More Nortubel levels and a new world: Massag-Coav, which includes art deco themes, jazz elements (Still no music lol), sports elements and mainly consists of anthro furry characters.

A lot nicer and happy compared to Krimb-Stone.

While Nort part 3 has 3 levels, Massag-Coav gets 5.

Passwords: st3ll4, z4r1n4, sh1hr0, h0lm3s, mcshry, jol1t4, b4rn3y and k4rl44

* New hazard: Wheels of cheese that roll around the floor.

* Prefab: Floating targets that move in different directions.

* Scene: Special doors that disappear if a number of objects (Floating targets, soccer nets) disappears in a level.

* Scene: Red button that requires someone to stand on it, to keep a door open or else the door closes/stays closed.

* Because one level might seem a bit complicated, there’s a map at the start you can visit (It’s just an image of the map’s layout but still; Not sure if this idea can be visited for other levels but who knows).

* Prefab: Photo booth.

* Enemy: Black chicken with 4 legs that charges at the Player/Companion if you’re in their right and gets dizzy when hitting a wall.

* Scene type: Healing water, which is like an inverse to the health drain scene.

* Nort part 2 level 3/b3rn4d: Now there’s a win/loss thing in this level, even if it’s basic.

* Hirdrih level 2/oott00: Added an art image for Leon, Otto and Avietta.

* Krimb level 3/phn34s: Added a new bit of lore.

* Nort level 8/p33tt3: Fixed a thing where the van wouldn't switch to its "open" sprite when Pete enters it.

* The “screenshot friendly” pause menu toggle now uses comma because using V can affect the password system.

* Game over screen revamped.

As usual, the plan stuff in Google/Rentry forms were edited.

After this, the next world should be a cool sci-fi setting and I plan the last level of both this setting and Nort part 4 to feature boss fights.

I’m also thinking of coming up with another tileset or two for the Nortubel theme, just in case I want to do more (And if the new tiles end up looking better).

This is not the update with the new world and Nort part 3 but it is one with a very big feature: Being able to play as the younger sibling.

This is because people struggle with the command/AI system and suggested me to take a hint from Lost Vikings.

So far the system kinda works but don't be surprised if there's both technical issues (If both characters are (un)playable, press O or P again to go back to just one) or unappealing aspects like all the things built around the Player that the Companion can't do even if playable.

This feature in general exists as an response to the main gameplay format getting a bit too tricky to most people.

But Stella is still a companion and there's at least one more character idea to be like her (Don't worry, in this character's case, she will have no health bar or ladders, so things will be different).

There's also other stuff in this update:

• Press V when gameplay/cutscenes are paused, so the game remains paused but the pause menus are gone, so you can screenshot things better (And press V again to bring back pause menus).
• Z and X allow cutscenes to move either faster or slower (Based on responses to cutscenes either being too fast or slow).
• First level has new texts/images in regards to Companion ladder stuff and some were even edited.
• Player no longer knocks Companion off ladders, with one tutorial book being changed to something else.
• Companion now climbs slower (Because without the knock off, you’d have them vibrate weirdly when catching up with the Player’s climbing speed).
• HUD now has an icon next to Comp’s health bar indicating their follow/avoid/idle state.
• Stella got the same treatment with the 3 points above.
• These changes also lead to some level design tweaks and Companion's ladder detecting Raycast being a bit bigger.
• Cutscene before Krimb level 3 now ends with the same text in that level’s yellow book, to inform players about Stella.
• Added option to turn on/off smooth camera due to responses about some weird jittery stuff going on.
• TEST: There are now individual buttons for the Comp’s states and they’re 1/2/3. I might change inputs but it has to be made with the other buttons in mind because I don’t think I’ll ever do key binding settings (And Stella gets 4/5/6).
• Hirdrih level 2: Sky now has a sun and moon.
• Krimb-Stone level 2: Added a police car scene.
• Added a moving vertical platform at the end of level p33tt3 for backtracking.

This update was mostly tweak/feature implementation stuff and based of feedback.

The next update might be the Massag-Coav/Nort part 3 one with all the new characters and story stuff to introduce, along with new gameplay features and interactive worldbuilding stuff.

Lot of people struggle with the gameplay of Project Nortubel and there’s stuff I can’t do due to my limitations in terms of dev skill/knowledge and the game’s structure created thanks to that.

Changing controls and how the AI works might not happen, but one method could perhaps: Switching between siblings.

But we gotta consider stuff first:

CAMERA

I’d have to make it a seperate scene from the Player, which means considering a bit of code I added recently (Basically, turning on/off camera smoothing) and the overall node tree/structure in ALL levels.

Because otherwise, both characters having a camera and turning on/off one at a time might be both lazy and hacky.

Another thing is the resolution and camera size because I need it to be consistent and I swear Godot has a history of innacurate numbers in certain things.

STATES

Basically, if the player is attached to a ladder, they’d switch to a sort of “IDLE LADDER” state equivalent to an idle non playable state if they were on ground or something.

I guess the code to switch states would be tied to specific states for the sake of that “equivalent state” idea.

With the little siblings, if they went back to their companion role, they’d still have idle states which would be similar to when they enter/quit ladders as idle.

All this just to keep in mind who would be playable and who wouldnt’t because you don’t want both playable or unplayable.

The issue, however, is Stella and at least one more “third companion” character I wanna do, but maybe I could promise to not make that character use ladders.

LEVEL DESIGN

Level K4tr1n starts with Katrin standing on a treadmill floor, while the game expects you to tell Pete to run away, just to activate some switch that causes a blue platform to move.

Maybe even this scenario could work if you just let Katrin reach the floor (And kill the Gecko) while Pete activates the switches but you just don’t know what they did until you switch back to Katrin.

I think I did try making sure most levels have backtracking and barely any softlocks.

Worst case scenario could just be the boredom of going to the same places, but just using a different character.

LIMITED CHARACTER

The game is mostly built with the older siblings in mind: They have combat, pick up keys, use the swingable rod and even interact with NPC’s and some scenes that are just “fun/worldbuilding gimmicks”.

A special feature of the Companion is perhaps crawling to tight spaces but it’s pretty clear they don’t have a lot going on.

This is also because of the spriteset both characters use: I don’t wanna risk either editing the spriteset or making a new spriteset whose sprites are still in the same resources.

At the very least, you’ll realize that Oscar/Pete/Angela being playable is just in case the normal gameplay is that hard.

And even then, Stella and the potential other “third companion” character would still be non-playable.

And the older siblings would also NOT be under the “command/escort” system.

Even I wouldn’t do that.

Again, just in case the traditional gameplay annoys people enough, that they play as the kids to make them use ladders better.

MORE ABOUT STELLA

There are 2 big reasons why she can’t be part of that system.

One being that if the camera is a scene under a certain scene tree, it’d only be built with 2 characters in mind since that’s standard.

Another is the potential script changes being built with 2 characters in mind.

So even if you toggle between Carrie/Katrin/Melvin and Oscar/Pete/Angela, you may get at least 2 levels of “traditional” companion AI stuff.

Notice how the end of KrimbLevel3 needs Stella to use a switch but the actual end level door (Or rather, wall hole) only needs the 2 main characters.

ANYWAY

This is all speculation because I still wanna finish this update before even trying this idea.

Recently, I added icons about current states for Companions on the HUD/UI and made it so you no longer knock them off ladders (At the cost of making them slower because of some speed shakey stuff).

I also added some “simple” inputs as ½/3 even if they could be changed.

There’s probably more stuff to consider as I write this.

https://eyeballtank.itch.io/project-nortubel

At least 1 or 2 people said it worked fine, but I'd like to see more people try it just to make sure the port works even if they don't get very far in the game.

Note: The game doesn't have a lot of sound effects so don't worry about the main menu or cutscenes being complete silence.

If you can hear the main characters landing on the floor, pushable objects, jumppads, the soccer ball etc, then things should work like they should.

Gamedev

Nortubel is good so far (At least to me).

Not only did I reach 18 levels and 6 cutscenes, I also tried tweaking stuff and adding some features to make it more helpful like being able to adjust cutscene speed.

I still have lot of ideas to implement in the game and is why I recently updated the story plan file in both Rentry and Google form.

Art

Didn't do much art this time, besides stuff for the game (Some even posted in art sites).

A dirty trick I fell into is tracing posed models in Blender but maybe I could get back at practicing construction and gesture.

Doom mapping

Made a really weak map for a first map.

Made a better map that is finished but the main project itself isn't (Look up Fore/vr Alone).

And then did a huge MetaDoom map that isn't playable to anyone else because of how PK3 files actually work.

What else?

Hope to make more Doom maps (And maybe try other games) but I still want to primarly focus on Nortubel and if that gets finished/good enough, a new game like a simpler platformer just to relearn Godot.

In day 6 this month I'll be off-line for some days due to IRL stuff.

Something that should've happened in 15 of November but was delayed.

Still, I'll take a break and then go back to work.

While at it, make sure to give me feedback about my game and maybe share it to others, so other people know about the game.

Also, here's a photo booth for fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpPLu2KLd4o

Going back to Nortubel(?) and then a new setting: Krimb-Stone.

The inspirations for this setting should be obvious and it also highlights the “fake crossover” goal of my projects.

Added 6 levels and 4 cutscenes for this: Therefore 18 levels and 6 cutscenes in total.

You’ll also see relatives to the main cast.

Anyway, the passwords are "p4m3l4", "sh3lly", "b3rn4d", "b00k3r", "r1c0t0" and "phn34s".

* Added a cameo/guest appearance of Sarah from Dreams of Joy Departed, due to that game including a Nortubel reference.

* Added a Credits section/button in the game.

* Fixed a potential softlock in level 9, by allowing the Companion to return to the spawn area.

* Fixed a weird thing where the Crusher Bell clipped a few tiles before actually colliding with the floor by increasing its raycast (Not even sure how this happened, but before the fix it’d only work on the third level).

* (Hopefully) Fixed another weird thing where the Bell’s sound would be heard even with the volume settings being the lowest.

* New NPC type: “Trade” characters; Look for an item, give it to them and something happens in the levels.

* “Race” NPC where I tried to make the Player compete with fake AI in my limited skills.

(Don’t expect an actual system detecting the winner… maybe I could update the game just to add it later?).

* A potential system of using traps to combat enemies.

* A new Companion type made for the level used: Stella, Katrin and Pete’s cousin. She functions similarly to the Companions but instead uses “A” for the commands and “X” for jumping.

Stella is only used as a companion once, but she could inspire characters that act similar but with some differences, who knows.

* Enemy type: A guy that moves/left right and shoots a projectile based on the direction. Took a while to get this made how I wanted, because he could be a useful template for future enemies.

* Spitter Fish now can properly flip its projectile, so the “left” variation isn’t needed anymore.

* Nortubel’s horizontal moving plat has a new animation that is just a “flipped” version of the main loop; Nothing special but eh.

* Version of green endlevel door that only needs the Player.

Also updated the plans “doc” in both Google and Rentry form.

A hint for the next world in the next update is one with anthro characters, but I wanna make sure they look okay enough and in the way I want them to.

Again, if the game gets too big for some people, I’ll stop updating the HTML version and try to figure how to make the downloadable version not just being Windows only.

I got a lot of plans for this game, so somebody tell someone big and powerful to do something about whatever solar storm can happen next year and I also hope health/medical stuff doesn't get in the way either.

Development will definitely slow down in December.

Feeling kinda awful for weeks, at first I thought it could be stress related stuff and just needed to slow down the heart.

But I feel weird stuff in my head, like "loose parts", something "inflating" like a balloon, the empty space of my mouth feeling bigger than it is, what felt like a small "snap" inside my head...

Like what if I got a few broken veins or a tumor?

I'm usually a bit paranoid over health related stuff, so there's an aspect of emotional/psychological stuff to this.

But at night/when I sleep, I wake up with my head feeling light or feel like I'll almost get a stroke.

I even had an instance where if I swallowed (Empty mouth), my mouth would automatically open.

We all know what a "head ache" feels like, so what I feel has sensations on specific places of my head.

I've been told it could just be a flu/cold or something but my coughing felt like it had less to do with that and more to do with whether or not my brain needs more blood/oxygen.

I'm only a few days away from analysis and I hope whatever is going on, can't be that bad and there's solutions with no awful side effects.

Because I want to finish my game.

On days 13-15 I will be doing some health analysis and surgery stuff.

This mean my game's development will take a break but you can always check Project Nortubel on its GitHub page.

https://github.com/EyeBallTank/PROJECT-NORTUBEL-main-ish

New world: Hirdrih.

When you finish the 9th level, it takes you to a cutscene and then new levels based on this new world.

(You can use the password “l3300n” to get there).

It’s a tech/robotic themed world and there’s a lot of stuff in it that I won’t list in this post.

* Added an early iteration of “lore books”. You can find the first example in the second tutorial level above the red key door.

* Similar object is a variation of the info books that instead shows art and you can find it in the fourth level where you’ll find a globe.

* New NPC type: “Conversations” where 2 characters are interacting with each other and you can hear them talking but it’s a basic feature (I added these throughout the 6 levels after the tutorial ones; Basically, you can find them through the ones under the passwords: c4rr13, k4tr1n, m3lv1n, osc4r0, p33tt3 and ang3l4).

* Tried to fix an issue where things spawned into a level would carry into the next scene like projectiles such as the Soccer Ball or Spitter Fish’s projectile.

* New hazard/effect: “Poison”, something that slowly drains the characters’ health without activating their hurt frames.

* New enemy: Hirdrih servants, a penguin/seahorse mashup that acts as a turret shooting asterisks

* Another: “Hirdrio” which bounces off surfaces.

* Prefab: Computer windows that you can close with your melee attack

* Behind the scenes: Added alt sprites for level items/objects based on different worlds so it’s not just Hirdrih that gets its versions of pushable vases or keys.

Depending on how big the game gets, I may stop updating the HTML version and work on the EXE version (Full game still available on Github of course).

But as I work on this game, I would work on stuff for different levels, so it'd be useless if it meant the HTML version still had content from later but unaccessable levels.

Anyway, feel free to spread news about my game or something because I still won’t make a Twitter account and astroturfing in some other places isn’t working.

(Maybe I should focus more on work).

Also, a game called Dreams of Joy Departed by Horbror features a Nortubel reference.

I’ve yet to play that myself but I should.

(And I still got that MetaDoom map).

Also, my game was previously on /agdg/’s demo day 52 and now it’s also on /v/3 this year.