Colourblind

Colour Blind is a puzzle platforming game released on June 5th 2013. The player plays as a right eye who has to rescue his girlfriend, a left eye.

A beta version of the game was launched on Friday May 3rd 2013. This page was put up on Nitrome.com for beta testers to test, and a public offer for people to test the game was made on IndieVault.

Gameplay
Colour Blind is a puzzle platforming game where the player has to reach the end of each level. Placed throughout the levels of the game are totems with coloured paint on them. When the right eye comes in contact with a totem, he will gain the colour of paint which that totem has. More than one colour can be active at a time, and the colours currently activated can be seen according to the colour change on the right eye's pupil. All coloured objects and enemies become ghostly again once a waterfall is passed through.

Totems are an integral part of the game, as they are required to activate various objects that help the right eye reach the end of each level. When objects and enemies of certain colour are not active, they become invisible outlines that the right eye can pass through.

Scattered throughout levels are coins. Like the stars of the Hot Air series, coins not only increase the player's score, but also allow access to a bonus level once all coins have been obtained. Unlike the Hot Air series, however, dying within a level of Colour Blind allows players to keep all their previously obtained coins.

Plot
The right eye is walking with his girlfriend on what seems to be a grassy hill. Suddenly, the pirate cloud comes and snatches his girlfriend away. The right eye becomes saddened, and colour is lost from the environment. He goes on a quest to rescue his girlfriend, journeying through Vitreous Woods, Iris City and the Pirate Factory.

Levels
Colour Blind contains twenty-one levels - nineteen regular levels, one boss level, and one bonus level unlocked by collecting all in-game coins. Before the first level, the introduction is played, which tells the story of how the left eye got captured by the pirate cloud. There are also two cutscenes between levels. The first cutscene is the transition from the Vitreous Woods to Iris City, seen between levels six and seven. The second cutscene is the transition from Iris City to the Pirate Factory, seen between levels thirteen and fourteen.

Awesume Glasses
Accessible from the level select screen and from the ending is a button to get "Awesume Glasses" (Awesume being a pun on the word "Awesome"). This button, when clicked, takes the player to a shop where they can get Awesume Glasses.

To get Awesume Glasses, the player has to collect all the 290 coins in the game. Going there prior to collection of all coins causes the shop keeper to exclaim "But you don't have enough for Awesume Glasses!".

Going there with enough will cause the player to spend all their coins, obtain Awesume Glasses, and then view that a previously blank sign in the cut scene has the Pirate Captain holding the words "Play". The player will then run off in this direction to level twenty-one.

Enemies

 * Pink Crawling clouds - Clouds that crawl on the ground. Some of them can be activated by obtaining pink brush/palette.
 * Blue Flying clouds - General clouds that fly in the air. Some of them can be activated by obtaining blue brush/palette.
 * Purple Spiky clouds - Clouds that move around platforms. Some of these can be activated by obtaining purple brush/palette.
 * Rain clouds - Clouds that expel a waterfall

Interactive objects

 * Coins - Collectable; affected by collected colours and necessary for entire game completion
 * Switches - Affects the movement of certain objects
 * Totems - Gives the player a new colour

Beta
A page on Nitrome.com was opened up for the demo of Colour Blind - this demo available since 23:32 UTC on Saturday May 4th 2013. The demo was launched on the previous day - Friday May 3rd 2013. Despite this demo being up since Friday, an offer by Aaron Steed for people to test the game did not go out. It went out by Giuseppe Longo, instead, on IndieVault.

This demo page had links to three of the game's cutscenes - the intro, the cutscene that plays when going to Iris City, and the cutscene that plays when going to the Pirate Factory.

Environmental changes
Depending on where the player is (Vitrious Woods, Iris City, or Pirate Factory), picking up a certain colour will add colour to the background.

Vitrious Woods
Red-Trees leafs and squares turns into a red.

Blue-Clouds will turn into a blue.

Iris City

 * Green - Touching green will turn the moon in the background green
 * Blue - Touching blue will turn the clouds in the background blue
 * Yellow - Touching yellow will illuminate the windows of the buildings in the background yellow

Level changes

 * Main article: Colour Blind/Level changes

Many levels of Colour Blind went over tremendous level changes, not just the addition of art.

Beta
A page on Nitrome.com was opened up for the demo of Colour Blind - this demo available since 23:32 UTC on Saturday May 4th 2013. The demo was launched on the previous day - Friday May 5th 2013. Despite this demo being up since Friday, an offer by Aaron Steed for people to test the game did not go out.

This demo page had links to three of the game's cutscenes - the introduction, the cutscene that plays when going to Iris City, and the cutscene that plays when going to the.

Version 1
This was the first version of the demo, released on May 3rd 2013. This demo, when loaded up, would bring the player to the level select screen. This screen consisted of squiggly white lines and a background that changes colours.

The level select screen consisted of a six by three grid of grey boxes with yellow numbers on them, level nineteen being below the grid on the far left. Unusually, there is a back button on this screen that allows the player to go to the menu.

The menu is complete, although the menu is fifteen pixels too high. The main difference from this game is that the boss (level twenty) and the twenty-first level are not present, that level five is impossible to complete, it is impossible to collect all except one of level thirteen's coins, and various glitches relating to the menu.

Due to a glitch, pressing the kayboard button R will cause the level the player is in to freeze. The cog that when clicked activates the pause menu still works, and is the only way to escape the frozen level. However, resetting the level via Shift + R still works, evne when the game is frozen.

This version is very similar to the final version of Colour Blind, with the exception of all levels lacking the art that would later be given to them in future updates, levels twenty and twenty-one not being present, the shop that sells the Awesume Glasses, the proper menus, and menu glitch.

A few levels that were meant to have crusher blocks instead had a dark green background and the top of a crusher block in place of a crusher block - this likely being a glitch the crusher block not being displayed, as several other levels would display crusher blocks fine.

This version had no music or sound.

Level 5
Level five is impossible to complete due to an incorrectly placed pit. From where the player starts, there are three pits, with a spike square moderately above the first two. The third pit is placed on a platform, this pit having a moveable box in it and on top of that box being a horizontal beam.

To the right of this platform is a purple paint egg, this egg causing the spike squares to form, and purple spikes to appear under the box. The difficulty with this is that the player is incapable of leaping over the second spike square.

Level 13
Level thirteen - although completable - only allows the player to collect one coin, as their is a raincloud that will always rob the player of their colour, and because the only colour that they can get up to that point is yellow, and all the platforms to the left of the start of the level are yellow, it renders the level impossible in collecting all the coins.

This level renders all the coins - save for one - impossible to complete due to an incorrectly placed checkpoint, as from where the player starts off, they are already ninety percent through the level.

Along with this, from where the player starts the level, there are two checkpoint flags next to each other, which - if the player has a colour - creates an endless checkpoint registration animation.

Version 1.5
An exact date for this update is not known, although it is known that this update did not take place on Monday May 6th, but was present on May 8th 2013. This update only fixed the two impossible levels. Along with this, several levels had their finish pad elevated by three blocks. Still, the glitches relating to the menu were not fixed.

Version 2
This update was a major one, as the level select screen was updated, the main menu was fixed, the help menu displayed proper images, and many levels were updated, while some levels were added.

These level updates mostly added art, although some updates made the level easier. Only level one to thirteen were updated, levels fourteen to nineteen remained the same as they were before. Levels twenty and twenty-one were added. An effect added in this version is how water will fall off the player if they stand under a waterfall.

This version still did not have any sound or music.

Pause menu glitch
All previous glitches with the pause menu were fixed. However, for some reason, a new glitch was caused: pressing the P button on the keyboard of the player's computer will cause the game to freeze and the pause menu to not open. Strangely, pressing the button again will cause the game to continue to work properly.

This freeze is likely caused by the game thinking that when the P button is pressed, the pause menu opens. This is correct, as the pause menu would come up and darken eveyrwhere in the game screen except for the menu. However, due to a glitch, the pause menu doesn't come up.

The freezing not happening when the P button is pressed again is what is programmed to happen, as once the menu is opened, pressing the P button would close to the menu and resume the game.

The pause menu can still be accessed by clicking the white cog at the top-right of the screen.

Level 20
Despite level twenty being added, it was simply added as a placeholder level, as the level had the finish line placed sixteen blocks away from the checkpoint where the player starts the level. Furthermore, there is nothing between these blocks, and the background is the regular background seen from level fourteen to nineteen.

From the looks of this level, it apparently has not been worked on, seeing as the level was meant as a boss level, and as such, would not have a finish line as the player severely wounds the Pirate Cloud.

Level 21
Once the player collects all coins in the game, going to the "Awesume Glasses" shop will allow them to purchase Awesume Glasses. Upon doing this, they will see that a blank sign has the Pirate Cloud's face on it, this sign reading "Play". The player then advances to level 21.

At this time, likely it was only programmed that after this cutscene, it takes the player to a level, as the level the player accesses is just a placeholder location for the level, as this "level" has no platforms, no coins, and as such, no where for the player to spawn.

Along with this, the background constantly flickers between all the backgrounds in the game. The clock stays at 000 and does not change, and the coin counter is 00. The player can still escape from the level, though, through the pause menu.

Level changes

 * Main article: Colour Blind/Level changes

Slight level changes were made to levels. Please note that only changes relating to the structure of a level will be listed, the change in the art in a level is not listed, as it is already apparent.
 * Level 16: The blue and purple totems at the end are made closer to each other.

Version 3
Although the exact date is not certain, Colour Blind was likely updated on this day, or a few days after. It is known this update was present on May 28th 2013. This update added sound to the game, level fourteen to twenty-one were updated (changing some of the level structure and adding art), and levels twenty and twenty-one were added.

All glitches with the pause menu were fixed. Unfortunately, level eighteen does not load. Thus, it is impossible to play other updated levels unless the player has before the update completed the game. All the levels present in this version are the final versions of the levels that would be displayed in the final version of Colour Blind, released on June 5th 2013.

Level changes
The required amounts of coins to obtain Awesume Glasses was originally 317, however, in the final version, 290 was necessary.

Timer glitch
The timer continues counting down, even though the player has finished the level.

April 19th 2013
Nitrome revealed the game's preview image and spoke a bit about the game's plot.

Trivia

 * Colour Blind is the first Nitrome game since Test Subject Complete to feature cutscenes outside endings.
 * The pink colour is only used on level eighteen and twenty.
 * The first two worlds (Vitreous Woods and Iris City) are named after characteristics of eyes.
 * When the right eye passes a totem for the first time in a level, the music's instrumentation changes.