Progress update: tested, and upcoming entities and zones

Hey all!

If you haven't seen already, an early test build has been released for those who opt-in to the Testing role in the Discord! I've also changed my page/dev name as you might've noticed - I've been meaning to do that for a while now, and I finally found the time to do so.

With that out of the way, let's talk about what's next.

Towards a release

The plan now is to release this as a new project on Itch - the core gameplay change and redone art warrants it, I feel. This is what I'll be focusing on in the coming weeks - mainly polishing what's left to polish, especially following feedback from those who played the test build. Roughly what I need to do:

- Create new project page assets (game logo, thumbnail, etc)

- Make split-screen coop functional

- Fix all the bugs and annoyances pointed out from the test build (a lot has been done already!)

There is one more thing I want to do that deserves its own paragraph: in preparation for a release, especially a Steam release, I'm planning to split the animations off into a free 'DLC'. There are two reasons for this, the Steam page going up faster and as I understand it not having to go through their approval process for the core game (only the DLC), and to keep the core game available in more places. I'm also hoping to get a Steam page up soon, sometime after I have the page assets done and public demo released.

Upcoming content

The plan after the Itch release of what's in the test build + fixes, is to switch back to focusing on new content. You might've noticed the Trade Hub splits off into 4 directions, two of those aren't done yet. I've named them Sky Rise and Deep Maze. Both of these may be Insider-only, with the public demo then being what's in the test build.

The plan for the Deep Maze is a dense and maze-like area going down below the Trade Hub, where you'll meet flower/plant ladies and pink slime ladies. I'm already working on the art for both of these entities right now, and I'm also experimenting with what kind of moves they have. For the plant lady, she might have vines that block your path, flower/petal rain, and a pink gas emission move - at least that's what I have right now, they could get replaced. I already made one or two moves for the pink slime lady a while back, I might add another for good measure. Once they both have fleshed-out movesets I'll start designing the area, with their moves in mind.

The plan for the Sky Rise is to focus on flying entities, and as the name suggests, traveling upwards. The platforming will be a bit harder, when going up there's going to be opportunities for falling down, but you won't fall far and lose too much progress and be frustrating. So far I have plans to add bee ladies here, but we need one more entity.

I'm also hoping to add another special entity that spawns under certain conditions, like the at-night-only one now. I have some ideas, but we'll see what eventually ends up happening. It's just ideas for now. :)

That's it for this update - hope you've enjoyed the test build, and look forward to the public release in the coming weeks. Next progress update should be in the regular 2 weeks from now.