Added a help screen with rules concerning 3-player game mode if you're playing it for the first time.
Added some GUI animations to the arcade mode victory screen.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=899049451
Changes:
Most in-game tips (e.g. “Possess the hero once ready”) will be now shown only once.
Fixes:
Fixed all the Steam Cloud issues.
Crystals created by soul gem are now collectable as they should be.
Chat will no longer open if the game's paused.
Fixed "retry" button not working in arcade mode.
Fixed some typos in arcade mode transition screen (e.g. “1 deaths”).
From now on, while Vadim’s busy implementing proper lag compensation, I’m working on a new multiplayer game mode. Something like tennis. You have unlimited push ability and there's a bomb with a random timer (the timer will have a wider range than in a normal game) that you're trying to kill your opponent with. The arena will also spawn random upgrades from time to time.
1.1: Linux support, single-player mode overhaul and new editor features
Hey guys! We released an update! Cool, right?.. well, perhaps not the coolest, seeing that we were going to leave Early Access within a month but are releasing this update 8 months later. There were a few reasons to this:
The game didn’t sell as well as expected. Or, to be precise, did not sell well at all.
This can be written off as our own fault (for not finding a publisher), with the game also failing to receive basically any coverage by any major outlets, despite the efforts.
Regardless, not a particularly motivating experience.
Partially as result of above, the game’s budget was successfully and fully exhausted.
Not that we had that much of a budget to begin with, but expecting EA sales to at least partially cover the existing expenses and serve as a base for future expenses (additional art/audio assets) and having them cover neither was… not the most helpful.
So both of us took on some additional work (Nick doing freelance programming and even a small retail position while Vadim took on more projects in need of online multiplayer functions being added/fixed) while the game waited for a bit.
Vadim (YellowAfterlife) generally always works on too many projects at once, which meant that his parts of workload had seen some delays.
Regardless, despite the mentioned factors (and some other mishaps), the update is now done and released. Changelog follows, but first a few words about the name change.
The game’s name was changed to avoid any possible confusion or anyone getting upset about naming similarities. While developers of Crawl seemed to be the least concerned about this situation (their game launches on April 11 and is bigger and prettier than ever), we felt like the change was needed, and will better reflect the fact of game doing it’s own thing.
Added proper title screen, along with menu music theme.
New maps: forest, metalworks, and cavern.
Maps are now “locked” from the very beginning. You can unlock them by beating the previous map from both single-player and multi-player (local and online).
There now are additional challenges (i.e. stars) for each official map in single-player mode that include:
- collecting all gems;
- beating the map under par time;
- not using any upgrades.
Added vertical fans.
Added two new achievements (plus, achievements’ names and icons overhaul).
You now can reroll shop's items for 1 crystal.
New editor features:
Added undo.
You can now select areas to either move them around or delete.
You can now “ban” certain items which prevents them from appearing in shops.
Maps are now automatically converted to match current editor’s version.
Shift+F5 now runs the map in split-screen mode.
Better help file.
It's no longer possible to interact with invisible layers.
Maps are no longer expected to have a shopkeeper.
Changes:
Arcade mode maps order is no longer random.
Various balance and design changes to all the maps.
Better and more intuitive controls sub-menu.
The game will no longer play the same track twice in a row.
Menu switching acceleration - you can now hold or to scroll through the items way faster.
You can now use gamepad shoulder buttons and to navigate menus.
Slime will now dash even if will cause him to fall from a ledge.
Sime will now dash more aggressively trying to predict hero’s movements.
Best times are now displayed on the map selection screen.
Fixes:
You can no longer bump into invisible wall on the right edge of the map.
Placing a crate under the start location no longer causes it to fall on hero spawn.
Fixed workshop thumbnails not being assigned correctly.
Blocking mortars with elevators will no longer result in countdown freeze.
Birds will no longer kill each other with eggs while flying on the same height.
If an afk player leaves the game, it will no longer cause desync.
Fixed a bug with crystals counter sometimes not drawing in multiplayer.
Fixed menu drawing and responding to input outside the allowed area.
Fixed thumb' flash on map selection screen.
Fixed some power-saving mode issues.
Future plans:
60fps. Or, more precisely, arbitrary framerate. While we have already experimented with this, maintaining consistent platformer physics (most importantly, jump height and distance) with non-fixed framerate requires some additional calculations.
Lag compensation We are still researching optimal approaches to making the game play nice even on poor internet connection. After multiple tests, we have settled on an approach slightly akin to what is used in high-end fighting games (“rollback”), but this does require substantial changes to the game and thus is not ready just yet.
Mac OS support OSX is another platform that we want to add support for before the full launch, but, much like Linux, it has it’s own challenges that we are yet to fully resolve.
If you have suggestions or ideas, do tell!
1.036: Local 4-player support, map previews, and bugfixes
Additions:
The game now supports up to 4 players locally. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=757521726
Number of players for local sessions can be adjusted via the options menu (under "remap controls").
The game now displays previews on map selection screen. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=757527375
Preview "thumbnails" are now stored alongside the maps in directories.
Thumbnails are generated for maps upon saving.
If you've published a Workshop map, update it with the same file - thumbnail will be packed in automatically.
Changes:
You can now load maps from Workshop in the editor. In case you need to edit your own map or want to look at how things work.
A local copy of the map is made upon saving.
Mouse wheel is now used for scrolling large menus. (was previously used to switch "< carousel >" type controls)
Also menu scrolling in general received a small overhaul.
Player scheme selection was moved into "remap controls" sub-menu (to account for there now being more menu items)
Fixes:
Fixed Steam screenshots not working correctly.
Fixed a crash upon picking invalid files for a tileset image in the editor.
Fixed a crash upon entering invalid (negative) map size in the editor.
Fixed fan' wind effect animating faster in multiplayer games.
Next up we are going to look into improving lag compensation, getting the game to run at 60FPS (currently runs at 30FPS), and adding more content. Suggestions are welcome!
