Dev Update: Moving Forward with Pre-Alpha Release and… A Challenge for Tester!
Hello everyone,
Those keeping up with <#1378048037750046840> may’ve noticed that I’ve stopped adding new movement mechanics (last one being Sliding) since about 2 weeks ago, and instead working on gameplay mechanics and progression.
Since the focus has shifted from primarily adding satisfying movement mechanics to adding fundamental game mechanics, updates will likely continue to be less frequent for now as I work on these bulkier aspects of the game (perk system (skill tree), tool system, storyline system, all that sort of PROGRESSION-related stuff).
As the game moves forward to the pre-alpha stage, I currently plan to have the game be paid access. Rest assured, I don’t plan on having the price be too high (no more than 250 Robux), but I still need to put some thought into this decision and want to hear what you guys think about this.
But what if I have no Robux?
Well, great news! First off all, the game will stay open and free while it is a Prototype, and Pre-Alpha will only be released once all the barebones core systems alongside at least one area of the permanent map is added.
Since you guys have shown interest in the game so early, I want to offer an opportunity for tester: an in-game challenge!
The challenge is to collect all 50 Core Fractals during the game’s Prototype Phase for the Tester role. Currently, only 20 are obtainable at the time of this announcement, and the remaining will be added over the next couple weeks. I designed many of the courses to make sure you master most of the game’s basic and intermediate movement mechanics, so I think that getting through them at this stage of the game would make you very well qualified for Tester.
If you can’t quite get 50 Core Fractals but can collect at least 20 Core Fractals during the Prototype phase, you will be given <@&1378042719443620000> as a token of gratitude.
Increased window to jump dash after dashing: 0.25s → 0.4s
Jump dashing between 0.25-0.35s after a dash will have 25% less travel duration, and 50% less if between 0.35s-0.4s
Increased dive dash window after dashing: 0.25s → 0.35s
Increased dive dash window after jump dashing: 0.4s → 0.45s
Made the course for the 3rd checkpoint (“Boxcour”) much easier.
(mazenafndy) Made the 7th checkpoint course (“High Tower Leap of Faith”) slightly easier, so that the player doesn’t need to build Momentum to beat it.
(mazenafndy) Made all but the last volcano biome courses slightly easier (particularly in the final jumps).
Added some signs in the earlier courses to help direct the player where they should go and what they should do.
Slightly adjusted the volcano course right before the dropper.
Bugs
[Fixed] Badge for collecting 20 Test Core Fractals is not obtainable.
[Fixed] Area boundaries are visible.
[Fixed] Some momentum powerups still have old hitboxes, and some do not visually respawn properly.
[Fixed] Momentum gain from slopes is affected by non-collidable parts.
Sliding is now bufferable if you hold the slide key in midair. Upon touching the ground, you will smoothly transition into sliding now if you do this.
Jump dashing now sends you higher in exchange for less forward movement the earlier you do it in a dash. However, this is ineffective if you are falling down.
Reduced the gravity pressure while sliding.
Diving terminal velocity stretch duration now scales somewhat with Momentum (up to 5s max, from 3s base).
Dashing now gives back your air dive charge if you had used it up.
Started working on the checkpoint browser.
Re-enabled double jumps with some adjustments to make it a slightly weaker, but easy-to-control alternative to jump dashing.
What stays the same:
Double jumps can’t be used less than 0.15s after jumping
Double jump height still is 7.2 base studs of height
Double jumps still have a 0.65s cooldown after long jumping (this is because long jumping is meant to be a “hard-to-control but highly effective” action in terms of aerial mobility)
Double jumps still have a 0.4s cooldown after dive dashing (to prevent accidentally canceling a dive dash quickly)
Double jumps still provide a super ground pound window (0.2s, same as jump dashes)
What changes:
Double jumps height now scales with Momentum, up to 2x height (14.4 studs max)
Double jumps now reset your air dive charge
Double jumps now cost 10% of your Momentum (subtractive, some parity with jump dashing)
Double jumps now share the same charge as jump dashes (you can still dash and dive dash though)
Sliding now gains you Momentum based on your current Momentum and sliding speed. This Momentum boost scales inversely with your current Momentum and your initial sliding speed (i.e. lower your Momentum at time of the slide and the faster your slide, the more Momentum you’ll gain upon sliding). This boost caps at 75% Momentum.
Greatly reduced the base momentum decay but raised Momentum decay scaling multiplier. This should make Momentum drain much less harsh at high Momentum while making it slightly harder to maintain at low Momentum.
Technical info
Momentum decay per second: 50 → 30
Momentum decay scaling multiplier: 0.1 → 0.2
(mazenafndy) Disabled health regeneration.
Stuns now automatically cancel after 0.5s by default.
Added compatibility for hazards to have different stun durations and different bounce speeds/heights.
Lava hazards stun you for 1s and bounce you up 100 studs/sec and bounce you horizontally at 40 studs/sec.
More progress on making new stats (Vitality, Agility) functional.
Greatly increased crouch jump power: 90 → 115
Increased crouch jump momentum cost: 30% of current Momentum → 50% of current Momentum, all of your Momentum if below 10
Crouch jumps now consume dashing and double jump charges to make them more strategic movement technique rather than something you could always use mindlessly for maximum height.
You can still air dive after crouch jumping
Air diving now has a 0.4s cooldown only if a slide was used within that window.
Double jumping immediately after an air dive now doubles its height.
Added obtainable Corebits around the map.
These respawn upon joining a server unlike Core Fractals, so that they can be grinded for over and over again.
Corebits give a small surge of energy to the player, restoring a little lost health (3 base, with some scaling based on the value of the Corebit collected).
Corebits will be able to be spent on some items in the future.
Corebit model is not final.
Added internal stats for the following:
CorebitsCollected: This will be used for tracking badges and is now functional.
Tools: This will store the abilities the player has.
Perks: This will store the perks that the player has unlocked through the skill tree or quests.
Quests: Self-explanatory.
EnemyJournal: This will keep track of which enemies the player has defeated and their amounts.
Crouching no longer cancels automatically when falling (without jumping).
Improved the model for Core Fractals (still temporary).
Core Fractals now have a collection animation similar to Corebits, which also plays for already collected fractals when the player loads into the game initially.
You can no longer coyote jump while crouching (i.e. you cannot crouch jump in midair if you had been grounded 0.15s or less ago).
Added visual effects for crouch jumping, which are amplified at higher momentum amounts (40 and 100 Momentum thresholds respectively).
Added visual effects for regular jumping at higher momentum amounts (40 and 100 Momentum thresholds respectively).
Added sonic boom visual effects for long jumping at a magnitude at or above 100 studs/sec.
Added 3 more Core Fractals so far.
Bugs
[Unsure] Long jumping then sliding immediately after it ends can permanently lock the player’s rotation outside of these techniques.
[Fixed] Air diving during a dash doesn’t properly cancel dash velocity.
[Fixed] Some collected Core Fractals sometimes load as uncollected (visually).
[Fixed] Crouch walking isn’t affected by momentum.
No updates in a while… still hard at work at finishing the prototype and preparing for Pre-Alpha.
Anyway, here’s some patch notes related to a new powerup I spent all day finishing up (some parts of it were quite technically challenging for me)!
Alpha v0.0.45 (7/30/2025)
Changes
Landing with some horizontal velocity now very briefly retains your horizontal velocity upon landing if you aren’t holding a WASD key.
Slightly increased the friction coefficient of the Ice material: 0.05 → 0.075
Finished adding the effects of the new Icy powerup, which is a double-edged sword of a powerup that makes Momentum much easier to maintain in exchange for significantly reduced maneuverability. Has the following effects:
Doubles grace period for Momentum drain
Reduces passive Momentum drain by -90% (ground) or -95% (air)
Reduces active Momentum gain by -50%
Reduces character movement acceleration by -75%
Friction on the ground now matches that of ice
Air drag is reduced by another 50% on top of having ice friction, making air control much more rigid
Shift lock no longer turns the player, and the player can only turn up to 60 degrees a second normally
Doubles downward terminal velocity
Converts the character’s material and color to match that of ice temporarily
(There are a couple bugs with this system such as canceling slide not retaining momentum and the ice texture not affecting accessories, but these will be ironed out later.)
(Powerup model is not finished yet.)
Sliding now can have two raycast checks for gravity effectiveness.
The second raycast check is what the original single raycast check was, but the first is a stricter check that will make the second raycast check not needed most of the time. Failing the first raycast check will make gravity fully affect the player sliding, fixing issues where the player would be floating slightly while sliding in some cases.
With further adjustments, this can allow for sliding to work somewhat in midair if you slide off a small ledge.
Bugs
[Fixed] Autorotate issue with sliding and long jumping.
Horizontal velocity is now preserved when recovering on the ground while Icy.
Having the Icy powerup active now gives the player an icy particle effect emitting from their torso.
Powerups now have a particle burst on both the player and powerup upon pickup.
Powerup recharge time fallback value increased: 0.2s → 1s
Note: Momentum powerups still recharge after 0.2s.
Picking up a powerup will now make you all trail their particles by default for 1 second.
Some powerups cause you to inherit their particles for the full duration of the powerup, such as the Icy powerup.
The particles from collecting the same powerup with this property do stack, but with diminishing returns. Whenever an emitter is added, disabled, or destroyed, the newest stays at 100 %, older ones are successively halved, and when an
old stack expires the remaining ones move up the ladder (doubling their rates accordingly).
Dive charge is now restored when recovering midair.
Icy powerup now also does the following:
Increases dive falling speed by 50 studs/sec, making diving into a slide much more effective
No longer reduces horizontal velocity
Bugs
[Fixed] Icy powerup durations don’t work the same way as Maxmentum (Max Momentum) powerup durations.
[Fixed] Input and move direction adjustment kicks in later than intended when air recovering while Icy.
[Fixed] Icy doesn’t properly color your accessories.
[Fixed] Dying with a timed powerup and then picking one up if the duration of the previous one would’ve been longer voids the new powerup.
Finished adding Boost Rings. Boost rings can add or multiply your Momentum and velocity. Some rings will even be able to reset your ground cooldowns, allowing for interesting course dynamics.
Made the Icy powerup server-sided instead of client-sided.
Improved the Icy powerup slightly:
Icy powerup now provides 50% damage reduction while active.
Moving straight will retain your horizontal velocity as long as you maintain the key in that direction, instead of being instantly clamped at your walkspeed.
Doubles grace period for Momentum drain
Reduces active Momentum gain by -50%
Doubles downward terminal velocity