Hey Its Me Again

Hey its me again

I want you to remember to be nice to yourself because

uh

well I don't have a reason but I just think it's nice to be kind to yourself

hi friend! you have impeccable timing. last week i was struggling with a multi-day-long depressive spiral – and the moment you sent this ask, i was in the middle of spiraling and calling myself "incompetent." your ask helped me snap out of it.

"incompetent" is of course a value judgment, but this one has a little more punch... having to stop taking that adhd med really threw into sharp relief what an incredible struggle it is for me to just focus when i'm sitting at my desk. it makes all my struggles feel like my own fault, you know? like maybe i'm just too incompetent to understand what i'm trying to do, or how to fix my problems, or why i'm this deep in the hole.

none of this is true, of course, and that's easier to see now that i'm clawing back out of that depressive spiral. there are a TON of factors that are making it harder for me to get my work done right now, and i'm working on addressing each of those circumstances as i get the opportunity. but, god, it was SO hard not to see those circumstances as Personal Failures that i'm too incompetent to address.

so hey, seriously, thanks for sending this ask. it stopped my anxiety from kicking me while i was down.

new pre-stream archive! in which i talk about my stream schedule for the month, as well as the life-changing tacos my partner and i decided to go on a taco date for~

new stream archive, in which Magolor is stranded in purgatory for his sins… and must atone. like i said, Kirby lore is no joke.

new stream archive in which we catch an ENORMOUS fish! also there's some other story stuff. but seriously it was THIS BIG!!!

dev commentary returns! look, i was legally obligated to go for the rainbow road thing, okay? even calling it Raspberry Rainbow was a purposeful candy-themed callback to make it as sweet and indulgent as possible. not to mention the choice of music – Bulby has done 8-bit covers of pretty much every Rainbow Road out there, but i felt this one (from Mario Kart 8) was the best fit for a hyped up sugar rush space race!

since Vinegar Void was finished so early, Raspberry Rainbow was one of the first remixes i started on, mostly to nail down the custom palette for the blocks – the main level's alternating gray blocks gave me exactly six colors worth of room to fill out with a rainbow pattern. it was challenging to find a way to fit all six colors in order using NES limitations and still have it look good, but i think the results speak for themselves!

honestly? screenshots don't do it justice. it looks way better in motion.

just like with Vinegar Void, most of my initial ideas for this level involved gratuitous use of purple gel and gravity mechanics – and when i updated to newer versions of Mari0, i had to scrap most of those dreams. i did get to try a few wacky layouts though… like this gravity loop made of fading paths!

on a technical level, this loop is one of the wackiest things i've ever made. why does the purple gel float in the air like that?

just like with Sonic, the idea is that you'd jump in from the left and make your way around the loop to the top where the red coin is, then come out the right side. it looks cool and it sounds cool on paper, but it had way too many side effects – namely, that it's hard to get in and out of the loop, and it's hard to keep your balance once you're in the loop. so even if i could use as much purple gel as i wanted, this probably wouldn't have made it to the final anyway!

there's no loop like this in Vinegar Void, so adding a loop would've been a pretty radical reinvention of the layout… even though the point of the remixes is to keep the same layout. but the idea is that i'd pretend those fading paths were objects instead of tiles, with the intent to replace all of the existing fading paths with new ones for the remix. really this is just a lot of internal rules nonsense to justify the use of more ridiculous fading paths than the base level has.

but that didn't actually work out! it turns out the existing fading paths are really technical and hard to replace. besides, preserving as much of the base layout as possible helps the player know where they're going and what they're doing when they, you know, can't see the paths half the time. so i made only minor adjustments to some areas and left most of the fading paths untouched! (which is a lesson i wish i'd learned in time for Starfruit Scanlines…)

similar layouts, but one is fruit punch flavor.

speaking of minor adjustments, this level has one of my favorite examples of minor adjustments in the entire mappack! when i first asked @harmonyfriends to playtest the level for me, she got stuck at the section below, with the star shards / red coin bits – it was too hard to get through the fading paths. this wasn't a problem with the main level, just the remix… even though the section is nearly identical. the only difference is that you are required to get the red coin bits, whereas you're not required to get the star shards.

i watched my partner struggle a lot with this section, ultimately deciding to give up with the attempt... and i immediately knew how to fix it. i made just ONE minor adjustment – moving a single red coin bit from a lower step to a higher step. can you spot the difference?

i asked her to play it again… and she breezed through the same section without a sweat, just because i moved that one piece. how is that possible?

well, moving that one red coin bit completely changes the way that the player approaches the fading paths! when it's on the lower step, the fastest way to the next red coin bit involves jumping up through the fading path, which is a little finnicky in this game's physics engine. by moving the coin bit, i moved the player's line of focus – now the next coin bit is across from the player, and they can simply jump over to the next platform!

old path on the left, new path on the right.

i am so proud of this little change… these are the little things i've learned to spot in ten years of working with level design! this is the culmination of all my time working on Retrush and beyond! i'm far from perfect but i've come so far, and i love being able to see that reflected in real time ✨

Raspberry Rainbow (D-3) | Retrush

A radiant run through space with even more colorful lights flying by to cheer you on! Wait, those are lasers. Wait, that's a LOT of lasers holy frick

Skysometrick or Skysometreat