This is a post I made to the Zinnia Games website: https://zinniagames.com/the-friday-tiding-12-comedown/

The Friday Tiding #12: Comedown

27 Dec, 2024

Demo 2.

Demo Two.

Demonstration The Second.

I released Demo 2 of Project Petunia on December 20th. Not a great time to release due to the holidays. That being said I am very happy I managed to get Demo 2 out before 2025. I am still in the feedback collecting stage of the release, so I don't have much to say about the post release period at this time.

What I can talk about is the preliminary work I've started on Demo 3. Not a lot, but I have done a few things already.

The Third

First up is some system changes. I changed how the player takes damage. Damage used to be doled out the moment the player got hit, but this system had a flaw in that if the player managed to intersect with two or more damage sources in a single frame, they would take multiple points of damage. Damage is now given to the player upon them entering the Hurt state, which is when their animation changes and they take knockback. This ensures that you'll never take more than one point of damage from any attack. I'm surprised that I didn't find this error until just recently.

Speaking of animation, I've added support for context-based animations for when the player takes damage. So for example, if the player jumps onto a spike, I can have them play a unique animation when entering the Hurt state, instead of the generic knocked back sprite I have been using since Demo 1.

Finally, the system change with the most long term consequences is a nerf to the Bomb Powerup. I have spent a good few weeks deliberating on how strong the Blast Jump ability should be and have ultimately decided to weaken it. While the nerf does make the Blast Jump much weaker, it should make designing levels with the powerup in mind less hassle. The other upside is making the ability easier to get a handle on. I'm not happy about doing this, but the Blast Jump was starting to warp level design around its sheer power. I want the powerups in Project Petunia to exist in relative harmony. There should be a time and place for all three of them, but making sure of that means the tallest poppy gets cut down.

The Art Of The Future

The last thing I have to talk about is the future of the art in the game. Ever since the beginning all of the sprites I've drawn up for Project Petunia have been drawn with the knowledge that they'd be replaced down the line.

Well we are now down the line. The biggest change that Demo 3 will have over Demo 2 is going to be the art taking a massive leap in quality. I've been drawing up concept art for the game's characters and UI over this past week, and I've got a lot more planned on that front. I'm going to talk more in detail about this subject in the post-mortem for Demo 2.

A fairly quiet week all things considered, but a lot is brewing on the horizon. See you next week.