Mac version, level editor, 50% off

Posted on by
8

Now’s your chance!  We’ve finished porting Dustforce to the Mac platform.  Get it now while it’s for 50% off for a couple of days: http://store.steampowered.com/app/65300/

Also, included in the update is the level editor, as well as a level sharing website here: http://atlas.dustforce.com/

We can’t wait to see what kinds of maps everyone comes up with!

 

Some changes: a new nexus overworld system

We’ve redesigned the nexus layout -- we found that the previous one was not very friendly for beginners.  A surprisingly small fraction of players actually ventured outside of the forest area!  Additionally, the distribution of door difficulty was not even, so new players often ended up in places way over their skill level.  This new layout splits up the nexus into four sub-nexuses (nexii?): Forest, Mansion, City, and Lab.  Also, the easy doors are easier to get to, and the gold doors are harder to reach.

 

 

New key progression system

Along with the nexus change, we also reworked the key system.  The problem with the old key system was that it rendered non-SS scores useless.  However, it was good in that it highly rewarded perfection.  This new system is more accessible without taking away the satisfaction of a perfect score.  It works like this:

  1. Think of the scores as percentages: an S is worth 50%, an A is worth 40%, all the way down to 10% for a D.  So an SS is worth 100%, an SA is worth 90%, etc.
  2. Your top scores in each level are combined to determine your key count: every 100 percentage points you earn, you get a key.  For example, if you get an AB (70%) on one level, and a SA (90%) on another, you get a key, and the 60% remainder is applied to your next key.
  3. This works on a per-key-type basis.  So you have a separate meter for silver keys, gold keys, etc.
So in summary, you can now unlock more doors by improving your scores, but you still need to be perfect to unlock all of the doors.  This aligns with our design philosophy for the game, which is to encourage improvement and reward perfection.

An important note

We started a new season of Dustforce scores on the leaderboards.  You can still access the old leaderboards, as well as the old nexus system, through your Steam folder with an executable called dustforce_original.exe.  This is because we needed to rebuild the replay system to allow interoperability with the new Mac version.  We also took this opportunity to fix up any nagging issues with the existing levels, so you may notice some minor changes here and there.

Final thoughts

We plan to write more details about our design decisions and development experiences in an upcoming postmortem.  As always, please let us know if  you have any questions by emailing us at contact@hitboxteam.com.

 

Dustforce is available on Steam!

Posted on by
24

It’s finally here! You can buy it on Steam for $8.99. It’s 10% off right now!



Reviews

Rock Paper Shotgun called Dustforce “one of the most bloody excellent platform games I’ve played in a long time”.
Indie Game Magazine calls Dustforce “a display of perfection.”
Gamefront gives it a 95/100, saying: “It’s like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube at a spa.”
True PC Gaming says: “Dustforce is a work of art. A beautiful, infuriatingly challenging work of art.”
Capsule Computers gives it a 9.5 out of 10, saying, “The art and music in this game is some of the best out there.”
Grouvee says: “Hitbox has got quite a little indie hit on its hands.”
Colony of Gamers gives it a 4.5 out of 5, calling Dustforce “a fast paced, artistic, well crafted game.”