Indie developers, Super Icon, have been busy in recent weeks working on an update to their recent retro-inspired platformer game Life Of Pixel that we have already reviewed here on the site that was released on PlayStation Mobile. They have now revealed all of the details of the update being released shortly and what everyone can expect, as they explain in detail here:-
The response was brilliant – and within a few weeks we had a brand new sound track – with a unique music track for each machine, created either with that hardware or via emulation. This has really helped to enhance the identity of each machine and we have plenty of catchy tunes now guaranteed to stick in the mind.
We also redid all of the sound effects – again specifically for each machine sound chip to make the whole audio experience thoroughly authentic.
Graphical Fixes
We had a few errors with palettes in the first release – as an example we were using a couple of extra greys in the Amstrad CPC levels, which while giving some nice metal bits were completely wrong! So we made sure every machine was only using the exact colour palettes – and while we were at it we redid several of the level tiles and updated backgrounds to improve bits we weren’t completely happy with.
Level Design
Pixel can be hard – particularly the later levels, and we didn’t want to change this. BUT – it could also be unfair – a prime example being ‘Leap of Faith’ jumps which ended with you landing on top of a beastie and dying. This was random as you had no idea where said beastie was, and as such unfair as it relied on luck rather than skill.
I went through every level – multiple times – and I am confident I have eliminated every single unfair ‘luck’ based potential death. So while I didn’t try to make the levels particularly easier – they are now a fair test of skill, not chance. As such I am MUCH happier with all of the levels.
Performance
We have optimised Pixel to death – as far as the poor slow PSM SDK will allow – so just about every level now runs at a rock solid 60FPS.
We also fixed the memory leak which was causing the game to slow down after extended play.
New Levels
I really enjoyed this bit – we added a new machine into the game; the Sega Master System. It is unlocked after you collect all 64 special gems.
Eight brand new levels – jam packed with nods to classic Master System titles like Shinobi, Wonder Boy, Sonic, Penguin Land, Bubble Bobble and more. These are fairly tough levels – but good fun to play and not too punishing.
I had great fun creating the graphics for the Master System levels – I didn’t realise until I started that the SMS allowed a fair few more colours in sprites and tiles than the NES, so it was nice adding lots more colour.
Other Fixes
Keep an eye on our Twitter updates as we’ll tweet as soon as we know the release date for the update. We are just about to submit the update to Sony QA, so it should hopefully be soon.Super Icon can be found at http://www.supericon.co.uk(This was originally written by Richard Hill-Whittall and appears on the Super Icon website)
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