0.6 update! The one that took me way too long to make due to overscoping, lack of motivation which led to months without progress, lots of features which needed polishing and general slow work. I'm still doing this just as a hobby so I don't really mind, I think it's fun to have this project to come back to whenever I feel like it. The long breaks were also welcome, I feel very refreshed and motivated again! Hopefully next update will release sooner rather than later!

This update I really went and re-considered a lot of decisions I had made before. And I changed a lot of old things I didn't like. The game has a bit more focus on puzzles now and the different areas have clearer themes. The story currently in the game is still a bit patchy as it's missing elements from here and there, but I tried to leave out anything that would make this version's story too confusing. So I think this version is still fun as a standalone experience!

There's of course still some rough edges, but I'll polish them down with time!

What's next? Well after I fix any bugs and polish a few things I didn't have time for in 0.6, I'll start work on 0.7! I'll start filling the holes in the story before starting work on the game's next area finally.  I already have some stuff ready for future areas, so making them should hopefully go quite smoothly!

Change log:

• Main Changes:
  • Player changes:
    • The player can now only place 3 clouds at a time
      • But the clouds no longer fade away with time
    • Pressing Q now deletes all currently summoned clouds
      
    • Making a cloud in midair now slows down your fall noticeably and allows for slightly higher jumps (Aka a cloud spin)
      • This change is intended to allow for a bit more control over the character, as well as open more options for going through levels
      • Also added a spin animation to the action to give the player more feedback on what they're doing
    • Tweaked the player's movement
      • When a player jumps from a moving platform, some of the velocity is now transferred to the jump
        • This only effects horizontally and upwards moving platforms
      • Fixed jittering when pushing boxes
      • Made the jump hang more in the air
      • Tweaked the values of various movement related variables
      • Moving on steep slopes should now be faster and less janky
  • Story changes
    • Changed most of the lines of dialog in the game to reflect my current idea of the characters and story better. Though as usual, nothing is final yet
      
  • Options changes
    • Added button remapping for both keyboards and controllers (The UI for this isn't final)
    • Added controller rumble when the player takes damage/dies
      • This can be turned off from the controls tab in the options menu
    • Added the option to reset all settings
  •  Reworked the look of the UI
    • Added some new UI elements to a few new gameplay elements to help the player keep track of everything going on
  • New levels
  • New gameplay elements
  • All story levels are now accessible through the level menu
    • Added UI to show which levels have a pink balloon to be collected
  • Collecting pink balloons now has a small delay to discourage damage boosting
    • This is displayed through UI at the top left of the screen
  • Changed the second area's theme to be less frogs, more plants
  • New levels can no longer be unlocked from the level selection menu
    • Upon completing the last unlocked level, you'll be sent back to the level selection menu
    • The last unlocked level is the same as the one you would enter when going into the story
  • New screen transition
  • Added new effects animations, replacing old particle effects
  • Added foreground elements
  • A new saving system
    • Old saves won't work with the new system
      • This is mostly because the game is still in early-access and playing through the story and collecting everything doesn't take too long. So I simply decided that converting old saves isn't worth the time investment at the moment.
  • Secret levels are for now disabled
    • The levels were unpolished and just not that great, so they'll be back once they're more finished

• Minor changes:
  • Tweaked old levels
    
  • Spelling corrections
  • Default volumes are now 50%
    
  • You can now travel back to previous checkpoints to change the current checkpoint
  • The little ball that follows the player and show's their current health now catches up to the player better
    
  • Tweaked a few old sounds
    
  • Tweaked the timing of NPC's voices
  • Visual upgrades
    • One standout change is that a few levels have signs with a picture of the pink balloons on them to indicate that a path is optional, so players not looking for a challenge can skip them
    • Mostly a lot of smallish sprite changes and improvements, though a few sprites have seen a bigger change
  • Performance optimizations
  • Bug fixes
    • The player should no longer get stuck between walls and clouds

All feedback is greatly appreciated! I hope you enjoy Feeling Cloudy 0.6!