From the Kickstarter, a quick status update before I talk more about Lemma:
- At the current rate, we are just minutes away from 4,200 yes votes on Greenlight! 56% of the way to the top 100.
- A big thank you to our new backers! There are now 174 of you lovely people (wow) and we’re over 32% funded.
- Rock Paper Shotgun covered Lemma yesterday! And with that headline, we’ve added Bastion to the incredibly long and disparate list of games it’s been compared to.
- Kill Streak Media posted a fairly in-depth interview.
- Death By Beta also ran a nice little article.
- In case you missed Caitlin Clark’s comment earlier, Lemma was her top pick for Kickstarter games that are “Worth the Wait”, along with several other promising-looking games!
- Another great “let’s play” video from YouTuber Shake4ndbake.
Okay, let’s talk about future plans!
Enemies and systems
Be ready for GIFs. You can click each one to see the faster, shinier HTML5 version.If you missed the livestream yesterday, I showed off a few features that I already built but didn’t have time to put in the demo. One is a glowing block enemy that can rip out pieces of the environment and fling them at you.
Another variant on the same idea is an enemy that builds up a structure of red blocks, then explodes.
All the enemies in Lemma change color based on a simple color-coded stealth system. Lemma is not a stealth game, but this system makes it easy to tell when you’ve been spotted: white means the enemy is idle and doesn’t see you. Yellow means the enemy saw something and they’re on alert. Red means the enemy will actively chase and attack you.
One feature that’s still in the experimental phase is something I call the “expander” block, which is a block that expands outward when you touch it. It’s inspired by a similar feature in the incredible Starseed Pilgrim (play that game, it will change your life).
Again, it’s still very experimental and may change a lot, but it’s a good example of the kind of interactive systems I’d like to build into the game.
Level design and story
Yesterday on the livestream I started work on another level (or world). Here it is in action:
It’s a valley that wraps around in a square shape. The valley is mostly empty, so it’s up to you to fill it with structures to make it navigable. In the center of the square will be a giant structure with machinery that needs to be put in place and activated. The square design means you can approach it from any angle and move through the level however you want. This is pretty much my level design manifesto: you can beat it however you want.
Furthermore, the machine in this world will be only one of many, which can be activated in any order. There will be portals to other worlds, each with their own challenges to overcome before they can be activated.
I can’t really say too much about the story except that it has a lot to do with these worlds and why and how they’re being “activated”. I will say there’s a pretty big finale planned for the end.That should shed some light on my future plans for Lemma. If you have more questions you’d like to see answered in the next update, sound off in the comments!
