We’ve gotten more feedback from playtesters this week, and we’re excited to release our beta build! Many different components are coming together, and Mixtape Dreams is almost ready for a final release!

Last week, we discussed the track switching controls. After playtesting with the A/S control scheme to change tracks, we found that some players found it difficult to reach for the buttons to switch. As a result, we’re going to experiment with a 3rd control scheme. Shift is close to the Z and X keys, so we’re letting players use shift to cycle between tracks, and A/S/D to allow them to directly choose a track. This allows players to choose the track they want to use by using the A/S/D keys, but also lets them quickly switch tracks by pressing shift.

We’re also making progress on our tutorial. We’ve added an NPC that showcases each of the 3 abilities as the player picks them up. This means that we don’t need the old tutorial screen anymore and players don’t need to read to understand what each of the tracks do. We are still discussing how to tutorialize upgrading the tracks, as story wise it doesn’t make sense for the NPC to be underground but some of the track upgrades are in the underground section.

The green track now moves a little more slowly, but we kept the high speed for the green track to ensure that it remains differentiated from the other tracks. We need the green dash to cover more horizontal distance than what the blue track can cover with the double jump, although this does mean that green may be a little fast. To compensate for this, sections that require a dash now have a more generous landing area. Some playtesters have also noted that the wall jump feels awkward, so this week we’ll try to tweak the animation and movement values to make it feel more natural.

In terms of levels, the underground section is entirely greyboxed and we’ve added lights and detailed models to parts of the underground. The above ground section is still in the works, and we may need to scope down the above ground section due to time constraints.

With the beta completed, the next milestone will be the final release in 2 weeks. There’s still a lot of polish, juiciness, tweaking, and testing that still needs to be done, but as long as we triage our remaining tasks we will have no issue releasing in 2 weeks.