Builds are like onions--They got layers

And with that, we have a build!  It's amazing what a little progress can do for your productivity.

There's still not much to experience in gameplay.  Mostly just walking and jumping around an empty area at this point.  But the layer system is now working, which is what I want to talk about in this update.

One of my favorite things about 2D action platformers is the backgrounds.  A lot of effort goes into making the art for the environments in these games, and I think when people look at the game and see beautiful and detailed environments it makes them want to play the game even more because they want to explore and maybe interact with the detailed artwork.

But in most cases, the background art isn't actually interactive.  Often it's only there to instill an environment or feeling into the player, something that's very important, but I've always felt kind of let down by this as a player.  I want to interact with the cool architecture in the background!  I want to climb the pretty trees!  I want to do something to the weird foliage!

Layers are my solution to this.  In Demon's Blood, Randiel can shift which "layer", or "plane", he is traveling on in the level.  This effectively lets him walk around and interact with the background art by making it another part of the level itself.  We're going to find out how well this works in an action 2D platformer genre of game... Coincidentally I just bought and played a game that utilizes this mechanic: Little Big Planet 3.  So at least I have some reassurance there that it's not a terrible idea!  I'm sure there are other games that use it too.  Mostly I just don't want to end up with an isometric beat'em-up, because I'm not a big fan of those (which is funny since I made one a while back).

This idea of interacting with the background is what inspired me to make this an "open world" game, because ultimately I'd like to take this a step further.  After all, there's more in the background than just what's on the level itself.  There's those red trees, for example.  Can we create a way to go explore those?  Behind them are some mountains, maybe we can make a way to go visit them too.  Heck, what about that red moon in the sky?  Can that be made into more than just a backdrop too?  Who knows!

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more updates.