We promoted our build from last Thursday to the Beta branch. Let us know if you try it, and whether you see any issues, before we roll it out to everyone in a day or so.
Here's what's new:
New relative stat icons so you can see which of the 7 stats is best or worst.
Offspring grid shows all stat values to make it easier to pick the best one.
UI art pass on most screens to make things a bit bigger and brighter. Especially in breeding and beetle list images.
Bugs in Combat Missions and in the Nest now have a highlight when they are selected.
Fixed a defect with NPC healers in combat.
Improved list scrolling and reduced jumping.
Red Rock is a little harder.
September 8 Build
Here's a new build for everyone:
New detail textures were added to the beetle visuals. Some of your existing beetles might change appearance (especially ones that had gold/yellow highlights). But this should add a lot more visual variety that you can breed for, including rare recessive "unlocks".
Double-click in combat does a forced-march (like shift-click).
Mouse wheel scrolls the item and beetle inventories, when hovering over the list. Shift-mouse-wheel moves the beetle selection (like Tab).
Updated particle effects in combat, including different colored goop splashes for enemies vs friendlies.
First steps of Breeding screen rework.
Activity lists are sorted differently.
Beta Build from 9/1/17
We promoted our build from last Friday to the Beta branch. Let us know if you try it, and whether you see any issues, before we roll it out to everyone in a day or so.
Here's what's new:
New detail textures were added to the beetle visuals. Some of your existing beetles might change appearance (especially ones that had gold/yellow highlights). But this should add a lot more visual variety that you can breed for, including rare recessive "unlocks".
Double-click in combat does a forced-march (like shift-click).
Mouse wheel scrolls the item and beetle inventories. Shift-mouse-wheel moves the beetle selection (like Tab).
Updated particle effects in combat, including different colored goop splashes for enemies vs friendlies.
First steps of Breeding screen rework.
Activity lists are sorted differently.
August 31 Build
We have a new build for everyone. Here's what is new:
Whole new area: The Trash Bin of Happiness. This includes the unlock of the map area, a new combat mission, and new tasks in that area. It gives out eggs with genes that give some useful stats.
Fix to rewards UI to be able to scroll properly in all cases.
New genetics manual.
It is a bit easier to breed for special attacks.
Blocks input while on modal dialogs, instead of passing through zooming, panning, etc to the underlying scene.
Other small UI fixes.
The following Beetle is from The Trash Bin of Happiness. It has higher level visual genes, which can have more interesting colors and shader effects.
Darrin
Beta Build from 8/24/17
We promoted a new build just now on the Beta branch. Remember that the Beta branch is open for everyone, but that you only have one shared save file across branches. Here's what is new:
- Whole new area: Trash Bin.
- Fix to rewards UI to be able to scroll properly in all cases.
- New genetics manual.
- It is a bit easier to breed for special attacks.
- Block input while on modal dialogs, instead of passing through zooming, panning, etc to the underlying scene.
- Other small UI fixes.
We'll promote this to everyone after a few days of folks testing here. Let us know if you try it and see issues, please.
Darrin
Starting to Get Picked up on YouTube
Thought I'd share some videos of people streaming our game. Pretty fun stuff. Lots of excitement...
ShirlieRox:
We have released. The game is now live on Early Access. This is the first game Iocane Games has shipped, although the team has shipped a lot of great titles together and on other teams.
We are busy adding more content, fixing issues, and making the game easier to play and more fun.
We really hope you enjoy it. Leave us comments in the forums. Upload screenshots of your best looking Beetles. Like this one:
Beta Build 8/21/17
We stood up a new build just now on the Beta branch.
- Added a bunch of new help screens
- Enabled The Trash Bin area.
- Fixed a bug with placing eggs from inventory
- Fixed some other bugs with inventory where you couldn't click on things
- Fixed a stuck sound effect in combat
- Fixed a bug where making swarms was costing way too much. So playing missions should now be more affordable.
Beta Build 8/18/17
Our latest Beta test build is up. If you could take a look, and give us feedback this weekend, it would really help. We are considering going to Early Access next week, and want to know if you think its ready.
Also note that we made some pretty sweeping balance changes to item drop rates, and need satisfaction. So, please consider restarting a new game to see how the early progression ramp looks.
Other changes to look for:
- Replacement of the Tutorial Mission with a movie, it doesn't feel like you are trying to save the Kobayashi Maru.
- Franz is continuing to build new Missions.
- Lot Map visual overhaul.
- Major rework of drop rates, loot tables, lot area sequence, and progression.
- Sound effects in the nest, and attack-specific sounds in combat, and more places.
- New music from Daniel for both Nest and Combat. We are still iterating on this, but it sounds pretty nice.
- Objectives are easier to read.
- Swapped mouse buttons. Right-click is now pan, and middle-click is now rotate.
- Beetle list and Item list buttons are merged.
- Bug fixes, like being able to scroll the map when you are over one of the buttons. And popup dialog ordering.
- Some performance improvements to bug and item lists, and animations.
- We turned off edge scrolling for now until we can figure out a more consistent way of dealing with it, especially on multiple monitors.
- Camera tuning and consistency.
Have a pretty beetle:
Beta Build 8/12/17
We've promoted a new build to the Beta branch. It'd be great if our Beta testers could take a look, and send us feedback.
Here are the changes to look out for:
- Upgrade to Unity 5.6.3. We believe this fixes the crash bug you may have hit, usually while paused in the Nest. It had to do with frequently requesting to push nav agents around.
- Brand new look to the Map. It also set up for all the new missions we expect to add in Early Access.
- Fixed issues with dialogs and first time tooltips showing in the wrong order.
- Improved loading/startup speed.
- Sound effects added to all objects in the Nest.
- Sound effects on various UI interactions, progress, rewards... More to come.
- Sound effects in combat and per attack type. Still working on Immolate, since they die immediately.
- More generous with goop in higher end rewards.
Other stuff:
- Franz continued to work on a new map this week, but is not included in the build, yet.
- We started a How-To doc, and FAQ. Look for those soon.
- We prioritized all our tasks for pre-Early Access release. Still taking Beta feedback, so keep the comments coming.
