While finishing up Double Helix, there were a few features cut out of the final release that I want to share:

Varying Difficulty Levels - This was something that I wanted to add once everything in the project settled, but it got cut. While it would have been relatively straightforward to implement from a gameplay perspective; trying to expose the difficulty levels (the way that I wanted) on the user interface is what got this feature cut. What I wanted to do on the user interface was expose the difficulty levels via a checkbox or radio button on the main menu, but neither of those interface elements were implemented yet and so...cut. This feature might get added in a later update.

Soft Shadows - This was implemented relatively late, but I ended up disabling (cutting) it. One of the reasons why I disabled it was because I felt it wasn't as visually compelling as the hard shadows that are in the final version. I could have spent more time finessing my implementation, but I thought it was more important to devote that time to testing and polishing other areas of the game. Looking back, I don't really regret cutting this feature because I think dropping it allowed me to make the game better in the long run.

Cutting features is a part of making any games (even a small one like Double Helix). Being able to set an appropriate scope and sticking to your schedule are two other really important parts of making a game. Despite the aforementioned cuts, I'm really proud of how Double Helix turned out.