I wanted to post a quick announcement alongside Steam's SHMUP Fest. Because of Steam's required 30 day "cooldown" between Discounts, we actually could not run a discount that perfectly overlapped the SHMUP Fest. One that starts Wednesday morning is the soonest we could get away with.
Development?
The last few weeks have been tough. Alongside 1000's of other indie developers, the news with Unity's changing policies was a major blindside. Paper Planet is a Unity game. And while the eventual compromises to those policies are much more forgiving, it was a major blow to moral and productivity. A lot of trust in Unity as an indie-friendly engine has completely evaporated...
And while we're still excited about the future of Paper Planet, and have plenty of ideas for how it could be expanded next (including adding the Boss Dialogue system back in - sorry for the wait!!) it may take a bit of time to assess how/when/where exactly that effort will be spent.
Sorry there's not more to share at this time. I hope you all can understand what a low blow this was, and how crushing it felt to spend 5 years on a game, only to have it's future cast into a dark cloud of uncertainty a few weeks after release...
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More SHMUPS?
In the meantime, these 3 games from 2 Left Thumbs are also all taking part in the SHMUP Fest - each of which have big, robust demos that you could put dozens of hours into!
Schism is a challenging roguelite action RPG with guns, gods, leveling, and frequency-switching action. The combination of deep leveling and stat systems, full gun customization, deity worship, intense bullet hell combat, and difficult bosses make for a unique and highly replayable experience.
Picayune Dreams is a roguelike blend of bullet heaven horde survival, and bullet hell gameplay. Craft ridiculous and overpowered builds. Adrift across the endless void, you must fend off thousands of nightmarish and otherwordly creatures.
Cornered with nowhere else to turn, can you escape the monster-filled mansion? Dead Estate is a gory, fast-paced, challenging rogue-like shooter with a heavy emphasis on horror.
New action roguelite RPG from Paper Planet's Publisher!
Schism is a challenging roguelite action RPG with guns, gods, leveling, and frequency-switching action. The combination of deep leveling and stat systems, full gun customization, deity worship, intense bullet hell combat, and difficult bosses make for a unique and highly replayable experience.
Schism had similar inspirations as Paper Planet, following the RNG chaos and twitch action roguelike gameplay and overpowered runs of The Binding of Isaac. Then adding in the complexity and depth of traditional roguelikes, and the bullet hell switching of Ikaruga.
Be sure to check out the FREE Demo NOW! Your feedback at this time is invaluable! You can also join the Official Discord to have your thoughts heard.
And of course, be sure to add it to your Wishlist so you don't miss any updates or the upcoming release in Q4 2023. We are planning to launch in Early Access, starting at $8.99 and scaling up from there.
Release Hotfix r17056
- Added a bullet limit to the gameplay settings - Reworked spice of champions to spread its damage reduction more evenly - Fixed postrun item and stat windows not displaying properly
Release Hotfix r17034
- Added Chinese localization - Fixed some inaccurate extended text - Fixed red ball flying past Karmai if you shield it point blank with plane planet - Fixed incorrect staple values for achievements - Fixed bullet teleporting not working correctly with ancient dial, beam buddy, turret bullets, and turret buddy - Fixed stats not updating with carnage engine - Fixed seed pod's color being set incorrectly
Release Hotfix r16992
r16992
(Hopefully) fixed achievements not being achieved on Steam when earned in-game.
Made drone bay drag scale with Shot Speed.
Reduced Karmai's maximum firerate from +150% to +100%.
Made Karmai's spinning laser attack space out its yellow shots more evenly.
Slightly increased the size of the player's shadow object.
Increased the height of bullet masks on fires.
Made Tidal Wave's bullet blue.
Made Ancient Dial's bullet pink.
Changed Ancient Dial to fire at the nearest enemy instead of straight up.
Changed Castle Crusher to give 2x piercing and 2.5x damage on the 3rd shot and gave it a sword sprite.
Changed Concentrated Malice to block one shot each zone as well as damaging all enemies, Concentrated Malice is now a cursed item.
Increased the pull strength and radius of Singularity Generator.
Changed Banana's force calculation to make it less likely to fly offscreen or onto the planet.
Gave the Reflector and Tanker enemies a limit on how fast they can shoot bullets. The Reflector and Tanker now scale off of the Spice of Dakka.
Turret Buddy, Turret Bullets, and Ancient Dial will now update their aiming appropriately upon gaining and losing Bullet Teleporter.
Release Hotfix r16906
Hey hey, Karl here. Thank you for a wonderful launch! I've tried to fix all of the bugs (that I could track down) that were reported today, while Will took some (much needed) rest. There is a lot of work ahead, but for now, it's relaxation time. Now, have some bug fixes.
Changelog
Re-added updated Japanese and Korean translations.
Added dynamic translation credits to credits screen.
Fixed Steam achievements not getting earned until you close the game.
Fixed pausing, unpausing by hitting the "Resume" button, then winning or losing and returning to the main menu, and then pressing back, causing problems. Crazy.
Fixed pressing back not closing unlock announcements.
Fixed Karmai's looping laser sounds getting stuck if you died while they were playing.
(Hopefully) Fixed Farewell to Bitrate unlock requirements.
The bonus generic item will now appear second when purchasing items in the shop.
If you encounter any bugs, please consider joining our Discord to report them and interact directly with us - it usually results in the bug getting fixed that same day, or at least, it puts it on our radar quickly.
Paper Planet is a planet-defender, arcade roguelike with a doodley, Flash-inspired artstyle. Battle through waves of unique enemies and bosses. Combine items with strange and wacky effects for insanely overpowered runs. Play with 1-4 players, for some chaotic co-op fun!
📎 Over 160 items, with layered synergies 🪐 Multiple Planets types with unique mechanics 🎮 Support for local co-op with 1-4 players 📝 Standard, Creative, and Boss Rush modes 🌱 Seeded runs 🎉 LOADS of references!
MORE TO COME!
After 5 and a half years of development, as I'm sure you can imagine, it's a difficult thing to find a cut-off point. The game is fully release-ready, but we've already had talks of what's to come next!
1. Localizations - We unfortunately had to remove our Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean localizations for now. They simply needed more work, and we'd rather they not debut in an unpolished state. These will be added back in the moment they're ready. We are also crowdsourcing various other translations. Learn more about that here.
2. Mod Support - We've always known that Paper Planet's simplistic art style would lend itself well to mods. It keeps that artistic barrier nice and low! Work has already begun on crafting proper mod support with the Steam Workshop. We'll announce this as soon as it's ready!
3. Dialogue System - Many who played the demo will remember pre-battle banter with the bosses. This system is currently deactivated. The plan is to further polish and expand on that, while implementing localization support.
As soon as we've tackled some of these additions, we'll head back to the doodling-board, and will attempt to develop a longer term roadmap. There are heaps of ideas already circling! Want the most up to date information on development? Hop in the Discord!
COMING SOON
Already looking for the next hot new roguelike? Keep an eye on the deep, unique, challenging sci-fi bullet hell looter shooter: Schism. Be sure to Wishlist NOW so you don't miss out!
We wanted to celebrate the upcoming Paper Planet release with an official Art Contest, complete with cash prizes (up to $500) and game keys to be won! Don't forget to add the game to your Wishlist if you haven't already :)
Create a Paper Planet (reference material) themed piece of artwork (any style/medium is fine), based on ONE of the 5 in-game bosses pictured below (Phobos & Deimos come as a pair)
Submit your work to the Newgrounds Art Portal with the tag paperplanet by Sunday August 20th, 2023
(Optional) Tweet your artwork out with #paperplanet
Other rules:
You are allowed to submit one piece PER boss
No NSFW art
Submissions after the deadline will NOT be counted
By submitting your art to this contest, you agree that we may use your art (with credit given!) for digital "Trading Cards" on Steam
PRIZES:
Myself, Willops, and the rest of the dev team will pick our favourites.
There are no ranked placements. Instead there will be 1 top prize and 1 runner-upfor EACH BOSS! So there will be 5 Top Prizes and 5 Runner-Ups awarded total.
Runner-ups: 1 Steam game key
Top prizes: $100 + 1 Steam game key + Your art featured on a digital Steam Trading Card
Useful info:
We will announce the winners through the Newgrounds Forums, as well as on Twitter as quickly after the contest as possible
Copies of the game will be distributed to the winners as Steam keys upon release.
Cash prizes will be paid through PayPal.
Thank you for all the support so far. Paper Planet has been in development for years, and we're thrilled by the prospect of people finally getting the chance to experience the complete game!
We hope you enjoy playing through a few runs of the Demo for inspiration! And one more time, please be sure to add it to your Wishlists!
📎 PAPER PLANET 🪐 is coming AUGUST 21st!
After years of updating and supporting the public demo of Paper Planet, alongside all of your feedback and support, we are finally ready for a final release! Paper Planet will release on AUGUST 21st, priced at $15 USD (with a launch discount). Be sure to WISHLIST the game so you don't miss out!
Paper Planet is a planet-defender, arcade roguelike with a doodley, Flash-inspired artstyle. Battle through waves of unique enemies and bosses. Combine items with strange and wacky effects for insanely overpowered runs. Play with 1-4 players, for some chaotic co-op fun!
📎 Over 150 items, with layered synergies 🪐 Several Planets types with unique mechanics 🎮 Support for local co-op with 1-4 players 📝 Standard, Creative, and Boss Rush modes 🌱 Seeded runs 🎉 LOADS of references!
LOCALIZATION
Want to contribute to a crowdsourced localization effort? You can do so here!
As a small team, localizations often need to be a late-development consideration. This wonderful, beautiful community has taken it upon themselves to voluntarily contribute a complete Russian localization!! We are working to ensure that is fully implemented in time for our launch.
We will continue to add additional languages when time and resources allow. In the meantime, we wanted to create a centralized location where fans can contribute localizations for their preferred languages. Registration for Localizor is entirely free, and will allow you to submit suggestions, and vote on those provided by others in the community. The more languages we're able to crowdsource, the faster they can be added to Paper Planet! ❤️
What do you mean you're not in the Discord?! Hussle those buns on over! The more the merrier :)
Hotfix r13163
- Gave Raw Adamantine a shield icon over health and sound effect when it triggers. - Item text now renders over the planet. - Fixed clicking on book background of statistics scrolling to the top. - Fixed Railroad Bullets not interacting with items correctly + updated its descriptions. - Fixed Dividers erroneously having their speed exponentially grow when splitting due to Spice of Zoomies. - Fixed Lerben Cola not functioning with Plane Planet. - Fixed Phase Bullets and Rubber Band Ball not removing their planet-phasing effect when removed. - Fixed generic items that give Max Health not removing their health modifier when removed. - Fixed Max Health in general not recompiling its stat correctly at all. - Fixed enemies that killed you never being recorded. - Fixed Bay Blade not using the correct rotation when being fired from non-player sources. - Fixed the seed in the post-run screen not being the actual run seed. - Fixed game events TryPlayerHit and TryComboLost not preserving successes correctly. - Gave Magnet a custom bullet sprite - Gave spiral bullets a custom bullet sprite - Fixed Mr Stabby sometimes flying offscreen AGAIN - Fixed beam buddy spawning stationary flasks with flask cannon - Doubled the amount of metacurrency bossrush gives - Reduced base planet price and made planet price increase with each one you purchase - Added backgrounds to item box descriptions (and pickups) - Fixed seeds so they now work with unlocks and metaprogression! - Gave the continue box a propeller and slightly increased the amount of time you have to shoot at it - Fixed item effect animations playing at the wrong speed - Buffed the maximum rate lightning bottle can spawn extra bullets - Fixed tesla coil electricity masking UI elements - Buffed Joyous Oil to take 35% of your HP instead of 30% - Added lots of new background debris! - Fixed the post-run screen's "Killed By" window having weird bits in it
