WIP Wednesday:WIP Wednesday:WIP Wednesday:July 8, 2026July 8, 2026July 8, 2026
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Hey, everyone! I’m here tonight with a brand new installment of Work-In-Progress Wednesday! Today, we’ll be checking out a couple new features in Atmocopter since last time.
New Object: Propellervator
The propellervator is, as you’d expect, an elevator with propellers! If you look closely, you can see that it’s also an object partially using the terrain’s 3D effect and partially using 2D for the turbines in back. When the player hops aboard, control is taken away and Atmocopter automatically moves to the center of the propellervator. The device’s turbines spin up, and Atmocopter is quickly whisked away to another area! In the above GIF, you can also see updated transition effects since last time. The direction of the transition corresponds to the direction in which the player left the screen.
The propellervator is mostly a set piece for now, but it’s going to be useful in level design when I’d like to break up a level into a couple distinct parts. There’s also a double-size version of propellervator which I’m hoping to use in some auto-scrolling sections!
New Visual Effect: Glow Behind Clouds
This is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while! Certain objects hidden by clouds now “glow through” a little bit, showing a hint of what’s underneath. In the below screenshot, you can see a little of how it’s put together.
I used debug cheats to move next to the clouds and then fired Atmocopter’s eye beams, pushing the clouds away for a moment. You can see that the glow is only drawn over the clouds, and that underneath are deadly electraps!
Hit “Continue Reading” for more GIFs and screenshots!
Hazards aren’t the only things that glow. Collectible nuts and Atmocopter’s shots also add a glow effect! The glow for collectibles is subtle, because I want to make sure you still need to look for them.
I think that combined with the player’s ability to reveal what’s under the clouds by shooting, this should be enough of a hint as to what you’ll face behind the clouds.
While testing, I also accidentally saw what it would look like with a stronger glow effect on all the time, not just behind the clouds. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture and it would be a little difficult to recreate, but that could be something to explore in the future.
…After all, it’s not unheard of for Atmocopter! The original version of Atmocopter (above) did sport a glow effect, and it also used it for showing objects in dark areas. Only time will tell how the game turns out in the end, but until then I can say for sure that the new version is light-years ahead of the old version! I’m really excited to progress further with it.
That’s all for tonight- See you next time with more pixel art!
-Will