Major 2020 Update! :: Cloudbuilt Events & Announcements
Patch Notes View full event information here: https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/262390/announcements/detail/2512394801600295990
steamcommunity.com
Major Update by Coilworks - Posted June 25, 2020
- We've listened to all your feedback and updated the game to be more accessible while still staying true to its old competitive mechanics. A large part of the update ended up being focused on the levels. We've made an alternative version of 34 of the core levels in the game, focusing on teaching the game and creating a more balanced progression, while also adding some twists for the veteran players.
- Improving feedback and readability while giving some areas a facelift too. If you found the game a bit too tough or hard to learn, now would be a perfect time to give it another go. We've added a rebalanced new default difficulty to the game, aimed at players playing for their first time and are just playing to progress and clear the game.
- DEFAULT MODE: This mode uses all the reworked core CB levels and tweaks the game in various ways to be a little more accessible for new players. These tweaks include:
- Infinite retries. We scrapped the extra lives for this mode. We think there is a purpose for the original design, but as many players don't seem to like it, we've listened.
- No rankings or timer. You will have a simplified level clear screen, and you will never be ranked on your time and number of deaths. Play the way you want and just focus on beating the levels.
- Less enemy invulnerability. We've removed the invulnerability state of almost all enemies, with only one exception, where we instead decreased the invulnerability time significantly. This makes combat much easier to understand and let's players use clever snipes to clear out some sections in advance if they are creative. It does limit what can be done with some challenges, but it's not an issue for this mode.
- Less damage from lobbers. As the lobber enemy's main threat is the throwback, we've enabled it to throw back players even when dealing light damage.
- Throwback recovery has been made a little more lenient.
- Extralife pickups now gives you a temporary boost to max HP for the rest of the level.
- The weapon bullets travel a bit faster and weapon charge times have been reduced slightly.
- Very slightly lowered game speed. The game in the original speed was just a little too fast for even taking in and noticing some aspects of the mechanics while making some parts very challenging. We've found that by just lowering the game speed with about 10%, it helps the handling a lot. It's still very fast and demands high skill, but it's a lot more manageable. Be fast, play freely, optimize and find shortcuts in this mode, just don't expect to become the world record holder in this mode.
- LEVEL CHANGES
- Making the levels visually easier to navigate.
- Reworking the difficulty of each section, with a more clear focus on what we want the player to learn, and experience.
- Giving each level a stronger visual and game play theme.
- GAMEPLAY CHANGES:
- A new "Enemy alert effect" has been added, making it far easier to notice enemies.
- Checkpoint pickups: Placeable checkpoints can now be picked up again and moved. Though at a risk. If you die while moving it, don't say we didn't warn you. (Each checkpoint can only be moved once and will not grant extra lives when placed again)
- Proper death animation for the player when dead on the ground. No more hovering and eye twitching when dead.
- Added Steam Enhanced Rich Presence. See what your friends are up to in CB, right in your friend list.
- This is an update of the original 2014 release (Cloudbuilt).
- A big enough update that the 2014 original is now slightly more expensive than the 2017 remake (Super Cloudbuilt).
- The big emphasis of this June 2020 update of the original game (Cloudbuilt) is clearly accessibility: both Cloudbuilt & Super Cloudbuilt could be a bit overwhelming/demanding.
- This June 2020 update has been in the 'planning' stage for a while, but it was not certain until now that it would ever materialize. From August 2019:
- "...Thanks for the help Apnky :) Adding accessibility options, especially game speed options is something that have been on my mind, but it's sadly very unlikely we will be able to add anything new to this game at the moment. The company have sadly gone out of business due to lack of funds. We are just trying to give technical and community support to the game to the best of our abilities..."
- Both Cloudbuilt and Super Cloudbuilt are on sale.
Cloudbuilt is seriously under-appreciated. Great aesthetic, a wicked sense of speed and agility, level design that really encourages mastery, experimentation, and slick maneuvers
Super Cloudbuilt is some good stuff. It's one of the only games I know that lets you get as creative with running and jumping as something like a Devil May Cry game does with fighting.
Seconded. Super Cloudbuilt is amazing and underrated, one of my favorite games last year.
Thirding Super Cloudbuilt. The learning curve is pretty steep and the story is an afterthought, but it's secretly one of the best 3D platformers ever made.
Wowfunhappy:
Super Cloudbuilt – I'm amazed this game seemed to mostly slip under the radar. The controls and physics are second-to-none, and running and jumping through the levels feels phenomenal. The later game levels were too difficult for me, but what I was able to play was magical.
One of my favourites [was the original Mirror's Edge]. It did get fustrating at parts, and the first level was the best, but the mechanics were incredible. Sequel [Catalyst] never grabbed me. I suggest fans [of the original Mirror's Edge] try Cloudbuilt. [...]
Vivian-Pogo:My pick would be for a similar genre, more specifically 3D platforming. I picked up Mirrors Edge: Catalyst, but ended up playing Super Cloudbuilt more [...] It's like a focused Mirror Edge. Tight controls (can remap buttons), 60FPS, great sense of speed and height, stylised artstyle (can be changed in options)... Very liberating just bouncing around everywhere. And so underrated, I hardly ever hear it mentioned.
The best "gotta go fast" 3D platformer I've played is Super Cloudbuilt. In an alternate universe where Sonic Team made good games, Shadow the Hedgehog would've played like that.
Incidentally, Cloudbuilt with a few system changes is pretty much how a 3D Megaman X should play too.
Super Cloudbuilt is basically the parkour concept of Mirror's Edge except in third-person and with even more of an emphasis on speed and score-attack platforming. It is an amazing, exhilarating game once you get the hang of it and it starts flowing, and to be honest it is sort of how I always imagined 3D Sonic would feel if it had actually focused on high-speed obstacle-based platforming and not...a lot of other stuff as well (though SA2 is a guilty pleasure to be fair).
There's a really neat video where one of the developers (Gafgar, who is also the person quoted above) demonstrates some of the movement mechanics, as well as some of the underlying design philosophy:
[0m50s]...You're in full control of every part of the movement, meaning that you have a lot of freedom, but it also means you have to earn it. In Super Cloudbuilt, one input equals one action. This is an important feature, meaning that there is no automization: everything you see and accomplish is a result of your own skill. So, what does this actually mean?
[1m50s]...What's even more important is the conversion of momentum between actions. If I run up on a wall and jump before I lose all my upward momentum, that momentum will carry over into the jump. Likewise if I ran up on a wall and that momentum fizzles out before I jump, the resulting jump will be a lot lower. This conversion of momentum is true even when chaining multiple interactions, like wall running into a jump, into another wallrun, and so on...
[2m20s]...Take this case for instance. Running at it with perfect angles I can get up here. If I use bad angles it converts my momentum differently, making it hard or impossible to get up. Not only finding the combination of moves but all the timings, angles, and momentum is important if you want to be successful. There's a lot of depth here, but also a lot to learn, as most games don't really work like this...
[4m27s]...Mastering these techniques... is key to becoming a successful and skillful [player]... If you pay attention and practice a bit, they will soon become second nature, and let you move around the maps freely. When you eventually get there, it will feel great looking back and knowing the journey and [the fact that now] everything you do, is your own skill...
Some other remarks by Gafgar:
https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/co...gar_from_swedish_indie_dev_coilworks/dkujit9/
Haha! Appreciate it! :D Though, just so you get the right expectations. Unlike those games [Titanfall, Mirror's Edge] we use physics to drive the movement even on walls, so there is a full 360 degree of movement, and no binary distinction between vertical and horizontal runs, and momentum/velocity is respected between moves and is a vital part of how you get around. It might be a bit of a learning process, but gives a lot of depth and many possibilities :)
https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/co...e_journey_like_behind_a_game_6_years/duanmbw/
1: ...It's been a process of over 6 years, and it's always easier to see things after the fact. One of the biggest takeaways would probably have been to work on the tutorial and introduction of the game much earlier, as that proved to be a very difficult part. Teaching players new mechanics is very tough, especially if they on the surface might remind them of things they think they know from before. It might sound strange, but one of the biggest challenges for us was to teach players how wall running really works, as our wallruns are nothing like all the other games with them. Which brings me neatly on to question number two :D
2: There is actually video we made that explains the unique movement mechanics in the game. It might look interesting in a video, but what makes it really unique and what gives it the incredible depth takes a little more to explain, which we intend to do here: Super Cloudbuilt - Movement Mechanics Demonstration
To put it simple, there are no canned animations and fixed movements, everything is nuanced and actually physics inspired, meaning you have to use and build on momentum and speed. Every move is your own skill, and there are hundreds of ways to clear every challenge. Hope that sounds interesting :)
https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/co...e_journey_like_behind_a_game_6_years/duah5u1/
...When it comes to new mechanics, things like that usually grow and change a lot as the development proceeded. It's a pretty organic process with a lot of iteration and testing, making it very hard to predict, and making something truly new while making sure it works really well takes a lot of time. In the case of Super Cloudbuilt, we spent a lot of time on technology, but designing the brand new movement mechanics was one of the biggest time sinks. The rocket parkour thing was a brand new thing when we started (actually announced it back in 2012, even before Titan Fall). We released Cloudbuilt in 2014, although happy with how it turned out, we continued to polish on it. When we then got the opportunity to start working on Super Cloudbuilt in 2015 we went back to the drawing board and re built pretty much everything, now with a clear end goal from the start. It took a lot of time to make that mechanic work well, but the end result is a very deep movement system where there is a lot of room for player expression and skill. We did a video covering what makes the movement in Super Cloudbuilt so unique if you are interested. Might help to give insight in the things we had to work on: https://youtu.be/rFxoZi16KC0
Every game is its own journey so we can't say anything definitive and general, but I hope you found that insightful :)
Despite having seen people break my levels so many times in Cloudbuilt, it still just amazes me how well they do it [at AGDQ]. :P Also, makes me happy to hear how much people love the Fog levels, even the speedrunners, they were my absolute favorite to make.
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