Death Stair
Death Stair Update
Clouds is the newest addition to Death Stair’s mode list. The new map has Runners ascending a path of clouds to the heavenly gates at the top. The Gunner has been given three new weapons to fend off the other player, tridents, boulders and lightning orbs. Tridents are precision weapons that hit hard and fast, boulders are very large and roll straight down towards the bottom and the lightning orbs send out shockwaves to limit Runners progress.
Fixes
- Stabilised build
- Polished and fixed UI
- Updated some character animations
Patch 1.2, Pax West and Price Drop
We just got home from Pax West and got a lot of very helpful feedback about the game. Most of the constructive criticisms we received have been tweaked and fix. These changes are detailed below in the patch notes.
- Stamina & Sprint have been removed from the game to simplify the mechanics
- Player run speed has been permanently increased to account for no sprint
- Left Joystick now aims the cannon
- Canyon map has been simplified
- Corners Map has been extended
- You can now tar checkpoints in canyon
- Fireballs in Corners no longer make you run. Big fireballs knock you back, small fireballs knock you down.
- Ice cannon now recharges over time and no longer requires mashing of the A button
- Bricks are no longer unlimited and the spray has been tightened to increase accuracy
- Zoom has been reduced to allow players better overall visibility
- Ice cannon knockback has been reduced
- Ammo in all levels has been adjusted to better suit the new layout
- Changed primary controls to face button instead of triggers to make the game easier to pick up and play
- Added ability to change control layout back to trigger controls
- cannonballs in Canyon now have an AoE radius upon hit
- Sticky Mine radius has been reduced to stop walling in corners
- UI Cleaned up
- Menu focusing tightened and easier to navigate
One of the biggest criticisms the game has been receiving both on Steam and at Pax is the price. When selling copies on the Pax show floor we found that most people found the price to be too high. On the last day of the show we lowered the price and got a considerably better reception. With this, we have decided to permanently drop Death Stair’s price to $4.99. This price matched people's expectations a lot better.
For everyone that has already bought the game at full price, we want to make sure you don’t feel cheated so we will be offering you a second copy of the game along with all future content updates, paid or not, to you at no extra cost. All we need from you is for you to email a copy of your receipt to contact@funsponge.gg and we’ll send you another key.
Thank you all for your ongoing support!
DEATH STAIR DEV UPDATE
Guess what? Since our launch, you've all played 14,000 Matches and fired 161,000 shots!
YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME! A big THANK YOU for playing with our balls!
We've been running around all week squashing bugs and listening to what you all have to say. We want to address some issues that you've brought up and some solutions to help solve those. Things like: bugs, no online matches, and lack of single player.
TL;DR
- Report bugs to us for fixin'
- Join our Discord to find players: https://discord.gg/xZpnq5F
- Play with us during Dev Nights
- Single Player Challenge Mode is coming soon!
FULL VERSION
1. Bugs, the game is broken, etc - We've patched out fixes for the bugs we've encountered, but we still need your help. If you run into any bugs, please send them to (contact@funsponge.gg) or post them in our Steam forums. And consider giving us a chance to fix the bugs before leaving that negative Steam review. We WILL address them, but as a three-man team, we can only go so quickly. We're committed to making your stair-climbing experience a smooth one!
2. Cannot find a game to join - We understand the frustration and wish there was an easy way around it while we build our community from scratch. Most of those 14,000 matches played were in local or private invite games, so it doesn't mean people aren't playing--just playing with friends instead of strangers.
I would like to ask everyone's support in solving this issue with us. We can only get more matches playing by playing more matches and having somewhere to grow our community so that matches are more easily found and more people can be brought together around indie development and more specifically Death Stair. If you're trying to find players online, why not join our community discord and say hey! There are matches to be found here and a group of pretty cool people to just hang out with!
https://discord.gg/xZpnq5F
We encourage you to get your friends into the game so you, too, can shoot them in the face!
3. Play with the Dev Nights - We will be hosting game nights once or twice a week so you can play with us and meet other players! If you've got feedback for the game, we'd love to talk about that as well! We'll be announcing the schedule for those soon, so keep an eye out for that here. (WARNING: WE'RE REALLY GOOD AT THIS GAME BY NOW, GET REKT)
4. New content - We're excited to announce that we're adding a single player challenge mode! It'll add new ways to play Death Stair with time challenges and leaderboards and heaps of good stuff. Our goal is to release this content update for FREE in a month or so, once we're done testing.
How's that? What else can we address for you to make DEATH STAIR the best darn stair-climbing game it can be?
Let us know in the comments!
Death Stair 1.1 PATCH NOTES
We got a lot of feedback from the first week on steam and we have patched some of the more serious bugs and issues with this first patch. See below for a list of changes and fixes
CHANGES
- Adjusted ammo count in some maps on 2 & 4 player to make them feel more balanced
- Ammo knockback and recharge times have also been adjusted
- Removed quick match button from online lobby
- Updated gunner UI to make it easier to understand
- Added tooltips for new players
- Steam icons removed from runners in online. Increased visibility for runners.
- Cannonballs are smaller and explode on hit
- Changed Ice Cannon mechanics to charge automatically over time instead of players having to charge manually
- Changed dodge ball and Cannonball zooming to a press and hold function instead of the previous mechanic.
GENERAL OPTIMIZATION
- Updated physics to use sub-stepping for smoother physics blending
- Updated awards screen in online to be easier to understand
- Optimized all levels to run smoother online
BUG FIXES
- Implemented a new Spectator mode to reduce camera clipping
- Fixed focusing issues throughout menus to make them easier to navigate
- Fixed bugs where players were falling out of the world
WIP
- There are some issues with the chat functionality online that we are currently aware of and working to fix ASAP
DEATH STAIR OUT NOW!
We are pleased to announce that Death Stair has hit the steam store! We are running 20% off to celebrate this momentous occasion so pick the game up while it's cheap and jump on the stairs!
Thanks for all the support and we look forward to hearing what you think!
Matt & the Fun Sponge Games Team!
PATCH 0.5 Fixes & Major Feature Additions
Major updates coming in the 0.5 patch. a lot of fixes and a lot of new little features to test out! See below for more info
- Fixed First person camera bug when playing consecutive rounds
- Continues to fix stats screen at end of match
- Fixed 'floatiness' of character and increased maneuverability
- Character Models updated and animations refreshed
- Fixed some sound effects and particle effects that were not registering correctly
- Steam Avatars added to distance slider in game
- Fixed a bug where ammo count was the same in 2, 3 & 4 player
- Readded the 'trip' functionality to 3 & 4 player
- Updated textures and models in level
- local mode is stable again - had crash errors reported when playing 4 player after playing online
- Disabled the ability for Runners to start running before the countdown
- Added ability to select Cannon in Online Multiplayer
- Added Lobby Settings to Online Multiplayer
- Added Host Setting to server browser to allow for private matches etc, etc...
PATCH 0.4 Fixes
<*> Fixed a problem that was causing players to get stuck in loading screens upon entering a match
<*> Changed end screen. At end of timer the game will automatically return to the voting lobby
<*> Runner standard speed increased. Sprint Speed Remains unchanged
<*> Ammo amounts in 2,3 & 4 player adjusted.
<*> Distance slider on screen has been re-enabled
<*> Steam Icons added to lobby screen
<*> Ready check added to lobby screen
Death Stair Community Discord
We have set up a discord where we can all come together to hang out and chat.
Feel free to join the server below!
https://discord.gg/xZpnq5F
See you there!
Known Bugs and Fixes!
Wanted to keep a list of bug reports and fixes to avoid double ups during the beta.
So far most of the bugs we are encountering are menu related. Keep posting those reports through the button in the game menu. It all helps!
BUGS
- BUG Game seems to be crashing randomly in some matches. We are currently working through log files to determine what is happening.
- BUG If you play 2 consecutive rounds players can press the dodge button to adjust the camera inside the character mesh. This will cause a crash at the end of the game.
- FIX IN PROGRESS
- BUG Better keyboard support on the way. ALL menus can be navigated with a keyboard they are just not very well signposted. Backspace currently takes you back to the previous menu. You may need to hold it down in some screens. This is being reworked into a simpler format asap.
- BUG You can vote on all 3 modes even though we are currently only beta testing classic. The game will always boot into classic but it gives you (false) choice at the voting screen.
- BUG Our server loading fix has caused our ragdolls to become very...for lack of a better word... BAD. This is an aesthetic problem only and the game still plays fine.
- FIXED
- BUG Servers seem to be duplicating endlessly on the server browser occasionally. Thankfully this is UI based only and the servers are not actually duplicating endlessly.
- FIXED
- BUG Return to lobby at the end of a match will return you to the main menu. Next round (as host) will take you back to the lobby however any match started from the lobby will crash.
- FIXED Menu Disconnects from current match and Lobby (host controlled) takes group back to lobby.
- BUG Players are getting caught in loading screens occasionally when joining a match.
- FIXED
- BUG There seemed to be an issue where you could use RT on the controller to use stamina in 2 player even though the TRIP functionality is disabled.
FIXED
- BUG an error as the lobby creates when hosting their second game in a single session. This doesnt seem to affect joining a game from friend invite but it does seem to delist the server from the browser.
- FIXED
Death Stair Beta Schedule!
We wanted to update you all on the beta testing schedule! You guys can obviously play whenever you want with friends but we want to give you some times that we can all gather as a commuinity and guarantee some match time!
Over the next week we will be in games doing live testing on the following dates;
- Saturday 9th July 6pm to 10pm
- Sunday 10th July 8pm to 10pm
- Monday 11th July Midday to 9pm
- Tuesday 12th July Midday to 9pm
- Wednesday 13th July Midday to 9pm
- Thursday 14th July 6pm to 10pm
- Friday 15th July 10am to 1pm
- Saturday 16th July 6pm to 10pm
All Times are in AUSTRALIAN EASTERN TIME (AEST)
Please keep this in mind when scheduling stream and recordings as this is the best time to get consistant footage during the beta.