To adapt the famous quote, "No game development plan survives first contact with reality."
How does one summarize 1,474 commits across two years? For starters, we can forgo any kind of changelog - no one needs to read a short novel of updates.
Here are the highlights:
- Created an enemy "intent" system - Added a new level! - Added new Grumps! - Left behind our esoteric "turns" system - Adopted a straight-forward "hearts" system - Updated our puzzle generation sections - Overhauled our item & pickup system - Changed our item unlock process - Improved support outside of fullscreen - Created a future expansion for Happy Meadows
As we continue in Early Access, please send us your feedback at feedback@happygrumps.com
To adapt the famous quote, "No game development plan survives first contact with reality." How does one summarize 1,474 commits across two years? For starters, we can forgo any kind of changelog - no one needs to read a short novel of updates.
Here are the highlights:
- Created an enemy "intent" system - Added a new level! - Added new Grumps! - Left behind our esoteric "turns" system - Adopted a straight-forward "hearts" system - Updated our puzzle generation sections - Overhauled our item & pickup system - Changed our item unlock process - Improved support outside of fullscreen - Created a future expansion for Happy Meadows
As we continue in Early Access, please send us your feedback at feedback@happygrumps.com
Whew! It has been a while, but we are here with a big blog update for Happy Grumps!
Here is a sneak peek of what is coming next.
An enemy "intent" system
It used to be a guessing game to determine which enemy would target your Happy Grumps. Now you can see enemy intent to help you calculate your next move.
New levels, new gameplay, & new Grumps!
New grumps - like these vanishing wizards below - add a new layer of strategic considerations and randomization between runs. We have added a new level and updated our "turns" system to respond to player feedback (more on that announcement later).
New items to unlock!
We completely overhauled our items & unlock structure to reward players who love mastery. And we also added an in-game speedrun clock plus more run stats for number-loving folks.
New animations, improved windowed mode support
Thanks again for being an Early Access supporter! We plan on releasing these features plus more before the end of 2022.
- Drew & Glenn
Update #7 - New Languages!
We are happy to announce that Happy Grumps has two new translations: French and Russian! Many thanks to our translators for this round - Sarah Loyal, the Keetons, & the Lenchiks.
Here is a quick rundown of our other changes:
Moved the "Help Text" toggle into the Options Menu
Updated the Options Menu system to streamline future support
Added a new song to the jukebox
Prevent chests from being smashed in Snow World
Prevent the Wizard from showing an incorrect Item Pickup UI when teleporting near an Item
Fixed a bug that prevented the Wizard from using the Break trinket
Fixed a rare crash during the Collector Rescue cutscene
Special thanks for this update goes to "Namadu" for their feedback and help with bug-stomping.
2021 is almost here! It has been about six months since we launched Happy Grumps into Early Access and we are looking forward to more Happy Grumps in the coming year.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported us and provided feedback!
- Glenn & Drew
Update #7 - New languages!
We are happy to announce that Happy Grumps has two new translations: French and Russian! Many thanks to our translators for this round - Sarah Loyal, the Keetons, & the Lenchiks.
Here is a quick rundown of our other changes:
Moved the "Help Text" toggle into the Options Menu
Updated the Options Menu system to streamline future support
Added a new song to the jukebox
Prevent chests from being smashed in Snow World
Prevent the Wizard from showing an incorrect Item Pickup UI when teleporting near an Item
Fixed a bug that prevented the Wizard from using the Break trinket
Fixed a rare crash during the Collector Rescue cutscene
Special thanks for this update goes to "Namadu" for their feedback and help with bug-stomping.
2021 is almost here! It has been about six months since we launched Happy Grumps into Early Access and we are looking forward to more Happy Grumps in the coming year.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported us and provided feedback!
- Glenn & Drew
Update #6 - The Lost Scholars
As an homage to the games of the 80s and 90s we grew up playing, Happy Grumps now has some properly buried secrets. Eventually the internet will reveal them all, but for now we have left some hints with The Lost Scholars. These two characters will also grant you mid-level blessings such as extra Dodge, Grit, Turns, or Max Turns. And with new secrets, comes new Trinkets: a Compass for revealing the entire map and a Whistle for warping into unvisited rooms.
Crumbling Tiles:
The Caverns now has some proper Crumbling Tiles which fall away when Grumps move across their space. Watch your step! And if a Grump lands on a Crumbling Tile, they will be lost in the Chasm (which is an instant defeat for the hero). This small change has made a big difference to emerging gameplay. We love dynamic gameboards. You can expect to see more effects like this down the road.
Level Exit:
Clearing a boss no longer requires you to immediately exit the level, so players are free to explore at all times. And defeating the Boss now reveals a handy ladder for a more streamlined level exit experience.
Mini Map Update:
In addition to the Lost Scholars, we also randomized the Boss Room location. With more room types emerging, we also updated the MiniMap with improved icons for clarity. Existing runs should still work, but you might start to see some odd behaviors (for example, there might be two bosses on a single level with an old save file). We recommend that players abandon their run and start a fresh file.
Skip Turn & Undo Move:
Based on player feedback, we removed Skip Turn & Undo Move from the game. As gameplay evolved over time, these systems felt unnecessary. But time will tell - their codebase is still in the game and they might make a comeback before 1.0 release.
Shop Music:
And lastly - the shopkeeper insisted on some new music, so we agreed. Every video game shop deserves its own dedicated jingle :D
Special thanks to community member @Zording for helpful feedback from our last update. Early Access has been great for Happy Grumps. We appreciate every single idea, criticism, like, tweet, mention, review, and bug report.
Until next time, have fun and stay safe out there!
- Glenn & Drew
Update #5 - Dodge & Grit!
Sometimes spreading happiness takes some extra determination and lucky rolls. Based on 2020 so far, we would wager to say most of the time it is an uphill battle. Heroes can now find Gems in every chest which will boost your Grit (a last stand mechanic to help you resist defeat) and Dodge (which helps you avoid negative effects). Turns and Max Turns now also appear as Gems for better readability.
Besides - collecting Gems is just plain fun :D
We also sped up the victory screen and our turn tally system to propel you towards you next room faster. We grew up feeding quarters into arcade machines back in the 80s, so as gamedevs we have an ingrained urge for speed :D
Under the hood, we also upgraded Game Maker 2.2 to 2.3 which... turned out to be a pretty big deal actually. At first, it created lots of bugs to smush. BUT the good news is that the performance of the game has gone UP. And the updated dev environment has lots of fancy new dials to turn and buttons to press for extra gamedev goodness down the road.
Like any good update, we also tweaked a bunch of little things and cleaned up after ourselves too:
The Shopkeeper was giving away her keys for free. We explained that while this was a very generous act, it made the game too easy. She agreed to sell her keys again for 10 turns.
Renamed "Grit" Trinket to "Champion" and reduced down from 50% to 25% to balance the new ability to find extra Grit along the way.
Renamed Hunter to Thief because it made more sense thematically
Rebalanced chest rewards and removed some turn rewards to make gameplay more... um... rewarding!
Updated the HUD again because HUDs are hard.
Fixed a bug with Turn Tallies not reseting between worlds
Fixed a bug where Collector said "Free" instead of "Sold" after purchasing your trinkets.
Set Info Box default to true so that new players have more information (experienced players can still toggle this off for less visual clutter).
Thanks for playing Happy Grumps! We'll be in touch soon <3
- Glenn & Drew
Update #4 - Heart Balloons & Hammers!
Items are a classic part of a good roguelike dungeon crawler. Now Happy Grumps has Items to help your Hero spread Happiness! Each Item is intentionally overpowered, but they are balanced to only last for 10 turns.
Coffee: Prevents sleepiness
Flower: Prevents grumpiness
Hammer: Destroys all walls
Super Shield: Hero dodges all Hunter attacks
Heart Balloon: Earn +1 Max Turn each move
And more Items coming in future updates!
To balance the game against the power of these items, we also made the following changes:
We reduced player trinket slots to three down from four. Players who resume old save files will still have their fourth trinket, but it will not appear in the HUD. If that is you, we are sorry! You will get a one-time bonus of 20 turns on your save file by way of an apology.
The Shield Trinket now grants all Happy Grumps a 25% chance to dodge. We reduced it down from 50% to compensate for the increased benefit for all Happy Grumps. This also paves the way for a future update which will allow players to earn additional dodge % during a run.
IMPORTANT NOTE: These new Items will only appear on NEW runs!
Gameplay Styles
We are super excited about this mechanic!
You can now choose between different styles of gameplay. It allows us to flavor runs in different ways.
The New Mode "Ascend" starts players with a low amount of turns, but helps them slowly grow in power by granting them +1 Max Turns for each cleared room.
The Old Mode "Descend" is still an option for those who want a classic Happy Grumps experience: you start with a huge bank of turns and try to clear the dungeon before you run out.
We plan on adding more gameplay styles down the road, including an "Endless" mode for people who want to test their mettle :D
New HUD & New Hint Text System
To make room for the new Items system, we gave the HUD a HUGE overhaul. We placed Turns, Items, and Trinkets into a type of "belt" that runs directly beneath the game board. It turns out (a terrible turn-based pun!) that Remaining Turns / Max Turns were getting lost in old HUD, so we gave them more focus here.
And we also made BIG changes to our Help Text system:
Players can now toggle the Hint Text on or off - or players can hold the CONTROL key to toggle this on temporarily.
Players can select any Grump (even unhappy ones) and hover over their portrait to view their Hint Text.
Players can also hover over board items like chests and walls to show their Hint Text when the Hint Text is toggled on.
This should continue to provide new players with the information they need to learn the systems, but stay out of the way of experienced players.
Whew - that's a ton of stuff. There's lots of little bug fixes too, but this post is already too long. We are looking forward to our next big update.
Thanks again for playing and supporting Happy Grumps!!!
- Glenn & Drew
Update #3 - The King of Ghosts!
Our fourth unlockable hero is here!!
We love how different heroes switch-up gameplay. The Ghost King transforms all Happy Grumps into Ghosts, which offers players an additional challenge through diagonal-only gameplay. The Ghost King is also required for discovering of the secrets of the game :D
New Victory Turn Tally Screen
This has been a long requested feature. Players wanted to see how many turns were used, stolen, and gained with summarized "net turn" result per room. The turn tally screen is still missing some much needed flair and fun (sorry!), but it gets the job done for now.
Special thanks to players "Sara", "Drew", and "RamenAndVitamins" for suggesting this feature! (Bug note - the tally will be incorrect on your first room if you load into an existing run).
Smaller gameplay updates
Chests that contain keys or trinkets now also contain a generous +5 turns as well :D
Reduced Snow movement penalty by 1 to make movement in Snow World less painful.
Nerfed Extender Trinket because it was OP. It now grants a more reasonable +1 to movement range. We love OP trinkets within reason, but this was a little too game breaking.
Unhid the HUD on the run start room. Originally, we hid the HUD to keep the intro very minimal, but it was causing confusion.
Shortened fade time for the Line of Sight UI to increase happiness spreading clarity.
Updated Hero Select screen to allow for more heroes. This will get overhauled again (the total number of planned heroes is currently 12).
Bug fixes
Ghosts were unintentionally immune to attacks from Grumpy Recruiters and Grumpy Managers. But Ghosts are still immune to Fear because... "I ain't afraid of no Ghost" :P
Switched the movement behavior of the Buster hero to be cardinal directions instead of diagonal. Apologies again to "gekker" for destroying their run :( This new version of the Buster should help avoid a "no move" scenario.
Defeat no longer occurs if your final move clears the room. This gives players ONE LAST CHANCE to salvage a run.
Fixed a bug that prevented the spawning and loading of Ghosts over chasms. Float on, little buddies!
Fixed a bug where recruiters could convert ghosts into enemies over chasms which allowed enemies to defy the laws of gravity.
That's all for this update. Big gameplay updates coming down the pipeline over the next three weeks. A lot of that code is actually invisibly hiding inside of this update. Super excited to share more soon!
- Glenn & Drew
Update #2 - Better Choice Arrow UI
One of the things we love about Early Access is watching people play Happy Grumps on Twitch and Youtube. Not only is it exciting to see people have fun with our game, but watching people play helps us see where we need to improve the game.
One of the glaring mistakes that became obvious over the weekend was the Choice Arrow UI. Players click on these arrows to talk with certain NPCs and chose directions to move from room to room. But it had these problems:
The click boxes for the arrows were too small
The arrows sometimes point to NPCs like the Shopkeeper, but you could not click directly on the Shopkeeper - just the arrow itself. This was misleading because it looks like you should be clicking on the NPC. I planned on updating this before Early Access launch, but I failed to anticipate just how confusing this would be to new players. Yikes! Sorry about that!
The arrows did not have hover state. This led to further confusion and, at times, made it appear that the UI was completely unresponsive.
A good UI gives vital clarity and is simple to use. And making a good UI is hard to pull off, no matter what project or size of team. Drew and I come from a web development background, so we know what it is like to spend countless hours agonizing over add to cart buttons.
So - to address the issues, we've got a new update live today on Steam. Here is the quick rundown:
Updated the choice arrows to have larger click boxes
Updated choice arrows to have a hover state so it is easier to see when they are clickable
Updated choice arrows to also trigger when you click on the object they are attached to - such as clicking directly on the shopkeeper
Also removed an unnecessary click function to deselect grumps when clicking outside of the game board. This was causing confusion to new players.
Special thanks goes today to Twitch streamer "Esty8nine" and player "LordGek" for helping us spot these issues.
And thanks again to everyone for hanging in with us as we keep on improving Happy Grumps.
