It’s been a long time since last LEVEL UP! update. I’ve switched it to 2D to make it easier to make new stuff for it, especially bosses. I’m going to update it more regularly now.

In other news, it’s coming to Steam Early Access soon!

The first boss is small and relatively easy to defeat. The ones further in the game will be larger and trickier. Also, bosses will be chosen randomly so you wouldn’t know which one you’ll encounter on a particular play-through.

I’m considering adding procedurally generated enemies next. But for now I’ll switch to working on Arcane Worlds.

As always, more about the game and demo download here.

Well, it took much longer than I expected, mostly due to real-life issues.

The main features for this release are bonuses (health and upgrade points), explosive barrels and new rooms which make levels more varied.

I wanted to add more enemies, but I found the collision system to be quite buggy, especially in object-to-object collisions. So I rewrote it from scratch. The new collision system doesn’t distinguish between the level voxels and objects/characters, and it’s much faster. It’ll make adding destructible bosses much easier too. So, I decided to release it now as is, and add more enemies in the next version.

Demo download and more info about the game.

New demo can be downloaded too.

Tiles were exported from Sproxel development version by my Python plug-in.

I’m going to make a tech demo of Arcane Worlds now, so you can download it and test how it runs on your hardware. Non-interactive probably.

I’ve been working mostly on Sproxel this week.
Changes so far:

• Python bindings for Sproxel palettes, layers and sprites.
• New project format that can store multiple sprites and palettes.
• Palette widget and improved color editing.
• Creating and editing 8-bit indexed (256 color) sprites.

Still to go:

• Reworking undo/redo system to support multiple sprites and palette editing.
• Sprite list widget.
• Initial python plug-ins framework.
• An example plug-in: LEVEL UP! level blocks exporter.

Here’s a video:

Also, you can buy LEVEL UP! now for just $5 and get free updates up to the release version.

I’m now improving Sproxel so I can make all those numerous voxel blocks for LEVEL UP! levels, and more enemies too.

Things I still need to do before I can release first pre-alpha demo:

• “LEVEL UP!” elevator effect.
• Some UI to select upgrades between levels.
• Some level design.
• Technical improvements – all voxels are rendered dynamically now, which is very slow.

The goal of each level in LEVEL UP! is to reach the exit platform. When you do it, the platform raises your character up to the next level, and you can choose some upgrades: increase attributes, get new skills, new weapons, that kind of RPG stuff.
I also plan to make levels procedurally generated, Spelunky-style.
Oh, and huge bosses that you can “dig” through and destroy them from inside.

LEVEL UP! is a crazy mix of side-scrolling platformer/shooter and some role-playing elements.

I’m going with “new retro” style for it, for several reasons. So, I decided to try voxels (3D pixels), and it turned out quite well.

Special thanks to Sproxel – it’s in early development, but already very useful.

Coming soon: character control and shooting, resulting in a video of violent voxel destruction!