Insect Adventure
Update 1.14.25
-Fixed oversight in Mantis Tennis minigame
Version 1.55 hotfixes - French language is coming soon!
-Fixed bug where you can get trapped in certain types of collision when summoning a dragonfly for fast travel
-Fixed text where certain text characters wouldn't display properly
-The in-game font graphics can be edited from the local files
-Fixed formatting with directional signs in Spanish and Portuguese
-Moved an item that frequently caused the map to display misleading information
-Some graphical tile errors fixed
-Normal boss achievements update properly
Patch notes 11/3/24
-Fixed the way rows are added in dialogue boxes
-Increased the maximum length of dialogue boxes for NPCs
-Fixed a bug where two NPCs near each other wouldn't overwrite the text, running across two NPCs near each other will change the text accordingly as you touch them
The French localization will come out sooner rather than later, thank you for your patience.
Insect Adventure version 1.5 is here!
Needless to say, this is Insect Adventure in a new form. It's faster, even more freeform, and possibly most controversially, I leaned into the combat being button mashy, but added elements to increase tension and strategy. The story of the game is different too. Largely the same events happen, but with more involvement between the few characters and made more in line with the ideas I've had of a sequel. I don't think I'm the best writer in the world, but the idea is to add more coherence and momentum to the actions, whereas the original was literally made up as it went along. In terms of difficulty, I think the game has been made easier across the board, but less irritating. Hard and Nightmare difficulties will still give people who master the game's new mechanics a run for their money if that's a concern, but being fluid and fun to speed through was always the bigger priority. Lastly, I still want to continue to make games, but I'm going to learn a new engine to do so. I have a couple ideas for what I could do in the future, and I'm sure someone will find bugs that I'll hotfix, but further developing this game will no longer be a big priority. Thank you all for your support, if you enjoy the game please let other metroidvania fans know, this was a passion project from the very first sketch of Bugsy I made when I was 10.
List of documented changes:
-New combat, charge into enemies and beat them with a flurry rush, but some need to be stunned first
-Start off with uppercut, hammer pogo, and limited a wall run ability
-Dodge roll replaced with parry, parrying stuns most enemies and deflects projectiles, but vulnerable to fireballs
-Abilities are changed, replaced, or removed to accommodate for new moveset
-You can switch between Bugsy and Mayo on the fly while they are together, Bugsy moves faster and deals more damage with his hammer, Mayo can float in the air by shooting her gun
-Enemy AI has been altered and enhanced where necessary, bosses redesigned, large groups of enemies attack in waves instead of all at once
-New enemies and bosses added
-Optional checkpoint feature added, you can choose to restart at the last item gained or boss defeated on death
-Map shows more detailed progress, including marking shops that have essential items purchased and collected golden bee tokens
-Main path through the game has been slightly altered, latter half is more open ended
-Expanded/rewritten story sequences, new secret ending and true final boss
-New radial pause menus, making it easier to see what you missed
-Changed conditions for some achievements, grid menu makes it easier to see what you have and how to get them
-New gallery mode to see what ending images you've earned
-Dozens and dozens of bugfixes
-Dozens and dozens of sprites redrawn and corrected
-Mantis Tennis Minigame
Looking for Spanish Translators
Here is what I am willing to offer:
-Your name in the game's credits
-The ability to put your work on this game into a resume
-A negotiable amount of money sent through paypal for your troubles
If you are interested in translating the game into a different language besides Spanish, we can discuss that as well. I have someone working on it in French right now. All in all, thanks.
1.5 Update Coming Soon (For Real)
But more importantly, it's almost done for real. The entire game's been almost entirely gutted out and rewritten, graphics redrawn, bugs fixed. This is like a No Man's Sky or YIIK style update that changes the whole game but keeps the core idea intact that doubles down on the good and sands off the bad/generic aspects. There's a new combat system, a new set of core abilities, and an altered story with a lot of new scripting. All of these, especially the combat, took a lot of time to implement.
It's still being made in Clickteam Fusion, but after I release this, I'm gonna be learning a new engine for future projects. The update's now feature complete and playtested for softlocks a good half dozen or more times now. I still need to look into the game's balancing, but tweaks like that are a lot faster than building bosses from the ground up to handle a new combat system. I estimate the update will come out somewhere in September/October.
Patch notes:
-New combat, charge into enemies and beat them with a flurry rush, but some need to be stunned first
-Start off with uppercut, hammer pogo, and limited a wall run ability
-Dodge roll replaced with parry, parrying stuns most enemies and deflects projectiles, but vulnerable to fireballs
-Abilities are changed, replaced, or removed to accommodate for new moveset
-You can switch between Bugsy and Mayo on the fly while they are together, Bugsy moves faster and deals more damage with his hammer, Mayo can float in the air by shooting her gun
-Enemy AI has been altered and enhanced where necessary, bosses redesigned
-New enemies and bosses added
-Optional checkpoint feature added, you can choose to restart at the last item gained or boss defeated on death
-Map shows more detailed progress, including marking shops that have essential items purchased and collected golden bee tokens
-Main path through the game has been slightly altered, latter half is more open ended
-Expanded/rewritten story sequences, new secret ending and true final boss
-New radial pause menus, making it easier to see what you missed. Achievements menu is set up in a grid so you can survey what you missed there as well
-Changed conditions for some achievements, new menu makes it easier to see what you have and how to get them
-New gallery mode to see what ending images you've earned
-Dozens and dozens of bugfixes
-Dozens and dozens of sprites redrawn and corrected
-Mantis Tennis Minigame
Public Beta Test is out now!
Anyone with feedback to the beta please say your thoughts to the community hub https://steamcommunity.com/app/1625510/ or in the game's official discord: https://discord.gg/vV7mx85
Notes:
-It's only available in English, there's heavy script rewriting in this version and will require a new translation for most dialogue and many of the new item descriptions.
-The game runs the credits when you reach the "Great Tree" area, because that is the current scope of the update. As I complete more of the game, I will update the beta to include more of the game.
-The early game is not designed with solo Mayo in mind, but is kept as is for testing purposes. In the final revision, she will no longer be selectable from the start. With the ability to switch between the characters being available so early, I do not think it's worth locking an entire separate mode for one character that will only be relevant for a small portion of the game.
Opt-in Public Beta Test Coming Soon
For more information and updates, please check out the official discord: https://discord.gg/vV7mx85
Or my, erm... Twitter? https://twitter.com/MAYOFORCE
1.5 Update Coming Soon
Patch notes:
-New combat, charge into enemies and beat them with a flurry rush, but some need to be stunned first. Different enemies require different ways to get stunned.
-Dodge roll replaced with parry, which stuns enemies. You can parry virtually every attack in the game.
-Start off with uppercut, pogo, and wall run ability. this means the replacement of certain items, like the hook grab, due to their lack of relevance.
-Enemy AI has been altered and enhanced where necessary to fit new combat
-Various items and augments have new locations. Manu augments that you had to grind to buy in bulk late game are now spread out throughout the world. Merchants now only carry one non-consumable item and will be marked if you purchased it.
-New pause menus, Relics and Augments are in a radial menu so you can more easily see which ones you have available and equipped, the pause menu remembers what you were last on.
-You can switch between Bugsy and Mayo on the fly while they are together. Bugsy is faster and stronger while Mayo has a gun and can float by shooting. Some enemies are more suspect to one character or another.
-Progression through the game has been altered. Some areas require certain items more strongly, some areas have different items, but also more secret shortcuts are added.
-Dozens and dozens of bugfixes. I looked at the code at the start of this project and was impressed with how crappy the code was in a lot of places. For all the changes and enhancements I made to the engine, I basically put my fingers through literally everything. Again.
-Dozens and dozens of sprites redrawn and corrected. Likewise, a lot of the crustier sprites have been replaced, including both enemies and items.
-Map shows more detailed progress, including locations of shops, defeated bosses and collected golden bee tokens.
-Expanded/rewritten story sequences. Not gonna lie the art I drew embarrasses me and the pacing and writing of the cutscenes is kinda dull. Hopefully I've made improvements to that front.
More information is doled out on the game's official discord: https://discord.gg/vV7mx85
Update 2/8/2022
-Made sprites load on call, game uses far less memory now. The game used to run using 550mb of memory and went up to 650 or even 700 at times. Now memory usage is around 225mb average, 275 at most, and at times can be as low as 165mb.
-SDL Joystick extension is updated
-Changed weather graphics slightly
-Overgrown Jungle and alarm sounds are less loud
Bugfixes:
-You can no longer waste an item by using it during a dodge
-Watcher Queen's attacks are fixed