(8/9/23)

Apologies for the long gap between releases once again. My job makes it difficult to sit down and work on the game these days. I got a good chunk of me time, recently, and I was able to add all kinds of stuff!

• Several powerups have been added, as well as all sub-weapons
  • Stopwatch: Freezes time to give you some room to breath, but it costs quite a few hearts to use
  • Cross: Emits a blinding holy light, destroying all enemies on screen! One use on pickup only.
  • Invisibility potion: Makes you invincible for about ten seconds.
• The whip upgrade is now fully working. Grab 1 to get a chain whip. Grab another to make it longer!
• I've sprinkled candles throughout the level to play with. Every available item and sub-weapon should be attainable, but some of the more valuable stuff is placed in harder to reach areas. Can you find them all?
• First Enemy has been added; The Bone Tower! (Thanks again for the art @HeyNetters. I saw your Bone tower and was inspired for my first enemy!)
  • Acts more like a sentry than anything, but where it lacks in mobility it makes up for in toughness. Recommend at
    least a chain to deal with these guys. Watch your footing...

(11/22/22)

• I've decorated the map a bit, using assets and ideas provided by @HeyNetters. Many thanks go to them for the art! This is all preliminary for now, but these just looked too good to not include them.

• Chain upgrade has been added. The chain graphics reflect the first upgrade, and the added length reflect the second. Collect the whip powerup to upgrade.

• Gameplay pause added upon collection of the whip powerup.

• Whip has been fixed so that you can no longer hit things behind you. Still need to look into that janky
  animation...

• Thanks to suggestions from @dw817, Simon's walk speed has been increased a bit, with matching animation. The whip also stays out for just a bit longer.

• Minor changes to small heart to keep it from flying around so much.

• Tweaking pass on SFX.

(8/26/22)

Sorry for the long delay, guys. I recently started a new job, and I have less time to work on this project now. I do, however, fully intend to see this project to completion. I need to work on some systems that can cut down on repeated code in here, as the token count is getting dangerously high. Despite that, I'm happy with where it is at so far. Let me know how you guys like it!

• Candles have been added. Until I can work out a feasible spawning system, these are hard coded. Whip them to make
  items come out.

• I have mocked up a status bar along the top of the screen. This is all subject to change as I figure out what will
  fit and what will not.

• A game clock is in place. It ticks down in seconds, and once it reaches zero, you're dead. There isn't much you
  can do about it at the moment, but I thought it would be fun to add, and it was really simple to implement. The
  clock will even start to beep after awhile, just to give you some unnecessary stress.

• Hearts have been added. You now have a limited stock of ammunition. Whip candles to find more.

(7/21/22)

• Boomerang can now be caught. Small reason to post an update, but I thought it was important.

• Boomerang graphics rearranged so it animates like in the original game.

  This may be the last update for a little bit. The code for climbing stairs MUST be rewritten before I will
  continue. While it works great as it is, the code is just too darned bloated right now.

(7/20/22)

• All throwable weapons have been added. Hold ❎ and press ⬆️ or ⬇️ to cycle through them,
  and press ⬆️ and 🅾️ to throw one. Like before, you can throw 3 at a time!

• Holy water was redrawn to not be so huge.

(7/19/22)

• Holy water has been added, press ⬆️ and 🅾️ to throw it. You can throw 3 at a time.

• Simon's sprite has been redrawn to make him more detailed and look a lot less scrawny. Many thanks go to the
  Discord community for their feedback on this matter!

(7/18/22)

• Stairs now work in all 4 directions.

• Plenty of stairs have been added to the map, so play around and let me know if anything breaks horrifically.

• It is no longer possible to jump when a block is directly above the player.

(7/16/22)

• Commented out the code and formatted it so anybody could take a look and decipher it all...

• Taking a hit will now interrupt your attack.

• Player can no longer warp through the ceiling when hurt.

(7/15/22)

• Player health, hurt state and death are implemented. There aren't any enemies yet, so for now you
  can press ⬆️ and ❎ to beat yourself up. These are disabled while on stairs...

• Continue screen has been added

• Made a pass on music and sound effects. I feel like the music instrumentation is way better now, and many of the
  sound effects are improving as well!

• Initial HUD elements added. There are here only for a visual to pair with testing health and lives for now.

(7/12/22)

• Changes to walk and stair climbing movement and animation speed. It felt just a tad sluggish before...

(7/11/22)

• Stairs are in progress. Right now there is only up-right and down-left movement, but this is a pretty good proof of concept. Whip is disabled for now while climbing them until I flesh out that aspect.

• The bottom of the screen is now a bottomless pit, and you will die and be reset.

• A small map to test out the mechanics and play around in.

• Preliminary artwork has been added to make the view a little more interesting

(7/10/22)

• Jump physics have been reworked and the jank is now gone for the most part. I feel like the jumping is in a pretty good spot now.

• Initial work on the whip has been started. The animation is just a little janky, but I'm working on that :)

• I am currently prototyping ideas for stairs. I haven't added stairs yet, so don't try...

(6/26/22):

• Basic movement is implemented; Walking, ducking, jumping and hard landing are in. There is one little niggle
  with collision and platforming. I'm sure you guys will know when you find it. (Edit) I've created a temporary workaround
  for this. Please let me know if you like how it handles. Collision is still not perfect, and you might still get
  hung up, but I'm working on that.

• First draft of music has been created. Let me know how you like it! I might need to shift things around a bit
  before I release: I've not included everything I'd like to, and I've run out of room due to some initial (less
  than optimal) SFX layout choices.

(6/27/22):

• I've tweaked the jump physics to more closely match the original game.

• Invisible walls have been added. I wanted a way to create impassible areas without changing the collision.
  You can test this out near the lone block on the right.

  Now is the time where I sit down and take a class on Picomap by @JadeLombax. I may as well get this figured out
  and implemented now, since stairs will likely rely on it...