Hi all! It's now been almost 3 weeks since the last release so I wanted to give a small update on the status of the game.
Good News
The good news is that things are going smoothly! Well, as smoothly as they could be anyway. As a beginner developer there are some hiccups and hurdles but mostly there hasn't been anything that has me stuck, so to speak. Progress will be slow at times, but still constant. Especially, writing all of the lore takes a while to get right; and this is on top of other things being added this update such as a new miniboss, several new bullet patterns/variations, and plenty more small details. It's a lot to get right but I think it'll be worth it.
This upcoming update will be by far the biggest one yet, already having longer patch notes than all the other individual updates. If I had to give a realistic estimate, the features I stiil have planned might take a little over a week more to implement. At worst, it should definitely be out before the end of the month. It taking so long is what motivated me to post this, since I don't want to leave people in radio silence or give the impression that the game has been abandoned. It's quite the opposite!
As to make this post worth your time, here's a few sneak peeks of some new stuff!
Sneak Peeks
Bios
The menu:
Some of the lore itself:
Some new bullet patterns
Cards:
Ghost Circles:
I wouldn't normally straight up plug anything but there's also a few more previews on my twitter https://twitter.com/Dracoraz since previews are a lot quicker and easier to post there. You can also go there or email dracorazhelp@gmail.com to let me know if there's any issues to be addressed.
Closing Notes
There's not a lot more to be said without spoiling some more new stuff but I'd like to keep some of it a surprise. I guess in a slightly tangental note: due to some unfortunate recent revelations to do with a certain game engine, it's a good time to remind people that this game is made in Gamemaker 1.4! (which isn't the anonymously aformentioned game engine, so everything is fine!). Thank you for reading, and thank you for playing Endless Bullet Heaven!
TL;DR: Update is taking a while but there's a lot of new stuff! Should be released some time before the end of the month since progress is going well.
Version 1.0777: New Content/Mechanics!
Thank you for playing Endless Bullet Heaven! Patch notes below:
- Added a new cosmetic type: Cursor Skins! Basically, before you could only change the color of your cursor. You can now unlock alternate sprites to be used as the cursor too. You can have a color and a skin equipped at the same time. There are 6 of them currently:
- Also added 3 more colored sets of mouse color/croc color on top of this, bringing the total customization items to a total of 24!
- New mechanic: Bonus! You can now occasionally find a gold target in addition to the regular target. Click enough of them and perhaps something cool will happen?
- Added 4 new achievements!
Misc Changes: - Small optimizations - Adjusted point shop prices - Added an "Exit Game" button in the main and pause menu; added a "Forfeit Run" button in the pause menu "Exit Game" closes the entire game; "Forfeit Run" brings you back to the title screen. If pressed in the pause menu of a run: "Exit Game" wont save anything; "Forfeit Run" saves scores, spendable points, etc. Otherwise, "Exit Game" works with how you'd expect and autosaves if used from the main menu
- Bullet Crows can now fire some things other than just circle bullets - Nerfed "Bubbles!" -> Less projectiles - Slightly nerfed "Solar Flare" -> Wider spread - Fixed a crash that could happen upon loading saves of certain older versions - Other small changes, fixes, etc
Apologies if this update took a while; I was recovering from a cold shortly after the last update which put me quite behind on time (I'm all better now!)
Still plenty of things to come down the line! As usual, if there's any issues either yell at me (@Dracoraz) on twitter or send an email to dracorazhelp@gmail.com
Version 1.06: Fixes, and polish
Thank you for playing Endless Bullet Heaven! Patch notes below:
1.06 (Back from break; fixes and polish)
Additions: - Added a new attack: "Bullet Crows" - Added several new cosmetics! (Also lowered some old point shop prices to reflect the higher volume of things to buy)
Misc Changes: - Re-introduced large shop numbers having commas and did the same for most other number displays
Initially this was cut because I lacked a script that could convert a number to this format automatically. I finally stopped being lazy and made one. Yippee!
- Improved more user interface stuff
- Reworked "Fireworks!" -> More consistent explosion timing - Slightly nerfed "Confetti" -> Less projectiles - Fixed a major issue where you could use your special infinitely after getting far enough in Easy Mode
Easy Mode was not meant to be that easy
- Fixed an issue that would cause the blacklist unlocked popup to appear before clicking through the photosensitivity warning; which wasn't game breaking or dangerous but just looked ugly - Fixed an issue that could very rarely cause blacklisted patterns to still appear - Merged certain attacks to be variations of each other - Other small things that I probably forgot to note
That's it for this update! Sort of I was actually gonna spend a few more days on this update but some of the fixes and changes felt too important to delay for any longer. Also as the header says, I'm off my small break now. Since some stuff I had planned had to be rolled over to next update in order to release this early, the next update might take a little longer.
Oh and of course as usual: if there's any issues either yell at me (@Dracoraz) on twitter or send an email to dracorazhelp@gmail.com
Version 1.05: New mechanics and some important info
Thank you for playing Endless Bullet Heaven! Patch notes below:
1.05 (Mechanics/Content Update Followup)
Additions: - Added a new mechanic: Blacklist!
Basically, you get 3 slots to blacklist bullet patterns. You can press [B] at any point during an attack to skip and banish that bullet pattern for the rest of the run. Your blacklist will reset at the end of your run. Cannot be used on the miniboss. Unlocked by defeating Cherb (the Round 20 miniboss)
- Added a full Easy Mode! (Don't worry! High score stats are tracked separately between modes and some achievements are disabled while this mode is active)
This mode does a bunch of things:
You have a smaller hitbox, 5 starting HP, can use your special twice as often, and have double the immunity frames after getting hit
As mentioned before, certain achievements are disabled while Easy Mode is active. However, all achievements related to getting hit by a certain type of projectile are NOT disabled while in this mode. This also means Easy Mode is good for filling in those achievements without having to throw away as many good runs to get hit intentionally
I figured keeping those achievements doable in easy only made sense since getting hit by a specific type of bullet isn't really a "challenge" achievement in most cases.
Easy Mode high score is tracked separately and can be seen on the main menu after switching the mode (in place of the usual high score tracker)
You are rewarded half as many "spendable points" when in Easy Mode
Having the game off of Easy Mode is still how the game will be primarily developed and balanced around. Easy Mode is simply for accessibility.
- Added new bullet patterns: "Fireworks!", "Bowling"
Fireworks!
Bowling
Misc Changes: - Improved some parts of the user interface - Nerfed "Leaf Storm"
This is the third time I've nerfed this attack in a row. Hopefully it should be balanced after this lol
- Buffed/reworked "Center Spinner" significantly. It now shoot three ways at a time instead of 2 and spins a little faster - Fixed an issue where VSync wasn't set correctly between play sessions (this change was pushed in a hotfix almost immediately after 1.04 but I figured I'd note it here) - Since there were several additions to how saves work in this update, the game will now automatically generate a backup in the same folder (AppData/Local/Endless_Bullet_Heaven) in case anything goes wrong. There shouldn't be any issues based off testing but please do get in contact if trouble arises - Possibly other things I forgot to list
That's it for this update, although I have something else to note: I'm going to switch to longer update cycles for future updates; and also take a small break. I'm quite happy with the progress made on Endless Bullet Heaven within its first month of release although admittedly having such frequent updates has been very personally taxing. With the game now being quite a bit bigger, I want to push updates a little less frequently to allow for bigger changes without the pressure of getting everything done within roughly a week like I have been. I will still post sneak peeks on twitter (https://twitter.com/Dracoraz).
TL;DR: In the future, updates will be less frequent but will be bigger in size; and I'll also be taking a short break. Thank you for your understanding.
Version 1.04: New bullet patterns and the like
Thank you for playing Endless Bullet Heaven! Patch notes below:
- Added a new variation of "Knives!": Knives! (Cursed!) - Added a slight variation for "UFOs" - Added 5 new achievements (seen below!)
- Added sounds to a few bullet patterns that made sense
I'll be doing more of this in the next update. I started to realize there were attacks that sounded odd without any unique sounds for them such as the volcano or the new bomb bullet pattern. Both of these specific cases have been done in this update.
Misc Changes:
- Nerfed "Bubbles!" pattern - Gave the angry bubbles a better sprite, also fixing a color issue - Buffed "Confetti", gave it a slight variation, and fixed a consistent safe spot - Probably a bunch of other stuff I forgot to list
There's still more to come soon! Don't know if I'll just pile it onto the next regular update or release a smaller 1.041 patch a little later but there's plenty more planned. I just figured it had been a bit since the last update so I wanted to get all this out so people have some new stuff to see. Cheers!
As usual if there are any issues, either yell at me (@Dracoraz) on twitter or send an email to dracorazhelp@gmail.com .
Version 1.03: A little spring cleaning
1.03 (A little spring cleaning)
Additions: - Added a new bullet pattern: Bubbles! (also has a variation) - Added 2 new achievements (both related to the points shop) - Added some sounds that I forgot to add in the last update - Added a proper options menu Currently the only settings are to toggle VSync or enable "Simple Background Mode", which dulls and darkens the avoidance backgrounds for visibility
Misc Changes: - Buffed/reworked Heart Hurdles Has the potential to go faster horizontally. Vertical gaps are much closer but horizontal gaps are a bit more lenient now - Redrew some more sprites that had inconsistent pixel sizes - Nerfed Leaf Storm (again) - Player hitbox is now visible over bullets, making it easier to keep track of where you are in a pinch - Made save files more consistent I literally had to revise code for almost every save file call in the game. Which meant manually checking every code event in the game to find where save files get called. Please clap - Majorly improved the point shop interface (And verified it shouldn't corrupt saves)
- Vastly reduced point cost of several cosmetics It didn't really occur to me just how long you'd have to play to get some of the items until I gave it a second look and realized you'd have to get like, many 100+ round games for them. Apologies for that - Cosmetics that you have equipped are now saved - Sound/Music volume is now saved
As there were a lot of internal changes to the game, please do get in contact if any issues were caused in the update. Either yell at me (@Dracoraz) on twitter or send an email to dracorazhelp@gmail.com . Both of these should also be listed in the game's support section somewhere
Version 1.02: Miniboss, new player mechanics, and lots more!
Thank you for playing Endless Bullet Heaven! Patch notes below:
1.02 (Miniboss, Specials, and Cosmetics Update)
Additions: - Added 5 new achievements - Added a miniboss at Round 20, which also gives you an extra hit point on defeat - Added a cosmetics menu! Points have a use now!
NOTE: The cosmetics menu is very early in development and may have problems. It shouldn't break your save but I'm not making any promises. Use at your own risk.
- Added 2 new music loops (one is for the miniboss) - Added new attack variations: Slimes (Huge)!! Solar Flare (Top Left) Orbitals (Leftwards) - Added a new player mechanic! You now have a right click which works as a "force" that temporarily clears bullets around you. (You may be familiar with the term "bomb" in the context of danmaku/bullet hell games. It's effectively that)
Misc Changes: - Changed the game logo! (The store page and other related images that are not already updated will be soon) - Slightly reduced some projectile hitbox sizes - Nerfed Leaf Storm attack - Reworked Center Spinner to be more fair, but slightly more challenging - Tuned Leftwards Barrage, Rightwards Barrage, Upwards Barrage, and Downwards Barrage to help give them all roughly the same difficulty relative to each other - Overhauled how the background/bullet colors are chosen to hopefully have more color variation and fix some minor issues - Touched up some sprites that had inconsistent pixel sizes - Probably other small changes/fixes I forgot to list
Side note: Next update might be a bit lighter on new content. I focused on getting these features out quickly since the game is so young. Because of that, there's a lot that could use cleaner programming and/or more optimizations. Taking a bit of time to clean up some spaghetti code and such will be beneficial for development speed in the future. Thanks for your understanding.
Version 1.01 (Hotfix)
Hotfix for the previous patch addressing achievements. You should now be awarded achievements correctly. If there are still more issues with achievements, please get in contact.
