v1.0 ships today, and includes a major change in how skills work. Instead of saving up gems across multiple levels and buying skills from the shop, you now learn a new skill every other level. You get to pick between upgrading two previously learned skills, or learning one new skill. You also get to change your equipped skills. I hope this will encourage more experimentation with skills.

This version also includes several smaller changes;

• You can choose between multiple save slots. All your existing progress is placed in the first slot.
• You have unlimited lives and no longer can get game over
• Each world generates only two types of levels
• Removed background music and options
• Options scroll vertically
• (Accessibility) you can disable the gradient shader for tiles, which makes it much easier to see what's going on

This release also includes a slew of bug fixes. The most important ones are listed below.

• Fixed a soft lock when you push a boulder into the exit
• Fixed a soft lock when you push a mine into an explosion
• Pressing space rapidly while next to a monster no longer makes other monsters move erratically.
• Moving non-stop no longer causes some boulders to defy gravity and dance up and down
• Clicking on skill buttons correctly activates skills
• Pushing a tipped boulder upward into a teleporter no longer causes it to dance up and down
• Fixed janky monster movement if you hit a monster and immediately move

When I prototyped Gem Worlds in August of 2021, I thought it would take me maybe another month or two (at most) to finish the game. Here we are, after 15 months of evenings and weekends, with the end in sight!

I finished all the content for Gem Worlds as of a few minutes ago; all that remains is to play the game through (over and over and over) and find/fix any bugs that show up. And there are probably a lot of them.

I don’t do release dates, but if I did, I would guess that the game will ship sometime in November. Here’s the plan for the next little while:

• Play through the demo, find bugs, fix bugs, repeat. Once I can’t find any more bugs, ship the demo.
• Play through the full game, find bugs, fix bugs, repeat. Once I can’t find any more bugs, release it to Steam.
• In the coming days after release, fix and patch any critical bugs that inevitably appear.
• As the days turn to weeks, add some planned features (Steam cloud save, and a bunch of accessibility features).
• Above all, monitor the player (that’s you) feedback, and adjust the game accordingly.

I really hope the game takes off and I get genuine feedback on how to shape it. I plan to support it for at least a couple of months, until I figure out my next project.

And finally, here’s a (spoiler-free) screenshot of something end-game!

Hey all, my apologies for not writing sooner - I thought I sent an update out, but apparently not. In short order, here’s what’s going on with Gem Worlds:

• Still aiming for a 1.0 release this year, although not 100% sure I will be able to hit it
• Will likely release the game for free instead of paid
• Every world now generates with two types of levels, instead of all five
• The save/load screen is finished and works well!
• I fixed a lot of bugs. Like, a lot.

Here’s the save/load screen in all its current glory:

Hello! Looks like I forgot to write these posts recently, sorry about that. Here’s a summary of what’s going on:

• I won’t be working on Gem Worlds (or any other games) much for the next two weeks
• I launched the v0.7.0 and v0.7.1 demo updates of Gem Worlds on Steam with key rebinding, and a ton of quality-of-life fixes; read more here.
• Gem Worlds is quite close to being finished, and I think I’m still on track to complete it in 2022
• Cloud Save between the demo and main game won’t work, due to a Steam technical limitation, until the full game is released
• I will likely add a couple of achievements (maybe) for the 1.0 release, and more in the releases soon after

Gem Worlds v0.6.0 is out. You can read more about it via the official Steam announcement. To summarize the changes:

• Everything (you, monsters, gems, etc.) move at the same time
• There’s a new look to the game
• Activate skills with keys Z/X/C/V, and full-screen option is available
• Lots of bug-fixes

If you tried the game before and have the inclination and time to try it again, please do, and let me know what you think of the changes.