So much big Hallow news today. First of all, in a couple of days, we will be releasing the Editor Update. This is a major overhaul of how the editor works to improve it all around. New features and changes include:
Copy/Paste tool (pictured)! Select regions and paste them elsewhere.
Flood Fill tool (you can see the button in the picture)! The usual, you know how it works.
All the menus have changed to cuddly icons (pictured too! What a handy picture).
Sound effects, fun!
Background music (change it by placing any costume to hear that costume's music).
Sound and music toggle buttons so you don't have to hear that stuff I just said!
Hold SHIFT to draw a line from your last click. Something I instinctively tried to do all the time, now actually works.
CTRL-Z to undo! SO handy!
Smoother/easier gamepad controls. I don't think anybody is doing any editing on their gamepad, but it's better now than it was.
The Grab tool ("G" key) is now smarter - if you grab a spot that only has an Overlay tile, it will switch you to that layer, or vice versa. Much easier to use.
A "Friends" tab, which just contains Kid, all the costumes, and Baby Penguin and Princess. Easier to find.
A "Recent" tab, which contains the last 25 tiles you used. Just handy for not digging through the menus to find what you were using over and over.
And lastly, the cursor now shows you the tool you're using, in case you forgot!
This update is just for the builders and it should make editing much more user friendly and fun! So what update do we have for the players??
The Winter Challenge! I think the picture pretty much explains it. On December 22nd, a whole bunch of new winter-themed levels are going to appear in Kid Hallow, all at once. You'll find them under the "Winter Challenge" button in the menu. Play them, do well, and you will win a Winter Medal!
The top 3 total scores on that set of levels will earn a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Winter Medal by their name, which will stay by their name until next year's Winter Challenge! Rub it in their noses all year! You have until January 10th to crush the competition. Good luck and happy holidays.
The Sci-Fi Pack is coming to Kid Hallow! It will be a free update with 20some new tiles/monsters/etc, 3 new costumes, one or two new backgrounds, new music, and some special features.
Goo Valve
You know those levels in many platformers where you hop your way up a bunch of platforms, desperately avoiding the lava rising beneath you? It's time for that terror to come to Kid Hallow!
The good news is, as you saw in the video, Goo isn't actually immediately dangerous. It's just the same as water. But you still need to act fast because of course you can't stay in it for long without drowning. Unless you're the Penguin, then this is all just good fun.
You can Monster Flip Goo Valves if you want the level to begin with them open (and it will also start filled with goo up to the level of your highest pre-opened valve, so you don't have to start with an empty level).
Radical Ranger
The bonus for the ranger was a pretty obvious choice that probably took me much too long to realize: a quiver full of trick arrows! I DID create this ability (but not this video!) before the Hawkeye series came out. You get:
Rocket Arrows: Replacing your normal arrows, these work the same, but if you tap any direction during their flight, they instantly rocket in that direction (once). Their other feature is that they light stuff on fire when they hit. Fire is a new Sci-Fi Pack feature that several things use. As you might expect, it can spread (just a little though - we didn't want it to get insane), and it does damage over time. It also creates light, and if a burning enemy dies, the fire is left behind for the rest of its duration, so you aren't cheated out of your light (or the potential to ignite other enemies). And you may notice in this video that it can even burn up Crates! Very handy trick (unless you need the Crate, then it's not great). It can also burn up all those nasty tree enemies that have always been invincible.
Zipline Arrows: They create a zipline from where you fire them to where they hit. It's just a handy way to cross wide gaps. And of course you can only go downhill on them, so while you can fire the zipline upward, you'll have to get up to that higher point in order to ride the line back down.
Sonic Arrows: They reveal everything in an area for a little while. The coolest trick with them is that they will stick in enemies, so you can make an enemy carry your vision somewhere you can't reach! They're also supposed to confuse bats, but I haven't implemented that yet. In fact, I had forgotten about it until right now, so I'm making a note.
Decoy Arrows: These just create an astonishingly accurate model of the Ranger to distract enemies. They won't prefer it to you, but they will attack whichever one is closer. While making this video I was quickly realizing that decoys do not survive enough damage! I think I'll be raising their health. Their best use is probably just holding down pressure pads for you, as using them as actual decoys is pretty difficult.
You only get 3 of each arrow type (other than Rocket), but you can refill them at a Medbay, or you gain one of each type for each Candy Corn/Cane you collect. Use them wisely!
The Sci-Fi Pack is coming to Kid Hallow! It will be a free update with 20some new tiles/monsters/etc, 3 new costumes, one or two new backgrounds, new music, and some special features.
Medbay
I am often racking my brain to come up with ways to lean Kid Hallow more towards easier levels. There's not much I can do, since any new obstacle will always be used to its most evil possible purposes by our builders. But here's one thing I came up with - you can include it in your levels to provide a sort of checkpoint (only sort of - if you die, you're dead!). As players screw up, they can come back to the Medbay for a full refill to try again.
Of course, it also has evil uses. The Medbay heals enemies just as effectively, so you can make semi-immortal foes. Another, sneakier, use is that the Medbay removes the effect of Black Hearts on enemies, so you could have an enemy with WAY too much health, and the player has to lure them to a Medbay to remove it before pummeling them.
You can of course Monster Flip Medbays to start them turned off if you want the player to have to work for it.
One thing the video completely skips, because you don't know about it yet, is that there are a couple of costumes which (in Power Pill form) use consumable resources (things like ammo). The Medbay also refills those.
Happiest Stick Ninja
For the first time, our resident ninja actually has a way to hurt enemies! And not just hurt them... Those backstabs and dives do 5 damage, which is more than enough to one-shot almost every enemy in the game! The backstab from the shadows was actually the very first move I came up with for the Power Pill. It's the basis of the whole idea that the pill gives everybody different new abilities.
The Happy Place is another new ability - the thought here was that he had Stickman abilities (fitting through grates, walking on clouds) and Ninja abilities (wall jumps, stealth), but no Happy abilities. So now he has a teleport target you can place anywhere you like (press Down+Action to place it), and return to at anytime. Well, anytime you can find solid ground to stand on (Down+Jump teleports you back to it). Imagine the puzzle potential!
And of course he has Air Dashes (Tap Action in midair). Classic ninjutsu. If you are concerned about being able to stick to the ceiling with this new ability, you can prevent Air Dashing by holding Jump or Up. It sounds complicated, but it's actually quite natural - holding Up+Action actually was how you stuck to the ceiling in the original Costume Party!
Goo Valve
Medbay