Every Day I Get Closer To Finding My Voice...!

every day i get closer to finding my voice...!

i used to have so much trouble talking – not just from being shy and timid, but a mental blockade of isolation and repression.

now that's slowly coming undone, and i'm so proud of myself!

i can carry conversations… hold my own in groups… encourage my fellow shy friends to speak up… follow discussions that i know nothing about… "circle back" on things i thought of earlier…

it's not perfect and human nature dictates it never will be, but i've come so far 💙

Fillet Fjords (3-1) | Retrush #Mari0

A freezing, flooded furrow of fish! The tiered terrain tests your jump control, with water to back you up if you fall. There's more enemies than usual, but you've learned a lot so far – you can keep your cool, right?

Dijon Dunes (1-3) | Retrush

This one's a technical, tricky trek across the desert and its ruins. The enemies here have a bone to pick with you – but if you get the drop on them first, the bounce will carry you over the sandy steps!

Nectarine Nocturne (1-4) | Retrush

Neon lights and gel-powered flights combine for a level that's almost as fun to watch as it is to play! The gels take time to master, but the shortcuts they create are super satisfying to pull off~

Toffee Tracks (2-1) | Retrush

A race to the caboose! Find the right keys to get in and out of each train car. Once you find the key, use portals to skip the trek back to the door! Just don't disturb the passengers along the way...

dev commentary time! did you know Retrush was originally planned to have just twelve levels? Dijon Dunes was not in the original plan, making it one of the last few main levels i worked on – and i think it shows how much i learned over time, cause it has great speedrun flow!

after i came up with the idea for remixes of the original 12 levels, i saw a vision in my head of a desert level whose remix is an underwater trench… and it was just TOO cool of an idea to pass up!

so i came up with a few more levels to pad out one more world, which of course means remixes for each one… and that's the story of how i overscoped this entire mappack from 12 levels to 32. oops!!!

and because it was made relatively late(ish), like 2017… that unfortunately means there's not really any cut content or beta layouts to show here.

instead, let's talk about why there's no slopes. isn't it a little weird that all the sandy dunes are squared off?

without getting too deep into the weeds, Mari0's collision system was not built to handle slopes, and every attempt at adding them over the years has been EXTREMELY hacky and unstable. retrush has no slopes because there were never any good slopes in the engine to begin with.

the versions of Mari0 i used technically had those hacky slopes, but they weren't worth using!… until a month or two ago, when Mari0: AE finally solved the problem and made great, robust slopes. a little too late for me to change the entire layout to add them, you know? ^^;

but! i remade Dijon Dunes in Super Mario Maker 2 when the game first came out as a test of its editor, and when i did, i added slopes. it's a neat alternate universe take on what could have been!

Dijon Dunes (1-3) | Retrush

This one's a technical, tricky trek across the desert and its ruins. The enemies here have a bone to pick with you – but if you get the drop on them first, the bounce will carry you over the sandy steps!