Considering a major update for VVVVVV, a final edition

[Terry]

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to post this or not, but I figured it couldn't hurt to let people know I'm thinking about this.

Last December, the 4chan leak caused me to rush the game to completion, which was probably for the best, in hindsight. It's the sort of thing that could have dragged on and on for months and months; and the leak gave me the push I needed to finish it up and get it out there.

Unfortunately, it also meant I had to chop a few features that I had wanted to add to the game; I originally planned to port the whole thing to C++, to make a 7th level, and most importantly of all, make a level editor. (I still have all my sketches from the planned secret 7th level, the "proto-dimension"). My attitude since then, though, has been, right, it's a finished game, and it is what it is for better or worse and I don't want to change it.

I feel differently now. Especially during this last week, now that the game has thousands and thousands of new players who are just discovering it for the first time. I'm now seriously thinking about a major update to the game. (This wouldn't be a paid add on or anything like that, by the way - it would just be v2.0 of the game.)

I wanna stress that this is all just me thinking out loud. I'm promising nothing! What I really want to do, basically, is make it module based, like The Strategist or Deadly Rooms of Death or FiNCK or Knytt Stories. The normal VVVVVV levels would be like the "main campaign", but the game would come with a really good level editor and you could choose any custom level set from the main menu. I'd probably then just implement my lost 7th level as a custom level in this new system. I might try to round up a few other people to make levels for the update too!

From a technical perspective, as far as I know it's now possible to load from external data files with the new versions of flash, so I probably wouldn't even have to port it to C++ (which would save quite a bit of work, and, incidentally, would mean that I'd finally be able to fix the whole flash cookies save file issue). Still. I'm talking about something that would literally mean months of work, so it's probably not going to happen anytime soon - probably not this year, at least.

But yeah, definitely giving this some thought!

[jordyelsenor]

This is soo great

Maybe a  multiplayer play modes Oo this will be soo cool haha but a lot of work  . 

Do you use adobe flash professional cs5 or  mx, etc  to create the version 1.2 ?

Thanks
jordan

[Rox]

Oh man, that's fantastic to hear. At the very least it's nice to know we're all inspiring/motivating you further! Well, not that I'm one of those thousand of people, since I bought the amazing soundtrack right after the game first came out, I just couldn't justify buying the game... It's complicated, I don't want to go into my internal ruleset for buying games. Still, I'm one of those who are just getting around to buying it, so I totally count into that demographic.

So, hey, if you ever need some random forum guy to help with level design; go play my YYYYYY campaigns, rage silently at my brilliance and throw me a PM, alright?

[Terry]

Maybe a  multiplayer play modes

Hah, maybe. I wouldn't hold my breath, though.

Do you use adobe flash professional cs5 or  mx, etc  to create the version 1.2 ?

I use FlashDevelop and Flex, and just code it from actionscript.

So, hey, if you ever need some random forum guy to help with level design; go play my YYYYYY campaigns, rage silently at my brilliance and throw me a PM, alright?

Haven't played it yet, but I'll check it out soon Anyone who's made a YYYYYY level will be first on my list to ask about this though! (Really liked your song, by the way!)

[jordyelsenor]

I use FlashDevelop and Flex, and just code it from actionscript.

Do you know a great tutorial to begin with actionscript and flashdevelop ?

thanks a lot

[James]

Wow, great to hear this Terry. This is the kind of thing we get very excited about. I'd definitely try my hand at VVVVVV level design given the chance.

I'll hold off on putting any of this on the wiki until you make a more definite, official announcement.

[adrive]

wow this is superb news!

hmm, if the game's ported over to C++ it would sure get picked up again in the future maybe 5 years from now so someone else
could mod it and expand it. It might also be more flexible for 3rd party tool integrations such as steam tehnologies, but If it's written in flash, would it have more problems in the future since its at the mercy of adobe's support? I wouldn't know

but however it is, I'll always be VVVVVV's fanboy now!!!! can't wait for more goodness from terry!! woohohoho!!!

[Shasharala]

Intriguing.  I can't wait to see if you go forward with this.  I'll be waiting patiently.
Mostly, I say, just do it when you feel like it and when you have time.
There's tons of other projects  to work on too from I've seen on your blog. 

[HateTheDrake]

Not that my post carries a great deal of weight (being my first), but this is some great news and I'll be interested to see where this goes.

As one of those steam users that has just discovered the game, I'm having a really great time with it and look forward to the ability for expansion levels and naturally what you had planned for #7.  Having it save files outside the flash cookie area would be another perk, but I can't say that I'm very concerned about it like others are.  (I just have crashplan backup the localhost directory so VVVVV and machinarium are safe)

On one hand if the level editor and other changes can be released sooner by keeping it in flash, that seems to benefit everyone.  Although on a purely selfish note, porting to C++ would then at least open the door for more steam integration (achievements, cloud, etc..) and potentially Linux or other cool items.  (maybe easier ports to other systems/consoles)


 

(and as a "steamer", I do appreciate the significant discount from your original $15.  I may just gift several copies to friends so they can share in the fun and make up some of that discount price.)

[allen]

Bit-Blot did the major update to Aquaria. version 1.1 I think, with widescreen support, and basically improved every thing. it was very cool of them to do that, because they didn't have to. shows ya how much they loved their creation and their fans.

would be way cool if you did go through with this, but also perfectly fine if you didn't. because vvvvvv is still a great game and is fine as-is 

i've played through it probably as much as i can stand, would love another reason to play it 5 more times

[Pilzi]

I really hope you'll do a version 2.0!! A level editor would give it such a big replay value!
Also, what was the Proto world supposed to look like? Maybe you could post photos of your old notes?
That would be AWESOME 

[dinx2582]

I also think this would be a great idea.

This also gives me a chance to ask about an Android release in light of the availability of Adobe AIR, which apparently makes it easy to 'convert' AS3 projects to native Android applications.  I may be misunderstanding the nature of the app, but provided that this is feasible as mentioned, what is the likelihood that something like this would be practical?

Just sayin', it would be wonderful to be able to play this game on a phone/on the go.

[StephenM3]

Wow!  I'm impressed you're considering this!  It would certainly be a swell thing.  When you finished VVVVVV, the significance of the game seemed very different than what it turned out to be:  It was your last shot, but it turned out to be your breakthrough.  I'd recommend you get one or two more "major games" behind you before attempting this, but it sounds like that's already what you're thinking.

I totally understand, though, that months of work mostly doing invisible background coding could very easily not feel worth it.

[CooL]

This sounds like an awesome idea, indeed 

Damn, that level editor sounds like an amazing idea, I can already see myself making another Doing Things the Hard Way, but twice as hard ^_^, and I think Rox would make some excellent additions to the game, his YYYYYY levels were pretty spectacular!  I wish the best of luck to you, Terry!

[Whirligig]

I'm bumping this topic because it appears completely different now that VVVVVV 2.0 is out. I guess Terry was promising something.

So, Terry ... You've mentioned making a custom level or two for VVVVVV ... You've also mentioned a planned 7th level that was never released ... You can probably guess what I'm wondering right now.