Skysometric — Sky's Journal

dev commentary time! let’s address the elephant in the room: this level kinda sucks. nobody likes solving mazes and misdirection under a time limit. it’s the only level in Retrush that i am straight up not proud of, and if i ever make a Retrush 2.0 i would want to completely overhaul the whole thing.

but an apology would make for a boring developer commentary, you know? so let’s talk about how we got here and how it shipped in this state. hint: this level used to be a lot worse.

✨ computer colors my beloved ✨

first let’s start with something i am proud of! i love the palette choices in Starfruit Scanlines and how they play off the original level. the platforms in Earl-Grey Electricity are Red Green Blue (RGB), so the remix takes it a step further with a throwback to CGA colors (Cyan Pink White). it’s a clever aesthetic remix!

the structure of the original level is built out as a big maze using portals, one whose layout is purpose built to be misdirecting without being frustrating. the remix, then, no longer has a purpose built layout, instead reusing and remixing what already exists.

unfortunately for me, this activates a Specific Part Of My Brain.

does this even qualify as a maze?

most of y'all know the story by this point: i’ve been making mazes since i was nine years old, and it’s a core part of my online identity as Skysometric. back when i didn’t have access to level editors and game engines, i would instead draw mazes to scratch that same itch, and i filled multiple graph paper journals cover-to-cover over the years.

some of these mazes were practically Sonic levels with unique gimmicks and layouts! zones full of vines and collapsing bridges, crystal caves with dynamic water and breakable gemstones, abstract music based worlds with guitar amps and bouncy visualizer platforms and volume knobs that affect every single stage element. some of these are unbelievably clever for being, what, 14 when i made them?

seriously i have dozens of these things – some even bigger than this! in true ADHD fashion, most of them went unfinished.

in order to get the most out of these levels, i would typically strive to fill out every single square of the grid – lest the level feel short or unfulfilling. that means i tried to use up every ounce of space for something, like a bonus room with a Chaos Emerald or a gratuitous speed booster section with teleporters.

note the highlighted sections that use up extra space – the red sections served as teleporter redirects, while the purple one is a “Gotta Go Fast” U-turn.

of course, when i got access to actual level editors like Mari0, i no longer needed to draw out levels on graph paper – now i can just make whatever i want. but as i rediscovered replaying my very first mappack on stream, i never totally kicked the maze habit… more specifically, i never stopped filling every single nook and cranny.

that brings us back to this maze-like level layout that i need to remix, full of nooks and crannies.

thank goodness i added those portal location indicators i mentioned in the base level, or this would be a lot worse!

the original version of this remix truly does use every single box in the level in some way. nowhere is this more obvious than the middle section, which used to be much more complicated; the old version uses multiple extra rectangles, including one that hangs over a pit! and a lot of the stage elements used to accomplish this were just Nonsense. this was significantly simplified for the final – but it still redirects you into a previous rectangle where a Red Coin is waiting.

old on top, new on bottom. look at how absurd this is. what is with those light bridges, anyway?

even the first section of the level (below) used to make use of an extra rectangle, as a trick jump from a moving platform into an aerial U-turn. and if you miss, you drop right into a pit! in the final i just cut the U-turn out entirely for being way too mean.

i managed to land right back on the platform when i missed the first jump, which is great for showcasing how ridiculous this is. most players wouldn’t get so lucky.

it doesn’t help that the majority of this level was laid out before i took a break in 2019, meaning most of what i described was intended to be this evil – just like the old versions of Kiwi Keys and Italian Iceberg.

…the best way i can describe it is that this level was kind of a liability from the start. each time somebody playtested it, there would be major complaints to address. i would fix those complaints, somebody else would playtest it, there would be more complaints… and instead of focusing on the bigger picture, i mostly laser focused on the individual comments.

sadly, it did not occur to me that this level might need to be rebooted until it was too close to release for me to have time for a full overhaul. all of my playtesters universally rated it their least favorite remix by a mile, but the deadline was rapidly approaching – i had no choice but to smooth over some rough patches and let it go.

in the old version, the platform was small enough to slide all the way under the overhang, leaving the player no room to stand on. blessedly, a playtester rightfully called this out.

my perfectionist attitude has a tendency to take over in these situations, but lately i try to live by the words of a wise Tumblr post reminding me that “90% is still an A; strive for 90% instead of 100%.”

i released Starfruit Scalines in the hopes that it would be good enough to qualify for that 90% grace. instead, it is enough to sour the final world for many players, and rob them of their patience to tackle the final two levels… a misstep at a critical point in the cadence of the mappack. it’s unfortunate, but it is what it is.

maybe one day i’ll get to address it in a 2.0, or use this story as a cautionary tale for an actual game; but until then, it’s just a mappack, and i’m allowed to make critical mistakes. a nine-year-long mappack, but a mappack nonetheless.

dev commentary time! one of my favorite things that i rarely see in video games is returning to “first area” vibes towards the end of the game. like how the first adventure of Kirby Super Star starts in Green Greens, and the last adventure through Milky Way Wishes starts on the grassy planet of Floria. the vibe lies somewhere between the “beginning of the last leg” and “look how far you’ve come” in a way that i’m super fond of!

i’m also quite fond of Floria’s seasonal shift mechanic, but that’s unrelated. or is it?

Coconut Canyon is my attempt at capturing this vibe – a deliberate throwback to the first world of Retrush, with an aesthetic caught somewhere between Gelato Grasslands and Dijon Dunes. a welcoming introduction to the final world, one that reminds you of how far you’ve come and how much more skill you’ve acquired along the way.

okay, yeah, the seasonal shift is definitely related inspiration.

the main level Blueberry Blizzard was done well before i put Retrush on pause in 2019, but for some reason i didn’t start working on the remix until this year. when i came back to Retrush, this is one of the levels i was most excited to get to! so i did it relatively early, and got to spend a little more time polishing it than the rest.

just showcasing the three major mechanics of the level.

all three of this level’s main gimmicks – Ninjis, Ukikis, and flying red coins – were tailor made for Coconut Canyon, purpose built to fit the level’s vertical structure. the Ninjis and flying red coins would later be added to other levels like Nougat Nimbus, but this is where they got their start!

Ninjis were added as an enemy type that wouldn’t walk off platforms. their jumps work against yours as you try to climb the canyon, but there’s a handful of shortcuts you can reach by bouncing off them or running underneath with good timing!

Ukikis were added as a way to supply coconuts to the level in a way that minimizes them dropping in on your head from offscreen. i almost added a second type of Lakitu like in Watermelon Walls, but i figured this was more thematic! i tried to make my own sprite but it did NOT work out, so these are 8 bit versions of the sprite from Yoshi’s Island instead.

turns out it converts quite well to 8-bit!

as with most of the remixes, the early versions of Coconut Canyon were tougher than they needed to be; unlike with the other remixes, all i needed to do to fix it was tweak the timing! since i made these enemies relatively late, i was able to add a bunch of settings for timing each Ninji’s jump cycle or Ukiki’s coconut toss arc. this is another way i was able to purpose-build elements and cycles to fit the scene.

ukikis have two timing cycles that alternate throwing coconuts.

settings for Ukikis (left) and Ninjis (right). “offset” refers to the timing cycle.

the last thing i want to touch on is this section of red coin bits – unlike other coin bits that are based on Star Shards, this one was added to the remix and then backported as Star Shards to the main level. in old versions of Blueberry Blizzard, this entire area used to be empty! it’s always fun getting to go back in time and add things that couldn’t exist in old versions ✨

pictured on the right is the comparison between new (top) and old (bottom) Blueberry Blizzard.

dev commentary time! speaking of levels that didn’t have a clear vision, Durian Drainway may just top the list. the only clear vision i had going for it is “the opposite of Fondue Furnace” – which is to say, all the lava in the main level (Kolache Keep) turns into waterfalls instead that you can swim through.

except, uh, you can’t swim through the waterfalls in the final. because it was dreadfully boring.

this is from right after i copied the old Kolache Keep to remix and replaced some of the tiles as a mockup of sorts.

i don’t think i even purposefully saved the remix for this year; i know i wanted to work on it early on. i just couldn’t come up with any way to make the waterfalls any fun! every time i thought about working on this level and pulled it up to poke around at, i would bore myself to tears and go work on something else.

but when i had finished working on all the other remixes up to this one, i could no longer procrastinate on it. i had to figure out how to make this work. and the only thing i could come up with was to disable the waterfalls, because… well, what else am i gonna do with them???

bright vs. dark palettes to imply its function.

i still liked the sewer aesthetic so i kept them as waterfalls visually, but i changed the color palette so they fade back into the background and aren’t obviously swimmable. once that was done, i was free to find new mechanics to fit the theme, like Rotodiscs, Buzzy Beetles, and Cheep Cheeps.

once again, the Star Shards in the main level become the blueprint for Red Coin Bits in the remix.

i laid out pretty much the entire level in one sitting and i was really proud of how it flowed! but there was still one thing missing from the equation, and that was what to do with the blasters from the original level. and i had kind of already built the entire rest of the level around them, as though they weren’t there.

making them fire anything would have made it too hard; i knew that from experience with the original fire blasters. i could make them fire Cheep Cheeps, but that would be a little silly and possibly too distracting. i could make them fire little water spurts that just push you back and don’t hurt you, but what if you get pushed off a cliff? that just sounds frustrating.

…so i didn’t put anything there. in fact, i turned them from blasters into just… blocks! and that’s how the level stayed until it was time for my beta testers to play it. maybe no one will notice?

some random pole, i guess.

no such luck. once i got playtesting feedback in, i found that one person wrote in for this level:

what’s that cheeky pole doing there? doesn’t really fit with the level aesthetics and distracted me from the beetle

that made me anxious, as i can’t just leave them alone now. i have to justify their existence somehow! and the clock is ticking on my self-imposed release date.

so what did i do?

PROCRASTINATE!

i addressed pretty much all other feedback i got on Retrush and left this alone for as long as possible. before i knew it, it was two days before release, and i hadn’t come up with anything. but the issue was still clawing at me internally!

finally i came up with a use for the Definitely Not Blasters: they could have short-range Rotodiscs attached. i think these were the final enemies i added to the entire mappack, 48 hours before release! now you have to time your jumps over the blocks, and it acts as sort of a “red light, green light” for the Buzzy Beetles overhead.

look how cute its little cycle is! adorable.

…and then i forgot to have someone playtest them until THE NIGHT BEFORE RELEASE. what if i had accidentally made the level too hard and it released in that state???

thank God my partner @harmonyfriends was there at the eleventh hour to play it for me! she got through the updated level just fine and only had trouble with a single mistimed cycle that i updated right before going to bed.

moral of the story? “don’t procrastinate on your homework the day before it’s due?” WRONG. the correct moral of the story is “don’t plan or announce a release date until the entire project is done.”

dev commentary time! Nougat Nimbus was a challenge to put together. like, you’ve read the story about Oregano Oak and how much iteration that one went through, and this is kind of an extension of that same story…

let’s start with the basics: i couldn’t work on Nougat Nimbus at all until Oregano Oak was done. i didn’t even know what Oregano Oak was going to look like until this year! so when it came time to start working on this one, i was working with a clean slate; i had no backlogged ideas, save that it was going to be a cloudy level with lightning strikes. that’s not exactly my most well-formed vision.

this section of the main level’s layout was purpose built with remixing in mind.

as i iterated on the concept and came up with several additions to the level – disappearing cloud platforms, Jumping Piranha Plants, flying red coins – i noticed i was able to put together a few well-formed sections, but the rest was strung together with boring fluff and filler. i was just adding things that fit each area, rather than purpose-building new mechanics to fit the overall theme. in other words, the additions i was making to the level weren’t really made for the level… if that makes sense?

why are the Spike Tops even here, thematically? they live in caves!

so i kept digging through my toys and adding things that fit the areas better – Ninjis, Spike Tops, Paratroopas, even more lightning – until the entire level was a hodgepodge of random garbage with no coherent flow whatsoever. no matter how much i tried, i couldn’t find that golden speedrun flow i wanted! and i had half a mind to restart it from scratch several times.

okay, that’s a LOT of elements for one screen.

normally when i’m making these levels, i pick out a handful of enemies and mechanics to fit the theme; usually the sweet spot is three or four total, which i iterate on over the course of the level. but by this point, i had seven! and each group of mechanics was siloed in its own little sections, swapping back and forth over the course of the level. this is Not Ideal.

so i took a break from it for a bit and asked my partner @harmonyfriends to play it and give her input. i was a little terrified that she would hate it as much as i did, because that would mean i would have to go back to the drawing board – and i was running out of time for such a large overhaul. pretty high stakes…!

that night i had her play two levels: an older version of Pierogi Pier, which i felt confident was a fun level, and this one, which i was really anxious about. but in stark contrast to my expectations, she hated the old version of Pierogi Pier, and was pleasantly surprised with this level and how good it was. what???

her input was invaluable for getting the rough edges smoothed off this stage, but in truth, there were not many rough edges to begin with. it turns out i kind of invented a problem in my head and chased it for a week straight… when there was no problem to begin with.

this skip is called the “Lightningrod Jump” and it skips having to go the long way around on the right.

i still polished the heck out of this level up to release – i moved a lot of the enemies around so that those groupings weren’t so obvious, and i tried to chase that speedrun magic i was looking for. there are bits and pieces i snuck in that i really like, such as the lightning jump at the end! but honestly, even now, i’m still not 100% happy with the way the speedrun flows.

but, hey, it’s a pretty good level in the end. and that’s all it needs to be!

dev commentary time! this may not be common knowledge, but italians are not actually a food. it turns out there aren’t a lot of foods that start with the letter i! most are compound words or phrases, and the few remaining ones don’t go well with the level’s aesthetic (or are straight up redundant). Italian Iceberg is a way of incorporating one of the phrases as a double wordplay on one of my favorite desserts, italian ice!

you may remember how several of the main stages needed major updates because they were hot garbage… most of the remixes did not need such sweeping changes because they were made much later. well, this one was some Cold Garbage in old versions, and it was completely reworked from the ground up before i released the second demo on Christmas 2022.

Blue Spinies vs. Spike Tops. take special note of the Spike Top in the bottom right, attached to the wall.

first up: you know how the Spike Top enemies climb all over the walls and ceilings? climbing around like that was impossible in old versions of the game. the original stage instead had Blue Spinies on the ground and ceiling, which for the most part stayed locked in their little nooks and didn’t go anywhere.

icicle placements, before and after. note the group of icicles in the new version.

the icicles, too, were mostly positioned so that they would kill the player… and not clear out the Spinies. so there were unkillable Spinies everywhere, icicles in inconvenient places, and of course flashing death tiles everywhere! i don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds like a recipe for F-U-N… without the N.

additionally: in the final, the doors are frozen over, and you instead open up portals on the pipes that take you around the doors. in the original the same general idea still applied, but the portals were much further apart.

much,

much,

MUCH further apart.

the doors are opened by the red coins in the final, but in the original they were opened by separate switches. the red coins would be found along the route… and grabbing them too early would purposefully not give you enough time. you had to grab them after hitting the switch, on your way back to the portal, in order to have enough time on the clock.

oh and there was no checkpoint. for technical reasons, just like all the remixes used to be.

…now that i’ve properly conveyed the horrors of the original stage: somehow, some way, i was able to beat this stage often enough to say “yeah this is a good stage, let’s mark it complete.” i don’t really know how or why??? i definitely can’t do it consistently these days. to be honest, just getting the gifs above was kind of a pain in the ass!

so when it came time to put the second demo together last year, i knew this level was NOT in any state to release. but i was already exhausted enough from converting Retrush to a later version of Mari0! how was i going to find the motivation to go back to the drawing board on this stage?

well, honestly, i still don’t know how i found the motivation. i just know i redid the whole level in a single evening, and it came out almost exactly right on the first try!

in fact, of all the other levels i’ve mentioned having to redo to bring them up to par? this was the first. i needed it for the second demo, after all!

redoing it in one evening was proof that i could still salvage the other levels. that i still had my level design chops. that i could still do this even working full-time. that i could finish Retrush and finally close this chapter of my life.

and i am so, SO glad i did.