CANDY QUEST PROGRESS UPDATE

Heyo everyone, I’m just wanting to make a progress/update post about Candy Quest to let y’all know what will be and what is currently being worked on. First though I just want to say thank you to whoever checked out the first demo and to those who provided feedback, it’s great to see people caring about this project and wanting it to come out at the best quality it can! The current plan is to get the general mechanics/features of the game set in stone before I start to work on more worlds past the Frightful Forest. Once done, I’ll be releasing a new demo with the features listed below.

New Level Layouts:

Each of the four main levels are having their layouts completely overhauled. The original levels were made pretty early on in development before I really knew what I wanted the structure of the game to be, I find them to be pretty cluttered and clunky so I’m changing them. They’re generally more open now to allow the player to make better use of the BOO Burst, and I’ve lessened the difficulty and made them more forgiving. A new level element that is a part of this are solid blocks you can break thanks to Platformer +. The back of the Spooky Store is also slightly tweaked with different positions for the Boouncer enemies.

New Colors:

The Frightful Forest is having its palette swapped to be more autumnal to better fit the theming of Halloween. The player/enemies/more are having their palettes changed to have the originally dark outlines to be brighter. Some more general changes are being made like having the dark tiles in the dark version of the Store Back be a bit more visible.

New Collectable System:

There will now be 3 main collectables to get in each main level. Some kind of big Candy Corn, which you get by collecting all of the Candy Corn in a level. The Lollipop, which can still be found in the challenge rooms via the Lollipop Doors. A new type of gummy candy that will be rewarded to the player at the end of the level if they make it there without dying, replacing the originally free Lollipop that sat beside the exit door. The Spooky Store and any other future bonus levels will have their own unique candy reward for completing them. All of these candies will count towards 100% completion of the game/getting different endings based upon completion %.

(Some spooky ghost gummy mockups)

Misc changes:

• Candy Corns will heal the player when collected by ½HP.
• The trigger for falling into pits now only activates when the player touches the bottom of the screen. (Before, the would activate upon touching the top of the lowest tile of the scene, not the very bottom.)
• The player now has knockback when damaged.

Introduction/Tutorial changes:

(I’m not fully sure if these will be a part of the next demo, but these are changes I would like to include for the introduction and tutorial.)

• Simpler tutorial with no dialogue boxes. Instead, controls/instructions will be laid out on the background wall in a similar way to Wario Land 4’s tutorial.
• Changed order of intro/tutorial. Currently you first see a bit of an intro cutscene, then you can play the tutorial, then it’s back to the full intro cutscene. I would like to have it so a new save starts you off in the more simple/shorter tutorial, then you can chose to watch the intro or not.
• I want to touch up the intro script, the current explanation for the story is a bit messy, I think it could use a bit more humor, and I’d like it to be shorter overall.
• I’d like to change to have only full screen art and cut out/replace the “in game” scenes.

That’s about it for the main stuff, but there will of course be more little features and changes included as well. For the future plans I’ll just list some things about the general structure of the game.

• I plan on having 4 main worlds total, the Frightful forest is the first of these. World 2 will take place in a haunted mansion, world 3 in a graveyard, and world 4 in an underground crypt/catacomb. Each world will have it’s own unique enemies and mechanics.
• In each world you will play as a different Pumpkid. Each Pumpkid in worlds 2-4 MIGHT have their own unique ability only they can use, these may include a wall jump, glide, a dash, or something else.
• I plan on having 5 main endings based on how many candy collectables the player has, and one secret ending.
• I plan on having either at least a bonus level or if possible whole bonus world be unlocked from getting either: The “Best” ending, for collecting nearly everything, or by getting 100%. Either way, 100% will still have some kind of reward for the player.
• I would also like to get my own custom music made for Candy Quest. I’m currently using premade music, but I would like to collab/commission music specifically for this because I can’t make it on my own.

I think that’s most of the plan. I have no idea how long this will take to complete, I’ve been working on Candy Quest on and off for about 8-ish months now, and I have no plans on stopping. When Candy Quest does hopefully release though, the final goal is to have it be officially published with some company/group to have Gameboy cartridges made to buy, the whole shabang, you know?

That’s about it for now. I’ll try to keep updating progress on my tw*tter account https://twitter.com/MaxBeforeTheOne, I also like to share stuff in the GB Studio Discord server as well, and I’ll likely reserve itch.io for bigger updates like this one. I hope y’all are as excited for this game as I am excited to be making it, thanks again for the support!