I know we've had this build up on our Beta channel for some time - you know we've been doing that, right? - but now we're *finally* making it official. It's a pretty massive overhaul since the last official build, so I'll try to be as complete as possible with all the new features. But I'm bound to forget some.
Chamber of Hell aka "Heck in a Cell" ("Quiet boy, you wanna get sued?") - Yep, it's an enclosed cage, and it's gorgeous. Lots of fun tricks with this match mode:
You can escape the cage by Irish-whipping your opponent into the doors (located on the sides of the cage) five times. The door will bust down, and it's glorious, glorious freedom.
Once you're out, you better believe you can climb those walls and get up top. Tap RB to mount the cage, then climb up/down/left/right with the analog stick. The camera will zoom way out until both you and your opponent are on top.
What kind of a cell match would it be if you couldn't bust the top panels? You can break the middle or corner panels by repeatedly doing strong grapples to your opponent until it breaks. (You'll know you're doing it right if the panel deforms.)
You better believe you can fall in the opening, so be careful, dammit. As anyone who has watched me play this build on Twitch, it's easy to look foolish. (Note: you can't mount this opening and moonsault off it - yet.)
Scaffold match - Every bit as insane as it sounds. This match type is admittedly a work-in-progress, but holy hell does it have potential. It's a weird one to figure out, here's a few tips to get started:
To climb the scaffold, hit RB and start climbing (just like the cage).
There's a few platforms to mess around on, things get a little rickety at the top.
The most confusing thing about this match is how to win it. It's just like a traditional scaffold match, you have to chuck your opponent off the scaffold. Admittedly, it's not super-intuitive to figure out, here's how you do it:
You can only throw your opponent from the middle of the top platform.
You have to have a Special, and your opponent has to be in Danger.
Strong grapple your opponent when these conditions are met, and hit the X button. Each character has a special Scaffold grapple, and the result is pretty horrendous (unless you like terrible, terrible violence.)
New moves and animations – Too numerous to mention, but there's lots of fun to discover. (Personal faves include a pretty sweet spear and a niiiiiiice bicycle kick.)
Improved stability and performance - Badly needed, things are much more stable now. Not to say there aren't glitches and such, but most people should be able to run the game at a decent FPS now.
CAW CAW CAW - We completely blew this up and made it better. Lots and lots of options here, it would take me way too long to list all the new stuff. Go in and play. (And you have 150 slots to mess with now!)
SIMMMMMMMM - You have the ability now to have all the characters be CPU for your simming pleasure. No wagering. (But if you do, know that there appears to be a Player 4 bias. He cheats or something.)
Hockey stick - We've got ourselves a new weapon :-)
Better blood - No more white halos around the blood!
Better audio controls - Sliders are a good thing, no more global on/off. Yeah, I know we probably should have made an exception for the background music (with a setting labeled "Kill It Forever"), but admit it, you're singing "she wants to beat him uuuuuuup" in your sleep....
Choose your arena – Now you can pick from the Shiny New Arena or the Classic PWX setting.
New game menu + UI - This still needs a lot of work, but we're slowly making this better. We're trying to shoot for something more like Fire Pro, where you can set up all the match options on as few screens as possible. The screen flow is better, but needs more polish.
Lots and lots of bugfixes.
HUGE thank you to all our testers and our crew for their hard work. We hope you guys enjoy this one.
Twitch Gong Show - September 21 at 9pm ET
It's been a couple of weeks, time to fire up another edition of the Thursday Night Gong Show on Twitch:
We'll get going around 9pm Eastern. What else are you gonna do, watch the 49ers vs Rams? We have to be better than that, right?
Bring your questions and your feedback, look forward to hanging with y'all. COME SAY HEY!
Join us for our Sept. 7 Twitch Gong Show at 9pm ET!
OK gang... a lot of you have been watching our (mostly) weekly Twitch broadcasts, but we're complete dopes for not making this obvious on our Steam page. So:
If you're looking for updates on all things Pro Wrestling X, come join us on Twitch! We usually broadcast Thursday nights around 9PM Eastern, stay tuned to our Facebook page and Twitter feed for confirmation.
Tonight – September 7 – we'll be checking out the latest build that just arrived from our developer. Lots of bugfixes!
And for those who haven't checked it out yet, we'll show you how to access these bleeding edge builds. They are a LOT different than the current live version.
Here's the link, hopefully we see a bunch of you tonight!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, gang. Yeah, it's February already, but we've been busy adding tons of new content to the game. It's another monster update, here's the rundown:
<*>NEW ARENA - Man, Mr. Wrestling 5 (our lead artist/animator) has done a bang-up job with the new arena. Lots of shiny new goodness, and plenty of platforms and things to climb on.
Climbing works just like the cage - go to a wall or anything that looks like you can climb, and hit the right shoulder button (RB on XBox controllers) to start climbing. There's quite a few places - some very high - to get to, and yep - you can toss people off and even take a dive yourself.
SUPER IMPORTANT: Right now, the climbing and such only can be done in 1 v 1 Hardcore Matches. We're working on the other modes!
Brace for the OW.
<*>Improved frame rates - Yes, we've always maintained that the FPS is a lie, but things are getting much better on that front.
<*>ROARING ELBOW - It's pretty much mandatory, that phrase always has to be in all caps. Looks sweeeeeeeeet.
<*>Along with the ROARING ELBOW, there's a spinning kick, a "rifle" taunt that old-school fans of Pro Wrestling X might recognize, and something Robert calls a Death Shake. (Doesn't that sound like something you'd get at an evil McDonald's on Halloween?)
<*>(That's comedy gold, right there. It's really just a tribute to Dr. Death Steve Williams.)
<*>Reworked the crowd sprites, there's a few easter eggs sprinkled about.
<*>CAW movelist - You can now customize the movesets for the wrestlers. Not super deep yet, but we're sloooooooowly getting there.
<*>Improved animation syncing, so things should feel even smoother now.
<*>Dumping the version numbers - Version numbers are dumb, and 1.0 means a million different things to people, so we're just going to ditch them to avoid confusion. Sorry to everyone who was hoping to see version 0.999999999999.
<*>Lots of glitch and various bug fixes, including - we hope - fixing the elusive "can't climb" bug.
Have fun, gang.....
Version 0.998 - CAGE + RAGDOLLS!
It's another MASSIVE update that's been a few weeks in the making. For those who have been watching our Twitch broadcasts, you've seen just how big this update is. This is FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY the cage update, fully complete with the crazy ragdoll knockouts.
There's a TON of new match modes and features, but with all those new features came a TON of bugs. (Thank you to our Bug Squad for helping us track these down.) Hence the long delay since our last update - really sorry about that.
So without further ado, here's the rundown of everything new:
<*>CAGE CAGE CAGE - Old Blue is now in the game, and it's awesome. To climb the cage, walk through the ropes and hit the Right shoulder button (RB). Once you are on the cage, you can move up, down, left and right. When you climb up to the top, you'll come to a seated position, straddling the cage. From there, tap RB to climb over, or hit A to attempt a diving moonsault.
For the love of all that is holy, don't miss that moonsault or you'll be dead.
Also: we hear ya on the front cage wall needing transparency. Expect some kind of a setting for this soon.
<*>RAGDOLLS - You better hurry up to the top of that cage and do what you gotta do, or else you're gonna come down the hard way. If you or your opponent run into the ropes and crash into the cage while someone is climbing it, it's the worst-bump-in-history time. The higher they are on the cage, the bigger the bump. It's the first time ragdolls have been used in a wrestling game, and they are a blast.
(We know, the forces and gravity are a bit whacky right now. But it's still a hell of a lot of fun, and we have some other fun tricks up our sleeves. Stay tuned.)
<*>SIM MODE - I've been begging for it, and Robert the Man delivered. You have the ability to make all the wrestlers CPU controlled. This is a blast, at least to a sim nerd like me. We were able to see the world's first double ragdoll in the cage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zTk5DgH08E - 19:00 mark), who will be the first to see three crashing at once?
<*>Render Modes - OK, for some of y'all, the last update made things run really rough. We're working on optimizing the settings so the FPS get a bit higher. In the meantime, we have a few options to help turn off some of the more processor-intensive items:
- Crowd Render Mode - Animate the crowd, turn that off, or for a real trip, kill the crowd altogether (we call this last one "TNA House Show Mode".
- Lighting Rendering Mode - The different lighting modes might help improve performance.
- Tron Render Mode - Choose how the Titantron displays: live video or a static texture.
<*>Frames Per Second Display - In the pause menu, you have the ability to toggle the display for the FPS. I gotta be honest here, I'm not sure this number is accurate. I think the FPS is a LIE. But let us know what kind of numbers you're getting, and we'll keep working at it.
<*>Hey, look at that... the logo on the entrance curtain doesn't disappear once you start a match. CONTINUITY!
<*>Wrestlers can now bring weapons into the ring from outside. He'll actually hold on to the weapon as he slides in.
<*>We've added the first running strike, a nasty clothesline. Before you comment: YES, the wrestler is throwing the clothesline with the left arm, that's why it looks weird. Personally, this drives me crazy, but we've got a few kinks to work out with it anyway. Rest assured I will continure to whine about it until they switch arms :-)
<*>We're experimenting with a different Tall Fighting Stance for Grimhold. This is definitely a work-in-progress.
<*>Speaking of Grimhold, he's the first of our wrestlers to get his own special finisher, the Ballista Bomb. It's a SICK double underhook powerbomb. Make sure you watch it in slow-mo, it's a thing of painful, painful beauty.
<*>The blending of a few animations have been improved.
Holy hell, that's a big update. Have fun and let us know what you think. (Be sure to upload your best ragdoll crashes to YouTube, we're dying to see more!)
Version 0.995 - Bug Fixes
In contrast to our last update, this one's pretty small, mostly bug fixes. I think we should start referring to our programmer as Robert the Mack Truck, cause he's hitting these bugs at 75 mph and turning them into total goo.
(Ok, that analogy sounded better in my head. But I'm sticking with it.)
Thank you to our Bug Squad for finding a lot of these obscure glitches.
Here's the rundown:
Fixed a strike reversal glitch.
Fixed the "Invisible third character" bug when selecting a single match and his name displaying in the HUD while in the match.
Improved the spotlight glow on characters during entrances.
Fixed a Character renaming bug. Now when you press the Z or X key while naming your Character or Ring, it will no longer exit the screen. The first person to create a wrestler named ZAZZLE XANDEZ and post the screen shot to the Steam forums will win a very lame prize.
Wrestlers no longer float on the ramp during gameplay. Which is too bad, that bug always cracked me up.
Grapples would sometimes not connect while in the dazed or idel mode. That's now fixed. The window for grapples to connect is now 3 seconds compared to 1.5 seconds in previous builds, and the radius around the opponent has been improved.
Fixed a glitch where you climb the turnbuckle and get stuck.
Striking the opponent has been improved. It now has a time-based window logic when the attack connects.
That jerk CPU will no longer spam dropkicks at you. There's now a window of time the AI can execute it.
AI no longer drops the weapon when entering the ring in hardcore matches. OH GREAT NOW HE'S ARMED.
Have at it, gang.
Version 0.99 - "IT'S A NEW GAME, YES IT IS!"
Just a massive, massive update, the largest in Pro Wrestling X history. And yes, we have the most absurd version numbering in software history. (An increase of 0.005 is normally saved for the dumbest, most obscure typo, likely in the comments. Not us, nope, no-sir-ee.)
Taking a deep breath, here's the run down:
Entrances - When you see this for the first time, I can guarantee you'll pop. Variety is a bit limited while we build out assets, so when the novelty wears off, just tap A and you'll skip 'em.
New match types - First blood, elimination, 2 out of 3 falls, hardcore matches have all been added. Now, a warning: when you set up the match, it will look like you can change the match rules. You can't, this is a glitch.
Rope breaks - The cruelest, most heel of escapes has been added.
Countouts - The most cowardly way to win a match has been added.
Dropkick counter - Hard to time it right, but you can now counter an opponent dropkick.
Video screens - You'll notice the video screen in the background actually broadcast your match now. WAY COOL.
Improved arena - Robert + crew really put some work into this, the arena now looks like it holds 8,000 - 10,000 people. And the seats are actually full, but maybe we'll put in a TNA house show mode down the road. (Oh ouch, that's a low blow. DELETE DELETE DELETE!)
CPU can grab weapons, and to be frank, it's kind of a jerk about it. If you're expecting the computer to just stand there looking at you when you get knocked down, yeah nope. He will whack the crap out of you were you're down.
CAW snapshot - You now have the ability to save a custom CAW thumbnail for usage in the character select screen. If you want to edit them manually, these get saved to StreamingAssets\Character_SnapShots.
Loading screens - YAH PROGRESS BARS!!!1 Yeah I know, not terribly exciting, but they look decent and you at least know if the game is loading or not. (It does really make the game feel snappier.) If you want to make your own loading background, dump them in \StreamingAssets\Loading_Screens.
Post-match score display - YES YES YES. Another markout moment for me personally. After the match, a summary of all the stats will display. Lots of work to be done here, but the potential for a lot of fun is quite big.
New crowd signs - Sanders/Keel and Fight Bret Fight were admittedly outdated, and we wish them well in their future endeavors.
Audio - refinements throughout for sound effects and music.
Voiceovers - Added new voiceovers in a lot of areas (First Blood, etc.)
A myriad of glitches have been fixed, some of which were spotted on the September 13 Twitch Gong Show. Nothing like seeing those pop up on a live broadcast.
Whew. As always, let us know what you think. And let us know any bugs on the Steam forums.
CAGE SOON.
Version 0.985 - "Odds & Ends"
Got a new update as we're still crawling our way to 1.0. This is more of a maintenance/cleanup release, but we threw in a few fun new things.
Audio - A lot of the in-game audio has been replaced. There's some bleeps and blorks in the menu, and the crowd noise is brand spanking new.
Breakable weapons - The kendo stick now disintegrates with repeated blows and it looks pretty sick as it goes through the various stages of destruction.
New splash screen - We were kinda sick of looking at the old menu, so our mysterious lead artist - Mr Wrestling 5 - rendered up a swanky new background.
Squashed a big where the weapon would float above the ramp. No more Harry Potter sh*t, haha.
Have at it, the cage is coming SOON!!
0.98 - "WEAPONS!!!1"
If you saw our Twitch broadcast a couple of weeks ago, this is the build we played. We've added some fun new features, and we've got one more update up our sleeves that will refine a few bits coming soon. Here's the skinny on the new update:
<*>Weapons - Oh hell yes. Just one weapon for now - we're trying to perfect the "baseball bat swing" style of weapon, and what better choice than a kendo stick. Three of them will be scattered about: one in the ring, one on the ramp, one outside the ring. Pick up the weapon with X, and swing it with A. Drop it with X, but why on earth would you want to do that?
Also fun: weapons are physics based, so you can pull off fun tricks dropping the stick in the right places.
<*>Blood spatter - OK, this is admittedly a little gross, but it makes for one hell of a visual when you crack an already-bleeding opponent with any strike. GORE GORE GORE!
<*>New flying attack - We've got our second flying move, a flying clothesline. I'm very upset typing that bullet point because I didn't realize this was added to the build during the last Twitch. Otherwise, that's probably what I would have been doing through the whole broadcast. And using Screenshot Mode to capture it, let's be honest. Get on the turnbuckle and hit B instead of A.
<*>Improved flying move timing - Robert the Man tightened up the connection timing on flying moves; the wrestlers should no longer faint in anticipation of the attack, now they get blasted like they should.
Like I said, we're currently testing one more update that should go out the door soon. Mostly audio and UI refinements, we'll keep ya posted!
Version 0.965 - "Remap THIS"
A small update, but a significant one. Here's the list of new stuff:
No more overwriting screenshots - Screenshots used to be named Screenshot_01, Screenshot_02, etc. So every time you'd restart the game, you might accidentally overwrite an epic screenshot. ASK ME HOW I KNOW THIS. The time + date is added to the file name now, so you should be good.
Sweet Macho Man, we can FINALLY remap the controller buttons. Big ups to Robert on this one. Find it under Options > Remap Controls. Don't be scared, there's TONS of buttons - just take your time and knock 'em out one by one. Save the controls with the "Save and Exit" button located right underneath the controller graphic. Might take a second to find it otherwise, ASK ME HOW I KNOW THIS.
Make sure you get 'em all too. If you only do the buttons and you have some weird Czechoslovakian controller or something, you might start spinning if you enter Screenshot Mode. ASK ME HOW I KNOW THIS.
Fixed a bug in CAW where textures weren't being affected by the RGB slider. Go ahead, make those tights as bright and garish and ugly as you can.
