What can you expect from Darksys's Adventure?

After the game comes out I will be closely monitoring the feedback the game receives and make changes based on it. Most of the post launch updates will only include bug fixes and slight tweaks. Please do not expect any content updates right after launch. I am considering making content updates in the future such as new levels or even things like Christmas updates that make everything snowy and may turn the regular fox soldiers into artic foxes!

The moveset

Darksy's Adventure is a platformer which you may have figured out. During development a lot of thought went into Darksy's moveset. It may seem simple at first, he can mainly pounce, jump and do a tail whip. However you can combine these 3 moves in many ways and reach areas and cross distances you may thought were impossible to reach. I hope that players will take their time to familiarize themselves with the controls to see what I'm talking about.

Level design

The early levels of Darksy's Adventure were designed with freedom in mind, they are free roaming levels where you can go wherever you want. You can also absolutely destroy these early levels and beat some of them in less than 3 minutes if you know the controls well. Luckily for new players, the early levels do not require any crazy tricks. Same can't be said about the later levels... Each level was designed to be unique. To help this feeling I composed unique soundtrack for every level. If you want to hear a specific soundtrack you must go into that one level to hear it.

100% completion

If you are one of the people that love to finish games with all achievements unlocked then this section is for you! To get all achievements you must achieve a completion score of 100%. You can track your progress in the stats section, accessible from the main menu screen. Alternatively you can track it from the level select. In the level select in the top left corner of the screen you can see the level name and few icons below it. Here is what they mean:

• Cartridge icon: Tells you if you have collected a game cartridge in the level

• Purple star: Tells you if you have completed the level with all atoms collected

• Red star: Tells you if you have completed the level with all checkpoints skipped

• Yellow star: Tells you if you have completed the level without dying

You don't have to do all of them at once. If, for example, you beat a level without dying and then die in it the next time, you will not lose the rating.

Game Difficulty

First of, I'd like to start with the difficulty. Having made the game basically myself, I was the only one who tested it for majority of the game's development. I felt that the difficulty was fine and I (naively) thought that I had done a good job. Handing the game to playtesters, I realized that I had not balanced the game as well as I had hoped. The game was way too difficult for some while not so for others. To hopefully address this issue I added a mechanic where the game will spawn extra lives if you're low on them, as well as 3 difficulty settings: easy, medium, hard. Launching the game for the first time, the medium difficulty is selected. On the steam page I didn't get into the specifics so I'd like to outline them here.

Easy difficulty

• Enemies are less aggressive

• Extra platforms spawn to aid platforming

Any atoms you collect will not be saved

Medium difficulty

• Enemies behave normally

• No extra platforms spawn

Hard difficulty

• Enemies are more aggressive

• No checkpoints spawn (meaning free checkpointless run)

• Some hazards are one hit kills

• No extra lives spawn

While playing on the hard difficulty you gain extra atoms for completing levels

That being said, thank you very much for reading all of this (if you have) and I hope you enjoy Darksy's Adventure when it comes out!

-Honza 55 44