It's finally done. It's released. It's out there!

Yo! Noid 4: Episode 2 is finally done. Just under three whole years. 

The jump from v0.8 over a year ago (September 2022) is a huge one.

The original roadmap was for three updates, but I - honestly - grew very tired of this project after 0.8's release and took some time off of it.

I did some work on it every few months. I added Fry Sanctuary in with just a boss rush at the start, before fleshing it out a bit with more level elements.

It wasn't quite finished but, again, lost some enthusiasm for it and decided I'd work on the true final boss fight.

Then for about 6 months I sat with an unfinished Fry Sanctuary and an unfinished final boss. The final boss especially felt kinda weak. I won't spoil what it is, but it lacked something.

One day I had a brainwave. Or, rather, I came up with a pun. And that inspired a brand new phase for the final boss fight. (Let me know if you figure out the pun if you get there)

I also took the time to redraw some of the sprites, like the shields. New Fire and Electric shield effects especially.

Then, again, for about 2 months it sat idle. Basically finished but it lacked the connecting cutscenes and - frankly - I'd figured out why I was having a hard time working up the energy to finish this.

Unity.

Around this time Unity announced its new payment plan and, well, if you're up on any game industry news you'll know how well that went.

I decided to start learning new engines properly. I eyed up Godot 4 and Haxe Flixel as alternatives for the stuff I wanted to do and my goodness I forgot what it was like to start up an engine and just work in it.

The process of working in Unity - even just loading it up for the first time - was excruciatingly slow. I'd boot it up, and have to go off and do something else while I waited. By that point I'd lost interest in it and just leave it on in the background. When I did have the energy to come back to it you'd still have to wait a chunk of time as it reloads all its binaries again.

Unity is just so fucking slow to work with.

So, YO! Noid 4: Episode 3 is going to be my last Unity game.

And until Godot 4 adds WebGL Export for its C# version (v4.3 I understand is the goal here) I'll either do jams in Haxe Flixel or just stick to Pico 8.

The Desert Bus for Hope Game Jam is happening mid November, so expect something to come out of that.