DAY 16
Did not do much today...well actually yesterday. I felt so sick and pretty much devoid of energy, I just couldn't bring myself to write a devlog last night, so I'm doing it now. I'm much better today.
OK, so I've tested what was last implemented a few days ago and came to the conclusion that the collapsing platforms area needs to be grossly modified. It was too difficult to complete it. For context, I've tried to complete it about 10 times, but could not. Since this is an exploration game first and foremost, it shouldn't be this hard to finish an area. Especially considering it's at the very beginning of the game. I will make a note to have something similar and something as difficult much much later in the game.
I've tried placing a tall rocky formation in the middle of the body of water and make it so that it has a specific path the player has to follow. It did not work. It felt very contrived and cheap, but it did allow the placement of a zipline. As tempting as that sounds, I ultimately decided against both zipline and tall rock, because those did not bring much to the gameplay in this area.
What I did manage to do is replace some collapsing platforms with standing platforms (rocks). This gives the player a small breather after having to jump collapsing platforms. While having only collapsing platforms there was indeed intense without being frustrating or annoying, me not being able to complete the objective after almost 10 attempts says it all. It's too much. If one cannot finish a level in a maximum of 3 attempts, it's a no-go.
Here are some screenshots of how the area looks now:
That's all for now. See ya later, bye.