Beetle Uprising Discounted During the Halloween Sale!
Well would you look at that!
Beetle Uprising is now on sale for 30% off during the Halloween Sale (through to November 8th as we will also be running an anniversary sale for our birthday on November 5th!)
What could be spookier than self-immolating and exploding beetles? We honestly can't think of anything!
Beetle Uprising is Currently 30% Off!
We're pleased to reveal we're part of the World Nature Conservation Day Sale event here on Steam and to celebrate we're currently offering 30% off Beetle Uprising until the end of the event!
If you want to know a little more about what Beetle Uprising is all about, then one of the Slug Disco team, Liam, has an ongoing series demoing the game:
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Easy Mode Just Released
We are pleased to announce we have just released a new mode for Beetle Uprising - Easy Mode!
In Easy Mode you will find the following key features:
Reduction in happiness penalties.
Breeding is biased toward the stronger parental allele.
Beetles with blue star genetics are now highlighted in all modes.
In practice what this means is that there will be less of a grind needed to get those killer beetles that can dominate the harder levels and enemies in the game.
That's not to say you will be able to get three stars in all levels straight away as the game is balanced for replayability - what it does mean is that you shouldn't struggle to complete the levels even to a 1-star standard.
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Beetle Uprising Released!
We're finally here! Beetle Uprising has now left early access and is available as a full game on Steam. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this project through its development; the game is now feature complete and the Abandoned Lot is 100% ready to be conquered!
There has been an optional beta to test some of the final additions running recently; thanks to everyone who has played this and given us feedback.
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As well as the completion of the campaign levels, a new feature - Mystery Mode - has been added. This gives random rewards instead of set ones in the campaign, which could lead to some interesting beetle abilities and stats earlier on! We look forward to seeing what you get.
The publishers, Slug Disco, have been doing some streams of the game lately and they'll be doing a special stream as part of the release at 6.30pm UK time (1.30pm US Central) on YouTube. That'll be streamed on the Slug Disco channel: click here to go there.
So, there you have it. Your Abandoned Lot is infested with ants, spiders and beetles not borne of the Matriarch. Claim what is rightfully yours by breeding the best beetles in Beetle Uprising!
Beetle Uprising - Releasing 5th November!
Beetle Uprising has a release date! Breed more beetles, juice the bad ones! Take over the Abandoned Lot and avenge the matriarch on 5th November 2020, when we'll be leaving early access. As well as the full set of levels, the full release introduces Mystery Mode, with random rewards to add a little twist to proceedings.
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Keep an eye our the Beetle Uprising social media - Facebook and Twitter - for more information as we approach this date!
Behind the Scenes of Beetle Uprising: The Nest
TIme for another quick behind-the-scenes look at Beetle Uprising!
This is a screenshot of the nest. It shows a small navigable area near the exit. Over time, as you level up, the nest gets bigger - this is done by removing the rocks around the border (some are highlighted here).
They are set up to block navigation dynamically, so once they are disabled and disappear from the scene, the floor underneath opens up for use by the beetles and for placing objects. We adjusted things so the navigable area is a little ways from the walls and you don't see Beetles penetrating them, although very large beetles are big enough that sometimes their legs might stick through as they turn around in a corner.
As the expansion rocks are removed new nest lighting is activated, so the floor beneath them looks cheerful and safe. You can also see 4 big rectangular patches of "fence" around the nest so a player cannot click outside and drive Beetles crazy trying to navigate somewhere impossible, or place a tasty snack out of reach.
Behind the Scenes of Beetle Uprising: The Navmesh
Continuing our short look at some of the behind-the-scenes goings on with Beetle Uprising, this time we're talking about the navmesh.
Below is a screenshot of the Unity navmesh editor. It shows one of our earlier levels with the navmesh highlighted. We use terrain steepness to limit walkability, and have a few invisible "fence" objects (you can see some straight blocks that cut the nav mesh) we use to keep players and enemies from wandering outside the play area.
We needed to keep players from clicking on navmesh that is auto-generated but is outside the play area, so we wrote code that determines if a click is pathable from a few "starting locations" that are inside the play area. We needed more than one of those objects to deal with situations where doors open and change the play area. If you run your mouse over a map, you can see the cursor change to indicate that you are inside or outside the legal area.
We would sometimes have bugs where enemy spawners would not push beetles into the play area, because we like them coming out of holes and other difficult bits of terrain. They might fall through the floor, or pile up inside a cave. So tweaking the spawner location was always fun. Something else about spawners: they have a starting location, but also an implicit move-to is given to each enemy with an optional remote location. This makes it seem like the bugs rush out when triggered, then gather in a staging area, waiting until their Perception area overlaps with one of your beetles. Then the fight is on!
Behind the Scenes of Beetle Uprising: Egg Editor
We thought we'd share some behind-the-scenes stuff from the development of Beetle Uprising, as we approach the full release!
Here's a screenshot of David's egg editor. He built a custom Unity Inspector to label genes and give himself drop downs to tweak the genes given out with a particular egg. In Beetle Uprising, most of your best beetles will come from generations of cross-breeding, but every so often you’ll need to add fresh genetics to the gene pool which come from beetle eggs.
In this shot, We’re looking at the "Best Stats" egg. It shows part of the visual genes, and a bit of the attack type genes. Here, different genes control morph targets in the beetle 3D model (such as making spikes or width or legs different sizes). Similar genes control the custom shader which gives you visuals such as color, iridescence, stripes, or masks. Once a beetle is hatched, its properties are fixed. If you want a different look or ability, you'll need to breed or acquire new eggs from missions.
An update for 2020!
As most of you who supported our little beetle breeding experiment will know, progress has been slow for a while. We’ve been itching to finish the game off for a long time and so the original development team has pledged to work together remotely to push it out of Early Access.
The last public game update was April 29/18. Since then, we have:
- Unlocked the final two missions on the map: 17&18, including the final game win flyout celebration and Steam Achievement. - All new, streamlined Nest and Beetle Collection UI. - Better hints for attack types in mission set up and in combat. - Updated Beetle Uprising logo. - Improved genetic display UI. - Removed a few unwanted bugs. But left in all the bugs we really wanted.
For anyone who wants to get really stuck into the nitty gritty of breeding, we’ve got a new video explaining how everything works so you can refine your tactics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ym7QUlZDSw
We’d also like to announce our collaboration with Slug Disco Studios, makers Empires of the Undergrowth (another great insect themed game) who are helping us spread the word about Beetle Uprising. They’re hosting our new forum, and will be handling a lot of our social media from now on so we can concentrate on making changes to the game.
Thanks for sticking with us!
Update: Two New Areas with Combat Missions, Hint System...
We have a new update for everyone, today. Here are the new things we've been working on:
We finished "That's Not Sugar". This one is no Picnic! Stop the greedy ants, so you can feed your colony.
We finished "We See Dead Beetles". What would you expect to find in a creepy forest?
Added a Hint system. On the escape menu and other places, you'll see short ideas of things to try. Hit the forums to suggest other hints we can add.
Updated Lot Map images and paths. It now looks more realistic and reminds you of the Combat Mission level for each Area.
Tweaked "Puddle of Tears", "Enter the Beetle". Enemies look a little differently, and have different Stats. Play them again, and let us know.
Please post on the forums, or hit the support email if you have any trouble. The final levels are challenging. You will need to breed your Stats up. Especially Armor. Look for unique Alleles (with cyan stars) you might have missed in eggs from earlier 3-Star Missions.
