[Archived] LightWave Art Showcase 3 – New Tilesets

Indie development can be quite an undertaking. While indie devs may have to do art, music, programming and more by themselves, it can be helpful to find assets that they can use to speed up the process. One of the biggest steps to take for LightWave is level design. We want to add plenty of levels for a first pass so that players and testers alike can get a feel for what the game entails. Previous posts contain levels made out of cubes, but that can get boring really fast. Adding more content like this allows us to create different environments that will be contains within the segments of the game. In this case the pipes you see are what carry the Hazardous Slime featured in a previous art showcase and in this level.
Edit: This style didn’t feel like a good fit for LightWave, so we have left it behind in the search of better aesthetics.

LightWave Feature Showcase 2 – Redone Dash Mechanic

There are plenty of amazing platformers out there, each with a unique and sometimes similar movement systems. We have experimented with a few different styles, and felt that the previous dash, which simply gave you a speed boost in the direction you were facing, was quite limiting in that it didn’t add much to the level design except for a few limited use cases, which were quite finicky and unforgiving. This new dash style gives you a burst of speed if you are moving slow, otherwise it maintains your momentum for a moment, ignoring friction and gravity. It can move you in any direction allowing for both a speed boost when starting off or changing directions and allows you to reach just that little bit higher, great for barely missed jumps. The art for this may change later, but for now when you dash a small trail will appear matching your player color.

LightWave Art Showcase 2 – Animated Background

It took a good while brainstorming the different sort of background art that the game could have. It’s possible that the game will have more than one background, possibly depending on the type of level. The foreground/level design is still placeholder, since everything should feel like its a similar style. With the sun as the background, we are going to experiment with some platform art options. Note: the GIF format adds some strange artifact that isn’t in the game.

LightWave Feature Showcase 1 – Multiplayer 101

Here is a quick demonstration of the basic concept for multiplayer. There is a player join screen where each player can select a unique color. When loaded into the game, the player retains their color and can move independently using the assigned controller. It can even show you what kind of controller the player is using.
This is the foundation of the future multiplayer functionality. This uses the UnityEngine.InputSystem package.

LightWave Art Showcase 2 – Hazardous Slime

Another type of hazard created for LightWave. If the player runs into a hazard, they must reattempt the level. A container of unknown bubbling toxic substance, this hazard can sometimes be empty or full of toxic slime. Empty containers are safe to walk on, but touching the toxic liquid is hazardous. Made following some of the art tutorials from Pedro Medeiros @saint11.

LightWave Art Showcase 1 – Crystal Knife

This is one of the first hazards created for LightWave. If the player runs into a hazard, they must reattempt the level. Kept aloft by the strange crystal’s energy, this hazard is safe to slide underneath, but not safe to jump over. If you have sufficient height to clear the crystalline knife, you won’t be harmed, but it is quite the sharp blade! Made following some of the art tutorials from Pedro Medeiros @saint11.