such a small release, I'll just post all the changes right here:
Fixes
Shields were blocking damage that was supposed to go directly to your hull. This has been fixed.
The word "Shield" (whatever it is in your language) is no longer drawn below the bonus shield meter.
When Alien Teleporters granted invulnerability, they were only doing so for 1/60th as long as they should. This has been fixed.
UI
When you have tons of fuel, the fuel is now squished together, so that it doesn't overlap with the shield/armor/hull/accessory UI.
pretty-big update: 0.11.0
the full changelog is available at https://mysteriousspace.com/changelog/0-11-x/ but as always, here's a summary:
the largest change is the removal of "entropy" effects on equipment. I found, through playing with friends, that an equipment with an "entropic" modifier was almost guaranteed to be ignored by players. some of the entropy effects WERE too extreme, to be sure, but even when they weren't, the attitude towards them seemed to be "why take on a weird negative just to get a slight stat boost?"
SO: I removed all traces of "entropy" from the game! it took a lot of time, thinking, and effort to add all those effects, and it felt kind of painful to undo all that previous work, but I tried to remember one of my favorite quotes, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." (and I'm sure I could apply that philosophy much more than I do!)
to be clear, "static" effects still remain. I also took this opportunity to tweak a few "stasis" modifiers, mainly by making more of them increase in power with additional stacks of stasis.
other, smaller changes, include:
I added parallax background terrain on several types of planets, for extra visual "ooh!" and "aah!"
there are a couple new achievements! (and I also took the time to create graphics for almost all of the existing achievements! (finally!))
when visiting a civilization, or the source of the mysterious signal, you now ALWAYS gain the fuel required to travel (instead of only gaining that fuel when you wouldn't otherwise have enough)
the visual effect of "scrambled sensors" has been completely redone, using pixel shaders (I've also put pixel shaders to use in subtler places, such as the blinking effect of enemies when they take damage)
thanks for reading, and thanks for playing!
good luck, pilot!
a small update! 0.10.5 is released!
the full changelog is here: https://mysteriousspace.com/changelog/0-10-x/
but here’s a summary:
when it snows on ice worlds, there’s now snow on the ground! (just like in real life!)
those gnat things (Swarming Sirrah) no longer spawn like mad-crazy >_>
some performance improvements to saving & loading games
some equipment tweaks
what's this? AN UPDATE?! Mysterious Space v0.10.4 has been released!
(what has it been? like, a year??)
the full changelog is here: https://mysteriousspace.com/changelog/0-10-x/ but here's a summary:
I switched from DirectX to OpenGL. this allows the game to support generic gamepads (not just XBox 360-compatible), and up to 16 of them. DirectX limited us to 4, which meant Mysterious Space could only do up to 5 players (4 gamepads + keyboard); now Mysterious Space supports up to 8!
I also took the opportunity to tackle a couple gross bugs...
the lag that some players had been experiencing while playing the game fullscreen should now be fixed
when playing co-op and staying near each other, enemies will no longer spawn in the middle of each other's screens. (this does not fix beehives and the little black gnat things, which will sometimes spawn directly in view for other reasons >_>)
... add some new content...
a new type of planet: Crystal planets!
a smattering of new graphics
a new request that outposts may have for you
a new Advanced Technology effect
... and get in a few quality-of-life improvements:
UI for when a gamepad is disconnected during play, allowing you to reconnect or assign a new gamepad
customizable keybindings for directional keys
the mouse can now be used in some areas of the game (but not during play)
slightly-improved French translation, and improved support for translations in general (although there's still a bit to go...)
I have several other things I'd like to add to Mysterious Space - including smallish things like hazardous meteor swarms, and larger things, like an entirely new co-op mode - but I hesitate to make any promises about when such things might get released. hopefully in less than one year, anyway :P
have fun, and thanks for playing :)
0.10.3 released!
full changelog is here: https://mysteriousspace.com/changelog/0-10-x/
but before I summarize: there's a bug I've been experiencing on my computer, but haven't been able to reproduce anywhere else: in fullscreen mode, Mysterious Space runs SUPER-slow! unplayably slow! I've checked with a couple other people, and a couple other computers I have access to, and so far the bug SEEMS to be isolated to my computer...?? strange...
if you also have unplayably-slow framerates in fullscreen, please let me know!
ON TO THE CHANGES:
* eliminated more instances where you'd start a level RIGHT ON TOP OF A MINIBOSS. because that's super uncool.
* a new enemy: Wezen Web-walker
* a new accessory: Stasis Field Generator
* a few equipment & subroutine tweaks
* some Ocean worlds are now narrow and super-deep (I thought about doing this for Lava worlds, but that was too mean :P)
* made some improvements to the internationalization/translation code, to allow for more-complex string replacements. thank you, fedprod, for suggesting this!
Galaxy of Fish - a free game I made in 7 days for Emojiam
tl;dr: I made a game in 7 days. it's called Galaxy of Fish, and it's free, and you can get it here: https://benmakesgames.itch.io/galaxy-of-fish it uses some Mysterious Space graphics, and I'll probably turn around and use some of the graphics I made for Galaxy of Fish in Mysterious Space :P
LONG VERSION:
if you like programming, and you want to make a game, I really recommend gamejams! they're a great way to force you to think small: most gamejams only go for a few days - some only go for a weekend! you HAVE to think "what can I make in just a few days? what tools/assets/etc can I use to do this as quickly as possible?" so on one hand, you're almost forced to use the tools you're most comfortable with - where you'll learn the least - but at the same time, the bizarre, additional constraints of a gamejam (they usually add conditions, like "it has to inclue squash") make you think outside the box, and create a game you probably never would have made otherwise!
Mysterious Space was born from the "make a roguelike in 7 days" competition - the 7DRL - of 2014 (it was WAY worse back then, of course; you can still download the 2014 release at http://7drl.roguetemple.com). I'd made a couple lame horizontal shooters before, and I'd dabbled with rogulikes, and I'd done some things with C#/MonoGame, but I'd never combined all three; I might never have created anything like Mysterious Space if not for the 7DRL!
TODAY is the last day of the Emojiam gamejam - https://itch.io/jam/emojiam - which challenged people to make a game based on a game design document which is written in just a couple dozen emoji! ("emojis"?) I made Galaxy of Fish. which, again, feel free to give it a try: https://benmakesgames.itch.io/galaxy-of-fish but it's worth noting that there's not much to it :P
and there probably never will be?? I know I haven't been working on MS a lot recently, but it is a game I still really care about, and still have plans for! if I have to pick between working on Galaxy of Fish and working on Mysterious Space, Mysterious Space is the clear winner in my mind. just before the gamejam started, I put together a bunch of notes on things I want to do for the next releases of Mysterious Space: some bug fixes, of course, but also a new planet type, some tweaks to existing bosses, a new enemy, and some new equipment.
it's nearly the end of the month, however, and I'd like to keep to my end-of-the-month releases... still: I can probably at least sneak in a new piece of equipment and some bug fixes, even if I can't get a new planet type!
I'll keep you guys posted!
thanks for reading, and thanks for playing Mysterious Space! :)
tiny quickfix: 0.10.2
a change I had intended to deploy a couple days ago, related to new high score features, did not go out. I patched that in real quick, along with a little bugfix related to firesticks, and code for a new achievement.
part of the high score fix necessitated a change to how games are saved, so this release's saves are not compatible with 0.10.1 - sorry! I'll try to keep a better eye on this stuff in the future. (I also have some ideas about how to improve save game compatibility from release to release, but implementing that is going to be a slow process...)
side-note: I also spent some time today creating more graphics for achievements that have been missing some. this does not require MS updates - it's all stuff kept within Steam's database - so I can work on these easily, at any time. I'll try to get in a few more in the coming days!
0.10.1 is out!
here's the full changelog: https://mysteriousspace.com/changelog/0-10-x/
and here's a short post about my recent absence, and unexpected return to Mysterious Space: https://mysteriousspace.com/2017/06/12/mysterious-space-0-10-1/
tl;dr: there's a bunch of new stuff. and I'm back on MS because life is capricious; for how long, I cannot say, but at LEAST one more update... at least...
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thanks for still being here, even if I wasn't! and sorry about the long period of silence! next time it happens, I'll try to at least stop by now and again, so you guys can keep me up to date on both the wonders and failings of MS, and I can keep you up to date on what it is that's keeping me from working on it!
a new update is on its way!
I realize it's been quite a while! I was randomly inspired to work on Mysterious Space again, and am about ready to release a new update (on the 11th or 12th).
this update will have:
* a new miniboss
* a new enemy
* a new tutorial, which actually has you collect fuel from a planet
* a new terrain hazard: firesticks (a la Mario)
* more blessings for basic blasters (the "quadrupled damage while weakened" blessing was kind of lame, but no matter the blessing, there's a lot of basic blasters, so more possible blessings == better!)
* and a few more tweaks & fixes (a couple related to endless mode)
I want to see if I can squeeze in a little something else, so I'll play around with a couple more things tomorrow before releasing. and I'll post the full patch notes then!
makin' Mysterious Space on YouTube
I've started recording my Mysterious Space development, and uploading it to YouTube in 20-30 minute increments.
if you wonder how games are made, or how Mysterious Space is made, or you want to see what's coming up next in Mysterious Space, maybe give them watch :P https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAaN0HHfuFIWHIHDfiIEitg
