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.