distractionware: devlog

Here’s a short one that I really liked: Noyb’s “Victuals“! He’s not the first person to make a pure story level in VVVVVV, but this one’s my favourite so far.

To play a VVVVVV player level, extract the .vvvvvv file into your VVVVVV levels folder. On windows, that should be in My Documents/VVVVVV, on Mac it’s Documents/VVVVVV, on Linux it’s ~/.vvvvvv

Sendy’s Dimension 333333 is a *huge* and extremely polished level; my playtime clocked in at just over an hour – and that’s without finding all twenty trinkets. Structurally, it’s somewhat similar to VVVVVV itself, with an introduction stage, an open outdoor area, four crewmate stages based around different ideas, and a harder final stage. It’s really incredible to see something like this just a few short weeks after the first version of the editor launched.

This level is great fun, and filled with interesting challenges from start to finish, but what really makes it special is its attention to detail, which shines through in every room. It’s been put together with a lot of care, with a lot of thought given to each room’s visual composition (especially in the outside area).

There are two varieties of this level – an easy version and a hard version – but I’d strongly recommend avoiding the hard version unless you’re an IWBTG veteran or something. In any case, the easy version is only easy in a comparative sense – it’s actually pretty bloody hard – I died 639 times in my playthrough!

To play a VVVVVV player level, extract the .vvvvvv file into your VVVVVV levels folder. On windows, that should be in My Documents/VVVVVV, on Mac it’s Documents/VVVVVV, on Linux it’s ~/.vvvvvv

Just thought I’d mention that Jonas released a new game a couple of days ago, The Book of Living Magic. It’s a very short game, set in the same universe as The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge. It’s funny and personal and surprising and beautiful, and I think you guys will like it a lot.

Unlike some of his other flash games, this is a game that really demands your full attention, right from the start – but don’t be put off by that! Grab a cup of tea and get comfortable – I think it’s his best flash game to date.

This weekend is Ludum Dare 21, and we’re going to have our usual meetup here in Cambridge to make games for it! More importantly, though, it’s also Klik of the Month 50! We’ll gonna hold our own 2 hour jam in CB2 on Saturday to celebrate

I’m really looking forward to this one – the bundle stuff for VVVVVV came along just before the last TIGJam, so I wasn’t able to take part in it. And the last Ludum Dare jam was while I was crunching on At a Distance, so I wasn’t able to do much for it either. Hoping to make up for it this time!

“Palace of Peril” is a level I like a lot, but I feel like I can’t talk about it without first pointing out that I have some serious reservations with it. This is without question the most difficult level I’ve featured – in fact, it’s so difficult that I wasn’t able to see the end myself without cheating and removing a wall in the editor. It’s a 10×9 level and it’s biggest problem, I think, is just that it’s a lot of good ideas diluted in a level that’s way too big to contain them.

There are five “areas” in the level – an outside area at the start, then yellow, green and cyan areas, and finally a laboratory area.

Of these, the yellow area and the green area are absolutely fantastic. The yellow area introduces a new mechanic, using VVVVVV’s primitive scripting in an unexpected way to do something I haven’t seen before. The green area expands on this, then, but takes in a different direction to make challenges that weren’t possible in VVVVVV.

This is a flawed level, but its flaws are more than made up for by the very inventive areas which do work, which I absolutely loved. I’m really looking forward to whatever its creator works on next!

To play a VVVVVV player level, extract the .vvvvvv file into your VVVVVV levels folder. On windows, that should be in My Documents/VVVVVV, on Mac it’s Documents/VVVVVV, on Linux it’s ~/.vvvvvv

Martze’s “Soul Searching” plays with a lot of cool ideas I haven’t seen explored in a VVVVVV level before. This one’s a little trickier than the other levels I’ve featured, but worth persevering with! It’s fun, polished, and extremely inventive.

To play a VVVVVV player level, extract the .vvvvvv file into your VVVVVV levels folder. On windows, that should be in My Documents/VVVVVV, on Mac it’s Documents/VVVVVV, on Linux it’s ~/.vvvvvv

Unfortunately, we’ve got a little held up with making the “official” save game converter for VVVVVV (for converting 1.2 save games to the new 2.0 format), so I thought it would be a good idea to highlight ConVVVVVVerter, an unofficial save converter made by Steam forum member SupSuper! It’s very easy to use and works perfectly on both Windows and Mac, so I totally recommend using it if you’re sick on waiting for us to sort it out. Download it from here!

Rob Fearon’s “vvvvvVideogames” is the Ulysses of VVVVVV levels.

I mean, I haven’t read Ulysses or anything, but I presume it was a bit like this.

To play a VVVVVV player level, extract the .vvvvvv file into your VVVVVV levels folder. On windows, that should be in My Documents/VVVVVV, on Mac it’s Documents/VVVVVV, on Linux it’s ~/.vvvvvv

“The Tower of Power” is a VVVVVV level that doesn’t have any checkpoints. Yikes!

That sounds crazy, of course, but the reason it works here is that the level is so carefully designed around that core idea – it’s structured as a central hub with a linearly unlocked set of challenges as you get further and further into it, using trinkets as keys.

The really brilliant thing about it is how it makes even simple challenges feel exciting and dangerous in a way that VVVVVV levels normally don’t – there’s nothing particularly hard in this level, but the cost of failure is so much higher than usual that you’ll end up approaching it very differently.

It’s also notable for having the most extensive use of scripting I’ve seen in a VVVVVV level so far. Highly recommended!

(Randomnine, the creator of this level, wrote a great blog post here about the level’s design, which I recommend checking out after you’ve played it!)

To play a VVVVVV player level, extract the .vvvvvv file into your VVVVVV levels folder. On windows, that should be in My Documents/VVVVVV, on Mac it’s Documents/VVVVVV, on Linux it’s ~/.vvvvvv

“Vertex Vortex” is a level by Matt Thorson, the creator of some of my favourite platformers ever (like An Untitled Story, MoneySeize, and Jumper Three, among MANY others). If I’m honest, I’m a bit of a fanboy when it comes to his games, so it was a real thrill to see that he’d made a VVVVVV level.

Most of his games are so difficult that they make VVVVVV look like Kirby’s Dream Land in comparison, but his VVVVVV level is actually pretty easy compared to most other player levels!

This one’s short, polished, and a lot of fun.

To play a VVVVVV player level, extract the .vvvvvv file into your VVVVVV levels folder. On windows, that should be in My Documents/VVVVVV, on Mac it’s Documents/VVVVVV, on Linux it’s ~/.vvvvvv