Not quite sure what to put in this event description... Circuit Dude is 75% off right now, so if you haven't yet, go on and pick up a copy!
Circuit Dude
Circuit Dude Is 75% Off For Steam Summer Sale!!
Not quite sure what to put in this event description... Circuit Dude is 75% off right now, so if you haven't yet, go on and pick up a copy!
2.6.5 Update: Level 80 Change + Graphical Improvements
However, the biggest change is a new level 80 in the game, which seems like a weird thing to change years after the game was released, but please allow me to explain the importance of this change... I'll paraphrase/quote some of what I said from a previous discussion I had with another Steam user:
I pride myself in the levels that I have created for Circuit Dude. The levels that I created took many, many hours of design and testing, tweaking and playing through, iterating and guessing. I have never played Pocoman, but looking at a playthrough, it was brought to my attention that level 80 of Circuit Dude did, in fact, appear to be plagiarized from that game. Needless to say, I feel completely embarrassed that this was left in to the final game. Every level that I created had somewhat of a unique starting point as I gathered inspiration from all sorts of different games, and being so long ago, I cannot remember the exact circumstances of how this level came came to be, so I could only imagine what must have happened in order for this mistake to be made.
Even when pulling inspiration from other games, I was sure to include twists or design choices that not only set apart Circuit Dude's levels from the originals, but also included use of mechanics that made the solution only possible in Circuit Dude. Inspiration of levels for Circuit Dude range from Spelling Jungle to Adventures of Lolo, to Bobby Carrot, to Pokemon and Zelda, and, of course, Sokoban. In fact, in searching for new inspiration or researching classic level design, I recreated several levels from other games that I replayed through to use as a base or to play around with. As I said, I had never played Pocoman, but in my reflection, I have found that several levels from that game are available within a Sokoban clone that I did play.
With all that said, I can only imagine that one of two things must have happened for the level to end up in Circuit Dude:
1) I recreated a level from the Sokoban clone in order to play through it with the intent of playing with the design/solution until it was a completely different level and I marked it in my notes incorrectly as being a final design. (I did launch the game with a level or two in incomplete states and had to release a bug fix. I think this was because I re-arranged the level order so many times and had several design passes through certain selections of levels based off of the notes I had made.) With the incorrect notes, it made its way into the game, getting mixed in with the other, genuinely unique and self-made levels.
Or, 2) I actually did go through the entire process of creating a new puzzle using the Pocoman/Sokoban level as a base and saved it into an older stash of level data files that I had and did not include it in the most updated set of levels. This means that the new level may have been lost as I purged the older placeholder levels in favor of the (what I thought were) most up-to-date levels.
Regardless of what happened, I'd like to reiterate that I completely agree that plagiarism is wrong and I must try my best to rectify this problem as it was definitely not my intention to steal anyone else's creative works or to use levels from existing games.
This weekend, I went through all of the notes that I had from my original few design passes of Circuit Dude to get to the bottom of how this mistake could have happened. Unfortunately, this search did not yield any helpful information. This search also did not result in me finding any original level 80 that could have existed. I only found a handful partial level designs. Going forward, I'm going to do a deeper dive through my notes and through all of the levels in Circuit Dude.
As soon as I woke up this morning, I started working on designing a new level 80 that fit well into the level progression curve that I created for Circuit Dude, using a combination of mechanics that are only found in Circuit Dude to ensure that the level is completely unique and could not be found in any other puzzle game. It took me several hours to complete the design, so if you have already played through level 80, I highly suggest jumping back into the game to try out the new level layout.
I'd like to publicly thank the player for bringing this to my attention. I'd hate for anyone to think that I let you down, or anyone who purchased my game. I'm a solo developer and this is really the first project I've ever sold, so I'm trying my best to make sure that it's as genuine as I can make it. I also love designing levels and puzzles, so this fix is patch was something I was more than happy to put together.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support, ya'll!
- Jonathan Holmes (crait)
2.5 Update: Full Gamepad Support + Minor Tweaks
In preparation for Circuit Dude landing on Android and iPhones, next week, I've released an update for Circuit Dude that includes a few tweaks and bug fixes. The biggest addition, however, is a complete overhaul in gamepad support. Circuit Dude now fully supports generic gamepad controllers.
On Windows, you should be able to just connect a generic gamepad and start playing. With macOS, however, you may be asked to grant special permission to allow the game to control certain aspects of your computer. This is because using the gamepad will be used to control your cursor, moving it around to point at different buttons and in-game elements.
Cheers!
- Jonathan Holmes
@crait
Fixed WASD & Fringe Chain Reactions
- Fixed WASD-based movement
- Fixed deaths from blocks crushing Circuit Dude
- Fixed deaths from electric probes being turned on while Circuit Dude is standing on them
- Fixed death cancellation bugs from blocks being pushed into a hole while Circuit Dude is being shocked or crushed
🎉 Circuit Dude 2.0 Update IS HERE! 🎉
I've been trying to bang out this update for some time, but it's finally here!
New Features:
- 20 new levels 😲
- Level editor 😎
- Upload your levels online so your friends can download and play them!
- New song in many levels 🎵
- Records fewest steps for each level so that you can come back and try to optimize your routes!
- Level preview window now opens to show you what a level looks like before playing/editing it
- Built-in hints for almost every level (These can be disabled in the options menu)
- On-screen D-pad for touchscreen devices (This can be disabled in the options menu)
- Walls merge together so you can more easily read what's going on
- Toggle to return to the main menu after each level is added to the options menu
Level Changes:
- Level 33: Simplified to better teach a new mechanic
- Level 37: Slightly updated to fix an oversight that could make the level too easy
- Level 86: Updated to fix oversight, making it a whole lot harder! 😄
Tweaks and Bug Fixes:
- Substantially decreased download size
- Updated main menu graphics
- Expanded credits
- Fixed scaling artifacts
- Animation cancel bug (Exiting a conveyor belt too soon)
- Minor graphical changes
- Fixed minor glitches
- Fixed minor audio inconsistencies
Sorry for the delay, but I'm super excited for what you guys create! 😘
Please follow me on Twitter, http://www.twitter.com/crait, to be kept up to date for future updates and projects! Thanks!
Note: There's still planned to be a gamepad/keyboard/accessibility overhaul that will come before the end of the year.
HUGE 2.0 Update Coming Soon!!
Hey, Circuit Dude fans! Exciting news! Circuit Dude is getting a HUGE 2.0 update very soon! It's going to be packed full of features!
- 20 NEW levels
- Level editor for making custom levels
- Online level sharing
- Hints for each level
- Updated main menu with level previews
- Step counting to record the fewest steps you take to beat a level
- Better controller support
- Touchscreen control support
- Secret Cheat Codes!
- Sooo much more!
Let me know by posting in our discussion section if you have a suggestion for something else to be included in this update! Thanks!
- Jonathan Holmes (@crait)
Circuit Dude 1.0 & macOS Release!
Circuit Dude Release
If all goes well, we're looking at the Steam release of Circuit Dude on August 3rd! Get your gears turning and get ready to blast through this fun and challenging game!
I cannot wait until ya'll get a copy of Circuit Dude in your libraries!
- Jonathan Holmes (crait)