It just how things are post internet

So in the end, we decided that our north star was to rarely, if ever, take away control from the player so that we could create a variety of challenging scenarios that could be solved with creative use of movement & combat tools

Adding to that, setting up enemies to accommodate the limitations of being locked into long animations & air combos started to make everything feel kind of forced, in the sense that we had to give people permission to do certain cool things at specified intervals

We really wanted to have interesting & challenging ensembles of enemies, rather than just making every enemy encounter a mini boss fight, so this route was just a non-starter

While these felt great in a vacuum, they introduced a lot of potential conflicts with things we weren’t willing to compromise on. They either required enemies to all be tanks to take the level of punishment an air combo would entail, or turned every engagement into a 1v1

One of our core philosophies is to make sure you always have control during combat and aren’t locked into long animations In the early days when experimenting with different combat systems, we flirted with the idea of air combos and rather lengthy specials

Weaponize your movement = success against tough enemies

This is crazy looking, the final boss or something?

No need to thank us, it's our pleasure! I am a huge fan of Smash Run, so when I saw you describe Dash'n'Drops this way, I was sold

Anyone who puts this much heart into something deserves to be recognized and rewarded for it Please give Dash'n'Drops a look. We know we will

The customn mipmaps are used both in the mountains, abusing of their angle to the camera to shade them, they are also used in the train tracks to tinge further away tracks and some other locations as well.

Agree Lots of interesting map features that make getting lost a real hazard, but (to me) in an interesting and exciting way

No worries, they're being used on the mountains in the background. And thank you! And it's not yet available to buy, but we're working on it! Feel free to wishlist it: store.steampowered.com/app/2…

Also used custom mip maps to make this pseudo cel shading effect, custom mip maps are underrated

Don't read below if you want to guess what each map is on your own, but: Chozo Ruins Brinstar Area 2

All of these techniques/tricks we use to some degree in our map to create certain feelings and even pace progression. Obviously there’s a lot to cover.. This is all just a quick overview, but I’ll be talking more about map design in the future, so stay tuned

Each time you choose between two paths, you could say your depth goes up by 1. For me, Metroid II’s use of map depth made me feel endangered and isolated Here you can see the depth goes up to 3

Super Metroid frequently features structures called trees. Whether you know it or not, you use the same strategy to navigate these things as you do to visually trace through those 2D mazes. Important pattern that makes you feel like you’re getting deeper into a labyrinth

Metroid Prime 1’s excellent pacing is thanks to certain patterns in its map design. When you get an upgrade, you generally know where you can go, but not where you must go. Very important distinction!