This holiday season you can all work together to earn some cool Action Henk stuff during the Action Henk Christmas Marathon! Here's how it works: Every time you finish a level the distance you traveled will be added to a counter, and all players can work together to win cool stuff like wallpapers, skins, songs and more!
You can find the counter and more info over at the marathon website:
http://actionhenk.com/marathon/
We also did a little update to the game, including the following:
At the end of each level, you can see the distance you traveled
You can now rate downloaded levels from within the game
Downloaded levels now also show their author and preview screenshot
Have fun and good luck!
Early Access v8 - Level Editor and Disco Fever!
Hello everybody! This patch we’re going to introduce another visual style. It’s another room in the dark but instead of going for a spooky vibe, we went for something a little more… funky. We’ve moved some of the existing levels to this new disco environment and made a few new levels, too. The final level in the disco-themed batch will introduce Henk’s sensei, Neil. Beat him to unlock him as a playable character!
The level editor is here! Players can now create, share and play community levels. Look for cool creations or share your own through the integrated Steam Workshop. Keep in mind that as with all features, it’s in an early access state. The interface in particular isn’t finished and all editor functionality might break at some point. We’d appreciate it if you could let us know when something breaks so we can fix it! We’ll also keep adding features over time.
Features:
Level editor.
Steam Workshop support for levels.
Levels: New levels
Party Hardy (Easy).
Neil’s Challenge (Easy, Challenge level).
Boxing Betsy’s Challenge (Easy, Challenge level).
Betsy’s Hook Challenge (Medium, Challenge level).
Other level changes/fixes
Tornado, Spaghetti, Boing and Easy Peasy moved to the disco environment.
Kentony’s Challenge 1 now unlocks Kentony if you can beat him.
The following levels have been altered in such a way that it invalidated all replays so they have their leaderboards reset: Hot Feet, Tornado, Spaghetti, Boing, Easy Peasy and Halfway Hook.
Audio:
New song: Betsy’s theme 8 bit version.
New song: Disco theme.
New song: Level editor theme.
Characters/Skins:
Neil.
Kentony.
Boxing Betsy.
Warrior Betsy.
Misc:
Level editor achievement awarded when a level is uploaded.
New camera shots when the player is selecting a ghost to race against.
Fixes:
Lighting in Halloween environment adjusted.
Ingame camera movement smoother. (There were people who thought they didn’t have 60 fps while fps meters stated they did, this should fix it.)
Physics bug fixed where the character would suddenly release from or stick to the track when it was not supposed to.
Community: For the past 2 weeks we’ve tested the level editor with a small group of people. I’d like to thank every one of them for their feedback and support, we needed it. ;)
Thanks in particular go out to steam users: Qwertzoi, Minirop, Tomus, Greenlizard307, Jwaaap, Dom, EnButtetSkude, Sos Sosowski, ConnorUllmann and ConradZimmerman.
Minirop is working on a tool which can do an analysis of your checkpoint times and give you an estimate of what your best time could be. Pretty amazing to see!
Looking for level editor testers!
Hey everyone!
I've got a couple of things I'd like to share with you. First off, the next update is going to be delayed by approximately two weeks. Boooh :( The reason for that might cheer you up though: the delay is because we're working on a level editor! :D
Now we'd like to invite a couple of people who'd like to test and break the editor before it goes live. This gives us the opportunity to fix, tweak, change and iterate on the editor where needed, before it goes live to the whole community.
We're looking for people who actively want to help us improve the editor, people who aren't afraid of giving us constructive criticism. If you'd like to help us out, please fill in your e-mail address and steam username in this form.
On December 1st we'll send out beta access information to people who've signed up and we'll give you a week or so to play around with it and write up your thoughts on the editor!
Thanks!
PS
If you want a preview of what the editor is going to sound like, download the editor background music here. It seriously makes you want to build stuff ;)
It’s Halloween, time for treats! We’re proud to introduce a new visual style. Next to the ‘kids room’ environment that we’re all familiar with, we now present to you a brand new spooky Halloween themed version of the room! Feast your eyes on all of the new visuals in the Halloween levels!
Levels: There’s a whole new batch of levels, the Halloween batch. Six levels in the new visual style!
The ending of Betsy’s Challenge is changed to be a bit easier.
Fixed a bug in Tornado where you could skip a part of the level and mess up the physics.
Renamed: First Steps is now called Back 2 Back.
Renamed: Hook Shot is now called Smooth Swinging.
Audio:
New song: Halloween theme.
All tracks remastered.
Music played is now related to level batches instead of the current character.
Characters/Skins:
Two new Halloween themed skins. Hallowhenk and Wicked Betsy.
Misc:
Floor is lava received another facelift.
We’ve begun implementing Steam Achievements! For now we have two. One for the Betsy challenge and one for the new challenge in the Halloween level batch.
Fixes:
Fixed a bug where you could launch your character if you would use the grappling hook in a corner. (We also removed all high-scores that used this trick).
Fixed a multiplayer bug where there would be no new level selected after one is finished.
Community highlights: Our favorite video this month came from Kevin Regamey, who managed to completely break the game in several different ways! Unfortunately for you, these bugs have been fixed now ;)
Tune in to the Action Henk Halloweenathon!
Get a sneak peek of the Action Henk Halloween update this Wednesday, the 29th, during our massively spooky Action Henk Halloweenathon!
MANvsGAME, STAR, Bisnap, Jerma, Kyle Bosman and many more will be bravely outracing each other in brand new, Halloween-themed levels on Wednesday October 29th from 8pm CET.
Come join us in their streams and videos, in anticipation of what will be our scariest update yet! The Halloween update will launch 24 hours later, on October 30th.
Keep an eye on the RageSquid Twitter and Facebook, and stay tuned for more news!
Early Access v6 is live!
The multiplayer tryouts were a great success! We’ve gathered all the user & technical feedback that we need, and for now the servers will be offline again for a while.
In this update we’d like to welcome our new level design intern, Keano. The new levels in this update are the fruits of his hard work, let us know what you think of them!
During the past weeks we’ve been busy visiting several events: Fantastic Arcade in Austin (Texas, USA), Indigo in Utrecht (NL) and EGX in London (UK). Thanks to everyone who dropped by and said hi!
Levels:
New: Backside Basics (Beginner).
New: Easy Peasy (Easy).
New: Bumper Jumper (Medium).
New: Pipe ‘n Slide (Medium).
New: The Zigzag (Hard).
The way the levels are grouped has been restructured.
Interface:
Added an Action Henk title screen. If you stay in this screen for a while, the game will start showing replays for random levels.
You can erase your medals, replays and progress in the Settings -> Game menu. (This will wipe the medals from your account, not just the local machine.)
The medal count is now visualized in the top right corner of the GUI screens where it’s relevant.
Misc:
Audio levels of all categories have been tweaked for a more normalized experience.
The floor is lava is in the middle of a facelift. A first version of the new lava is included.
Fixes:
Fixed a bug where the character would sometimes let go of the track if you went up a ramp really fast.
Community highlights Two weeks ago we were surprised by an Action Henk video by YOGSCAST’s Martyn (InTheLittleWood). He had an amazing time, so much that he made 3 more videos shortly after the first, where he covers every single level. All of them are great to watch. If you have a few spare minutes, find them here ;).
Next Update We’ve got something special planned for Halloween, make sure to tune in on our Facebook and Twitter to be kept up to date!
Early Access v5 (Multiplayer try-outs!) is live!
Two weeks ago we set out for a challenge, which was to implement online multiplayer into Action Henk before the next update. After two very hectic weeks, we’re proud to announce that we managed to do it. Everyone can now try out the first version of Action Henk’s multiplayer!
Because this is still an early version, the servers will only be online every Thursday and Saturday from 18:00 till 02:00 CET (11am-7pm PDT). This is to make sure that we can oversee the playtests, and keep a close eye to make sure everything functions properly. There is a possibility that we will be doing extra playtests, so make sure you join the Official Steam group to be kept up to date on any changes!
Another important announcement we need to make is that the next update will not be in two weeks. This is because we have found out that pushing out an update every two weeks doesn't give us the time to polish new features as much as we would like to. Because of all this, we will be aiming to release the next update at the end of September. This will allow us to stay focused for longer, and give you more, higher quality content at once! The bi-weekly updates basically put us in a constant state of crunch time, which our bodies can only cope with for so long. ;)
As usual, we will keep everyone up to date on our Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to like/follow us there if you want to be in on some sneak peeks!
We hope you enjoy the first multiplayer version, and stay tuned for more cool multiplayer stuff we have planned!
Features
First version of multiplayer! A level is played for a couple of minutes, and within this time you can play and retry as often as you like, its about who can set the best score during this time. If you win you get points, and the more players you beat, the more points you get. These global multiplayer points will be showcased on a global multiplayer leaderboard.
Community highlights One of Action Henk’s best players ‘Qwertzoi’ has been making some super helpful videos where he explains how to do all tracks in-depth. So if you’re struggling to get those notorious rainbow medals, be sure to to listen to his advice.
Early Access v4 is live!
The past two weeks most of us were attending the Game Developers Conference and Gamescom in Cologne (Germany) to showcase the game to people from all over the world.
Nonetheless we still managed to get a couple of cool things in this update. We’ve got 64-bit Linux support, more skin-specific particles and a very, very long level.
We’re also happy to announce that next week we will be showcasing Action Henk at PAX Prime at the Indie MEGABOOTH! So if you’re around, make sure to drop by and chat with us!
New Platforms:
Linux 64-bit support! Leaderboards and replays now work on Linux 64-bit.
New Levels:
Marathon (Medium). This level is loooong!
Interface:
People who have identical times now also have identical ranks.
Level select list improved.
Misc:
Most of the character skins have received death particles and/or sounds for when they fall in the lava. Most skins also have their particles updated to make them stand out from each other even more. Most notably: Swan Henk, Blue Blaze Henk and Boxing Betsy.
We’ve had problems with the Steamworks plugin we use so we’ve replaced the whole thing altogether, this should reduce the number of random crashes some people had.
When you get to the character select it starts at the most recently played character/skin combination.
Fixes:
The anti-aliasing menu option now works correctly.
The alternative Henk theme now plays correctly.
Community highlights Community member Assault brought this video to our attention, it’s an amazing attempt at the world record on “The Drop”, he absolutely nails it! This morning we also laughed at Tengu Drop’s new video. He basically tries every hard level there is, and eventually gives up because they are way too hard for him :D
Next Update We’ll be customizing the character skins more with unique sound effects and more unique particles per skin. We’re also working on something big but that’ll have to wait until next update ;)
That’s it again, as always we’ll be on the forums and the next update will be ready for you in two weeks, we can’t wait for that one!
The RageSquid team.
Early Access v3 is live!
For this update we focused on requests we found on the community forums. We've added cloud syncing for medals, more detailed quality settings and a nice 25% increase in performance! To top it off there are 3 new levels, including some crazy stuff with the jump pad blocks. Enjoy!
Features:
Medals cloud syncing. Your medals now carry over if you play on a different computer with your Steam account!
Anti Aliasing, VSync,Texture Quality and Anisotropic Filtering settings added to the graphical options menu.
New Levels:
Multipath (Easy)
Boing! (Easy/Medium)
Pinball (Hard)
Interface:
The level select now shows you which of the levels are new.
Graphical options menu received a small rework.
The pre game interface now tells you when it’s busy downloading a replay file.
Misc:
Characters now rotate in character select. Look at Henk's glorious behind!
Graphical performance improved by roughly 25%, noticeable in particular on lower end machines.
We’re experimenting with unique particles per skin. Different trails have been added to each skin, there’s more to come!
Fixes:
Personal best replays are no longer cleared when an update happens!
Personal best replays are no longer local but are now fetched from the Steam leaderboards. You can now be sure that the personal best replay matches your best time on the leaderboards.
The camera doesn't freeze up anymore when you go through character select too fast.
The unlock criteria in the skin selection screen now match the actual unlock criteria.
The animations will now reset properly when hitting the reset button.
Community highlights We’re still watching all of the Let’s Play videos we come across and are loving every one of them. We’d specifically like to mention this one by Kakujo where he talks us through the previous update. It’s awesome to see all the videos pop up, keep ‘em coming! :D
Next Update The next two weeks most of us will be in Cologne, Germany. We’re going to visit a series of events: Evoke, GDC Europe and Gamescom. This means that next update will probably be a bit smaller. In case you happen to be at Gamescom, make sure to drop by our stand at the Holland Pavilion in Hall 4.2. Also, if you’re in a competitive mood you can join the Action Henk tournament we’re hosting at the Unity booth on Wednesday!
That’s it for now, we’ll be on the forums and we’ll bring you the next update in two weeks!
The RageSquid team.
Early Access v2 is live!
It’s been 2 weeks since the Early Access launch, and the first update is here! We’ve added 7 brand new levels, integrated a lot of user interface feedback, and you can now race against the incredibly challenging Rainbow Medals!
Features:
Rainbow medals! Extreme difficulty for the die-hard players.
New Levels:
The Drop (hook, easy)
Close Call (hook, medium)
Throwback (hook, medium)
Pro Skater (easy)
Leap of Faith (medium)
Quick Tricks (medium)
The Big Climb (hard)
The game now has 25 levels in total, increasing the amount by almost 40%!
Interface:
You can now switch ghosts from the post game screen.
Leaderboards per level can be accessed in the level select screen.
Ingame tutorial during the first three levels of the first batch and the first three levels of the grappling hook batch.
Added the option to randomize the ingame music in the audio settings menu.
Added the option to hide the ingame tutorial in the game settings menu.
Controls:
‘R’ on keyboard now acts as a reset button ingame.
Added xbox360 controller D-pad support ingame.
Misc:
New unlockable Betsy skin when you unlock 3 Rainbow medals.
WIP_21 is now known as Full Stop
WIP_19 is now known as The Wall
WIP_9 is now known as Back & Forth
WIP_20 is now known as Spaghetti
Because of significant changes, leaderboards for Back & Forth, Full Stop and The Wall have been reset.
Fixes:
Slide sound volume now in relation to the sfx volume slider in the audio settings.
Postgame repeating audio bug fixed.
[LINUX] Fixed a bug where some linux machines couldn’t load medal replays.
Fixed the loud noise when switching scenes.
Thank you! We’d like to thank everyone who has bought and is playing Action Henk at such an early stage! Your support is great, and really encourages us to make Action Henk the best game we can! We also want to thank everyone who has been commenting in the forums, your feedback and bug reports are speeding up our development process greatly. Thanks!
Community highlights We absolutely loved the fan art made by our friends from Wooden Plank Studios. We’ve also been seeing a huge amount of youtube let’s plays! Here’s one of our favorites by Kakujo. There’s been coverage in a lot of different languages, including Italian, French, Russian, German and of course in Dutch :D
