So normally around this time I'd be clamoring for more ratings, but somehow Unlock Everything has already accumulated a whopping 137 ratings despite me not having made many posts about it. So uh...wow. A huge thanks to everyone who played, rated, and enjoyed my game! I guess it's at least eye-catching?

Anyways, as a way to show my appreciation, I'm going to instead kick off a series of write-ups about various aspects of "Unlock Everything". We're starting off with this nifty diamond-based screen transition effect that I implemented using a pixel/fragment shader:

Screen transitions are an important part of making your game look polished! In all of my previous games I've used simple fade-to-black transitions, but I wanted to try a fancier effect this time.

Transitions based on diamond shapes are actually pretty common among games, particularly with an 8-bit or 16-bit aesthetic. Some examples you may be familiar with include Tower of Heaven, Pause Ahead, and A Kitty Dream:

I was inspired by these games to try my hand at making a similar effect. I think the end result really adds to the sense of polish that you get, even when first booting up the game.

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Read the full writeup explaining this transition effect on my website: https://ddrkirby.com/articles/shader-based-transitions/shader-based-transitions.html