Around mid January of this year (2026), I was enjoying development but I had this rising feeling that the core mechanic of 2D in 3D wasn't interesting enough. Other than like hidden secrets I couldn't find much use for it, and the mechanic became slowly less focused. I tried out a lot of ideas but ended up just putting it to rest for a while.

I started getting ideas for the game again around late February (shortly after FinLab 1.3). One idea really stuck with me. I had an idea for a modifier for new saves that basically randomizes all of the warps. So instead of sand -> volleyball secret -> water, each warp (persistently per save and 2-way) goes to a random place. If anyone has seen those randomizer mods for games, it's basically that. It's a tad easier to explain in practice, but when you see it in action it's pretty understandable. This got me thinking about turning a more linear 3D platformer progression, into procedural progression, which would help new runs feel unique. I have an idea of how I want to structure it, including things like semi-random collectibles to progress which means you have to be thorough and explore, instead of just feeling like a checklist where you enter doors. But I also don't want to make it so incredibly random it's not fun. I need a balance. The big problem with this mechanic is it's really hard to test with only a couple of levels, so I basically need to flesh out a bit of content. If the feature sucks though, I can fall back to a more traditional 3D platformer, since all of the content will work either way with minor changes. So as a developer, it's pretty safe to work on. But this has been living rent free in my head for the past month and I decided to bite the bullet.

There's the elephant in the room though, which is the content for the game is pretty generic and uninteresting. So I've been writing down a bunch of ideas I've head in regards to theming, interesting sub areas, etc. highly likely plans will change but I've come out with some interesting stuff like replacing the desert in the game with a new theme of a bones and lava, new areas such as neon underground mines, sub areas including fighting arenas, new enemies such as garden gnomes or pterodactyls, and replacing Crabby's role as a sub area character to a traveling merchant you can encounter randomly.

And finally, why Godot? I've been experimenting a bit with Godot, I previously had some bad experiences, but things have improved a lot. I've been impressed by it's feature set honestly. And although I still will likely sometimes use Unity (FinLab is staying Unity for now), I don't really like where the engine is heading. So I've gotten lured into Godot. It hasn't been without frustration though, although most of that is likely the learning curve.

If you read all this thank you, but hopefully this should explain why I'm effectively rebooting the game.