Would you pre-order a second DLC to play an early version of the rewrite?
Vote here: Poll closed, 75% Yes, 25% No
I don't know what the DLC will be yet (I have ideas though), and won't put it up for sale without a good description for it
After a few months of testing, I would open up the beta to Premium owners, then when the rewrite is near "completion" then it would become free-to-play and release as an update for the original game.
If you've been living under a rock the past month, check out some Boring Man rewrite footage I released here: https://twitter.com/SpasmanGames/status/1035969330226163712
Theres also a bunch of a other GIFs on my Twitter like above, feel free to scroll
I've been meaning to type up something more official for this, but work has been bad lately, life in general I guess. so its been hard to do anything.
I appreciate any and all who take the time to download and try it. Thank you all for your continued support of my games. The game's DLC will be free for the weekend, if you want to try out the level editor and stuff.
I'd also like to thank Gergely Kovács for the soundtrack for the game, and all the voice actors who offered their beautiful voice acting for free to me. Please check them out in the credits.
Server Downtime (6/1)
I'm moving tommorrow morning 7AM MST so my server that runs the bman servers will be offline. The server list will continue to work, so if you know how to host a game nows your chance.
Transfering my internet service is my top priority so as long as nothing goes wrong it should only last a couple of hours
Rewrite Survey
Hey folks,
It turns out this game's popularity is lasting a lot longer then I anticipated, and I've been feeling irresponsible in neglecting it. So I'd like to return to updating this game when I think Tunnel Divers is complete, which will be sometime this summer.
However, what I have in mind is rewriting the game, from scratch. This is pretty much the only way to get me to update the game again. When I first started developing, it was just something to do with my free time and I had no idea anyone was gonna play it, so a lot of the code is messy and frustrating, which was a large contributor as to why I wanted to stop updating it.
This is a chance for the community to take part in development instead of just me and a few friends, and to reshape the game's original design with it's fans providing valuable feedback for me. A nicer codebase for me would also guarantee I update this game for a long time after the rewrite is finished.
If I do rewrite the game, there will be problems though:
The game would not come out the same. I'd recycle a lot of assets but the movement and guns would feel different, some bugs you use in your play style may no longer be there, etc. I'd try my best to make it as accurate to the original as I can, but it's going to feel different no matter what. I'd also remove some features I don't like, such as useless mutators nobody really plays with.
Global save wipe, new code means a new save file format probably. I'd also add cloud saving support, and locally saved files wouldn't transition well for that.
New technical issues, if the game is working perfectly for you now, I can't guarantee it'll work perfectly for you when it's rewritten.
I'd have to shut down the current version, at the very most allow that version to be played on a separate branch with only the server list running. I can't support many multiplayer games by myself, so my goal with the rewrite is to make it so much better that not many will miss the old version.
To make it feel more financially viable, I've decided I would add a second DLC. What that DLC would be, I'm not sure yet. The Premium DLC existing now would still work for the rewrite with all the existing features, obviously.
I could write a novel about the improvements the game would receive because of a rewrite, but I want you to focus on the things that might upset you for now. It may be exciting to hear the game is being updated again, but as a gamer myself I've noticed games that receive makeovers usually get an angry response from dedicated players and I want the community to be aware that I'm paranoid of that, but can't guarantee you'll be 100% pleased with the outcome.
My plan would be to keep the rewrite build in another Steam branch, which would receive updates normally as if it were an Early Access game. The original version would remain in the main download, and continue on as it always has been. The build would only be accessible if you own Premium, up until it goes to replace the current version and becomes free to play. This would help keep quality feedback, as Premium owners usually have more care for B-Man then the average F2P steam user. And an increase in sales for the game, maybe. Once the rewrite is completed, it would replace the original version as an "update" and the old version can be placed into it's own branch for historic/accuracy purposes.
For those wondering why I won't make it a sequel, I already mentioned how I can't support too many multiplayer games by myself, with limited funding. On top of that, this version of B-Man is the game receiving any attention at all. A sequel would require a new store page, a new title, a new everything. For example, Markiplier's video links to this game's store page. So If I shut down this game to make room for a sequel, Markiplier's fans would come to a dead store page, and the average person's attention span these days wouldn't last long enough to notice a sequel was made, and it could be a death sentence for the B-Man community in general. I'm not a big and famous developer, so I have to be very careful that I don't castrate the word-of-mouth advertising B-Man has graciously received.
So with that all being said, I can't say I've decided I want to do this just yet, but your opinion may help. Please click the strawpoll below and vote either yes or no for the rewrite.
https://www.strawpoll.me/15517946
When I feel like I've made my decision, I will make another post and explain some of the big improvements I'd have planned if I'm going with it. Thanks for reading.
- S
Boring Man now supported on GameJolt
Today, I updated B-Man to work on GameJolt, so you may start seeing a handful of new players.
About a year ago I had to discontinue updating the GameJolt version because of cheaters using it to evade their bans, but that should be a little bit harder now because I implemented the GameJolt API to require a GameJolt account to play.
Obviously that won't stop ban evasion entirely but I'm satisfied with the hurdle it puts into place.
I updated the Steam version with these changes (it won't be any different) so please keep an eye out for any new crashes.
Keep in mind I was able to do this because of Tunnel Divers, Tunnel Divers is a new project that's teaching me a lot of new things, so it has been very beneficial to me as a developer all around.
Thanks for playing!
-S
My new F2P game TUNNEL DIVERS is now out in Early Access
You can check it out here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/569720/TUNNEL_DIVERS/
Thanks for your support!
Spasman Games Official Discord (again)
Slack was getting sort of inconvenient, so I've moved back onto Discord again.
Please read the rules carefully before chatting.
https://discord.gg/XARR493
TUNNEL DIVERS Steam page is now up (Game not out yet)
You can check it out here:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/569720/
If you want to play before early access, you can sign up for the beta which I will be sending Steam codes out for. Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf40FMsHfyjF2nXj3Lm7SkYuzFnnD0fZlGZ-_CU_RK41McGbQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
If you signed up a few weeks ago already, you don't need to sign up again.
This will be the final non-Boring Man post I will make. Any further announcements for TD will be on the Steam page. Thanks for your patience.
Boring Man v1.2.7.6 is now available
Added
- Added new rcon command “teamscore”. Returns the current score of each team. Check the rcon Steam guide for more details.
- Added rcon trigger for round end in TDM, with the winning team or if its a draw. Check the rcon Steam guide for more details.
Fixed
- Fixed ban check not attempting to connect more than once.
- Fixed players being able to switch teams instantly after an autobalance.
