Ascension - Stage 8

Stage 8 turned out to be something of a colossus. Of course, I say that as the developer, and not as a player. Playing through it, you won't notice it to be particularly long or extravagant, although I do hope the atmosphere engrosses you.

I had similar trouble with the mapping as I had with Stage 3, Har Megido, although where in that case the map came together without too much fuss, I had much more trouble piecing this one together. I drew up innumerable variations on the placement of the geography, and began work on probably about ten different versions in the actual mapper itself, before things finally started falling in to place. I'm happy to say that I am very pleased with the end result, however.

I don't think I've ever had a map with this many events, though - between the bridge, and the animated tiles, and everything else on top of that. I actually had to split it in half (although you shouldn't notice that while playing), to get the bridge theatrics to sync with the passabilities of the appropriate tiles. Though it didn't really help much with the massive eventing. I hope the game doesn't lag during this stage.

I'm actually surprised it all came together in time for my weekly deadline, but I did put a lot of effort into getting it finished. The next stage was supposed to be the super difficult one to design, but now, coming off this last stage, I'm hoping it proves to be easier than I've been expecting. Only time will tell, and if I have to take a couple extra days to either work on it or take a break, so be it. It'll be worth it in the end.

And speaking of which, this project is beginning to draw near to its end. Which I'm very excited about. There are only two more stages, although I have plans for something special after that, so we'll see how that goes.

I almost forgot! I made an exciting modification to the game in this new release. Just as soon as you've had a chance to visit Nexus (I hope?), I've already nixed it. In its place, I've implemented my Paint drawing of the map of Dis (The Underworld), which functions as a trail marker and punctuates your playing experience between each stage. It also gives you a proper introduction to the names of each of the stages, as well as a visual guide to the geography of Hell (as I have envisioned it). It's fairly crude, and not as colorful as I'd like, but I'm otherwise very excited about being able to include it in the game, and I like very much how it fits in, both in the regular game itself, and as the device now intuitively powering the stage select function. Give it a try! (Just type "zharth", no caps, at the name select screen).

14/07/22: Ascension - Stage 8 (4.97 MB) [edit: new release available, check sidebar for info]