New publisher for Instruments of Destruction, plus more news!
[p]Hey folks,[/p][p][/p][p]I'm pleased to share some exciting news today on the future of Instruments of Destruction, including the latest on our planned console release.[/p][p]For a while now I’ve been promising that Instruments of Destruction would be coming to consoles, and initially that was set to be earlier this year, but I've always been open and honest about the delay and how I’ve been looking to get some help with finishing the Xbox and PlayStation versions. Well, that day has finally come!
I’m happy to announce that as of today, Instruments of Destruction has a new publisher - none other than the award-winning team behind games such as Still Wakes the Deep and Make Way - Secret Mode. [/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/40401905/4960786c3b68d41a411b4da1b43e3f61fe3f9ed1.gif"] The Secret Mode team will be helping to polish and promote the console versions ready for release later this year, as well as continuing to fix and improve the PC version, and supporting the community going forward. We’ve shared an updated version of the game’s most recent trailer, confirming that console versions are set for later in 2025. Check it out below:[/p][p][/p][p]It feels good to have a team of people helping to promote and support the game. This does mean I’ll be stepping away from Instruments to focus on my many other projects with Radiangames, which I look forward to sharing more about when the time is right. Thank you for the support you’ve shown to myself and the game over these past few years.[/p][p] With that, I hand the wheel here over to Secret Mode and their team, to provide you with all future news and updates on Instruments of Destruction!
- Luke[/p]
Version 1.12c
Reverted the vehicle save/load to older instantaneous (vs. async) system. This fixes multiple issues with newer save system. This might fix issues with exiting the game locking up some PCs.
Celebrating Radiangames 15-Year Anniversary
Back in May of 2010, Radiangames released its first title, a twin-stick shooter called JoyJoy, on the Xbox Live Indie Games service. It was the start of a small series of games, with 7 small games releasing over the next 11 months. In the 15 years since JoyJoy, Radiangames has released over 20 games on a number of platforms. It was also nearly a year ago that Instruments of Destruction version 1.0 launched on Steam.
To celebrate the 15-year anniversary of Radiangames, Instruments of Destruction is being featured by Steam in its first Daily Deal with its biggest discount yet, and there was a minor update yesterday to fix a few mission-related issues. Radiangames’ classic title Inferno 2 is also on sale. And Fireball 2--sequel to the 4th game Radiangames released on XBLIG in 2010--is launching today on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and Playstation 5.
A Year of Radiangames Releases
Fireball 2 marks the first of many launches for Radiangames in 2025. Rhythm Storm is getting a new demo next week. That demo and the Speed Demons 2’s demo will be in the June Steam Next Fest. Those 2 games will be coming to Steam, Xbox, and Playstation later this summer. Rhythm Storm will come to Steam in July, while the timing of the ports and Speed Demons 2 are still to be determined.
The Instruments of Destruction ports are still in the works, and there will be an exciting announcement about that soon. While the majority of the porting work is done for Instruments of Destruction, the console certification process is a lot more complex and labyrinthine than I expected. Fireball 2 was a much simpler port in technical terms, but it took multiple months to get it through all the hurdles needed to actually release the game, and I’ve barely managed to do any promotion for it.
Radiangames’ Destructive Future
Though 2025 has gone relatively well so far, the experiences of the last couple years and a shift in Alan’s plans has made me reevaluate what to work on after the current games and their ports release. I want to cut back and focus on 1-2 projects at a time, rather than 3 or more, and have those projects be related to each other, so I’m not reinventing so many wheels with each new game, and it’s easier to share code between them.
Even Rhythm Storm and Fireball 2, two games that look like they share a lot, only have drawing code and a basic game structure in common. Meanwhile Speed Demons 2 looks similar to Instruments of Destruction in a few ways, but has almost nothing in common with it. It even uses a totally different rendering and particle pipeline.
The solution to all this reinventing: Start over one more time (using small bits from previous games). BUT with a plan for multiple games that build on each other, step by step. There will be some new tech for each game, but that tech adds to a framework that is needed for the future titles.
One key part of that tech will be a new destruction system, one that’s more flexible than Instruments of Destruction’s. That tech is planned for the 2nd game in the sequence, and destruction will be part of nearly every game Radiangames makes beyond 2025.
The other “change” for future titles is simple: No more multi-platform titles after 2025. Everything will be designed for PC/Steam. If a game would work well as a console port, I’ll hand it off to someone else after the PC version is done.
I have 4 foundational games planned out in my tech progression, with 2 slightly larger games after the first 4. Beyond those 6, I have at least 10 other ideas that could use a good portion of the tech. There will likely be tweaks to the plan along the way, with new ideas or sequels that I need to work on, but the goal is to keep using this foundation for every future Radiangames title. If all goes well, Radiangames will be making games for another 15 or even 30 years.
Console versions delayed
Apologies for the late notification, but the Xbox and Playstation versions of the game will be delayed for a while, and will not release in late March as originally planned. I'm looking into getting help promoting and finishing those versions, and the process is taking a while.
On the plus side, the game will definitely be getting additional testing, and any fixes/tweaks will make their way to all versions.
I don't have a solid idea of when the console versions will be out, so I don't want to guess. When I know more, I'll share the news here (and other places too).
Speed Demons 2 Announce Trailer + 1.11 Arrives With Lots of New Parts!
Just a quick bit of news before getting into the details of this update: Speed Demons 2 is an arcade highway racing game coming to PC and consoles later in 2025. The trailer below debuted exclusively on IGN, and the Steam page is now live, so you can head over there to read more (or wishlist the game).
VERSION 1.11 IS HERE!
Despite the short update cycle, there's a lot to cover for this version. Just a warning though: Pretty much every change has to do with vehicle building. We'll start with the changelist, then go into a bit more detail on the new parts and significant part options.
Changelist: - Added Stasis option to Vortex and Turbine parts, along with anti-gravity modifier - Added Shockwave part (projectile weapon, triggers shockwave explosion) - Added Laser Gun part (projectile weapon, similar to X8 Rifle/Gauss) - Added option to modify explosion strength of projectile weapons (use with caution) - Added option to disable muzzle flash mini-explosion (all projectile weapons) - Added Aero part for custom aerodynamics - Added Ball wheel part (omnidirectional roller) - Added option to scale all non-steering wheels that weren't yet resizable (including Ball) - Added Flex Isosceles part - Added option to hide base of flex parts (panel, triangle, etc) - Added option to Gyro part to use direct rotation instead of physics - Made Fireball explosion available in Effects part (3 sizes) - Added logic to make big vehicle impacts more consistent (such as mission 2-1) - Changed Settler SB level a bit - Made sliders also change speed relative to the input strength (up to 1) - Fixed slider activate mode ignoring the slider during negative inputs - Fixed outline around bomb parts sticking around after they explode - Fixed a bug with dropship pick-up (at the end of a mission) being too fast - Fixed a potential GPU thread overflow when lots of particles are active
NEW PART OPTION: STASIS (Vortex/Turbine)
This is listed before the new parts for a reason. I was going to add a new part or two for this feature, but piggy-backing on the Vortex/Turbine was a faster way to get it done. The Stasis option turns the Vortex/Turbine in a sort of physics-pause tool, with tunable settings and control over how frozen the objects are, and how much anti-gravity to apply.
NEW PARTS: SHOCKWAVE and LASER GUN
These two new projectile weapons give you new ways to annihilate things. The Shockwave in particular can destroy basically everything in one blast if you turn up the explosion damage option high enough, but I'm not going to stop you. [That option is also now found on the Gauss and X8 Rifle.] The Laser Gun has nothing to do with the previous lasers, aside from sharing some FX and shaders. It's more of a traditional sci-fi projectile weapon. It doesn't really do anything new, but is a nice change of pace aesthetically.
NEW PART: AERO
The Aero part is relatively simple and small. It only has 3 significant settings, and a 4th that will mostly go unused. Based on the forward velocity of the part (and the relative forward speed vs. overall speed), it creates drag, lift, and a bit of rotation. It only cares about speed in one direction, but that's enough to simulate a wing fairly well, possibly better than the actual wing parts. Use multiple Aero parts at various points on an aircraft, or just a few with different orientations, and you can simulate whatever kind of aerodynamics you can imagine.
NEW PART: FLEX ISOSCELES
Flex parts are a bit of a pain to create, but this one mostly works like a normal flex panel. I make no promises about using it in a mirrored creation, but it does have 10 slight variants for visual purposes. Of more importance to some is the new inclusion of the HIDE BASE option on all panel-like flex parts. This prevents the base from rendering, allowing for adjusting parts without having to worry about the base. Note: This doesn't disable the base collision, just the rendering.
NEW PART: BALL WHEEL
The omnidirectional ball wheel was another quick part to make, and I figured out a simpler way to make wheels scale-able as well. They don't use E/Shift+E to change the size, but I think that's an acceptable compromise. The scaling option is now available on all non-steering wheels that didn't already scale.
NEW OPTION: DIRECT ROTATION (Gyro)
The last significant new part option is for the Gyro. There's now an option to use an alternative method of rotating towards the target orientation. It bypasses physics almost completely, and it's only 2 lines of code (after lots of trial and error), but ends up being more stable and effective than I expected. It's not the default setting, but perhaps it should have been.
The rest of the fixes/updates are fairly minor. Overall this update went more smoothly than expected, but it's possible I broke something with it, so I won't be surprised if there's a 1.11a version soon. Up next: We'll be working on wrapping up and submitting the console versions (reminder: March 27th on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S).
Version 1.1 Now Available, and a Console Release Date
Instruments of Destruction version 1.1 is finally here. It's been much longer than I originally anticipated to release this update, and I want to apologize for the longer-than-expected delay. It arrives with a new trailer to showcase both the update and the announcement of the console versions' release date:
The console version is nearly done, but is coming in late March mostly because I'm unsure how long the certification process will take. I'll talk about the console versions in more detail another time, but the console porting process for Instruments has been fairly intense. Alan handled a lot of the optimization work (he's handling the PS5 port), while I did a bit more once I finally got my Xbox dev kit fully functional.
Too Many Projects
The console version isn't the only reason why it's taken so long to get version 1.1 done. Working on Fireball 2 took some time, and a new Speed Demons game took even more. That project is a story for another day. I haven't even mentioned Rhythm Storm, which has received the least amount of attention. But I did work on it a bit recently. In December, I worked on all 4 games to get them running on Xbox.
It's obvious now, but 4 projects is 2 projects too many to juggle. I wanted to release all four in 2024, but got burnt out by finishing Instruments 1.0 on PC. Then Fireball 2 bloated a bit, the SD project got WAY bigger than originally planned, and I never focused on finishing anything. Having two projects to work on still makes sense to me, particularly when one is a "side project", but 3 or more is where I've felt overwhelmed. I'll continue writing up my ideas for new games, but no more prototyping them until I'm ready to handle them ballooning into a side project.
And all of my recent projects have had a common problem: Feeling uncertainty about the art style.
Which Bear (Art Style) is Best?
The art style in Instruments of Destruction evolved quite a bit from where it started in 2020. But the improvement since then doesn't reflect the excessive amount of time I've spent on the visuals. I've tried a lot of different values and variations of nearly every art element and visual effect. And that has continued with version 1.1, which brings not one but two "new" art style presets.
If I had to choose, I'm not sure which of the 3 art style presets I prefer. "Classic" is what version 1.0 launched with, plus a few minor changes. "Normal" is the new default, and adds a lot more saturation and black outlines around most objects, making it look similar to cel-shaded graphics. "Comic" is like Normal with a new full-screen filter and tweaks to particles. The trailer above shows the game almost exclusively with the Normal art style.
There's some sort of style-fatigue at play in my brain, as I seem to always prefer the "new" style when I change the preset in Instruments. And when I check out old versions of my games that have had multiple art styles, I rarely feel like there's a big improvement once the basic elements are set. I don't mind working on the art of my games, but it's rarely an efficient use of my time.
Aside from realizing I'm spending too much time tweaking art to be different (rather than better), I think my most important realization of the last year is that aiming for a more "realistic" art style takes quite a bit more time than stylized visuals, and that my art skills/workflow don't lend themselves to realism. I can get close to realism, but not close enough to actually look real. And when I take a step back and compare my games' realism to other games that do it well, it's never a favorable comparison.
On the other hand, cel-shaded/comic style visuals are more timeless in nature, and I think I can achieve them relatively well, and in a more efficient manner. The style seems to work well in both Instruments of Destruction and the new Speed Demons game. So I feel good about finally figuring this out (even if it seems obvious now).
Character Portraits
On the other hand, one feature that absorbed way too much time and didn't have a clear resolution is the new character portraits. This idea was suggested to me back in May when the game came out to make the game "more appealing". Basically the new feature shows a picture of the characters when they speak. There are only 3 images, and they're not animated. I also found a contract artist to do them. So it seems like that's a fairly small feature.
But I'd estimate it took over 2 weeks of my time to get them in-game, which included finding the artist, creating the reference board, sending feedback, updating the UI to display the portraits (and fit the current art style). I also spent multiple days refining the art myself, as the original versions didn't quite fit once they were actually in-game, and it took quite a few iterations to create versions that fit well enough to ship. In the end, portraits don't show when Outlines are disabled, and I thought about cutting the feature entirely after it was done. So 2D character art is probably not something you'll see much of in my future games...
That's enough about my struggles with art. Let's take a look at the changelist, then talk about future plans and Instruments of Destruction.
VERSION 1.1 CHANGES * Added art style presets: Normal, Comic, Classic * Added subtle textures on world geometry and structures * Added outlines option around structures, objects, and player vehicles * Added new fireball particle for the center of explosions * Added optional full-screen comic filter * Added new character portraits (shown when Outlines are enabled) * Re-enabled 60hz physics option (intended for consoles, but low end PCs can also use) * Added motion trail option for blades and wing parts (for rotational motion) * Added two sandbox levels, based on older ones (Test Island and Sandbox Resort) * Made vehicle/level thumbnails adjust to the art style (kind of) * Tweaked a few vehicles/etc so they work better with 60hz physics * Changed shadow rendering to be sharper * Fixed a few minor mission balance issues * Fixed a few minor bugs and tweaked a couple interface things
2025 and Beyond Plans
Version 1.1 will not be the final update for Instruments of Destruction. I'll be fixing any significant bugs that slipped through in the next few days, and taking requests for minor tasks/tweaks/etc that would make the game/editors/etc better. I might also refine the two new revitalized Sandbox maps. Finishing up the Xbox and Playstation version for release is my other main priority.
Let me reiterate the important part:
Now (end of January 2025) is the ideal time to submit bug reports/suggestions/etc for things you want fixed/tweaked. Just comment down below with the relevant info. I'm not going to change anything major or risky, but this will be one of the last round of feedback-based changes to the game. I'll also be perusing the Steam forums and Discord bug-reports and suggestion channels for the first time in a while, but I don't mind seeing the same suggestion/report again.
After 1.1's follow-up updates and the console versions, my plans are less certain, but do include the following tasks:
1) Finishing and releasing Fireball 2 on Steam and consoles. Aside from achievements/leaderboards and a little UI work, there's not much left to do.
2) A new update for Instruments of Destruction with a few refinements to build mode (some of which may be PC-only).
3) Simplifying, refining, and finishing Rhythm Storm. There's a lot to do here, but I'm looking forward to working on it. This won't happen until both #1 and #2 are finished.
4) Finishing and releasing the new Speed Demons project. This might happen sooner than later, or it might be a while.
Beyond those four things, I don't know for sure what's next. I have plenty of ideas for future projects, and I want to work with Alan on a new project too, but that's not set in stone.
Yet I am fairly certain of one thing: I don't plan to work on Instruments of Destruction after the first half of this year. That doesn't mean it'll never have more updates beyond that, just that I probably won't be the one working on them.
New Video: How Physics-Based Destruction Works (in Instruments of Destruction)
Let's jump straight in and get to the video, then I'll go into a bit of info on the video, and when to expect another update (and console versions) for Instruments of Destruction:
The video is just under 10 minutes long, and it took around 40 hours of work to complete it. It's not quite as slick or animated as I hoped it would be, and the pace is too fast, but it's done and I think it does a decent job of explaining how the destruction works.
This is my second devlog video (first was on DodgeBomb, which was renamed Fireball 2). There's a lot more I could talk about with Instruments, especially the overall design, and the vehicle building system. The vehicle build system was actually more technically challenging than destruction, but I'm not sure it's as interesting to watch a video about.
After making this video, it's pretty clear that there are a lot of ways destruction could be improved in future games. With visuals in particular, everything could be better in multiple ways. But Instruments does two things better than most other destruction systems: It has a ton of objects, and it interacts with physics/other systems well.
I'm still not sure when I'll make more destruction-based games in the future. I'm looking forward to it though, as working on the destruction stuff is something I enjoy. It's challenging, but also creative and interesting work. Even visuals for destruction are fairly fun to work on, though I wish I had either gone more realistic or more stylized with Instruments. Something to keep in mind for future projects.
Future Instruments Work
I've had an Xbox Series X devkit for almost 3 weeks, and I'm still not able to make a build for it. It's not a technical/game problem (yet), as I'm just waiting to get access to some software that let's me do it. I'll be emailing the relevant parties again today. The PS5 port is nearly done (Alan has done all the work there), so porting to the Xbox will be a lot easier because of that.
There are a few other Instruments updates I'm ready to start working on once that issue is resolved. Some further optimizations from Alan have also benefitted all versions. Those will be coming in the next update as well.
As for when the next update will be, I don't have an estimate yet. No estimate for the consoles yet either. I might be working on Instruments stuff sooner than later, but I'm still trying to figure that out, and I don't have a clear picture of everything I need to do next. If my plans are clarified sooner than later, I'll update this post with more info.
Version 1.05 Optimizes Rendering and Fixes An Important Bug
Let's start with the update changelist, then I'll discuss what we've been up to and the future plans for the game:
VERSION 1.05 CHANGELIST Turned off shadows from rendering for cameras that don't need them (optimizes rendering a decent amount) Fixed Flex pieces updating every frame even when not necessary (major fix for certain vehicles) Added Kill Timer property to cannons (set it to kill off cannonballs X seconds after they are fired) Fixed a gamepad issue with the options menu Fixed a couple challenge types never working 100% correctly Fixed missions/challenges in BnD having no parts available Fixed a divide by zero issue with looping counters set to 0
The first two items are the important ones for version 1.05, with the rest being minor fixes/tweaks. Alan has been working on the console version, and he discovered a significant optimization for that version. Shadows were rendering on multiple camera types (such as rendering a depth buffer to create grass impacts) that didn't need them, so he turned them off and now the game just runs faster for all platforms. An even bigger slowdown was happening with objects with lots of resizable flex parts, like the bee (MCCH Apis Atomica) at 17:21 in this Scrapman video:
Every flex part was updating its mesh and collider every frame, and that's a lot of expensive code to run for 400+ parts. So I fixed the code that made it happen, and now the vehicle runs a lot smoother (runs above 60FPS for me, while it was below 15FPS previously). Plenty of other vehicles were affected by this issue, particularly some of the more complex ones on the workshop.
Beyond Version 1.05
As stated previously, I've been feeling a bit burnt out on Instruments after working on it for so long and for so many hours this year. While Alan has continued to work on the console version for part of the last month, I have moved on to other games (DodgeBomb and Speed Demons in particular) to try to finish them up for release on PC/console, and I had a long vacation with the family.
I was hoping when I returned from vacation, I would have a more balanced perspective on work and Instruments of Destruction in particular. But to be honest, I still dread thinking about or working on the game. Version 1.05 isn't a big update, but it was a necessary one to finish, so I'm glad to have it wrapped up.
I appreciate all the kind words and encouragement to keep going and promote the game more. I will definitely do more promotion when the console versions release. I also appreciate the feedback and suggestions to make the game better, though at this point I don't think I'll be making any significant revisions to the campaign or build mode. There will be more updates to the game, but I'm not sure when, or what most of them will be.
I think that's all for this time. -Luke
Version 1.04 changelist
Added new logic part: Counter Added Rotate Y setting to Flex Panel and simlar parts Added Allow HDR Output option so you can force HDR output off (for Steam Deck OLEDs, for instance) Fixed drill and saw not using the reverse input strength when set to Normal Fixed alternate input not affecting strength of Hover parts Fixed timed challenge objectives that should have failed but weren't (such as 2-4)
Changelist for version 1.03a
Updated b4-3 so it's easier to get 3 stars
Tweaked m6-3 so it does less damage over time
Added Fixed bomb (part) explosion damage
Added building delete function to Sandbox mode (place object)
Added confirmation to tutorial reset, making it harder to wipe out vehicles by pressing H
Fixed some objects appearing damaged when a map starts
Fixed Description for some parts (cannon, bomb launcher, etc)
Fixed thumbnail not updating for previously saved vehicles
