Opening 2018 with a new update and another step towards the finish line.
This update includes:
60% of Act 4 is now decorated.
More game-play polishing of Act 4.
Act 2 - levels 3 and 4 - More layers of decorations.
No more floating obstacles. There were some obstacles types such as the saw-blades, rotating cannons, mines, etc, that were just floating in the air, they are now all connected to pipes/chains/rails-tower, this also helps understanding the saw-blades's path of movement.
There were a few good hundreds of obstacles like this which made this a very long, tedious and boring task, but it was necessary and I'm glad it's behind me :)
Improved item system. Picked item are now floating around square for a few seconds then flying into the inventory, dropped item are blocked for picking during this sequence.
This was added to make it clearer when an item is being picked, also interacted items (dropped items) are now shown on the map, so if you accidentally or intentionally left something behind, you can easily trace it back on the map.
New graphics and animations.
Code clean-ups, lots of testing, some bugs and glitches surfaced up and were fixed, nothing game breaking though.
Update version 0.77b released!
Last update for 2017 and another step towards the release.
Here are some of the new stuff:
A bunch of more decorations layers for act 3 which is now 100% completed and about 20% of act 4 has been decorated as well.
Finished adding all the missing sound effects and related triggers, we have additional 30+ sfx in this release.
Dark clouds on act 4, besides killing you on impact, they're also shooting lightnings now, the lightnings are fast and they follow you for a few seconds then continue flying straight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F22AIR4UzWc
A new idle animation for when standing over ice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C4iZcyeJi0
New lap-steel guitar track for meeting analog cut-scene.
A few graphics updates and bug fixes.
Happy new year!
Update version 0.76b released!
This will be our last update for phase 2 and the beginning of the third and last phase, bringing us closer then ever to the release date.
What's in this update?
1. Act 3 has been decorated with a bunch of new sprites.
2. Act 3 ending - Hexa's song added to the game, some animations are still missing and the vocals are still a draft, but it's fully watchable.
3. TZ got a new voice, all his lines were updated and we added the last missing dialogue before the last level, still missing some background assets.
4. Added one-liners and taunts to all boss battles.
5. Updated steam achievements.
6. Added map access from in-game menu.
7. Fixed some bugs.
And more...
Update version 0.751b released!
This will probably be the last update before we go into phase 3 of our Early Access.
The last level is not completely done yet, but it's fully playable and you can play the game from start to finish.
What's left to be done in phase 2?
1. Final level - Update some asset for boss #1.
2. Final level - Finish design and logic for boss #3 + boss losing animation.
What's left for phase 3?
1. Polish act 4 + add decorations.
2. Finish decorations for act 3 (currently at 40%).
3. Add missing dialogue between Square and T.Z. right before the final level.
4. Record and add act 3 ending song and cut-scene.
5. Add a few missing assets for act 1 ending song.
6. Record one-liners taunts for all boss levels.
7. Add all missing sound effects.
8. Record a few more background music for the levels.
9. Add concept art section to menu.
10. Add all missing translations.
11. Update credits sequence.
12. Do a thorough bug checking and code optimizations.
We will also go through the game and look for place where we can improve visually and tidy things up.
There are a few more optional tasks that we might throw in, but that's basically it.
A reminder, once we'll go into phase 3, the price of the game will go up to 12.99$, final release price is set at 14.99$.
Working on the last update for phase 2, coming in a couple of weeks!
We've been working intensively on the game's final level, it will be about 15 minutes packed with music, songs, battles, cut-scenes, story wrap up and more, it's going to be very epic, I'm sure you'll love it!
I won't say more about it or post a video/image/audio this time, this one is a treat you'll have to experience yourself!
Once we're done with it we'll be moving into phase 3, the final phase before releasing the game, we are aiming for a late January 2018 release.
Phase 3 will be mostly about polishing and testing, but there are a few more task to be done.
* There's another unplanned song I'm writing and adding with a cut-scene to act 3.
* A couple more dialogues to be added.
* I'll be recording some more background music and adding more sound effects.
* A new concept art section will be added to the menu, you will unlock new pieces of art with each collectible you'll find in the game.
* And of course updating all translations, maybe even adding another language or two.
Once we'll finish phase 2 and start phase 3 the game's price will go up to 12.99$, final release price will be set at 14.99$.
Update version 0.735b released!
We're getting close to the end of phase 2 of our Early Access plan and getting ready for the 3rd and final phase.
Phase 3 means the game will have all the gameplay content, cut-scenes and levels and will be completely playable from start to finish.
Most of the work in this phase will be to polish and further decorate the levels, focusing on acts 3-4, fix any found bugs and finish all other tasks such as completing the translations, recording some more background music, adding concept arts that will unlock using collected collectibles.
Our next update will include the following,
1. Act 1 ending song and cut-scene - animations 90% completed, but fully watchable.
2. Round one of the game's final battle 80% complete but fully playable.
3. Menus navigation - changed gamepad mapping to 'B' for back and 'A' for accept.
4. New transition into abilities screen when getting a new ability + 3 seconds key blocking, so you won't accidentally skip it.
5. In-game menu quit confirmation message.
6. The map will now show an arrow above the player aiming to the last opened gate, the arrows above the gates will be 2x bigger and if there is more than one gate connected to that lever, each of the gates will get an arrow.
7. Arcade games winning message and camera fade + zoom transitions into the cut-scenes.
We'll have another 1-3 updates after that before going into phase 3.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Steam Achievements update
We updated our steam achievements, some we're not up to date with the game and some were missing.
Note, some of the new achievements will only work after the new game patch is released, in a few days.
Update version 0.72b released.
This is a quick update with a few fixes and new stuff.
* Fixed springs not playing animations.
* Fixed background console on 2nd boss was accidentally accessible to use.
* Finished Level 4.4
* Added collectables counter to in-game menu.
* Update Evil Pen's Evil Plan song with new vocals.
* Worked some more on the 2nd cut-scene song.
* A few maps updates.
Update version 0.71b released!
This update includes everything we mentioned on our previous post, see here:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/517210/announcements/detail/1461838234113813422
And a few more things:
* Final vocal takes for Evil Pen's Evil Plan song.
* Map fully updated with all 4 acts.
* Acts 1-3 were checked thoroughly and updated where needed to match the new camera system.
* Finished level 4.3.
* Added 80% of level 4.4.
Map instructions:
Use keyboard arrows / dpad / left analog to scroll the map.
Use keyboard Q/W or right analog to zoom in/out.
Run button still switches map and jump button exits the map.
We're getting closer to the end of phase 2 of our Early Access program, we'll be announcing phase 3 (the final phase) very shortly, stay tuned for more info.
We'll close with a little treat for you, Evil Pen's Evil Plan cut-scene video and song, enjoy!
We have been working toward our next major update which will include a few cool additions to the game, here are some of the new stuff:
* A new song and cut-scene were added to the game at the end of act 2, this one is vid-blog sang by Pen and it tells us a little about his evil plans, check out this sample, final vocals should arrive any day now.
https://www.facebook.com/headbangames/videos/1942147489336508/
* New game map, we heard your comments about the map being a little vague and not helpful, so now you'll get an actual real size synced map, that shows where all the good little things are, here is a preview, still WIP!
https://www.facebook.com/headbangames/videos/1945619562322634/
* Main menu saving slots will now show saved game selected difficulty (note for saves made before this update, this value will only update after the next time the game is saved).
* Redid the camera and parallax system for all the scenes, previously our camera origin point was set to 0,0, so when scaling the scenes in/out the background parallax layers were not centered with the main layer, now the origin point is set to the center, so everything scales together nicely, this required quiet a lot of code changes and patches to some of the layouts, some scenes may still have little glitches (a few off screen pixels are visible at the one of the edges of the layout) but nothing game breaking, either way we'll get them all done asap.
* New visual enhancements, like a neat little glowing effect for the drop bash ability, killed enemies will no longer just disappear, they will flip and fall or sink if they're underwater, better projectiles and sfx for the mini arcade games and more.
* Added a couple of new scenes to level 1.1, passage to act 4 is now located on the first scene of the game and there's a shortcut back to it from act 3, also the first game machine that leads to act 2 is also accessible from the first scene, so you'll get to talk with TZ for the first time and know more about the coins and the arcade machines right at the start.
* Finished the last couple of scenes in act 4 level 2, added 5 scenes to level 4.3 and worked on the final scene of level 4.4.
* More bugs resolved, additional code optimization.
* Wrote another lyrical song for the end of act 1, recording and cut-scene animations starts next week.
* Formally introducing one of our new enemies, that will appear throughout acts 2-4, The Crab Drones.
These little buggers are fast but very weak and will cast minimal damage, if they'll catch you in a tight spot they will wall you in, you can use your drop bash ability to kill them, but the spawning machine will create more to replace them (maximum capacity changes)
https://www.facebook.com/headbangames/videos/1945803288970928/
