The reception to my Ludum Dare 56 entry, Color Critters, has been much better than I'd anticipated: Daily 3rd Place, frontpaged, and a slew of good reviews. The general consensus seems to be "this is good, but it has the potential to be so much more".

I agree. That's why I have officially begun developing a full-size version of Color Critters, to be released When It's Done™️. I don't know yet whether it will be a free release here on Newgrounds, or a paid release on Steam and itch.io. What I do know is that it will include the following compared to the jam version:

• Many more levels (I’m thinking 60 is a good number), grouped into sections
• Active abilities. Yowler will be able to attract and repel metal crates, which are too heavy to be pushed; I envisage Roart and Blute being able to respectively melt and freeze certain objects but I’m not 100% certain how that’s going to work yet
• More level mechanics/gimmicks (and a complete overhaul of the game’s code to let me add them more easily, as the compo version’s code is a clusterf*ck).
• A save system
• Music
• Some sort of color-blind mode - while nobody has requested one, I expect the number of color-coded elements in the game will make it difficult to play for anyone with color blindness

I've been battling chronic pain for about three weeks now, and a severe cold for a few days on top of that, so development probably won't begin in earnest until that's finally eased off. Once it does, you'll be able to find development updates on each of the social media platforms listed in my profile.

I'm hoping to finish Color Critters DX (as I'm calling it for now) finished as soon as possible, partly so I can try and get back to working on Prism Warriors, but mainly because I know if I don't strike while the iron is hot then I'll never get it finished (see also: Prism Warriors). Wish me luck (and a speedy recovery)!

I have completed my Ludum Dare 56 entry, Color Critters - and with plenty of time to spare for a change. Swap between the titular critters, and use their unique abilities to get through 15 puzzling levels of increasing difficulty!

Play it here, and when you're done, I'd appreciate it if you could head to its Ludum Dare page and give it a rating there as well. I'm looking forward to playing everyone else's entries in turn! For now, though, I'm gonna go celebrate getting the jam finished early for a change!

Prism Indigo DX is currently 20% off as part of the Steam Summer Sale! If you've played the Newgrounds version but haven't bought the DX version yet, now's your chance!

It's coming up to two years since I began developing Prism Warriors, and I haven't stopped running into roadblocks during that time, but I'm finally making progress again. My current plan is to launch the game's Steam page before the end of the year, and then release the game itself sometime in 2025. I think this is a realistic time frame now that I'm making progress again.

(Note: the above GIF is from a WIP build and still unpolished)

I'll make further progress updates in the near future.

The day is finally here! Prism Indigo DX is now available on Steam! Check it out, and watch the launch trailer here!

To celebrate - and to make sure the game is in the best state it can be in - I've prepared yet another update. Details below.

This is the culmination of almost 20 years of work developing video games, and it all began here on Newgrounds. Thank you so much for all your support over the years, and I look forward to making games for you all for many years to come.

V1.7 Update Notes

Additions

• "Exit Game" menu option (DX version only)

Changes

• Locked achievements are now shaded out
• Icons for locked Compendium entries are now shaded out
• Toned down some of the Stage 6 waves
• Improved the Options menu interface
• Adjusted the alignment of various menus
• Boldened the titles on the game mode and difficulty menus

Bug Fixes

• Fixed visual flicker when exiting the Sound Test menu

With the launch now just around the corner, I'm hard at work polishing the game and ensuring that things will go as smoothly as possible. There will be a new update to coincide with the launch, mostly focusing on polishing up the menus a bit - the free version here on NG will receive that as well, of course, but I'd love it if people could check out the paid version for its extra content.

As a reminder, the store page is here. Please wishlist it to help with visibility!

I am beyond excited to announce that on May 20th - the second anniversary of the game's original release - Prism Indigo DX will be releasing on Steam!

The Steam page is now live, and it would mean the world to me if you could wishlist it. Even if it's not your cup of tea (I appreciate it's quite a niche game!), every wishlist it receives will give it more visibility and help it find its way to those who would be interested in it.

This is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, and the latest step in a journey that began here on Newgrounds over 16 years ago. And that journey is only set to continue - once the launch is out of the way, I intend to move full steam ahead with Prism Warriors, and to eventually release that on Steam as well.

Thank you for all your support over these years, and I hope you'll continue supporting me for years to come!

I really gotta stop pushing updates without playtesting them first. I'm in the middle of being assessed for ADHD and if something comes out of that then maybe that'll help me.

V1.6.2 Patch Notes

Bug Fixes

• Fix infinite lives cheat not working

First, a couple of announcements. Over the next few weeks, I'll be attempting to add NG API integration to my existing PICO-8 games, giving them scoreboards and/or medals. I'm having some teething problems, but hope to get those ironed out and start rolling things out by February. (I'd love to do this with my TIC-80 games, especially Prism Indigo, but sadly TIC-80 doesn't have the same GPIO functionality as PICO-8.)

More pertinently, though: Prism Warriors is back in development! Currently, I'm backporting the changes from Prism Indigo v1.6 into the Warriors build, and once that's done I'll be focusing on finishing the remaining boss fights.

In the process of doing that, I've identified a couple of minor issues, so here's a quick patch to stamp those out.

V1.6.1 Patch Notes

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Black Label cheat score multiplier not being applied correctly (DX version only)
• Removed redundant code from menu system

I forgot to post the actual update notes, haha whoops. Here you go.

V1.6 Update Notes

Additions

• New “Easy” difficulty:
• ----Start with 9 lives instead of 5
• ----Bosses have 25% less health
• ----Bosses’ patterns are slowed by 25%
• Cheat menu:
• ----“Standard cheats” make the game easier but disable achievements and high scores
• ----“Black Label cheats” make the game harder but provide a score multiplier (DX version only)
• Two new achievements (DX version only)
• Confirmation popup when deleting your save data
• Audio cue if you try to fire a Burst without enough Burst Gauge charge

Changes

• Removed “Prism Mode” and replaced it with an “Infinite Lives” cheat (existing Prism Mode high scores can still be viewed)
• “Standard” difficulty has been renamed “Normal”
• Toned down the exploding Shades
• Rounded off the achievement icons and cursor
• Minor UI adjustments

Bug Fixes

• Fixed broken difficulty selection (free version only)
• Fixed current high score always showing as 0 when in Hardcore difficulty (DX version only)
• Fixed locked or DX-exclusive game modes not being shaded out
• Fixed locked Compendium and Sound Test entries not being shaded out

Merry Christmas, and happy holidays! I come bearing gifts: a massive update for Prism Indigo, plus news of my plans for 2024!

The main outstanding criticism was that Standard difficulty was too hard, yet Prism Mode was too easy. I wanted to address this while still retaining the option to give yourself infinite lives, for accessibility and debugging purposes, and my solution is twofold.

Firstly, Prism Mode is gone. In its place, I've added an Easy difficulty, that tones down the bosses and gives you some extra lives. I can tweak it later if people still find it too difficult. Secondly, I've added a "Cheats" menu, available from the Options screen, where you can give yourself infinite lives - as Prism Mode worked before - or other game-breaking buffs. These will, however, disable achievements and high-score saving, and are disabled in Hardcore difficulty and Prism Hunter mode.

But what if you want more of a challenge? Well, the DX version includes some special "Black Label" cheats, that rearrange the game to make it even harder. These don't disable achievements or high-scores, and actually boost your score multiplier when active.

Alongside these upgrades are the usual raft of bug fixes and quality-of-life changes. (I actually extensively tested this update, so there shouldn't be any further bugs for once!) And in the spirit of Christmas, I've launched another sale on itch.io, so you can get the DX version for 30% off until January 8th.

But why such a big update, after all this time? Well, that brings me on to my plans for 2024. Obviously, I plan to finish and release Prism Warriors sometime next year, but more importantly: I plan to release both Prism Indigo and Prism Warriors on Steam. I want both games to be as presentable as possible for when that happens, and regardless of how it turns out, I want to be able to say that I have released a game on Steam. Not every dev can say that.

Aside from that, I'll be continuing to enter Ludum Dare, and I plan to try adding API integration to my old PICO-8 games (and my TIC-80 games if possible!), to allow for things like medals and global leaderboards. There's also my upcoming Toy Boy Jam entry (that I'll be rushing to finish, having taken Christmas off!), plus a couple of other projects I'd like to dredge up if I have the time and energy.

This has been an excellent year for me. Six Seats Left has become one of my most acclaimed games ever, and Fruit Fall and Deliver Us From Evil were also fairly well-received. I'm in a new apartment, I'm in a loving relationship, and in two weeks' time I'll be having my long-awaited ADHD assessment. All things considered, I'm in a much better place now than I was earlier in the year, and I'm hoping to keep that going until 2024.

Onwards and upwards!