★ New TrailShot power up that leaves a deadly trail of bullets for your enemies to run into and explode. Includes a small ticking sound to indicate dropping bullets
★ New FlameShot power up that blasts a ton of small bullets that last only a brief time but can be very handy close range. Includes a flamethrower-ish sound?! I tried to make it not too overbearing, so hopefully it sounds good. :)
★ New power up that allows ship to regain protective shields. This will appear at certain score intervals to help on the journey to your highest score ever
★ New occasional power up that refills your boost meter to full instantly
★ Improved the BulletShield power up thanks to feedback. Now there are five bullets surrounding your ship at a slightly further distance and they move faster by default. Using this in conjunction with boost and brake makes the BulletShield spin incredibly fast or slow, cutting through enemies. Also added transitions for when you pick up or lose the power up
★ Reworked entire shield system under the hood (again) to be more accurate and allow further functionality
★ Tidied up the options and video menus. Vsync now in video options. And changed the button layouts slightly.
★ Background filler should now properly scale to literally any screen size imaginable (hopefully)
★ New bursting blue indicator showing that boost / brake meter is full
★ Made more minor improvements to tighten up keyboard / gamepad controls
★ Bounce shot now accurately bounces based on angle of incidence and will correctly last three bounces (I learned some new things YAY)
★ Updated pause menu graphics to show four new power ups
★ Modified rate at which large golden meteors appear, to be more balanced based on score
★ Fixed Laser / Bulletshield / Magnet sound and replaced with the proper loopable sound
★ Bulletshield sound now properly adjusts based on Boosting or Breaking
★ Applied balances to ammo usage for Manual fire, to allow autofire and manual fire to be more closely balanced for competition
★ Modified various particles for when shields get destroyed, added new shield pickup particle and boost pickup particle. And modified old and created new particles for each unique power up pickup
★ Added sound for when GiantShot splits into multiple parts
★ Added several double checks in hopes of clearing some of the cheaters from the scoreboard automatically (more to come)
Thank you everyone for playing and sharing the game with your friends and family. If you are really enjoying Bit Blaster, make sure to leave a brief Steam Review and let others know to check it out.
-Adam Nickerson
V2.10 BETA
Bit Blaster XL - V2.10 BETA
To try out the BETA version;
--> Right click the game in the library tab
--> Click Properties
--> Click the BETAS tab
--> From the Drop down box select the available beta
--> There is no password
--> Click close
The beta should then automatically download. Make sure that if the BETA doesn't work for you, you use the same method to turn it off.
The BETA version includes some fixes, changes and additions such as;
--> Four new power ups that the player can collect
--> Reshuffling of some menu items
--> A variety of GFX improvements, additions and upgrades
--> Various other balance changes, gameplay improvements and bug fixes, full patch notes upon release.
Thank you to everyone for playing and offering feedback and leaving great reviews. Please continue to share Bit Blaster XL with friends and family, I greatly appreciate it.
--> New Video options menu. Allowing in game changing of resolution and Windowed mode. Located in the options menu.(experimental, should recognize your monitors compatible resolution, fingers crossed)
--> Coins now reward triple the score once all ships have been Unlocked
--> Adjusted the bullet spawn slightly on all ships, so that it is slightly forward from where it was before, should make no difference to gameplay but does make a slight visual difference and showcase the little muzzle effect that was mostly unseen before.
--> The borders of the game now correctly adjust based on resolution changes and this should now correctly adjust to bigger or weird size monitors
--> Added new indicator at the end of a round showing how many coins you currently have (if you haven’t unlocked all ships)
--> Tuned the Joystick control on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One gamepad to allow even more sensitive turning with an analog stick (make sure to let me know if this cause over sensitivity on anyone's less generic gamepads (constant turning etc.) and I will address ASAP)
Thank you everyone for playing and sharing the game with your friends and family. If you are really enjoying Bit Blaster, make sure to leave a brief Steam Review and let others know to check it out.
-Adam Nickerson
V2.06 BETA
Bit Blaster XL - V2.06 BETA
To try out the BETA version;
--> Right click the game in the library tab
--> Click Properties
--> Click the BETAS tab
--> From the Drop down box select the beta
--> There is no password
--> Click close
The beta should then automatically download. Make sure that if the BETA doesn't work for you, you use the same method to turn it off.
The BETA version includes some fixes and changes such as;
--> New video menu allowing changing of resolutions / windowed mode in game with mouse or controller.
--> Some minor joystick control improvements
--> Slight changes to points systems and further prep for a future gameplay change.
--> Various other GFX improvments / Bug fixes, full patch notes upon release.
Thank you to everyone for playing and offering feedback and leaving great reviews. Please continue to share Bit Blaster XL with friends and family, I greatly appreciate it.
06-27-2016
--> Corrected trigger Axis bindings for Xbox One, and OSX and Linux (I think) to end the always on boost problem
--> Laser, Shield, and Magnet no longer make noise during pause menu
Bit Blaster XL - V2.05a Patch Notes:
06-26-2016
--> The “W” and “S” buttons on the keyboard should now correctly boost/brake and correctly recover as expected
--> Menu bug causing players to auto explode after clicking end game button has been fixed
--> Added a small button to link to my twitter on the thank you screen
--> Left trigger should now brake and right trigger should now boost on gamepad
Bit Blaster XL - V2.05 Patch Notes:
06-26-2016
--> Brand new BRAKE system now added. This piggy backs on the BOOST system and by pressing the ‘B’ button on the gamepad or ‘down’ on the keyboard it will slow you ships speed allowing more responsiveness overall and allowing some pretty sweet dodges. This is a big change and despite seeming small and while not taking away from how the game currently plays, it will ADD a whole new level of gameplay so it's important that people give me feedback on this one :) (also, "s" on keyboard)
--> When paused, the games music will slow but not shut off completely, and then speed up back to normal when unpaused. Sounds a lot cooler :)
--> When paused, pressing “A” on the gamepad or clicking the button with the mouse, or “a” on the keyboard will now also resume gameplay
--> When paused, pressing “B” on the gamepad or clicking the button with the mouse, or pressing “b” on the keyboard. Will now self destruct to start a new round or exit
--> Added a brief power up guide to the pause screen
--> Revamped instructions to include new options
--> New unique explosion GFX for each enemy, makes everything look a little more flashy
Thank you everyone for playing and sharing the game with your friends and family. If you are really enjoying Bit Blaster, make sure to leave a brief Steam Review and let others know to check it out.
-Adam Nickerson
...more to come. :)
V2.05 BETA
I have just uploaded a BETA branch for V2.05. I would love to hear some feedback on it. Some of the changes are detailed below, as well as how to use the BETA branch through Steam.
Bit Blaster XL - V2.05 BETA
To try out the BETA version;
--> Right click the game in the library tab
--> Click Properties
--> Click the BETAS tab
--> From the Drop down box select the beta
--> Click close
The beta should then automatically download. Make sure that if the BETA doesn't work for you, you use the same method to turn it off.
The BETA version includes some fixes and changes such as;
--> New brake system that piggy backs on the boost system, allowing for even more precise control. The brake can be used by pressing "b" on the gamepad or down on the keyboard. It will slow the players ship instead of speed up. Thanks to all that suggested this, I think it's going to work out great.
--> Various improvements / changes to the new pause menu.
--> Revamped various explosions and other minor GFX details
Thank you to everyone for playing and offering feedback and leaving great reviews. Please continue to share Bit Blaster XL with friends and family, I greatly appreciate it.
06-23-2016
--> When paused, enemy bullets no longer appear above menu
--> Escape button during gameplay also now activates pause
--> Game will now detect mouse cursor use, after 3 seconds of inactivity turns off cursor.
--> Fixed Rare Coin Meteor Bug allowing multiple grabs of coins
V2.03 Patch Notes:
06-22-2016
--> *HIGHLY REQUESTED* Players are now able to Pause gameplay while playing by pressing either the "Start" button on their gamepad or the “p” button on the keyboard. I even added a little music slow down / speed up effect to make it seem fancier :)
--> Up arrow on the keyboard now will activate boost (updated tutorial GFX to reflect this)
--> Centered the Bullet shield power up to correctly appear on all ships no matter the sizes :)
--> Vastly improved turning acceleration on Keyboard controls. Allowing very minor keypresses resulting in miniscule turns and faster full speed turns when holding down the key.
--> Improved all turning / acceleration ratios on all ships to allow more responsive control on both Keyboard / Gamepads
--> New exploding score visual showing how many points you receive for each item destroyed or coin picked up. (will be handy for a future system)
--> Leaderboards combined due to bug (/lack of understanding), allowing tracking of both Manual and Auto Fire scores, while I work out a possible anti-cheat system.
Thank you everyone for playing and sharing the game with your friends and family. If you are really enjoying Bit Blaster, make sure to leave a brief Steam Review and let others know to check it out.
-Adam Nickerson
V2.03 BETA + Note From Developer
Note From Developer
Hello again everyone. Just a quick bit of BETA testing before the next patch goes live. Full patch notes will be listed with the actual patch.
I have changed my game plan a little in the last week. A week ago I attended my first ever E3 in Los Angeles and it was amazing. I met a lot of really cool people that I had only ever read about and seen online (or in magazines when I was young). Also, somehow managing to get myself into the IGN after party was pretty damn amazing as well. Here's a couple of pictures of my time there for those interested:)
While the trip was a really great life experience, it was a wonderful business experience as well. It really opened my eyes to a lot of things. Through discussions with many other developers, big and indie alike, I discovered that I am actually doing very well for my first time dipping my toes in (for which I am very proud and thankful to you all). I also learned a lot about time management during/on development. Whether it was through the wisdom passed to me by others by their past experiences, or seeing current projects that had all sorts of problematic elements. It made me very aware that I needed to shift my focus.
I had been working on a bigger feature that had been giving me a lot of trouble, it was Co-op. Since the game wasn't initially built with this in mind I had a lot of trouble getting it working smoothly. So I have now rolled back all the work I did on that (I took great notes for the future though). That's not to say Co-op won't ever happen, but I wanted to make sure I was getting tangible patches into players hands ASAP. Especially since there were some outstanding features and fixes I had been wanting to resolve for a variety of reports/requests. Making you the players wait for a bigger patch seems pointless. I got caught up in the Vanity of large and feature ritch patch notes, when in actuality, what seems to be minor improvements like a pause feature and more responsive controls are huge to the players right now.
I don't even know if I needed to write all this out or if it really matters in any way, but i'd rather have the game working its best and in players hands ASAP and it really helps to just write out my thoughts about it for those that have any interest.
So I am putting a patch up in the BETA branch, which will probably go live in the public branch once myself and others have done a few hours of testing. Thanks for sticking with me on my learning experience.
Adam Nickerson
V2.03 BETA
To try out the BETA version;
--> Right click the game in the library tab
--> Click Properties
--> Click the BETAS tab
--> From the Drop down box select the beta
--> Click close
The beta should then automatically download. Make sure that if the BETA doesn't work for you, you use the same method to turn it off.
The BETA version includes some fixes and changes such as;
--> New pause system (press "p" on keyboard or "start" on gamepad to pause game.
--> Fixes to turning ratios resulting in tighter and more responsive turning.
--> Various other small additions and bug fixes.
Thank you to everyone for playing and offering feedback and leaving great reviews. Please continue to share Bit Blaster XL with friends and family, I greatly appreciate it.
First of all, I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone that has played, shared, supported and rated Bit Blaster XL since its release on Steam in January. It really means a lot to me as a solo, still learning developer that so many people are enjoying my game. Thank you so so much!
I just wanted to put a couple bullet points out there to express some amazing (or at least I think so) facts and milestones in Bit Blaster XL's journey over its first five months on Steam.
40,000+ players worldwide (that's crazy to me)
99% Overwhelmingly Positive review status on Steam, sometimes even topping out as the highest on average reviewed title available on the Steam platform (this is thanks to everyone's constant kind words and awesome reviews)
Many patches and hot fixes since release, including everything from bug fixes, new modes (manual fire), leader boards, more achievements, new ships to unlock, new power ups, new enemies, new music, rewritten movement system, and many other significant graphical and game play improvements
An incredibly helpful and active community helping me track down every last bug and issue in the game as well as suggest great new features and improvements to add
A huge amount of wicked posts, comments and articles on many press sites, Reddit and Twitter
Over the last month or so I have been focusing mostly on my day job (I am a self employed IT guy) while keeping an eye on Bit Blaster XL forums to ensure anyone having a problem could get some help. I recently bought my first Condo with my GF and moved/set up my office at my new home. Here is a little preview of my modest space... I still have yet to hang my last few posters (waiting for my HL2 one to finish being framed). I also needed to make some time to play some new games, Stardew Valley (basically my dream game when I was growing up), Uncharted 4 (was a stellar conclusion), and even toying around with my new HTC Vive and a variety of the software that comes with that (check out Job Simulator, The Lab, and Space Pirate Trainer)
Now that I am settled in at my new place (mostly) I am ready to get back to working on the next significant patch for Bit Blaster XL. I wanted to keep everyone in the loop so that you all know I am still around and reading your ideas and suggestions and taking notes all while doing the best I can to provide customer support to anyone having issues. I don't yet have a date for when I will be releasing the next patch, as I intend to take my time and look harder into some things that have really confounded me in the past.
I can offer no guarantees for what will or won't make it into the patch, but I am certainly looking hard at things suggested to me by the community including;
Pause system
Static backgrounds to liven up the environment, without impacting the play
Steam cloud for saves
In-game resolution and windowed mode options
Please keep in mind, I am just learning as I go, so I cannot promise these will ever actually make it in, just know that I am going to do my damndest to look into implementing them if I can.
On top of those things above, I have my own list of changes / additions I will be making (ones I know for sure I can code) These changes include things like; an entirely new mode, additional underlying systems of game play to add more strategy to the experience (while still being able to play exactly how you do now too if you want), along with some great small fixes, graphical additions and game play enhancements.
I just want to say thank you again for all the support so far. Hopefully Bit Blaster XL can continue to make an impact with players looking for a fun retro arcade game experience. I hope that this eventually turns into me being able to work on games as my day job instead of it just a hobby. I can only imagine the things I could learn and create with the extra time, especially with an awesome community like you all offering feedback along the way.
Oh also, Bit Blaster XL will be on the week long sale on Steam starting next Monday for 50% off, that's as low as $0.49 cents in many markets, so selling the trading cards will literally(probably) pay you back. Please don't hesitate to share Bit Blaster XL with your friends and family, your favorite press sites and Youtubers, or leave a brief review on Steam if you have yet to do so, letting others know what you like about it. It all really helps me to continue to make games and make them the best I can.
Bit Blaster XL - V2.02 Patch Notes: (fixes and small changes)
--> Resolved crash on startup due to leaderboard queries
--> Default resolution issues; modified to open by default in borderless window, as well as support more resolutions.
--> Resolved Achievement for ship08 not always activating correctly.
--> Added a version number to main menu for better bug reporting/detection in the future
--> Magnet and Bulletshield sounds should now correctly respond to audio settings.
--> Changed splash screen transitions to not be so sudden
--> Moved ‘more games by nickervision’ to thank you/exit screen and changed note.
--> sharpened all GFX assets to a slightly higher resolution
--> Fixed issue where going back to main menu from end game screen you could occasionally see enemies glitch.
--> spacebar can now play another round from gameover screen.
--> Either CTRL, ALT, or X keyboard keys can be used to shoot in manual mode. (as well as controller X)
--> added correct menu sound effects for vsync, autofire, and vibrate toggles.
--> New songs added by Spiff Tune; now there are unique songs for each ship.
--> New mode; Autofire mode can be enabled/disabled at the ship select screen. Will allow the player to hold “CTRL” or “X” on gamepad to shoot. The shooting is still tied to the ship’s and active power up’s rate of fire, but allows the player more control over their ammo usage if they so choose. Manual shooting mode will track separate local high scores for each ship as well.
--> New Passive Power up #1 - Magnet; shoots normal bullets but attracts all ammo and coins at more than three times the speed.
--> New Passive Power up #2 - BulletShield; has four round bullets floating around your ship protecting you from close calls and spins faster while boosting.
--> New Player Ship 08; Max stats of four shields, four speed, and four rate of fire. Also has hidden passive ability to gain double ammo with each pickup.
--> New Steam Achievement for unlocking Ship 08.
--> New Steam Leaderboard for players using Manual Fire.
--> New enemy 06; A big enemy that breaks apart in the same fashion as enemy 01, but has four bullet shields floating around it that absorb most shots, once the core enemy gets destroyed, the enemy breaks apart and the bullet shields fly at the player.
--> Modified explode shot slightly to have a bigger blast radius and slightly longer fuse.
--> Re-Balanced some enemy spawning and appearances below 20,000 points.
--> Modified the power up pickups GFX to look a little more obviously power up-ish
--> Re-Balanced the cost for ships slightly and added new ship to menu. Now (5,10,20,30,40,50,100).
--> Upon purchasing all ships, the coin collection indicator will disappear from ship selection screen but will still track coin collection in the background in case more coin purchases are added in the future.
--> Correctly updating the highscores list directly after earning a new highscore.
Thank you everyone for playing and sharing the game with your friends and family. If you are really enjoying Bit Blaster, make sure to leave a Steam Review and let others know.
I still have yet to hang my last few posters (waiting for my HL2 one to finish being framed). I also needed to make some time to play some new games, Stardew Valley (basically my dream game when I was growing up), Uncharted 4 (was a stellar conclusion), and even toying around with my new HTC Vive and a variety of the software that comes with that (check out Job Simulator, The Lab, and Space Pirate Trainer)