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.
STRAIGHT FACTS
The pack is coming soon, but we still have weeks more previews to preview! So I have to start jamming them in. No more fun, just straight facts. Check out the video to see all the action.
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.
BOUAPHA AFTER DARK
I'm sure everybody is familiar with Bouapha's late night talk show, but in case you missed this episode, I've pulled out a clip to show you info on Bouapha's Power Pill abilities, the new Light Switch tile (which is heavily featured during the talk show, in a sneaky way), and two new level modifiers which light the level up (or not) in different ways.
Since the video is basically insane and mildly embarrassing for me personally, here's the deets:
Bouapha's power pill gives him two upgrades: triple hammers (that fly faster than normal), and skeleton keys. That means that any keys he picks up will be replaced by Yellow Keys, which open doors of any color.
The Light Switch is triggered by anybody touching it, or by electricity from a wire. Either way, what it does is very simple: it turns all Light tiles in the level to Dark, and vice versa. Lots of possibilities there for dark levels as well as Vampire funtimes/torture.
One new level lighting option is Line Of Sight, which is fully lit, but you can't see through walls (and items do not create any light - there's no way to see past a wall except for the Sonic Arrow the Ranger fires).
The other new one is Pitch Black, which is like the normal Darkness mode, except that your character doesn't produce any light. So they will have to use Light Switches, Candles, electricity, torches, fireplaces, and all sorts of things to see where they are going.
Side story: in addition to having 4 lighting options, we've also upgraded the 2 camera options into 4, which I'm not going to make a video about since, you know, it looks the same, just bigger. We've now got 3x Zoom, and a different version of 2x Zoom that should be popular: it tries to capture all the Kids in the level at once, instead of focusing on one. If they got too far apart, it's not going to show any of them, but if your level is designed appropriately, this will let the player keep an eye on all their kids at once.
Bonus story: this week I've sponsored a bunch of streams of Kid Hallow (search for it on Twitch and Youtube!), and one big thing I've noticed is that every one of them that tries the Bouapha training level asks "What is a Bouapha?" (only without being able to pronounce Bouapha). So I was inspired to make the Bouapha After Dark video, you know, to make it even more confusing!
But look for those streams, it's pretty fun to see them gradually begin to understand the madness.
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.
STAR WARPS!
I admit this is not the best of my Sci-Fi Pack videos... but it is definitely the best new Sci-Fi Pack feature! With Warp Gates, you now have the power to swap between two universes while editing. They can be completely different in every way if you like. But the player will be able to warp between them at the Warp Gate locations.
Some fun facts and perhaps future FAQs:
Placing or removing a Warp Gate in one universe affects the other one as well, Warp Gates are always in identical pairs.
When the player is in one universe, the other universe is frozen. This can be useful in puzzles. For example: get a Gargoyle into position under a Warp Gate in one world, then swap to the other, making your way to that first Warp Gate, and dropping down onto the Gargoyle who will be right where you left him.
If you have multiple Kids, you won't swap universes until all of the Kids have either exited the level or traveled through a Warp Gate to join you.
You have to collect all the Candy Corn/Canes in both universes for Exits to open.
Sorry, Princesses and Penguins cannot warp (neither can any monsters). Imagine if they could - they'd all just pile up on the gate, since the other universe isn't moving until you get there!
Your level only has 2 universes if it contains Warp Gates. If you want the player to only use Ghost powers to swap between universes, you'll just have to stick a Warp Gate in a corner of the map they can't reach!
We also cover the Ghost Power Pill in the video. As you can see, he has 3 new powers:
Gravity no longer affects him at all (and BOOing now kicks you straight back instead of up and back), which should make Ghost Mazes somewhat more relaxing. Somewhat.
He can pass through walls, as long as they are only 1 tile wide! Just hold the Jump button and push against them to do that.
And most importantly, if there is a second universe, you can simply hold down for 2 seconds to transubstantiate yourself over to it! This only works on the ground, in places where both universes are completely empty. Not even overlay tiles can be there. This allows builders to limit where you can do it without having to put anything solid in the way.
Hopefully the concept of the KHU multiverse is getting your brain juices flowing for all the insane level building possibilities! At the very least, you can make levels that are twice as big now!
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.
ROBOT WANTS CANDY!
Robot, of Robot Wants It All fame, is Kid Hallow's newest costume! Robot plays in a totally different way than any other costume - initially, he can only move left and right (not even jumping!). But collecting a Power Pill doesn't turn him into a super beast like every other costume. Rather, it just gives him one new ability. He can collect up to 14 Power Pills to get all of his abilities, and the person who created the level has a way to decide the order in which you get abilities. Check out the video and see what Robot is up to lately!
And by the way, if you find this costume intriguing, be sure to check out Robot Wants It All - 6 games in one, and in each one Robot has an entirely different array of abilities! And yep, he starts out only being able to move left and right (in the first game anyway).
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.
Hovercrate
This began life as the idea of a crate that Frank can shove, which doesn't stop moving (and ignores gravity). But then I realized it was basically a moving platform, so I added the ability to trigger it via electricity, so you can do all the moving platform tricks you like in games. Make an elevator, a jumping puzzle, or a smasher. But remember that Frank (and some others) can undo all your hard work with one quick headbutt!
Scary Santa
Santa has had enough of you flinging him to his death over and over, and he's not taking it anymore.
Obviously the best Power Pill of them all, and it doesn't need any explanation. Except maybe that the Stockings turning green is when Santa puts coal in them. If an enemy collects a Stocking filled with coal, they catch on fire, and you get double points, and a flaming present is dropped, which you can of course detonate at will.
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!
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.
Junction Box
Wires have always been an interesting, and high-tech, aspect of Kid Hallow levels. But they're a little bit limited in what they can do. The Sci-Fi Pack seemed like the perfect time to spice that up, since, you know, technology and whatnot.
The junction box turns wires into a real puzzle: first of all, it only works in one direction (and you can use it just for that, if you want to stop electricity from looping back to your switches). Electricity flows in from the left side and goes out the right side. You can also Monster Flip it to make it work right-to-left.
Then, if it gets a charge from below, it consumes that charge and switches, and now when it gets energy from the side, it sends it upward instead of sideways. So you can set up switches in your level that reroute electricity. What's it for? I don't know man, this is a deep cut for the hardcore level builders. Program a computer inside your Kid Hallow level!
Vicious Vampire
I'm really proud of today's video. Come on, that's a fun one! Behold the modern Vampire, with his sparkles and giant bats. To clarify a bit of what you're seeing: the bats normally seek out enemies and bite them up to 3 times, and then return to you. You heal up 1 heart for every 3 bites your bats have gotten. However, if the bats aren't smart enough for you, you can hold down the Action button to mind control your bat for a while, allowing you to engage in precision battery. I'm really looking to open the game up with new types of gameplay with these Power Pills, and this one is definitely doing that. This is not just a simple upgrade, it's a whole different set of problems and solutions, and as a level builder you can combine it with non-Power-Pill Vampires and all the other costumes in both forms to make an infinite number of puzzles and challenges.
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.
Multipass (Red, Blue, Green)
Remember Pressure Pads? Ah, such fun. Well, at first a Multipass seems like the same thing:
Step inside the Multipass, stuff switches!
But it's called a Multipass for a reason! It's kind of the opposite of a Pressure Pad - instead of triggering when anybody steps on any of them, it triggers only once all of them are occupied (and untriggers as soon as anybody leaves). So it's about setting up a situation where you get somebody or something onto all of the Multipasses. Pressure Pads send a spark downward (if there's a wire below them) as soon as someone steps on them. Multipasses won't send a spark until all Multipasses of the same color are occupied. Also, it goes in the Overlay Layer rather than the normal Tile Layer. It's not the most amazing and unique element, but I think it adds a couple new types of puzzles you can build. That's the goal with this pack, to create things that open up new level design possibilities instead of just more monsters to bite you.
Kandy-Kraving Kid
We got a full-on video for you today! The Kid may not be the biggest powerhouse in the game (in fact, he is definitely the weakest, by a mile), but with a Power Pill, he can actually start to do some stuff that nobody else can do. I made sure to stay true to his complete inability to harm anyone, but at least he can get a little pushy now.
Hovercrate
Goo Valve
Medbay
Junction Box
Multipass (Red, Blue, Green)
Step inside the Multipass, stuff switches!
But it's called a Multipass for a reason! It's kind of the opposite of a Pressure Pad - instead of triggering when anybody steps on any of them, it triggers only once all of them are occupied (and untriggers as soon as anybody leaves). So it's about setting up a situation where you get somebody or something onto all of the Multipasses. Pressure Pads send a spark downward (if there's a wire below them) as soon as someone steps on them. Multipasses won't send a spark until all Multipasses of the same color are occupied. Also, it goes in the Overlay Layer rather than the normal Tile Layer. It's not the most amazing and unique element, but I think it adds a couple new types of puzzles you can build. That's the goal with this pack, to create things that open up new level design possibilities instead of just more monsters to bite you.