Releasing pico sonic v6.2 with stage intro

I released v6.2 of pico sonic today, a mostly aesthetic update that adds a full stage intro sequence in the style of Sonic 3 stage transition cutscenes.

Stage intro

This one links the Start cinematic played from the title menu added in v6.1 (where emeralds are flying) to the actual ingame phase.

I recommend you to watch the full stage intro with audio directly in the game’s latest build. You can skip it by pressing PICO-8 (O) or (X) buttons. For now I’ll just drop this screenshot of cool landing pose (based on Sonic’s own landing pose in Sonic Adventure 2, combined with footage from indie game Transiruby, and Iron Man).

Tunneling fix

I also fixed an exploit where if you jump from high enough, you can go through the ground (an effect known as “tunneling” in game physics programming). You could even go directly to the goal by moving below the level!

↑ Fixed!

Sprite fix

Finally, I fixed the palm tree sprite where the top part was not visible so far (the bug has been there since the beginning, apparently, but was hard to notice and went under the radar).

Before (v6.1):

After (v6.2):

There is no new ingame feature, so you don’t have to go through the stage again once you’ve seen the new stage intro. Unless you didn’t get all emeralds already!

Project future

This the penultimate update in my list of expected post-release patches. So, after this one, there should be just one last release, focusing on the title menu. After that, I can’t tell whether there will be further updates or not. In particular, I had plans for a full graphics overhaul, but that will only be possible if I can find pixel artists to help me on this project. So don’t hold your breath for new gameplay features and don’t expect major ingame visual changes; however, I do prepare something pretty cool for the next update on the presentation side!