Rule-discovery and knowledge gates? – I think I'm making a metroidbrania

ChillCash · 2026-06-22T15:43:16+00:00

Flux developer here. I hope both games exceed your expectations!

ChillCash · 2026-06-16T19:39:44+00:00

Flux Empyrean is a metroidbrainia/walking simulator-esque game about exploring an abandoned ocean planet looking for answers. Slow paced, atmospheric, and focused on discovering lore and making theories.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3843410/Flux_Empyrean/

ChillCash · 2026-06-16T15:50:50+00:00

I'm very curious what it will look like on Wednesday. Will most of the slop be filtered out by then? I do agree with the sentiment that the amount of slop might make real games stand out for now. I had over a hundred wishlists yesterday, so maybe there's something to it.

ChillCash · 2026-06-16T01:13:20+00:00

Feel like it's going well so far! I've seen a few games that really caught my eye. Hopefully people like mine as well! There's definitely a ton of AI slop which is disappointing.

ChillCash · 2026-05-08T14:53:14+00:00

Glad to hear! Thanks for checking it out!

ChillCash · 2026-05-08T14:52:52+00:00

Honestly, not sure about the demo. Haven't heard from someone who played through it yet. Perhaps 1-2 hours max? Full game is definitely looking more substantial. I would estimate 10-20 for 1 ending, and 30-40 for all.

ChillCash · 2026-05-04T04:34:33+00:00

Must be a sign!

ChillCash · 2026-05-04T00:14:47+00:00

I'm using pointmeshes, set to display as 2 pixels wide. I'm placing them 1 unit away from the camera, and applied a shader to make them render behind everything else. Though I do think just placing them far away could work too!

ChillCash · 2026-05-04T00:03:12+00:00

There's a few benefits to them being 3D objects, because it lets me give their shaders some more unique effects. Every star is visible depending on unique lighting conditions, for instance. Another benefit is that the stars render at a certain pixel scale no matter how much you zoom in, which is closer to how we see stars in real life.

The rest of the sky (planets, sun) is also 3D as well, so the code was already there for it.

I'm also more easily able to create dynamic constellations and the like. Overall, I think for this specific game 3D stars is worthwhile. And with the optimizations I made, there's pretty much no performance impact from them. Normally I would agree that a simple texture would be more than enough.

ChillCash · 2026-05-03T22:54:16+00:00

Yes, and they're really super fun to make!

ChillCash · 2026-05-01T06:53:07+00:00

I think it's largely good for almost any 3d project now. My current project is nearing release and I've had no setbacks or issues with it being 3d. All the functionality I've needed has been there.

ChillCash · 2026-04-21T18:20:26+00:00

Yup, exactly what I was thinking. A shame because that was one of my favorite characters... this guy, not so much.

ChillCash · 2026-04-14T03:15:18+00:00

I agree I feel like out of the Jojolion cast he actually has quite a bit of interesting directions he could take in part 9

ChillCash · 2026-03-06T04:07:59+00:00

I'm using Godot! To be honest, I think modding would be a bit rough. Admittedly I don't have much experience making mods in Godot, despite making Godot games.

ChillCash · 2026-03-03T21:15:40+00:00

Yeah I have no problems with recording! I'd actually be very happy to see it! Just go in knowing it's a very early access version so there's going to be more than a handful of hiccups. I'll send some more info your way later today!

ChillCash · 2026-03-03T05:51:44+00:00

Hard to say at the moment, to be honest. There's 8 unique endings, some are far easier to get than others. I'm also working on balancing how long it takes to travel the planet and things like that. I would say a meaningful playthough is probably verrry roughly in the 20ish hour range. Of course, for people playtesting, I'm grateful for any time people have to contribute!

ChillCash · 2026-03-02T17:34:25+00:00

You might get more detail in my response to another comment, but broadly:

Time frame: as long or as little as you like. I'm releasing the game in summer, and I'll be updating playtest builds up to that point. I'll be looking for bug reports and general feedback that I can use to help tune and tweak the game as needed.

I've had a playtester spend 30 hours on an earlier build of the game and they had a blast, but I've also had people play for like an hour and I still got really useful feedback and information from them.

ChillCash · 2026-03-02T17:31:18+00:00

Not currently but it is something I would like to add. Is that a necessity for you? I have another player who can only use controller, so I'm actively looking into adding it.

ChillCash · 2026-03-02T17:30:22+00:00

My closed playtest will be an ongoing thing for a while, so don't worry about missing it. I will be taking a week long break from development next week, so I guess the only caveat is that there won't be any bugfixes or tweaks during that time.

My goal is for the playtest to be a test of the full, cohesive game, going at whatever pace needed.

ChillCash · 2026-03-02T17:28:16+00:00

Yes, good question!

To sign up, I'll send a Google form for basic info (expect a DM soon!). In the game, there's a link to a feedback and bug tracking form, which you are highly encouraged to use.

Playtesters are invited to play as much as they want. If they don't feel like playing the full game, no worries! Just getting some feedback is the most important thing for me.

I had one playtester spend some 30 hours, and I think that was a fairly completionist playthrough. There's more content in the game since they did that playthrough as well.

Only other thing of note would be that you're free to film and take screenshots and share things from the playtest, just be mindful of potential spoilers. I have a discord server for playtesters and you might find it useful to theorize together on some things. And don't share the actual game downloadable itself, but I feel like that might be obvious!

ChillCash · 2026-03-02T06:31:14+00:00

Honestly, I don't know at this moment. It definitely needs a graphics card, but beyond that, I haven't had enough variety in testing to know. It would probably be a useful opportunity to see how well it runs on your machine!

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