EARL’s Warehouse: The Depot – Week 1 Update

This week, I focused on the update and expansion to EARL’s Warehouse, which I have tentatively titled “The Depot”. This time, the puzzles are evolving together with the story, rather than them being done mostly separately like in the first two chapters.

The Depot is a deep underground facility that is discovered by EARL at the start of the new story. Massive in scale and several stories tall, the path through the Depot snakes like a labyrinth through damaged warehouses, darkened warehouses, and other surprises.

I have roughed out the first three levels of the new chapter, and it is turning out awesome! I especially like the second level, that introduces The Depot and feels much more open and vast than any other level to date.

Did you know that in the dark, EARL’s eyes function as headlights? The third level clearly demonstrates this, as EARL navigates the dark to activate emergency lighting.

Gamepad controls are implemented. The old controls are still available and are unchanged. The main change is a new button that will pick up or drop a highlighted block in the direction you are facing. This really makes some of the rules about picking up and placing boxes more clear, makes placing boxes overhead/underfoot much easier, and practically eliminates Pauli Exclusion Errors.

I also made another round of changes to the level selection screen, in a further attempt to make later chapters more discoverable. The chapter title has been moved to the top, the “Select Warehouse” text eliminated, and the next/previous chapter buttons brought together, moved to the upper right, and doubled in size.

More updates to come soon.