I, Arkeus

What is Diamond Hollow 2?

Diamond Hollow 2 is the sequel to a Ludum Dare 20 game entry, Diamond Hollow. The game played much like an arcade game, in that you repeatedly attempted to climb as high as possible to escape a cave, shooting monsters to defend yourself, collecting diamonds and upgrading your skills along the way.

Why make a sequel?

The original game was fun, but it was very limited in scope. As it was made over the course of a weekend, it had a single aspect to it. I enjoyed it enough that I wanted to expand it into a full-fledged game. The result of that expansion is Diamond Hollow II.

What features does Diamond Hollow II have?

Diamond Hollow II has quite a few new features, the main one being multiple modes. The game’s main mode will be a 7 chapter story mode.

Story Mode

In story mode, rather than the screen constantly scrolling and you scrambling to keep up, you’re free to roam up and down the cave as you please. The goal of each chapter is to reach the top, and defeat the boss at the end. Along the way you’ll encounter various types of monsters (instead of the very simple slimes and plants of the first one), collect many colors of diamonds, and explore various environments. Each chapter looks visually different than the others, so you won’t be staring at the same grass and dirt tiles the entire time.

The Sandstone Caves

As mentioned, each chapter ends with a boss fight. The bosses will be much more powerful monsters that have various abilities that will be much harder to defeat. Don’t be discouraged if you lose though, throughout the levels are checkpoints, including just before the boss, so even if a boss provides a challenge for you, you won’t have to play through the entire level again.

As you progress through story mode, you’ll encounter new equipment, including 4 unique guns, an x-ray scope to allow you to discover secret areas, a suit that allows you to temporarily survive in lava (there’s water too!), and boots that allow you to double (and triple!) jump. You’ll also find many items hidden in the levels for you to search for, including heart crystals to expand your maximum health and giant red diamonds to collect to unlock special modes.

The Professor

Overall the story mode alone is much much more in-depth and captivating than the entire first game.

Other Modes

In addition to story mode there are a few other modes planned. Unlike story mode, these aren’t as far along in development, so they may change before release. First, there will be a Lava Escape mode, that will play much like the first game. Except rather than just trying to outrun a randomly scrolling screen, you’ll be attempting to outrun constantly rising lava. The scrolling will be much smoother and more forgiving than the first mode, while still providing the constant scrambling to stay alive feeling.

A couple other modes that may be in the game are a time attack mode (quick levels designed to speed run as fast as possible to earn trophies), a run mode (horizontal auto runner mode, a functionally different game type), and a boss attack (fight the bosses one after another, including a heroic boss attack mode where the bosses are much stronger and have new abilities).

The Dark Volcanic Caverns

Overall

While the game is far from being complete, I’ve made great progress and am continuing to work on it whenever I get the chance. It’s exciting to reveal many of the features, and I can’t wait to get the game into your hands to play. Please leave comments if you have any ideas or suggestions! I’ve made sure to take a lot of the feedback left in comments on Kongregate in order to make this as great a game as possible.