Ripples’ movement received another round of improvements.
A new Boost Jump has been added, giving you another way to keep your momentum going. Dashes now also reset when using bounce pads, making movement chains more consistent.
I also fixed an issue where Ripples wouldn’t enter his dive pose when jumping from bridges. The dive pose itself has been improved as well, although there are still a few situations where it doesn’t behave quite as intended.
The double bounce pads in the demo can now also be grabbed at the edges, making it easier to recover if you miss your landing slightly.
Ripples can now stun enemies with his Stomp, adding another use for the ability during encounters.
I also fixed a fairly serious enemy bug: after being stunned, enemies could stop attacking entirely until Ripples left their detection range and entered it again. They should now recover and continue attacking normally.
I made a few changes to the controls that should make the overall layout feel more natural.
On gamepad, LB is now dedicated to Water Spray, while X is used for interactions. On keyboard, F is now the default Interact key.
Some keyboard prompts are also now displayed alongside the gamepad prompts throughout the level.
This is partly in preparation for a larger UI update planned for the next demo version. The current demo UI will gradually be replaced with the interface intended for the full game, including more settings and button prompts that dynamically switch between keyboard and gamepad controls.
Camera collision with the landscape has been improved to reduce clipping into the environment.
I also reduced the amount of sideways camera rotation by around 30%, resulting in a slightly calmer camera during movement.
Every fully grown plant now rewards you with a Shell, and the spawn effect has been made more noticeable so it’s clearer when the reward appears.
Collecting Water Spirits underwater has also been improved and should now feel a little smoother and more polished.
I made another pass over parts of the landscape and adjusted the tutorial flow slightly based on how players move through the opening section.
The lever could also fail to work correctly in rare cases, leaving Ripples’ hip interaction stuck and preventing further progress. This could effectively act as a showstopper and should now be fixed.
The lever interaction has also been made more forgiving, so the interaction button can now be pressed repeatedly while using it without causing problems.
Fixed enemies sometimes no longer attacking after being stunned.
Fixed a rare lever interaction issue that could leave Ripples stuck and block further progress.
Fixed the dive pose not triggering when jumping from bridges and improved some remaining incorrect behavior.
Improved camera collision with the landscape.
Dashing now correctly resets when using bounce pads.