Oct 27, 2017
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Major 2020 Update! :: Cloudbuilt Events & Announcements

Patch Notes View full event information here: https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/262390/announcements/detail/2512394801600295990
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).
    • One of the devs discussed the differences between Cloudbuilt & Super Cloudbuilt here (post from December 2018) and here (post from June 2020).
  • 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. [...]
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.
Vivian-Pogo:
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).

7A1BA985EAB60E8F21A227DB38E140C6BB118D22
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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Deleted member 17210

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Cool. This game made me a bit motion sick but I will give the update a try some time to see if that has changed.
 

Seaneko

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Wow, this was completely unexpected. I played Cloudbuilt 1 years ago and while I liked its ideas, it felt too difficult and clunky for me to keep at it at the time. This makes me want to dive right back into it and even check out Super Cloudbuilt. So awesome of the devs to continue supporting this game even years later!
 
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Unicorn

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Member
Oct 29, 2017
9,741
I was so confused reading this as an update to Cloudpunk haha.

Game was very disorienting to me when I played in 2014. Will try it again at some point because it ticks a lot of action platformer boxes. I just really didn't want a shooter AND platforming. Maybe I can handle it now.
 
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steamcommunity.com

Steam Community :: Guide :: Hardcore Parkour: Understanding Movement

A guide covering various movement techniques for maximum wizardry....

Good to see the replies, and that you're all tempted to give the game another shot :)

So awesome of the devs to continue supporting this game even years later!


Yeah, definitely, especially considering their situation:





January 26, 2019: Studio Shutdown

Hi everyone,

There is no easy way to say this, and some of you might have seen a few hints of this already, but Coilworks are sadly in an economically difficult situation. We've tried our best for the past months to resolve this, talking to investors and publishers and so on, but we've sadly run out of time. We stayed hopeful and held out as long as we could, as there clearly were a lot of interest in the game, but we can't hold out any longer and are forced to shut down all active development, and close our office.

We're sorry it turned out this way. We know there are a lot of players looking forward to Sky Tracers, and we wish we could to deliver on it, but at least we still hope to be able to run a test session for everyone interested some time early february. Though as we are shutting down, what happens after that test we can't know right now.

There is a lot to take in and consider here, but we hope and will do our best to be able to at least keep the company around in an idle state, making sure that Cloudbuilt and Super Cloudbuilt will be able to stick around.

There is no denying that this will mark the end of a chapter in CWs history. We've always had an active core team of full time developers for the past 8 years, but that will sadly come to change. As we will all have to look for new jobs in new places, it's impossible for us to promise much about the future. There might be a small chance that some of us will be able to continue doing some minor Coilworks stuff on the side. So, don't hold your breath, but there is still a small chance that Sky Tracers will be playable in some form in the future. That's our hope at least.

We've tried to answer as much as possible of the important questions here. But, we plan to hold a kind of "Coilworks Shutdown Stream", or something, today, Saturday, 23:00 CET, where we will sit down for a while, play a little Cloudbuilt and talk. Hope you will be able to stop by.

https://www.twitch.tv/gafgar

Thanks for your support and understanding,

The Coilworks team

coilworks.se

Studio Shutdown — Coilworks

There is no easy way to say this, and some of you might have seen a few hints of this already, but Coilworks are sadly in an economically difficult situation. We've tried our best for the past months to resolve this, talking to investors and publishers and so on, but we’ve sadly run out of time…
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..."
 
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Seaneko

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Jun 11, 2020
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Psittacus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,006
This game is amazing and so is the soundtrack. I'm glad more people might get to enjoy it now. The only downside is that there's no definitive version now.
 

Keasar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,724
Umeå, Sweden
I am not part of the team anymore but I am really happy to see that Gafgar and Bag have been working away on the game since Coilworks dissolved. Their dedication to our little indie roots is admirable!
 

j^aws

Member
Oct 31, 2017
1,569
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This is a fantastic game, and deserves more love and recognition when it comes to 3D platformers. Glad to hear it is still being updated.
 

Tuck

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,608
I thought the developed shut down so this is surprising. I was quoted in the OP but I'll say it again: get this game.
 

ElMexiMerican

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,512
Fuck yes, Ive only played Super Cloudbuilt but I'm definitely dipping back in tonight for the original Cloudbuilt just to see the improvements they've made. Please check out this game if you're interested at all in the 3D Platform genre
 

j^aws

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Oct 31, 2017
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aYZFrd5.gif


This thread made me play Super Cloudbuilt again, and the game still rocks. Platforming has an amazing sense of verticality.
 
OP
OP
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Oct 27, 2017
1,012
Damn, that's really unfortunate. Haven't really kept up with this stuff so this is all news to me. So they literally updated this game in their free time; that is some insanely generous dedication, but even if they hadn't, I sincerely hope all the team members have been (or will be) able to find good gigs.

Well said! :)

I am not part of the team anymore but I am really happy to see that Gafgar and Bag have been working away on the game since Coilworks dissolved. Their dedication to our little indie roots is admirable!

Thanks for your work on the game, Keasar! :)

This thread made me play Super Cloudbuilt again, and the game still rocks. Platforming has an amazing sense of verticality.

aYZFrd5.gif


Nice! And one from a gameplay trailer:









 

Deleted member 419

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Very awesome update and I hope that these new features let more people ease their way into the experience and ultimately discover how thrilling and fun the game is. Great time for a shout-out too since they can be had quite cheaply due to the Steam sale, as mentioned in the OP.

With any luck, the games will receive more and more attention and move from "Hidden Gem" to just "Gem"!
 
OP
OP
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Oct 27, 2017
1,012
Wait so why did they update the orignal game if they have a reworked remake?

Not sure, but one reason might be in order to make this 2020 update more widely available, since the original Cloudbuilt sold a lot more copies than Super Cloudbuilt. See for example:

  • SteamSpy Estimated Owners: 200K - 500K
  • SteamSpy Estimated Owners: 20K - 50K

Not related to your question, but perhaps worth noting that having access to custom levels (Steam Workshop integration) is a neat feature in Cloudbuilt (noted in the above tweet), which the developers weren't able to add to Super Cloudbuilt. See here:

steamcommunity.com

Steam Community :: Cloudbuilt

Cloudbuilt - Explore a world soaring high above the clouds, using all the abilities of your rocket powered suit.Run on walls, leap hundreds of meters, dodge, and destroy hostile robots. PLATFORMINGScale huge walls, rocket boost at blistering speeds, and perform giant leaps. Find your own path...

Also:

...From there I'd say the custom levels are the biggest selling point [for the original game]. Kalifen's "Symphony of the Clouds" and one other who's name escapes me offer literally hours of content on their own. They're metroid vania experiences where you start off with few abilities and collect them as you explore different parts of these massive levels. If you want more traditional Cloudbuilt experiences there are also dozens of normal custom levels that provide satisfying experiences you can't get in Super Cloudbuilt...

r/Cloudbuilt - Help me understand - what is SUPER Cloudbuilt?

1 vote and 15 comments so far on Reddit
 
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OP
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Keasar

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Thanks for your work on the game, Keasar! :)
Thank you more for liking it! Feels like all the work put in was worth it when people talk well about the games, and while we didn't hit all the marks, we were really happy and proud with what we got going. I am still sad we never got to continue working on our next game Riftbranded, but that's just how it is. Hopefully with a bit of luck Gafgar might revive that project and get it going again.

artwork1.jpg

RB-Screen01.jpg
 
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Wowfunhappy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,102
I am absolutely delighted that this happened, but also completely perplexed that they chose to update Cloudbuilt instead of Super Cloudbuilt.

Super Cloudbuilt felt like such an improvement in every way, there's no way I can ever go back to the original. Which is a shame, because I'd love to play without those stupid enemy invulnerability states.

Also a little disappointed they removed the life system, even though I generally get why they did it. I know it's still in "competitive mode", but then I'd have those invulnerability states! :)

I wouldn't mind trying this game out. If I want just one should I get the first or the sequel?

Since they only updated the original, this is a hard question—but, as above, I'm still going to say the sequel! The controls are just so much better, as is the level design.
 
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nano

Member
Oct 26, 2017
413
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This is great. The game got my attention initially only due to the music, but I couldn't get into the gameplay. I felt like that it wanted to do everything at once - momentum-based platforming, shooting, parkour, speedrunning, difficulty, highscores - which made it super overwhelming. I reinstalled it and the couple of levels I played were much more fun because you aren't punished anymore (except for time/score which I don't care for) for taking your time and incrementally tackling the level.
 

Keasar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,724
Umeå, Sweden
I am absolutely delighted that this happened, but also completely perplexed that they chose to updated Cloudbuilt instead of Super Cloudbuilt.
I can answer this, it's because the license and ownership of Super Cloudbuilt still belongs to Double11, while Coilworks owns the rights to just Cloudbuilt. So they couldn't make changes to Super Cloudbuilt without going through the publisher. All this work has been done on their free time as a sort of passion thing to the game.
 
OP
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Oct 27, 2017
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The gif above is a bit choppy, so just posting the original source:



Thank you more for liking it! Feels like all the work put in was worth it when people talk well about the games, and while we didn't hit all the marks, we were really happy and proud with what we got going. I am still sad we never got to continue working on our next game Riftbranded, but that's just how it is. Hopefully with a bit of luck Gafgar might revive that project and get it going again.

artwork1.jpg

RB-Screen01.jpg

Yeah, that would be great! Hoping for the best :) The Mechanics Demo video for Super Cloudbuilt (below) did a great job at breaking down/showing off the depth of the movement system you guys had going on, which I'm sure you all would have built on further, with Riftbranded.


[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...
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 [in Super Cloudbuilt] 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 :)
 
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OP
OP
Schopenhauerian
Oct 27, 2017
1,012
This is great. The game got my attention initially only due to the music, but I couldn't get into the gameplay. I felt like that it wanted to do everything at once - momentum-based platforming, shooting, parkour, speedrunning, difficulty, highscores - which made it super overwhelming. I reinstalled it and the couple of levels I played were much more fun because you aren't punished anymore (except for time/score which I don't care for) for taking your time and incrementally tackling the level.

Nice! Sounds like they did a good job with this update, in that case.

Notable thread from 2 months ago:
Me [Gafgar] and Bag have been talking a lot about Cloudbuilt recently and what we can take with us for potential future work. But we would love to hear from all of you as well. It's sadly not a secret that both the original Cloudbuilt and Super Cloudbuilt have to some degree had some issues retaining new players. Both in having them play a longer first session, but probably even more so with coming back for a second play session. If there were 1 to 3 things you could change with CB that would not hurt your own experience with the game but at the same time make it more fun and easier to get into for new players. What would that be? :)

r/Cloudbuilt - Cloudbuilt's biggest problem for new players.

6 votes and 33 comments so far on Reddit


And I notice Wowfunhappy had a bunch of helpful comments in there, nice.

I am absolutely delighted that this happened, but also completely perplexed that they chose to update Cloudbuilt instead of Super Cloudbuilt.
I can answer this, it's because the license and ownership of Super Cloudbuilt still belongs to Double11, while Coilworks owns the rights to just Cloudbuilt. So they couldn't make changes to Super Cloudbuilt without going through the publisher. All this work has been done on their free time as a sort of passion thing to the game.


A user made a post at the Steam Forum for Super Cloudbuilt, and they referred to comments Gafgar made on a recent stream:

That's hard to say, and I don't know that I have a good answer. Personally, I always preferred the original, but I think I was in the minority on that, and I do know a lot of people who found Super better mechanically, especially for a beginner. I think the new CB update is really nice though, and should make it more welcoming.

Whether this makes any difference, Gafgar actually did a stream not long after my last message about why CB was the one updated, and a potential future for the games/studio. He noted that while updating SCB is on a wishlist of things to do, CB is the one they currently have plans for if they release future updates (which they hope to), for a variety of reasons. Buying CB would also better support the devs at this point.

TL;DR, prior to the CB update I probably would have recommended SCB for new players, but all things considered with the update and for the devs, I'd say CB now. They're both good games though, and you can't go wrong with either. Plus, with the updated level designs, the 2 are at least a little bit more different from each other.

Sorry if that doesn't help much. Is there anything more specific I could try to address? The next discussion on the page below this one has a link to differences, though it might be a smidge out of date now.

steamcommunity.com

So is this game abandoned? :: Super Cloudbuilt General Discussions

I just now noticed the original Cloudbuilt got a brand new update this year. Meanwhile, the Steam library artwork still hasn't been updated for this game. Is it safe to assume this game won't get any more updates?
 
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OP
OP
Schopenhauerian
Oct 27, 2017
1,012
In case folks want to get in on the sale price for Cloudbuilt (ends tomorrow), Gafgar (Coilworks Dev) mentions:
"...If people want to support us... and actually give us a way bigger cut from the sales, you can use the Humble store or the Humble Widget on our website..."

cb-action.gif


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And with regard to something that was asked earlier:

Wait so why did they update the original game if they have a reworked remake?
I am absolutely delighted that this happened, but also completely perplexed that they chose to update Cloudbuilt instead of Super Cloudbuilt.
I can answer this, it's because the license and ownership of Super Cloudbuilt still belongs to Double11, while Coilworks owns the rights to just Cloudbuilt. So they couldn't make changes to Super Cloudbuilt without going through the publisher. All this work has been done on their free time as a sort of passion thing to the game.
A user made a post at the Steam Forum for Super Cloudbuilt, and they referred to comments Gafgar made on a recent stream:
That's hard to say, and I don't know that I have a good answer. Personally, I always preferred the original, but I think I was in the minority on that, and I do know a lot of people who found Super better mechanically, especially for a beginner. I think the new CB update is really nice though, and should make it more welcoming. Whether this makes any difference, Gafgar actually did a stream not long after my last message about why CB was the one updated, and a potential future for the games/studio. He noted that while updating SCB is on a wishlist of things to do, CB is the one they currently have plans for if they release future updates (which they hope to), for a variety of reasons. Buying CB would also better support the devs at this point.

TL;DR, prior to the CB update I probably would have recommended SCB for new players, but all things considered with the update and for the devs, I'd say CB now. They're both good games though, and you can't go wrong with either. Plus, with the updated level designs, the 2 are at least a little bit more different from each other.

Sorry if that doesn't help much. Is there anything more specific I could try to address? The next discussion on the page below this one has a link to differences, though it might be a smidge out of date now.


There's also a written clarification from Gafgar that I missed, until now:

Yeah... the reason why we updated this instead of Super, is complicated. As there are just a lot of reasons. But in short, this version needed it more, there are still people buying it, there are many more players who already owns it, we love this game still and as it's the legacy of our company we would like to just make it a bit more approachable for people if we can do that with relatively simple means. Also, as this is whole owned by us, and is only on PC, we can push an update easily without involving others or costing money to update a console version.

We are only two people operating Coilworks on our free time at the moment, as the company sadly had to close down all real active development last year. So an update like this is more in the scope of we can manage at the moment. We still spent our free time over multiple months to make this update. And we simply hope that it will help people to enjoy the game more. We don't intend to make Super Cloudbuilt players to feel like they miss out on anything. Sorry if it feels that way, but there is sadly nothing we can do about that at the moment. And we don't really think this update changes the relationship between Super Cloudbuilt and Cloudbuilt, like you can see more of in the link above.

Hope that helps to clarify things a little.

We just hope everyone enjoys the update :) and if nothing else, that the players who already liked the game find it fun to go back and play a little again. Making it a little bit more fresh again.

We might have a few more small things planned for the game that we hope to release in updates soon. It was just not ready in time for the summer sale.

Also, for those that didn't notice. The Defiance DLC is now all free. So if you have not played that, there are plenty of new content in the game now, and a lot of new community levels you can check out.


On the bolded point ("...there are still people buying it, there are many more players who already owns it..."), see also:

Cloudbuilt: https://steamdb.info/app/262390/graphs/
SteamSpy Estimated Owners: 200K - 500K​
Super Cloudbuilt: https://steamdb.info/app/463700/graphs/
SteamSpy Estimated Owners: 20K - 50K​
 
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nano

Member
Oct 26, 2017
413
Berlin
Finished it, but still have a couple of levels I haven't completed. Definitely more accessible than before, although I had to actively go for the portable checkpoints in the final levels.

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OP
OP
Schopenhauerian
Oct 27, 2017
1,012
June 27:
The game got my attention initially only due to the music, but I couldn't get into the gameplay. I felt like that it wanted to do everything at once - momentum-based platforming, shooting, parkour, speedrunning, difficulty, highscores - which made it super overwhelming. I reinstalled it [after the June 25, 2020 updates] and the couple of levels I played were much more fun because you aren't punished anymore (except for time/score which I don't care for) for taking your time and incrementally tackling the level.

July 9th:
Finished it, but still have a couple of levels I haven't completed. Definitely more accessible than before, although I had to actively go for the portable checkpoints in the final levels.

5q5sxaF.png


Nice! Thanks for reporting back.

Still haven't finished Super Cloudbuilt (2017), which is the only one out of the two that I've played myself.

I'm thinking I'll start up the original Cloudbuilt (2014) next time (since I have both games), to see the effect of the types of tweaks/changes they've chosen to make in this June 2020 update (after all the feedback they've gotten over the years), and also just to see how the two games compare overall.

Links compiled by fans at the Cloudbuilt subreddit, for anyone curious about either of the games:

 
OP
OP
Schopenhauerian
Oct 27, 2017
1,012
Heads up that both Cloudbuilt and Super Cloudbuilt are on sale, on Steam:





Thought it might be worth bumping the thread, in order to highlight the June 2020 accessibility update that was discussed in the OP, in case folks missed it:

  • One of the devs discussed the differences between Cloudbuilt & Super Cloudbuilt here (post from December 2018) and here (post from June 2020) and here (another post from June 2020).
  • The big emphasis of [the] June 2020 update of the original game (Cloudbuilt) is clearly accessibility: both Cloudbuilt & Super Cloudbuilt could be a bit overwhelming/demanding.


Impressions from nano, on the June 2020 update:
The game got my attention initially only due to the music, but I couldn't get into the gameplay. I felt like that it wanted to do everything at once - momentum-based platforming, shooting, parkour, speedrunning, difficulty, highscores - which made it super overwhelming. I reinstalled it [after the June 25, 2020 updates to Cloudbuilt] and the couple of levels I played were much more fun because you aren't punished anymore (except for time/score which I don't care for) for taking your time and incrementally tackling the level.
Finished it, but still have a couple of levels I haven't completed. Definitely more accessible than before, although I had to actively go for the portable checkpoints in the final levels.

5q5sxaF.png