Monochrome Heights Devlog #13 – So Much Polishing

I’m making my first commercial indie game, a 2D platformer game, called Monochrome Heights.

I haven’t had as much time as I might have liked to work on the game over the last couple of weeks. My intention has been to get some meaty chunks of work done on it, but for one reason or another, I haven’t had a great deal of dedicated time. However, I was able to chip away at various small aspects of the game, and in particular some polishing here and there.

These small bits of polishing has felt like it’s impact ranged anywhere between being exceedingly useful, to an easy distraction, all the way to being a complete waste of time. On some level, nothing is a waste of time, but I have spent some time working on some bits of polish only to throw it out because I can’t get it to work how I want, or it seems to cause more problems than it solves.

A screenshot of Happy the Robot standing near a wind marker. Image Credit: One Frog Games

I’ve been making some minor tweaks to key gameplay elements based on the continued feedback I have been receiving on the most recent playtest. I’m pretty happy now with the way everything is for the main character, but I’m still making minor tweaks to some of the items, hazards, and platforms that the player comes across. Some of these have been easy, some stubborn, and some I’m still avoiding because they seem difficult to approach.

Even if I haven’t made a huge push on the game, these small tweaks and bits of polish are important and many are necessary before I spend too much more time making levels that use the mechanics. Iteration is a key to game development, and polishing up things as best I can will help the game feel and look as good as it can.

The game still needs lots of polishing, so much polishing. There’s plenty of polish I can do now, but quite a bit of it has to wait until more levels are made, and story segments are built. However, fixing up small things around the mechanics, even if it isn’t as much progress as I had hoped for, is still progress.

A screenshot of Happy the Robot standing near a big machine. Image Credit: One Frog Games

The summer will bring some unique challenges in terms of my time management, but I’m hoping to make a big push and looking forward to an event at the end of the summer which I’ll share more on later.

If you’re interested in following along in more detail, sign up for the Monochrome Heights mailing list here. You’ll get exclusive access to early demos and additional short updates. Until next time. Thanks for reading! 

Share any thoughts on the game in the comments below or come find me on the Boss Rush Discord.


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