Metal Heads
More board game fixes! YAY!
Sadly, a lot of my time is being wasted on key scammer emails, people creating fake social media and streaming accounts to try and scalp keys from me.
Unfortunately this means that I ALMOST missed a legitimate email which could be quite big for the game's publicity.....
Anyway, that aside, here are a few little updates:
- The mod wheel has been added to the start of a player's round, unless the particular tile cannot be changed due to being static/fixed.
- The mod wheel now is synchronizing properly on the network and moving correctly on the network too. There is only one MINOR bug that happens maybe once and it's so quick it almost doesn't even matter.
- Currently ANY mod wheel tiles can be chosen, but in the next few days, I'll be implementing a tile inventory of sorts to limit players spamming particular tiles all over the map.
- The input has been improved in the board game too, there was an issue when where pressing left or right on either keyboard or mouse, it would also trigger the opposite direction, making it very frustrating for selecting destinations as it would kind of flicker back and forward between destinations.
There's still some issues with this, and there needs to be a UI element to tell players what to do, but it's working better.
- Made the center "mixer" (the round slime bit with the paddle that spins) is now larger in the middle and the paddle has a wider area to run along. While this doesn't resolve issues of lag causing players to run into the slime due to an out of sync rotation of the paddle, it does allow players to jump to the center and avoid running across entirely.
- Also changed the model of the mixer so that the top is flat. There were little extrusions going out at angles which could interfere with player movement.
- Put some place-holder lights onto the mixer to represent it's speed (green = low, orange = mid, green = high) to give players more of an idea of what the event space does that is directly south of the mixer.
- Players who teleport should now have the teleport effects visible on the client as well as server.
I need to take a break now, I am super super tired, I'm still grinding like a mad-man to make the board game mode as playable as possible, but I need to rest for the evening, spend some time with my girlfriend and refresh my brain.
Thank you for your patience as I work through all of these things, I promise you that it's all going to be super polished eventually :)
YOU ROCK! \m/
Board Game fixes and Janky keyboard movement fixed
It's not a big list, but these things are important:
- It seems I broke the keyboard movement, it was a fairly simple fix once I actually found out there was a problem (since I generally test with controllers), but now keyboard movement will feel fluid in the board game mode once again.
- When players are cursed in the board game mode now, the curse should remain until the end of their next turn, making the curse functionality actually contribute to the gameplay a bit more now.
- Fixed up the user interface online in the board game mode so that when a client tries to access their items, everyone can see the camera change, and everyone can see the items UI, as well as the correct item and description. NOTE: The user interface for this will be changed to look MUCH better in the future, right now it is more a matter of just getting it to function before making it pretty.
- Improved the client version of the modification wheel in the board game mode.
It still requires some more refinement however.
Despite it now showing the correct position on the wheel for clients, the wheel automatically keeps spinning around when the client is trying to spin the wheel.
There is also a bug now where the wheel doesn't spin for keyboard players -_-
I'll be fixing that up tomorrow, it should be a relatively quick and simple fix.
I'll be focusing on changing how the tile modification works tomorrow so that when players start the round, they MUST change a tile, but have limited quantity of each item to use to prevent players from spamming the same tiles over and over.
I'll also make it so whatever tile you swap out, you get in your inventory so you can put it down elsewhere if you wanted to do so. (ie, land on an unlucky tile, and you put down a teleport tile, but you'll get +1 unlucky tile in your inventory).
I think that this mechanic will change the gameplay in a big way, but is yet to be properly tested...and that's what you guys are here for! To tell me if you love it or you hate it.
Removed dev log
I durped!
It seems I left the developer log turned on.
This update will remove the log.
If you still see the log, restart Steam and the update will come through.
The biggest, baddest of bugs, are now vaporized!
I have fixed these stupid, annoying, frustrating bugs that so many of you have been putting up with.
Here's a list of the fixes:
- FIXED player names being randomly shuffled around. This was caused by one tiny thing, but it's like a needle in a haystack to find.
- FIXED the scoring system, in mini-games where it was last man standing, the scoring often wouldn't work properly and didn't record player's survival times correctly.
- FIXED an issue where if using a keyboard, when hitting WASD in the main menu, the mouse cursor would suddenly have a mind of it's own.
- FIXED Never-ending mini-game bug where if a player dropped out during the game, or even dropped in, the game wasn't enumerating the player count correctly, and thus would never end. The game checks every 3 seconds to see how many players are alive now in mini-games where it is appropriate.
- FIXED Board Game Collectibles causing board game mode to never end.
- FIXED Board Game problem where it didn't matter what number of rounds you chose, there would always be 15 rounds.
- FIXED When returning back to the lobby, then going back into the board game mode, It would kind of resume where you left the board game mode previously within the same session.
Now all of the board game stats get reset in the lobby screen before entering into the board game mode.
I am very much aware of some other issues that are happening, but I still want you to tell me if you are having any problems, even if it may seem obvious, as it may be something I have missed.
Thank you for all of your love and support, this launch has been extremely taxing on me, but I'm pushing onward and upward and trying to iron out all these problems for you guys.
I'm writing this at 3:40am, and I feel horrible physically, but this makes me so damn happy!
Let's make this game AWESOME!
I love you all, ROCK ON!
Oh Balls mini-game added, and some other fixes
Thank you again for supporting the game, I'm working hard to fix bugs so that you all get a good experience at launch.
It's now 5:02am and I'm still working now for 24 hours....
Anyway, here's the fixes
- I discovered that the "Oh Balls" mini-game was not appearing in the mini-game menu, so that's fixed now.
- Tried to remedy a problem where mini-games kept going forever as highlighted in multiple streams now (this is SUPER embarrassing but hopefully it's fixed now, but I think there's more work to be done...)
- Removed ability to use left stick on controller to move the mouse cursor, as keyboard input was interfering with it, making it a very frustrating experience.
The plan is to make the menu behave like a proper controller menu in every other game where you simply navigate to different buttons.
Right now, the user experience is horrible.
- Found an issue with player counts, but need to work on that some more.
The focus right now is to eliminate the duplicate player name bug, but also to eliminate the issue of games never ending. Then I will continue working on the board game mode.
For now though, sleep time!
Fixed PAUSE function and Collectible bug.
Thanks to some helpful Discord users, and the stream that I did for the launch, I actually managed to hunt down and eliminate 2 pretty major problems:
- Players can now pause the game.
However right now, pausing at certain times means you will need to use the mouse to click on the menu. I intend to make the UI navigation MUCH better, but it is not a simple thing to do.
- Collectibles no longer completely break the game when collected.
This was a user interface bug funnily enough, but it's fixed up now after much testing and head scratching.
Thanks for your love and support everyone, I'm going to keep on fixing up bugs and polishing everything up, but I need to sleep now.
Removed debug screen from board game mode.
Thanks to my awesome Discord community, I was told that the private build was uploaded, rather than the build meant for early access.
Technically, they are the same, but the private build has a rather obnoxious debug UI in the board game mode.
I have now fixed this and the debug menu should not appear anymore :)
You should now see down in the bottom right "EARLY ACCESS LAUNCH (EA)" rather than "EARLY ACCESS LAUNCH (Private)".
If not, restart Steam.
I am currently working like a madman to fix some of the other bugs, but the first one is to fix the broken pause menu as it's not working right now at all.
Thank you for your patience, you are all incredible!
EARLY ACCESS LAUNCH DATE REVEALED!
OH HECK!
METAL HEADS IS COMING TO STEAM EARLY ACCESS ON MARCH 27TH 2021!
CHECK OUT THE EARLY ACCESS LAUNCH DATE TRAILER!
[previewyoutube="HKGkbcjlqts;full"]
That's right, I'm launching my crazy little party game into Steam early access in less than 2 weeks!
This is a huge milestone for Metal Heads, one of which I am both extremely excited for, but simultaneously nervous about.
Making a game as a solo dev is a damn hard task, especially one of size. But I'm so glad I decided to do it, and I'm excited to keep on doing it for a while, because I have some CRAZY plans for the future, but it all rests on the success of Metal Heads, it all rests on a combination of me making something that you guys want, and for you guys to support it.
And you AWESOME gamers have definitely been supporting the game! :D
Now, I want to get real about the Early Access launch with you, because I don't want you to feel overhyped or mislead.
This Early Access launch is going to be a bumpy ride. It's like I'm flying a plane that is all shot up, and trying to land it in a thunderstorm on a mountainside road (that's a thought! NEW MINIGAME!).
I'm relatively confident I can stick the landing, but at the same time, realistically, I could crash it/botch it, and it'll be horrible...
But even if the early access launch doesn't go smoothly, I will be more determined than ever to make sure that every bug, every problem and issue you run into, will be fixed, whether it be in a few hours, or a few weeks, these issues will be logged, and they will be resolved in time.
That being said, I am so damn excited for you guys to play some of the new mini-games (which were available during the Autumn Steam Games Festival, and the board game mode, even if it's in an unfinished form. I think I have something unique here, but it will need refinement, and tweaking to make it truly awesome and fun.
I ask that you all keep being amazing, and I thank you all for your incredible support.
The future of Metal Heads is bright, and I can't wait for what this future is going to be like!
THANK YOU!
YOU ROCK!
BOARD GAME PROGRESS
I hope you are all feeling mighty fine and rockin life!
Metal Heads is coming out in Early Access launch possibly within the next 5 weeks, and this is both SUPER exciting....but extremely daunting as a solo developer with no budget.
I wanted to share with you a little work in progress screenshot of the board game map that will be available in early access. Bear in mind that this is unfinished and still has a lot of work to do on it, but I still wanted to show you guys anyway.
This month, I have worked a lot on the board game mode, making sure that the gameplay is fun and engaging for all players, but also offering something new and unique to the party game genre.
I have been making good progress this month and I'm confident that I can deliver something that I hope you will enjoy.
However, realistically, I can't predict the future, and if game development has taught me anything, it's that you can be super confident one minute, and the next, you feel crushed, confused and frustrated all because of something so incredibly small, and it takes days, sometimes weeks to resolve, so while I am confident that I can deliver a finished or almost finished board game experience to you by Early Access launch, I ask that you please bear in mind, that the board game may not be ready, along with other mini-games and features, and may arrive in a less than finished state (I hope to avoid this of course).
Sadly I do not have the luxury of delaying the launch until it is better, so will have to launch into early access sooner rather than later so that I don't run out of money.
While this is all very doom and gloom, I have to thank you all yet again for being so incredibly awesome.
Thanks to your downloads, but more importantly, your WISHLISTS, Metal Heads should be given a little bit better exposure when launching into early access.
Steam's algorithm looks at how many wishlists a game has, and if it is a high number, there is a higher chance of the game being put on the front page, or in a prominent position for higher visibility.
This is why us game developers are so pushy with asking you to wishlist our games :P
The purpose of this post was really just so I can keep you up to date.
It is a bit impromptu and unorganized, but that's generally how I am.
Thank you all once again for being freakin AWESOME.
Without you, Metal Heads would be unknown, it would be tucked away in the corner of Steam and ignored.
So while I may be the developer behind the game, you guys are the ones who ultimately determine it's success, so I cannot thank you enough.
YOU ROCK!
"SUDDEN DEATH" UPDATE!
VERSION:
"SUDDEN DERP #1 (public)"
(This is the version number you will see in the bottom right of the main menu.)
WHAT IS IN THIS UPDATE?
Let's get the big one out of the way first!
Many players are playing the game and are confused about the scoring system.
It was designed so that those who survived the end of the timer, win, even if all 8 players survived, but then how do you determine the winner out of those 8 players? With points, that's how..
But this was never conveyed properly and many people just didn't understand what the purpose of points were, so I had a few options, but ultimately decided on this:
SURVIVAL MINI-GAMES:
The timer no longer counts down, it is last player alive wins.
If there is just 1 player left, SUDDEN DEATH mode kicks in, the music will change, and the gameplay difficulty will be increased significantly since that player has already won and it's really just allowing that player to show off a little bit while everybody else laughs at their attempt to survive.
POINT BASED MINI-GAMES:
Any mini-game where players need to collect points (none in the public demo right now), and there is a tie breaker when the timer runs out, SUDDEN DEATH mode will kick in, which extends the round and pretty much creates a point collecting bonanza for a short period of time (10-15sec) then a winner is decided. If there is STILL a tie breaker, then more extensions are given until there isn't a tie breaker.
ROUND BASED MINI-GAMES:
These don't need any adjustments, this is simply a case of "Best to 3 points wins", however something that isn't explained is why when there's more than 4 players, it's "Best to 2 points wins".
This is because during testing, games could go for a rather lengthy period of time when it was best to 3, especially with 8 people playing.
In time, once I add in some gameplay customization options per mini-game, you will be able to modify these settings to your liking before playing the mini-game. So if you don't like SUDDEN DEATH, you can turn it off, or you could change it to trigger when there are x amount of players left for example.
Same goes for Point Based modes and round based modes.
There's still more work to do with SUDDEN DEATH mode, but I will be working on that over time.
BUGS BUGS BUGS!!!!!
Many of you have been playing the game and putting up with some really nasty bugs, many of these are addressed and some of them I simply cannot replicate or simply will not be able to fix.
The best thing to do is ensure you have an Xbox or Dual Shock controller if you have problems.
INPUT/CONTROLLER BUGS
Some players have run into input problems, where there is a loss of Input from the controller, buttons being switched around, or simply not getting any input in the first place.
Here are some reasons these problems exist:
1. You are playing with a keyboard:
Metal Heads is designed for controller, however I have tried to implement keyboard support over time.
It is experimental and has been fairly broken, thus causing many issues, especially when playing online.
Heck you couldn't even drop into a game in progress with a keyboard (that is fixed now).
2. You are using an unsupported 3rd Party generic gamepad.
Metal Heads is designed to be used with Xbox one controllers and Dual Shock controllers, however due to using RAW Input, most controllers will work, even Joysticks.
ALTHOUGH, some controllers simply don't work, or don't work well. Especially controllers that have "modes" on them.
Typically these modes are designed to switch between Direct Input, XInput and/or RAW Input, but switching these modes while in game WILL break the gameplay, it will identify as a brand new controller and could potentially mean creating a new character on the same PC.
IF you are using one of these controllers, find a mode that is most functional, and leave it on that mode.
3. You are using a 3rd Party controller driver
Whether it is for emulation or another reason, these drivers are great, and necessary for a lot of people to use emulation software, however they can actually break your game's input.
4. STEAM/VALVE are working on new controller drivers of their own.
That's right...Steam/Valve are working on their very own controller drivers to allow all types of controllers to work with Steam, but I believe that you need to opt into the Steam beta client in order to access these drivers.
HOW TO ACTIVATE STEAM BETA
CHANGE LIST:
- Reworked scoring system, it should work more accurately now. Players with the same scores however will be broken and show 4th, 5th, 6th for example rather than all 4th.
- Slow connection players were sometimes not lighting up when returning to lobby/character screen after a mini-game, this is now fixed.
- FORCE START now actually works in the lobby and tutorial screens.
- ALL Characters should now respawn properly in round based modes like Oh Balls and Termination Trail.
- Players should no longer lose input after a mini-game is restarted.
- Oh Balls characters should no longer have input on round start (although sometimes there is minimal movement, so I need to try and brute force the balls to stay put)
- Termination Trails now are actually removed between rounds. Previously some trails would stay on the level.
- Players in OFFLINE mode should now appropriately be named P1, P2, P3, P4 etc
- Tap Out movement should now be fixed up and nice and smooth while playing online.
- Deadly Disco lights now actually function for clients.
- Updated most of the tutorial videos.
- Fixed up some audio problems where clients couldn't actually hear all of the characters dying, jumping etc.
- Dark Dangers camera is now a dynamic camera, but may be changed back to being static again.
- Ghost's capes now are transparent as well.
- The Roman and Gladiator heads now are coloured to match the player colour
- Clients can now actually exit to the main menu from the character select screen, where-as they previously couldn't.
- Improved drop-in/drop-out functionality. There are only some minor bugs regarding late joining players.
+
A whole bunch of work on other unreleased content that will be hopefully be released for Early Access.
This other work is what has taken up a lot of time, and I'm also helping do renovation work for a house that my girlfriend and I will be moving into once renovation is complete and this is exhausting work, especially during Summer (in Australia). This renovation work generally depletes me of my energy and it takes a while for me to get the focus and energy to keep doing game dev afterwards.
WHATS NEXT?
I need to do more testing for major bugs, but I will be working towards overhauling the tutorial screen in the next few days before the end of the month, and then when February starts, I'll be dedicating almost 100% of my time to making the board game mode work properly and actually be fun.
It's no simple task, especially with drop-in/drop-out multiplayer, but I'm confident that I will get it done!
Aside from the board game mode, I'll also be working on the boss fight since they go hand in hand.
Thanks guys!
If you have any questions, feedback etc, do not hesitate to ask on the forums, or on the Metal Heads Official Discord server:
OFFICIAL DISCORD SERVER
YOU ROCK!!!
