itch.io

Hi, thanks for your comment!

I'm afraid the answer to this is plain old human error. I messed up this level and it's a lot easier than it's supposed to be. The little corridor at the right linking the upper and lower parts was a late addition, and for some reason I didn't notice that this made most of the challenges in the level pointless. Don't know if I was tired or not paying attention or what, but yeah, my bad.

I will fix the level when I get the chance.

Cheers

Robin

Yes! Your Steam key should be available from your itch.io purchase page.

I've just finished Blackshift. It's been in early access for ages, but now it's finally done.

Pick stuff up, push stuff, shoot stuff, try not to die. It's that sort of thing. There are 100 levels, arranged in an overworld that you have to explore. There are also hidden crystals in the levels that you can use to buy items to make things easier, but that's optional.

On top of that, there's a level editor, and you can browse and play user levels from within the game.

Give it a try if it sounds like your sort of thing! I'd love to hear what you think.

https://blackshift.itch.io/blackshift

Great videos, and well done for sticking it out through some of the nastier levels. I'd forgotten how truly mean the original Blackshift was at times.

This new version should be just as tricky, but a lot less vindictive. I'm looking forward to seeing what you make of it!

Well, yes, that too ^^

Well done! That thing's a beast.

It's been a while since I made an effort to post publicly about my progress on Blackshift, but I've been hard at work!

Last time, I was on about how near to completion I was, but shortly after that I took a bit of a gamble and decided to make a major change: I added an overworld.

Before, the game just had a linear progression through all 100 levels, but now each level is located somewhere in the overworld, and you can drive around and choose which to tackle next.

l decided to create the overworld in the form of an asteroid belt, to match the spacey, sci-fi vibe of the levels themselves. Here are some of the features I've implemented:

Entering Levels

The player can simply drive to a level and press Enter. When they finish the level, roads to one or more other levels appear.

Jump pads between worlds

There are ten worlds, and each has ten levels. Completing enough levels reveals a jump pad to launch the player to the next world.

Caves

Little levels that you can't win, but you can drive through them to get to another part of the overworld.

And with that, I'm ready to say — again — that Blackshift is nearly finished. I mean it this time!

True, but what if they closed before they opened?

I've just had a play through and it is possible — which bit are you stuck on?

As of version 2.2.0, the editor is now available in offline mode.

It's not something I have planned, but it would be possible to remake the old levels in the level editor. Some of them would need some changes, because a couple of items are missing or work differently, but I reckon you could get pretty close.

Ah, no, I'm afraid not. Email is good — hit me up at r@foon.uk if you're interested!

Hi there! My game Blackshift is nearing completion, and the biggest thing it's missing is a trailer. If you are capable of creating quality game trailers, and you have previous work to show (ideally a game trailer) then I'd love to hear from you! This is paid work — let me know how much you charge. I can pay via PayPal, bank transfer (UK or SEPA), or Bitcoin.

Hi, everyone. I'm late to this devlog forum — I've been posting progress updates on my own site but as Blackshift nears completion, I wanted to start posting here too.

(I notice there's this Devlogs forum, and a separate Devlogs feature — I'm posting to both to try and get as much feedback as possible. I hope this is OK!)

With this update I've reached my goal of having 100 levels (and definitely not any secret levels, no sir). Other than that, the main additions for this update are:

Poison gas

Messes up your controls and stops you from using items. You can use explosions to get rid of it.

Mimic Robots

These guys will move whenever you do, in the same direction. I took a video of them in action.

Other Stuff

I'm getting dangerously close to being able to take the “beta” and “early access” labels off this game. Just need to fix up a few of the more placeholder-y graphics, tweak some levels, fix some bugs, and do a trailer. I should probably commission some more music, too.

Game link: Blackshift

OK, thanks for confirming!

I think I'll hold off on adding app support until the situation improves a little.

If I could just keep my download page on the itch.io site exactly as it is now, with no zip files appearing, and also add app support via Butler, that would be great — and you guys wouldn't need to implement self-extracting installers or anything.

Hi there, I have my game Blackshift on Itch and I'd like to update it  to work with the Itch app. Right now it uses a custom installer but I'd be happy to start uploading .zip files using Butler as well.

But, the docs seem to suggest that this would mean people downloading my game without the app would just be given the .zip file and some instructions and have to fend for themselves? Am I interpreting the docs correctly here?

What I'd ideally like is for app users to get all the nice features the app provides, but for non-app users to get my installer like they do now. I hope this is possible and that someone can tell me how to do it.

Thanks for any help

Robin

I'd love to release for Linux, and I have already started work on a port. It's a difficult platform to port games to, but I'll get there :)

Tricky, but I'll see what I can do.

Hey, just to let you know — the latest Alpha version now contains an option for offline mode.

Hi, thanks for buying!

I've been planning an Offline Mode for a while now. Thanks for letting me know you need it — I'll make sure it gets added within the next couple of updates.

Enjoy Blackshift

-Robin