A Valley Without Wind 2 - a full sequel free for existing customers - is coming.

[x4000]

You see, you take that cloud over there, (the green one, not the white one), and then cleave it, and a gust comes out.

That made me laugh out loud. 

[LaughingThesaurus]

I'm wondering how the reviewers will like a game called "A Valley Without Wind" having a class called "Draftlock" that's able to cast "Cleft Gust".

Have you ever played a game called Boogerman? It is the single least mature platformer I have ever played in my life.

[Aklyon]

You see, you take that cloud over there, (the green one, not the white one), and then cleave it, and a gust comes out.

That made me laugh out loud. 

Success~

Is it anywhere close to that, btw?

[x4000]

Cleft Gust looks like the attached (that's a character from the old game, though).  It's rapid-fire and has these spinning blades of glowing wind that are white, gold, and blue.

[Nanashi]

I'm actually a little concerned about the punch spells because unless the art studio is able to provide more animations (very time consuming), they might end up like fire touch - i.e. completely uninteresting (and something you can't do while crouching).

With the removal of mouse targeting, I'd want far more spells that move the character around the screen, or at least a sensible evasive option (including backdashes or short dashes) but would be incredibly difficult to do with 1 cast animation.

Would it be possible to bind more actions to command inputs like storm dash, please? I'm a fan of fighter games and I don't think it's too unreasonable to expect people to pull off df+button, dd+button or a hcf+button. 4 keys isn't too many, but I feel that hotkeys are kind of detractory from action games.

A few standards that I'm used to: Slide or backdash = down+jump, superjump = d > u + jump, fast movement or blink teleportation = hold jump + directional key. I don't think enough game designers consider the importance of input - actions can be charged and buttons can be held down to toggle them. I'd be happier with the shield spells in AVWW1 if they had worked on a hold-down toggle press, tbh (and used either a block meter or drained mana when preventing damage).

[x4000]

The punch spells are like fire touch.  However, the reason they were so useless in the first game was the enemy design, which was assuming free mouse movement and thus had enemies designed around that (which gimped keyboard players, plus most close-range spells).

In terms of doing key combos, I don't have any plans for that anytime soon as there are only four abilities anyhow.  However, for the various feats that convey movement changes (like storm dash, etc), those are indeed triggered by the same methods in the first game.

[PurpleMoustache]

I picked up AVWW on Steam during the summer sale (And AI War, completing the Arcen Games catalogue on steam) and recently started to hunker down and really get into it. Absolutely loving it so far.

I have a question about the sequel: I know its free for all purchasers of the first game, but does that mean for people who bought it on Steam, GamersGate, etc?

Keep up the good work!

[Giegue]

I'd like to think so. I think they're doing it so it litterally comes packaged with the original. so once its released, all you have to do is update it. I doubt steam would make you pay for it.

[Nanashi]

@Chris: Are you planning to tweak Storm Dash then? I get the feeling you're slowing down the pace of AVWW2 a little and as much of a convenience I find Storm Dash in AVWW1, it's also way too fast to do any precise maneuvers with.

If more precise positioning is needed during combat (thanks to the loss of sniping), it might be possible to doubletap by accident and go rushing off the nearest cliff.

[Aklyon]

Storm Dash is like the speed booster in metroid, except you could activate it from a full stop and there wasn't a 'stop and hold the charge' ability.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Difference is, Storm Dash doesn't kill enemies or make you invulnerable, so I only really found any use for it in backtracking through completely desolate and safe areas. Else, I would take hundreds of damage from plowing facefirst into enemies while also taking the double damage.

[Aklyon]

It was also useful for plowing the through wind shelter areas if you had high enough health (and stone legs) to just dash through and (hopefully) avoid the monsters on the way through.

[LaughingThesaurus]

So the Storm Dash strategy is the 'cross your fingers' strategy, or the 'I'm really good at Sonic the Hedgehog and decided for some reason that I like Metroidvania games as a direct result' strategy. That explains why I don't like it.
It's still got its uses for me anyway, like for screens that I know won't spawn enemies and stuff. I remember that being at least part of why it's in the game.

[Aklyon]

No, I'm terrible at (recent) Sonic. I keep expecting the camera to change and then it doesn't and I fall off the map again or run into spikes, etc. :/

[LaughingThesaurus]

Well, you made it sound to me like you're crossing your fingers in hopes that you don't run into a horrible monster.
In Sonic Generations that I've been playing, I basically fall every possible time and miss every faster route. I'm really bad about sliding as a split second reaction as well. Sonic's hard, man. Sonic speed is hard to handle, but it's so much fun.