The prototype for Spectrum Break is done, and thus for the past 2 weeks I've been working on the rest of the levels. 16 are done already!

I've also been working on minor adjustments to improve the feel of the game, which get uploaded to the demo weekly.

Break Things. Make Rainbows.

Use your platforming skills to light up every block. There are no defined routes. Even when seemingly defeated, there is almost always another way to win.

The particle effects look cool. Nice work

This week I've been organizing friends to playtest the first 32 levels of the game.  It's about an hour of gameplay so far. To smooth out the learning curve I've ended up adding a lot more levels before the arrow platform is introduced than I expected. So it looks like each new platform type will be used for 20 levels. Either way, the results have been good. :)

Theprototype now includes 10 levels, and has gained numerous small improvements to the controls, camera, respawning, and effects.

Level 39 and all it's glory. There is a lot you can do with some simple force physics, and it's an interesting twist to what people expect of moving platforms. When you touch an arrow platform it pushes itself in that direction.

This is where the secret platform is in level 2. Each level has an invisible red box that is revealed when something comes close. When you activate a secret box and finish the levels, that level shows up as red in the level select menu.

Here is what is currently level 13 of the game. The later levels have gotten much larger than the earlier levels.

If you'd like more specific details on the changes you can check out the full changelog here https://spectrumbreak.com/blog/

Up to 37 levels now and fixed up player movement a bit. I've been working on my pitch and getting feedback from some local game developers.

Break Things. Make Rainbows.

Gif of level 22

This week was one of planning. I've done three blind playtests this week and with it comes several edits to old levels and a better idea of the features that will be included when the game is done.

If you are wondering why the rotation tutorial is removed, it is because I think I will be turning it off by default, and adding a "Manual" rotation setting as an option.

Changelog

Edited several levels and added 3 more (now at 37 total).

Jumping off a steep incline will now rotate the player to a standing position.

Removed the rotation controls from the level one tutorial.

Darkened the orange color.

Added a short respawn time.

In addition to the improved glow effects, I've added some community suggestions this week like a speed run mode.

I have enough automatic rotation now to turn off the rotation controls that most players had difficulty with, but I'm a big fan of hard games so a manual rotation mode has been added that brings the control scheme to its roots.

With 40 levels done it's about time I started finishing up some of the features I've planned. The coming weeks will involve a lot more coding, animation and sound effects.

Changelog

Improved glow effects.

Added new music for levels 21-40.

The lighting of the scene no longer changes as the platforms are hit.

Added 3 levels and replaced an old level with a better one.

Edited several levels.

Darkened a few bright colors.

Removed some unneeded serialized data.

Replaced auto skip with speedrun mode. Toggling this on skip the level view times and shows the following timers while playing. Level time, Best Time, Session Time.

Added manual rotation mode.

Rotation controls are now turned off by default.

Added manual rotation mode. Toggling this on turns off most automatic rotation and enables the rotation controls.

Two massive changes this week.

1. You can now download the Spectrum Break demo on Android.

2. Sound effects have been added.

I'll be at the Capital Gaming Expo in Montreal this weekend. If you're a game developer and want to meet up, you can find me there.

Changelog

Created an android demo (including mobile menu, HUD, tutorial, and optimization).

Added sound effects.

Added credits level.

Set a maximum particle effect limit for massive platforms.

The level select menu now selects to current level immediately.

Removed the level name text in the menu.

Edited read me.

Made menu text much larger.

Changed player particles to bright red.

Added rotation control images to the settings menu.

So I went to CGX Montreal and had a good time. The feedback I got there had changed the tutorials of the game. I realized that no one reads on screen tutorial text.

On Saturday I had a full day where all I did was clean the codebase and optimize. It felt pretty great. I'm going to another event in Montreal soon. I'll have a booth at the Montreal Indie Games Festival in November.

As a side note I discovered this week that I could make meme levels in 15 minutes or less. I'll have to think of something.

Changelog

Removed text tutorials. Removed old level 1 and moved those tutorials to the old levels 2 & 4, which are now levels 1 and 3.

Added a new level 4 and edited several old levels.

Improved camera shake.

Added the following sounds. Menu select, block collision, secret activating.

The main menu now includes the main character jumping across the letters.

Increased particle color. Reduced the falling stars size to compensate.

Cleaned codebase and optimized code.

Increase player horizontal control.

Fixed a bug which would enable double jumping.

The game now checks if all the blocks left are off screen and adjusts the view to compensate (checked when a block is hit).

Changed player collision particles to be a darker red.

Increased block glow size slightly.

It's getting pretty crazy on my end. I've been developing while working out the logistics of what my next step is. I would really like to be able to develop full time. I might try raising the funds to do that.

I've applied for a government grant and I think the presentation went well. Wish me luck because if we get selected we'll be getting another developer. Which means more content.

I have a gaming booth at the Montreal Indie Games Festival next week. There will be all 40 levels there if you want to try it and meet me in person.

Changelog

Merged the better parts of 2 old levels into one level.

Removed an old level that didn't have enough purpose.

Added 2 more levels to replace the 2 above.

Added level complete text.

Added reset button image to the menu.

Added teleport to the credits.

New Icon.

The music now fades when it changes.

Blocks no longer play particles again on win, if the block already has particles.

Added screen shot key 'P'.

Fixed the wall jump tutorial instantly fading away.

You can now skip the initial camera look with any input.

Temporarily removed the already activated block collide sound.

Follow Us

Website https://spectrumbreak.com/

Twitter https://twitter.com/JasonDavid...

Hey, It's been 3 weeks and I have not been idle. With the first 35 levels done I have switched to making levels for another block type and adding polish features. It feels pretty good to have most of the game release ready.

With this update my to-do list has started to shorten, and a lot of the polishing is done. The main menu looks awesome. It's just about levels, APIs, testing, and releasing now, with the exception of the odd new feature I come up with. I have a few I may add.

The steam page is in progress. Now that the visuals have gotten a final tune up I can finally make the final screenshots and videos for the store pages. A lot of people have been asking about the release date. I do not have one yet, but I believe 4-5 months is a good bet. I want to be patient and release a complete game.

Great news! I now work on Spectrum Break full time. There are no distractions now.

For the past 3 weeks I have been testing and making levels. Level 36+ are massive compared to some of the earlier ones (including the prototype levels) so they take quite some time to make. You can see some of them above as I needed screenshots for the store page when it is ready. We've begun working on the trailer now. When that's done we'll be ready to announce release dates.

A few days ago I had a friend playtest the game while I watched and it took him over 2 and a half hours to beat the game. Considering he's played the game before things are looking good in terms of content.

My winter break was relaxing. I spent some time with family and friends, played the games I didn't have time for this year, and finally have enough saved up to work on the game full time. As stressful as things can be trying to get everything ready, I can't ignore how well everything seems to be going. It's awesome.

Changelog

7 levels added. Level count is now 50 (45 are well playtested).

Added slants to shaped blocks.

Added new arrow block sounds.

Removed the static from the credits music.

Increased menu font size.

Removed odd lines that were visible on the A and R blocks.

Slightly reduced the respawn time and initial look time.

You can now jump on the attachment lines of attached blocks.

The camera now checks if any blocks are on screen once every 2s, and attempts to change the view to keep at least one unlit block on screen.

Removed right thumbstick and D-pad input due to windows 7 input bug (unity bug).

Secrets are now always revealed. They are still a challenge to collect.

If speedrun mode is enabled the credits will show session time, and the number of secrets collected this session. These counts are reset when you enter the main menu, and become active when you enter any level from the main menu.

Reduced the player move sound.

When a secret is hit, the pie chart at the top right gains a red tint.

Increased the stand up rate of the player.

This week we've been working on stuff for the steam page and polishing the game.

After going through a few more playtesters the 50 levels we have now are well playtested. I've started working with the steam api so if you have ideas for cool achievements, now is the time to share.

Changelog

Edited levels (50 are now well playtested).

Fixed not being able to select the rotation sensitivity slider in scenes other than the one you changed the manual rotation toggle in.

Updated some of the smaller letters.

Reduced launcher volume.

Increased minimum zoom. Reduced zooming out.

Reduced final block influence on the camera.

Added attached jump particles.

Added a select sound for joysticks and keyboard input.

You can now go slightly off screen without resetting the level.

Changed arrow look and shade.

Increased block collision particles.

Blocks that are far off screen now play a particle effect on the edge of the screen.

Started working with the steam api.

With the art for the steam page done we're now almost ready to reveal the release date. Neither of us had made a trailer before so it's taken some time.

The finishing touches have been added, with steam cloud sync and achievements.

We're so close now. Get hyped.

Changelog

Finished steam box art.

Added steam api, achievements, and cloud sync.

Added the api of a console we were accepted to.

Added a new type of block.

Added a texture to static blocks (the platform you start on).

Added a setting to disable the background falling stars (for lower end machines).

Increased tutorial image size.

Optimized credits.

Increased physics accuracy.

Spectrum Break is coming to steam on March 29th!

Thank you all for pushing me to release a full game. I've been working on Spectrum Break for a year and a half now and you have no idea how much releasing this game means to me. :)

You can add Spectrum Break to your steam wishlist now at: http://store.steampowered.com/app/765490/Spectrum_Break/

Please message me! I want to hear from you. https://twitter.com/JasonDavidHein

Spectrum Break is now available on Itch.io as well!

https://jasonhein.itch.io/spectrumbreak