Everlife
Patch 1.2.172
Patch Notes: 1.2.17
-The Glitchese will now cast shadows when they are close enough to the player
-The light on ghosts will no longer fade out when far enough away
-Glitchese minimum speed increased from 500 to 1250
-Glitchese maximum speed reduced from 8000 to 5000
EDIT: I accidently broke the pretty on beat flashes of light from the Glichese :/, make sure you update to version 1.2.171 (it will say in title screen)
You might be a bit confused on why I changed the min and max speeds of the Glitchese, so I will explain my reasoning below, as well as plans for balance in the future (yap session incoming).
TL:DR at bottom
From what little I have observed, many newer players found Game Grievance to be a massive difficulty spike, while more experienced players (mostly myself) found it easier than Tsundere Terror. To balance it properly, I would/will need to simultaneously nerf and buff Game Grievance, which is extremely hard.
The reasoning I came up with is that Tsundere Terror has fewer, but more difficult "encounters", which would be a moment in the gameplay where you are actively being attacked (i.e. the enemies chasing you). Game Grievance on the other hand has more encounters, but those are/were much easier to survive.
As such, these changes were meant to make the encounters harder (by heavily buffing the min speed), but reduce the amount of times you'll encounter the Glitchese (by nerfing the max speed).
The math for this is that a 40% survival rate with 6 encounters is about a 0.4% win rate, while a 30% survival rate with 4 encounters is about a 0.8% win rate. It's a bit more complicated then this fictitious example from the perspective of a new player, but this sort of math is how I came to my decision.
This will likely be the last balance change to any level in the game until I can get this game a bit more "out there". Unless we get some more players, I just don't have enough feedback to make a clear decision on the difficulty balance of the levels.
If you have played all three of Everlife's levels, your feedback on the game's difficulty curve would help a lot! And would help in determining what to do with the levels in the future!
TL:DR
New players find level 3 a huge difficulty spike while better players find it easier, most likely because level 3 has more encounters that are easier to survive than the fewer, but more difficult encounters in level 2. Level 3's changes are meant to reduce encounters while making the remaining ones more difficult. This is likely the last balance change until the game gets more popular and receives more feedback from players.
That's everything! I hope the update improves the experience of level 3 a bit!
Patch Notes: Version 1.2.16
-Optimized and combined several meshes, which should slightly improve optimization and fix an issue with flickering objects.
-The blackout screen will now always layer over the subtitles
Quick Patch: 1.2.15
In case you couldn't tell, I am very tired of writing these. I just want the game to be fixed and stay fixed :/
Hopefully this little fix brings it one step closer
Quick Patch: 1.2.14
Anyway, the bug in question is that the stun effect would play while you're being killed. This was because of a little mistake in the code where the projectile would ALWAYS play the effect when destroyed. Now it shouldn't play if you're dead! :)
Patch 1.2.13
Patch notes: Version 1.2.12
Patch Notes: Version 1.2.1 (As well as a little info on bug fixing)
I'm currently working on a video where I do a 100% speedrun of Everlife! if you wish to see the video when it releases, be sure to sub to MaseMaster2K's YouTube channel!
But unfortunately, while recording, I discovered a few new issues, which this patch is meant to address. There were also some additional patches that fixed bugs during the recording section, but this is meant to take care of the rest of them.
With all that said, here are the changes in patch 1.2.1...
-The "hint" text now fades at the same time as the rest of the "death screen" interface.
-In the disclaimer when launching the game for the first time, the "E to skip" text now fades at the same speed as ever other instance in the game.
-The collision in Murky Mansion's "dark room" is now identical to the floor of the rest of the level
-Fixed a bug where the projectile can get stuck floating after hitting an enemy's model.
-Fixed a bug where Everon wouldn't say a voice line if you were spotted in Tsundere Terror (causing confusion with the "You Didn't See Nothing" achievement.
-Attempted to fix a bug with the glitchese freezing in the top corner of the map (this is a different version from the one before)
This time though, I would like to provide some clarification on why I keep saying "attempted" fix on the last bug. For that, I would like to provide some info on how I classify bugs (It's game dev lesson time! :D)
I classify bugs as four different categories, each differing in severity.
Green🟩: These are bugs that look goofy or unpolished, but ultimately don't impact the game experience for the player. Most players will likely disregard these bugs, or not notice them at all.
Examples: An interface's fading jumping to a different opacity in a janky manner, or the "enemy hit" particle effect showing behind the enemies or objects they hit.
Yellow🟨: Very few bugs qualify into this category. These are bugs that disrupt the play of the game, but in a very subtle way that almost no player will ever notice. As a side effect, their existence is the hardest to discover, which can allow some to stay in the game for a long time during development.
Examples: The tsunderes not being able to hear the metal doors, or the glitchese not retreating to the corner like they are supposed to.
Red🟥: These are noticeable bugs that actively disrupt gameplay in a way that players will notice. These bugs could actively mess with, or ruin a player's experience with the game, and as such, are almost always at the top of the priority list.
Examples: Stephanie teleporting outside the map with her ability, or the ghosts getting stuck in a certain area and never being able to escape.
Black⬛: These are bugs that would crash, permanently freeze, or softlock the game. In my experience, these bugs have only appeared when a certain change I make ends up being implemented wrong, and they are almost always fixed as soon as they appear in development, never making it into a packaged build.
Example: A poorly arranged function infinitely looping with no delay, causing the game to freeze indefinitely.
Bugs not only have differing severity, but they also differ in how often they appear. Some bugs appear every single time, others when a criteria is met, and some appear in a manner that feels random, or very rarely.
The glitchese freezing bug not only qualifies as a Red🟥 bug, but it also appears/appeared super rarely, and in a manner that feels random. As such, there isn't really a clear method of knowing if the bug is actually removed. All I can do it play the level several times and use probability of appearance to judge the success of a fix. If you ever see this bug, please report it!
Thanks for reading! I hope you also enjoyed my little insight on bug fixes ;)
Patch 1.2.08
I fixed that, and also potentially fixed an issue with the RPG widget animations