Hey there!
You'll have to forgive me if this is a somewhat short update - I've been up for about 24 hours at this point, but it's been worth it! The shiny new alpha demo is up and ready for you to break!
New Playable Alpha Demo
You can download it here: Gamejolt.com
Things are still rough, broken, unfinished and unbalanced, but this is FAR more indicative of what the final game will look and feel like.
On offer is the first section of the overworld map. I've artificially constrained the gameplay to that area (boo!) because venturing beyond this zone will quickly cause things to fall apart (yay!) since all of that stuff is lying in pieces in front of me on my monitor.
What Didn't Make it?!
There's also a TON of stuff that I wanted to have ready for this demo that didn't quite make it and would require another week of play testing, chief among them being the save system, unfortunately (or what would eventually turn into the rock solid save system). But that's next on my list.
An early form of persistence is intact, though, and will keep track during a play session of (most) pertinent things, like which doorways have been unlocked, gates opened, etc.
I've also been digging around in Steam's backend (that sounds super wrong... or right, depending) to figure out the Steam key delivery system, and it looks like I'll have that figured out soon, too.
Keys Update
I want to also give Kickstarter backers "beta" keys that allow you to circumvent the release status of the game. In other words, I would be giving you access to live development builds as progress is made, and Steam would automatically (I think) update the game for you.
Anyhow, have a gander at the new build and feel free to tell me what you think so far!
Have a great rest of your weekend! 'Til next update!
-Matt
Will check out the Gamejolt demo asap! Great update and hope you got some much needed rest! Looking forward to the next update!
Thanks man! I definitely went down like a ton of bricks.
Glad to hear it! Rest is important =)
I have bad news, if you press enter during the intro if you get beaten, it will BREAK the game. You cannot progress.
Thanks for reporting that! I haven't been able to recreate your issue -- did this happen to you in the burning village once you get 'killed' and the flames appear behind you while enemies approach you and club you? Or did this happen while fighting the ball and chain boss -- and if so, did it happen once you took his arm off, killed him, or caused him to retreat with his arm still intact?
the first one.
Thanks! I will look deeper into it!
First of all, Awesomeness I love the Ninja Gaiden cinematics. But, I'd like to point out an amusing bug, now when you break out of prison. KELL MAGICALLY REGAINS HIS SPEAR AND CLOTHES XD
Thank you! Haha, and yeah, that's on my todo list!
But dude, a step in the awesome direction the Ninja Gaiden cinematics! It'd be even cooler with VA!