Gem Sonar) come first, followed by normal items (Diamond, Chaos Stone), and then reward recipes that have already been used. Each category is sorted alphabetically. What more do you want? :)

- Double jump handling changed, to avoid occasional misfires (this happened the next time you tried to double jump after landing on a platform that you didn't have to fall down to reach)

- Target number of scrolls raised to 32 - the previous total didn't include the five in the Music Castle

- Double jump prevented when climbing down from a vine

- Launch pad strength revised after actually testing it. New effect on these, too

- Fixed phantom message in Music Castle next to Luminous Tower A - messages were displayed on invisible notes by accident, and they would show not their own message but whatever the last one said (or "ITEM TEXT" by default).

- Made reward items appear normal and not gigantic when accessed from the synth menu (unsure if I broke this before or after the release of T7)

- Correct icons added to mission select screen - had forgotten to keep adding them for the past several years

- Fixed demented enemy counter on "time with enemies" missions

- Neatened up plant for entry to the Walled Garden

- Increased limit of Walled Garden plant growth (two more tiles)

- Made one quakable block in Music Castle more obvious

- Prevented entrance to Synth menu if player has no recipes

- Moved Azure Cliffs B ring up a little so that the orbs/gems display can be seen from the platform

Corrections within levels

- The starting position for Flying Fortress A has been wrong since I started releasing test copies. You started halfway through the level - it's now been put back where it belongs and might affect the completability of this level's missions.

- Changed beetles in Dust Hill to stop them going through walls (how did this survive so late on?)

- WCC Red now teleports the gem to you

- Corrected third synth item persistence in Twisted Tropics B

- And the second and third ones in Flying Fortress B!

- Fixed persistent items in FFA and FFC, too

- Made cling platforms invisible in FFB/FFC

- Gem comes to you now on LTC Violet

- And MFB Violet

- Added visible "anti-grav field" to MFC

- Added health and magic vials to TTB - they were on the wrong layer

- Added health vials to GRA

- Made Glus enemies in WGC worth points (oops)

- Cleaned up patches in Walled Garden C

- Walled Garden B and C letters corrected at the start of the level

- Missile launchers are now finished in Flying Fortress B and C

- Extended lift shaft at start of Magma Falls C so you can't peek past the edge of the level

- Made the Lasturret lightning respect the Earth Amulet's damage bonus

- Finished the spark pods in Luminous Tower C

- Realized that my confusion as to why the electricity from the left and right poles in Flying Fortress was escaping was because I had named the left and right ones the wrong way around. BLAST

- Magmyte glow when moving is now much more obvious

- Probably fixed possibility of leaving hovering electric field above guard towers in Luminous Tower B/C

- Realigned Azure Cliffs text so that it stays in place during level start

- Gem now comes to you in ACB Orange

- Added a spring to ACB to make running through without magic possible

- Checkpoints mission in HSC fixed and possibilized

- Haze Sands B boost point activated

- Spell durations fixed in Flying Fortress A

Corrections and changes to game data

- LTC lights mission description clarified

- "500 points" requirement in HSC corrected to 5000

- Gems-in-time mission in WGC corrected to show correct numbers

- Made electricity between poles damaging in FFB/C

- Rebalanced item drops a bit, including making Air Stones and Glowing Rocks more prevalent

Completely unimportant things

- Corrected a long-standing bug in the parsing of recipes that are unlocked by completing other recipes. The reason you haven't noticed this is because this feature is never used anywhere in the game, but I felt I had to fix it for the sake of completeness.

- Drew a few more synth rewards - nearly there now

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VERSION T7
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General/gameplay considerations

- Screen size default changed to 2X (640x480)

- Rebalanced levels to try to avoid "droughts" of large amounts of gems between opening levels. The most significant change is Azure Cliffs A, which now comes much earlier - you may find it suddenly open on reloading your save.

- Added a "Rewards" page to the pause/synth menus, accessible once you've got at least one synth reward

- Changed Double Jump so that it doesn't fire when you're on the cling walls, and so that you can double jump after every time you're propelled upwards (not just once per leaving the ground).

- Drew loads more synth rewards, half of those are now complete

- Changed end-of-level sting to a sound - it should work consistently now

- Ludicrous damage of later enemies scaled back - now the game starts off with enemies doing 2-3 points, then goes up so that it's normal for the later ones to be in the 6-7-8 range rather than 15(!) as before. Exceptions are really stupid things like allowing yourself to be hit on the head by a Twisted Tropics boulder.

- "Get X shards while in a combo" wording changed to "while in combos" (as you don't need one continuous string)

- "Laser" in ingredients display (no longer used) changed to "Luck Shard"

- Gem-decreasing levels now show the gems flying out of you as you go!

- Redistributed damage levels for the spells on bosses, with respect to the way that Fire costs double Water

- Fixed Megapotion and Superpotion synth reward effects when you pick them up, so that health/magic is retained (if you've already got either of these, I need to fix the save)



Hub changes

- Stopped Bernard from sinking eccentrically into the floor when playing at the top of the Music Castle

- Doubled hub magic regeneration rate

- Hid "F.B." marker in Music Castle

- The arrows in the Music Castle now flash if they're pointing towards a boss.

- The arrows are no longer displayed on the roof (as they're pretty much meaningless there)

- Fixed quakable platforms - it's the only place where there's more than one.

- Fixed spikes negative-health madness down at the bottom



Level-specific corrections

- Fixed synth item persisting in Azure Cliffs A

- Added magic vials to GRA

- Hid scroll markers in MFC

- Fixed background peek in GRB

- Gem now comes to the player at the end of DHB-R

- Gem now comes to the player at the end of HSB Sarcophagus mission

- Arrow now disappears on HSB sarcophagus mission if too close (disguises badly placed hot spot as well as twitchy arrow)

- ACA-O said "Get 50 in one minute" but actually behaved as "Get 60 in 50 seconds". I had the codes the wrong way round for these and it's likely to have happened elsewhere, too.

- Slopes, background, generally not falling clean through platforms in Magma Falls C should be better now.

- MFC Orange mission text corrected

- ACB bridges corrected

- LTC "base of the tower" mission is now 7 seconds instead of 3 and is possible (the noise at the start of the level is a bug, where the timer sound plays repeatedly if it starts below 5 seconds, but this was the only mission to encounter it)

- Luminous Tower C - brought arrow backgrounds to the back of the player

- Targets display fixed in Dust Hill B

- And Walled Garden C

- And Azure Cliffs C