Alpha 0.6 of JARPUG is out! And it's got a free demo! Please go try it! And maybe wishlist it on Steam if you're into that.

The main thing alpha 0.6 adds is SUPERHELL, which can be accessed at the end of both the current full game and demo.

SUPERHELL is a randomly generated dungeon with a powered up boss at the end. It adds a new layer of SUPER equipment and mutations to help you handle the tougher challenge and build a beautiful tower of hats.

Loot picking is streamlined to equip all three of your dogs with sweet new, infinitely stacking loot very quickly while still letting you see all those sweet, sweet stats.

I want SUPERHELL to be a place where you can just keep piling on equipment and mutations to become severely OP, and still barely make it through. It's no endless grind! But I do hope that it's something worth revisiting with every new alpha release.

SUPERHELL already has some new platforming challenges to play with. I've increased the default player speed and maneuverability to make that all feel better. It may make some puzzles too easy, but so far I'm alright right that. Eventually SUPERHELL will be more integrated with the main campaign. For much of Early Access it'll just be a fun place to grind after you've reached the current end of the story, though.

Side effects? What Side effects?

You get to keep potions, coins and experience gathered in SUPERHELL. There's a cap to coins and levels to keep you from getting too far ahead of the story. I... may have to do something about those potions.

There's nothing you can do with coins now. I've got plans! But for now they're just a delightful number to help you test the bones of this place.

Eventually I'll clear your mutations and super equipment when leaving SUPERHELL, but for now there's nothing after that any way, so I let you keep piling it on and breaking things, if you want. Mutations/super equipment won't get saved, though!

Making SUPERHELL

JARPUG was made with an internal tile-based level editor as the base layer, with one level loaded per scene. Redesigning those internals to take pre-made level fragments and put them together, while picking a random extra layer of obstacles/enemies to spawn in, took some doing.

Level fragments are hand designed and often have multiple choices for obstacles to help vary things. I've got one giant scene with every level fragment in it that I've been poring over for issues. Surely I've missed nothing.

But why

JARPUG's battle systems really shine in large battles and it can keep things in control with large numbers of dumb things happening. A battle with a dozen ghosts chompin' your biz is a mess, but it's a glorious mess. Letting players grind on that while getting very powerful very quickly seems like a good way to maximize that fun. Also it combines my love of rogue-likes and my love of making these poor dogs very long in the character editor.

JARPUG's out in early access, and coming soon to Steam Early Access. But an RPG isn't great for that! This should give me a better dev loop while still allowing me to keep adding to the story in a fun way while also focusing on the platforming and battle gameplay that this mode highlights. I need this game to feel GOOD and this'll help me get there.

And now I'm going to go make a microgame in Godot because this was a big push and all of that Unity... unpleasantness... hit hard.

JARPUG on itch.io Wishlist JARPUG on Steam

Alpha 0.6 change log:

• Added SUPERHELL: random generated levels with a new layer of SUPER equipment and mutations. These don't get saved but (just for now) they get left on you until quitting, so you can goof off and break things.
• Increased default player speed to improve game feel/fun. This does make some puzzles easier but it seems alright.
• Added auto SteamVR detection at startup, so now there's only one Windows build for both VR and flat players!
• I also added manual launchers for forcing flat mode or VR mode if that doesn't work for everyone!
• Added a feedback button to the main title menu hey no pressure (O-O)
• Fixed ghost hand mouse sensitivity
• Increasing coin grab radius to improve game feel
• Made alleytown fire escape stairs less annoying
• Improved player model grounding logic, especially in Pet Hell
• Fixed various race conditions where unrelated UI and level loads could trigger while battles were starting
• Fixed jittering visuals during some level loads