I'm just popping in to let everyone know that this game is still in development, and that I plan to get Mechabot Defender to 1.0 by August of this year. Although, plans could change.
While I can't really say exactly what the 1.0 version of the game will look like, I can tell you that I think I am finally done dramatically changing the mechanics of the game. To everyone that has played through these constant, drastic changes, thank you for your patience.
In general, my plans for 1.0 are currently:
A new character
3 new stages
Story/Character dialogue between runs
Upgrade balancing
More upgrades (maybe)
General polishing / bug fixing
Again, though, these plans aren't final. Thanks again to everyone that has continued to play the game, and a very special thanks to everyone that took the time to leave a review as well.
Cheers, Spargit
Next update is on its way!
Hi everyone,
Just letting you know that I'm postponing the update (again) by another couple of days while I continue to optimize the game.
Many of the optimizations are already implemented, so all that's left to do is stress test the game and try to catch some more bugs before pushing the update to the default branch.
After these optimizations are complete, I'm hoping to move on to creating more stages for the game.
Cheers, Spargit
Updated beta branch
Hi everyone,
Just letting you know that I'm postponing the update to the default branch for another day or two while I iron out some of the more major bugs in the game, but you can try out all the new changes now in the beta branch!
Cheers, Spargit
New beta branch
Hey everybody, just letting you know I've been fixing a few bugs and making a few tweaks to certain upgrades and classes, and you can play with these changes right now in the game's beta branch.
I'll be pushing these changes to the default branch in the next couple of days.
Cheers, Spargit
HUGE UPDATE + Improved Controller Support
Hey everyone!
I've been hard at work on a massive update for the game, including some much needed polish and controller support.
As always, big updates like these are bound to introduce some bugs and issues, but I've tried my best to catch everything.
Here are the major patch notes:
> A new character to unlock and play as - The Archmaster. > Four completely new and unique TURRET CLASSES including a Flamethrower and a Cluster Bomb turret. > Complete UI overhaul > New main menu art > Character portraits for the character select screen! > New music (and more on the way!) > Keybinds work now! And you can now use the keybind menu with a controller, speaking of... > Controllers are now fully supported with customizable keybinds and an improved aiming system while tethered to turrets > Tethering to turrets now costs energy but gives you a speed boost and improved fire rate, as well as Bullet time. > New achievement icons > New grading system and defeat/victory screen
There were a ton of other small changes and bug fixes along the way, but overall Mechabot is in a much stronger and stable place now.
Please beware that unplugging or plugging in a controller while the game is running can cause major issues and bugs that can cause the game to crash - I'm working on it.
I've got a lot planned for the future of Mechabot, mainly more content and more polish, but if you encounter any bugs or crashes please make it known in the Steam discussions!
Cheers, Spargit
Big update is on the way
Hey everyone! It's been a while; life's been pretty crazy for me over the last 6 months and I haven't really had the opportunity to work on the game, but I'm just finishing up a big update which will be out TOMORROW.
I'm not going to go into detail here, as the update hasn't been released on the main branch yet, and there will be a separate post containing all of the patch notes. HOWEVER, you can now play the latest update of the game on the BETA BRANCH (right click the game in your library > properties > betas > select the beta branch)
I need all the feedback I can get in order to catch any bugs or problems this new build might have before it's published to the main branch in time for the Steam SHMUP Fest, so I'd love to hear from you.
I want to thank everyone that has kept an eye on this game for their patience, I hope you like the update.
Cheers, Spargit
The "Clarity & Fairness" Update
Hello everyone!
After a little bit of a break from development, I've managed to cobble together this pretty large update. There isn't a lot of content in this update (although there are some fun new upgrades), but instead a lot of balance changes, bug fixes, and quality of life changes. Mechanics have been removed, changed, and switched around all in the name of making the game clearer and less bloated. I hope you enjoy the changes, and here they all are in no particular order.
PATCH NOTES >Charging turrets is now done through a large AOE instead of single targeting. This makes charging turrets MUCH easier and even allows you to charge two at the same time!
>Picking up turrets is now instantaneous. As a result, the turret pickup time upgrade has been removed.
>Max scrap storage increased from 30 to 100. Rerolling now costs 10 scrap instead of 3.
>Energy crystals now remain on the ground INDEFINITELY, but Scrap will still disappear over time. Scrap now only spawns if you actually have space to pick it up.
>Scrap now magnetises towards you as well as energy crystals.
>Magnetism has been polished and made stronger to make it more satisfying and easier to pick up crystals and scrap.
>Magnetism vector has been normalized to stop it from slowing down as it approaches you.
>Homing missile vector has been normalized to stop it from slowing down as it approaches its target.
>The Upgrade Screen UI has been improved and made clearer so that it is hopefully easier to understand for newer players.
>There is now some negative feedback when you don’t have enough scrap to make a purchase.
>Turrets now have an UPGRADE LIMIT. When placing an upgrade on a turret you can see the upgrades that it currently has, and how many spaces you have left.
>Changed some button styles to make it clearer that you can still upgrade the silver turret, it’s just been automatically focused for controller users.
>Fixed a bug where the turret select buttons would disappear forever.
>Added a "skip" option that lets you take scrap, energy, and health instead of an upgrade. This is useful when your turrets run out of room for upgrades.
>Energy crystals and scrap will no longer follow you around if you have no space to pick them up.
>Everything is cheaper to unlock.
>Iffy meta progression stuff has been removed. You can no longer revive yourself and I removed some of the more meta-progression elements I was experimenting with.
>You can no longer unlock a “Corrupt” version of a character if you haven’t unlocked their base version.
>The “Wrench” has been changed to a “Health Kit” to make it clearer that it is a healing item and not an upgrade for your turrets.
>The keybind menu has been (temporarily) removed until I can figure out what’s going wrong with it, because it’s quite janky currently. Sorry folks, I’m hoping to have a solution ASAP.
>Turret charge bars now turn red when you can’t charge them.
>Turret deploy upgrades now only show up if you take the base upgrade. This should make the upgrade pool less bloated.
>The tutorial has been polished and made clearer.
>”First Time Bonus” mechanic has been removed in an effort to make the game less overly complicated and more balanced.
>Polished button navigation with the controller.
>Added a set of “Drone” upgrades.
>Added 2 new freeze-related upgrades: “Freezing Grip” and “Fire & Ice” in an effort to make the freezing tree a more viable upgrade path.
>You no longer get a fire rate buff from tethering, but there are now upgrades that let you gain this bonus as well as reduce the speed debuff that you get from being tethered.
>Enemies now have passive health scaling, making the game have a more sturdy difficulty curve.
>Batteries now switch positions after you have gained a specific amount of XP from them. This means you have to move your turrets around a lot more and can’t camp in one spot all game.
>The “Special Override” warning has been made clearer and reworded to “Bullet Type”
>Fixed bug where enemies wouldn’t spawn and you would get a free level.
>The Snowball upgrade actually works now.
>The red vignette on the screen to display low health has been toned down.
>There’s now a visual on the XP bar when you aren’t gaining any experience, as well as a sound effect when you stop gaining experience.
>Worked on optimisation. There is now a limit of 150 enemies on screen at any time.
>Default ability costs have been reduced.
>Fixed bug where music would overlap.
>Early levels now require less XP.
>Scrap container no longer animates when you pick up energy crystals.
>Added “Orbital Damage” upgrade to improve Orbital Bullets.
>Moved a control point on stage 2 that allowed you to camp in a 100% safe spot.
THANK YOU If you made it this far down, thanks for reading! And if you're an existing player, thank you for your patience as I've been working on this update. Although I've done my best to make sure the game is fully stable, there have been so many changes to the game that it is impossible for me to guarantee. If you encounter any bugs or issues, please use the Google form or Discord to provide feedback (links on the main menu of the game).
Thank you for your continued support, I hope you all enjoy the new update!
Cheers, Spargit
I'm back + new beta branch
Hey everyone, sorry for the hiatus. I took some time away from the game to work on various other projects that, to be honest, never really amounted to anything. But the break was highly necessary, as I was beginning to completely burn out on this game. Thankfully, returning to work on the game has been a relatively painless experience, and I've made some changes that will hopefully make the game more enjoyable.
I'm not going to go into detail here, as the update hasn't been released on the main branch yet, and there will be a separate post containing all of the patch notes. HOWEVER, you can now play the latest update of the game on the BETA BRANCH (right click the game in your library > properties > betas > select the beta branch)
Every time I get feedback on the game, it's always extremely valuable. So if you have any suggestions or encounter any issues, or even if you think a certain upgrade isn't balanced right -- let me know! There's a link to the Discord and a Google Form via the game's main menu.
NOTE: >Keybinds have been (temporarily) removed because they were causing some weird issues. I'll try fix this in the future, but they are currently not a priority.
Cheers, Spargit
Healing Change + Bug fixes and balancing
Hello again everyone, this update reduces the amount of early-game healing and gives the option to scale that healing into the mid-game by upgrading your wrench. I also fixed a few bugs and added a new setting.
>Nerfed repair wrench to 1 use with the option to upgrade using scrap
>Nerfed pickups to 1 per pickup (default used to be 2)
>Added option to reduce bullet opacity to 50% for better visibility (but this is OFF by default)
>Fixed bug where you were able to go over max scrap by 1
>Fixed bug where the game would become unpaused while looking at certain menu screens
>Stopped “INCOMING” warning blocking mouse input
Cheers, Spargit
Minor fixes + Changes
Hey everyone, and welcome to new players! This is just a small patch to fix a few bugs and balance issues brought in by the new Major Update.
>Nerfed bullet hose so it no longer instant kills non-boss enemies.
>Bunch of balance changes to enemy formations/spawns
>Defeating the Enforcer now gives all future enemy spawns +2 max health
>Fixed difficulty scaling issue
>Fixed bug where victory screen would get stuck
>Fixed bug where you would receive too many Starchips
>Stopped "Napalm" upgrade showing up when fire upgrades are taken. You must now take an explosive upgrade to add "Napalm" to the upgrade pool
>Fixed bug where the revive screen spawns multiple times
>Fixed bug where your starchips can go into the negative
>There is now a constant blue light underneath the player to make the game more readable
>The Enforcer can no longer be pushed around by the player
>Fixed bug where enemies wouldn’t start spawning on subsequent runs if you had a game over in your last run
>Fixed some weird layering issues
>Removed the enemy kill count from the UI because it was unnecessary and just cluttered the screen
Thanks to everyone that has been playing the game, enjoy the new update!
