UPDATE 2.13 - Brand New Photo Realistic Asteroids Added As an "Option" To Rock 'N Roll!
With this update, I've actually went out and found real rocks near my home, took pictures of them, uploaded them to my computer, and edited them to look like realistic or at least slightly believable looking asteroids!
With asking people what they thought about the new look of the asteroids in Rock 'N Roll after I added them to this game, I found that the feedback I received was very split. Some liked the new look and thought it greatly improved the overall look and feel of the game while others much preferred my standard hand dawn asteroids.
So the only logical conclusion was to give YOU the player an option in the game! YOU get to decide what you like better and can find this new option in the SETTINGS which is accessed from the games main menu. Your choice is saved so that next time you launch the game, the last asteroid look choice you made will be loaded by default until you change it again.
You can look at the comparison images here, but if you play the game and like one setting over the other, I'd love to know what YOU like better and how you now play Rock 'N Roll! ..Please put your preference (and why if you can) in the comments below as I'd love to know! :-)
Happy Fathers Day out there and Game On! ..Until next time, have fun and enjoy life!
Updated DEMO is out with Recently Added "Monster Rock!" and "Earth Protect!" Content!
The Rock 'N Roll Demo has been updated so that anyone looking at playing this game before buying can give all the new content up to date a try. Everything works just as it does in the real version, shortcuts to play the new content.. and all.
- The Demo has floating DEMO words over most of the game screens, but it doesn't affect gameplay.
- Most the Steam achievements have been removed from the Demo, as well as the ability to have your high scores uploaded to Steam.
- You now start with 2 lives in the Demo main mission (as opposed to just a single life in the previous demo. There is also no time limitation to the Hard Rock mode as in the previous demo, so play as much as you want for FREE!
- Extra lives CANNOT be obtained by any means in the demo (power-ups or point rewards)
Want to play the newest content "Monster Rock!" or "Earth Protect!" from this FREE demo? ..No problem! From the main menu, hit CTRL and M to launch "Monster Rock", or hit CTRL and P to launch "Earth Protect" right from the get go!
If you like what you play of the demo which allows you to play unlimited time with the restrictions listed above, please consider supporting me with a purchase here on Steam! I am a single indie developer with a family and kids, and your support would be greatly appreciated! :-)
..Have fun out there!
UPDATE 2.12 - Introducing the All New "Earth Protect!" Bonus Round! How Many Points Can You Rack Up?
Last weekend, I launched "Monster Rock" to Rock 'N Roll to give players another challenging yet fun end level battle in this game...
And now, I am pleased to say a whole new end-level bonus round has been coded and added to Rock 'N Roll! I call this new mode "Earth Protect!" and while it's all about blasting asteroids again, this time things work a little different.
Once you start the Earth Protect mode, you'll quickly see that you can no longer fly around wherever you desire, but instead rotate around the Earth in an orbit. Simply rotate clockwise or counter clockwise and blast the incoming asteroids before they smack the Earth! You'll see how many asteroids at it's usual location in the UI and the trick here is simply keeping Earth as healthy as you can before the round ends.
- The Earth CANNOT be destroyed on this mode!
- You CANNOT die in this mode!
"Earth Protect" is all about giving you a fun round to try and gobble up some resources to sell and score as many points as you can before it ends. In the middle of the UI, right underneath the Earths health bar, you'll see the score for this round so far, and to the right of that you'll see a score multiplier. Keep Earth from getting a scratch, and after the last asteroid has been taken out, you could rake up to a 50X score multiplier! ..That's the potential for a lot of points just for having a quick fun round with zero risk of losing lives or getting the Earth destroyed!
CONTROLS for Earth Protect:
With the controller, left and right on your left thumb stick rotate your ship around Earths orbit. A button to fire, and right throttle allows you to move at double speed around the the Earth.
Using the Keyboard and Mouse:
A & D to rotate left and right. W or SHIFT moves you at double speed around the Earth. Left Mouse button or Space fires.
The R key on the keyboard can be toggled on and off in this round to give you permanent 2X speed without needing to use a button or key to throttle. Each game will remember this throttle setting if you play more then one round of Earth Protect in a game, but if you start a new game, you'll need to hit the R key again to activate it again.
Keep in mind, all of the key bindings are adjustable to whatever keys you prefer from the controls settings on the main menu.
Health packs can be collected in this round as they pass by and instantly restore a little of the damage done to the Earth. Resources will also float by you to tempt you. Resources score their typical immediate points for collecting them and can be sold at the Galactic Selling Station after the bonus round for the usual choices of either more points or GalaxCasH to buy cool stuff and upgrades at the Galactic Upgrade Station (GUS).
This table, though old now is still very accurate today on points and GalaxCasH values I do believe. It should give you a good idea anyhow of what is worth what if you haven't seen this chart yet:
Want to play or try out the "Earth Protect!" mode without needing to advance there? As with my "Monster Rock!" end-level challenge mode I added last week, you can start a new game right at the "Earth Protect!" mode by holding CTRL and pressing the P key on your keyboard from the Main Menu. As with using CTRL and M to go right to "Monster Rock!" from the main menu, this will label you as a "cheater" at the end game stat screen and your game score will NOT be uploaded to Steam. But this offers you a fast and easy way to jump right to the content you want should you feel the desire to do so! ..Options are always good, right? ;-)
I hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Fathers Day to you all especially if you are a father out there!
As always, "Rock On!"
** NOTICE OF PRICE INCREASE TO $7.99 USD EFFECTIVE MONDAY JUNE 18, 2018 **
Hello everyone! Rock 'N Roll started out last July as a small 28 MB game file when it launched in early access at that time. I never envisioned back then that this game would become what it has today. While I raised the price to $5.99 USD last October picturing then that this game was almost complete, it has continued to evolve, get better and have much more content jammed into it.
While I had hoped then that $5.99 would be my final price as I never really designed this game to be more than a budget game, I strongly feel now that this game warrants a $7.99 price tag and can still offer incredible value. A game like this is just not going to have a mass appeal because of it's simplistic graphics in today's modern 3D and VR world we live in, that's the reality. However, to those who know that a game can offer high replay value and great content in a two dimensional realm, this game might "still" be a "steal"!
Here's a list of just the biggest content additions to Rock N Roll since it launched on July 13, 2017 in early access at a $2.99 price tag:
- Completely new graphical and UI overhaul to give Rock 'N Roll a fresh new look and feel for its one year anniversary this summer!
- The all new "Monster Rock" end level battle of brute force and need to save the Earth which puts G.E.O.S. gems at an all time high level of importance
- Customized volume setting sliders and graphics resolution sliders added
- The ability to save your progress in the mission mode in up to four save slots from the Galactic Upgrade station and return at any time later from the games main menu
- The "Up Your A55" update which allows you to upgrade your A55 Kicker turret to have advanced AI to track down asteroid threats and enemies with different priorities
- An end level enemy that shoots balls of lightning at you in a danger filled boss battle of willpower!
- Tons of new power-ups with unique and interesting dynamics such a "Mother Sucker", "ET (Evanescence Tranquility)", and "Zaxpoleon Dynamite" which can completely change the odds and put them in your favor! (14 total power-ups can be collected in all in Rock 'N Roll which started with only 4 last summer)
- The Ultra fast paced and frantic "Hard Rock" mode, completely separate from the primary mission mode of Rock 'N Roll
- The A55 Kicker friendly turret designed to help you clear the hell that asteroids shatters can create
- Global Steam Leaderboards so you can compete against Steam players and friends all over the world!
- ZAC Anti Cheat to try and protect your high score from easily being topped without someone actually even competing fairly
- Over 100 Steam Achievements with more planned in the very near future!
- M.E.S.A. (Mass Energy Shield Augmentation) Ship Shield Protection
- End of game Massive Statistics and Performance Grading system to grade you on how well you performed given your specific game situations
- G.E.O.S. Gems and the ability to purchase them in the "upgraded ship upgrade station" between levels.
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With that, and as an indie game reviewer myself where I grade every indie game on Steam I review mostly on "value" considering bang for your dollar, I firmly believe that Rock 'N Roll is one of the best Asteroids style games available on Steam today due to the amount of depth and content it delivers.
Keep in mind that Rock 'N Roll will still be available in a bundle deal combined with Laser Ball to offer you a good discount as well.
As always with all my 100+ Rock 'N Roll updates and announcements since it launched last summer... "Rock On!" and have fun out there with whatever game(s) you enjoy!
UPDATE 2.11 - Another Step in Overhauling Rock 'N Rolls Overall Look & Feel! - Completely New Upgrade Station Mechanics!
In update 2.10, along with the Monster Rock content, an new selling screen was introduced to Rock 'N Roll to give it a clean and fresh look.
In this update, I've completely overhauled the Galactic Upgrade Station, and even gave it a brand new nickname I call "GUS"! We all love visiting good ol' GUS don't we? ;-)
Now, instead of just moving a highlighter around the screen to choose your upgrades, you can actually fly your ship around and highlight exactly what you're interested in! When your ship is over a desired choice, you'll see both your cash and the cost of the upgrade item in the familiar new UI at the top of the screen. Simply fire with the controller or the mouse to make your purchase!
Spherical indicators also show you any game saves you currently have, so you'll always know if you have any empty save slots available to save your game on this screen as well. Remember that game loads are done from the main menu, and the you can only save your game progress from the Galactic Upgrade Station ("GUS"). The game save indicators here now are consistent with the game load indicators seen on the new start menu introduced back in April.
*** The Spawn Rates of ALL AI Enemies has been Increased ***
Not only have I increased the rate of enemy spawn during your normal waves of levels closer to what it used to be last summer when Rock 'N Roll was brand new, but I've also given the RSA (the red shooter alien that looks like red space jellyfish) a big hunger for resources! The RSA absolutely loves, loves, loves him some delicious cobalt, but any resource will do if he sees it now! The shinier it is, the better it tastes in his eyes!
The RSA will now target and eat any resource within his vision as he continues to fire away at anything within range! Once you or your A55 destroy him, you'll have a chance to recover up to two or three resources he has gobbled up. Remember that the RSA will vanish if he goes off the left or right side of the screen, so be sure you blast him if you catch him devouring one of those valuable resources!
There's still more work to be done, but I feel that Rock 'N Roll is slowly getting sleeker and looking a little better with each new update. ..Please let me know what you think in the comments below and as always.. "Rock On Baby!"
UPDATE 2.10 - MONSTER ROCK Content is HERE! Battle the Dreaded VDS in a Grueling War of "Give and Take"!
It's here people.. and it's live NOW!
This is the 100th update and announcement for Rock 'N Roll since it was first uploaded onto the Steam platform a year ago this month! This makes the 68th actual game update announcement, while the other 32 have been announcements about other topics regarding this game.
I'm proud to announce that "Monster Rock" is the biggest update to the game to date offering a whole new twist to protecting the Earth!
Rock 'N Roll was always about protecting your loved ones back home on Earth, and those valuable G.E.O.S. gems (Galactic Emeralds of Sacrifice) are about to be more important than ever before!
In this all new boss battle mode, you'll be trying to protect Earth from getting destroyed and see it right on your screen! The evil and vile VDS is back and angrier than ever as he starts the action off by spawning in a massive asteroid (thus the name "Monster Rock"). You cannot simply kill the VDS in the first part of this epic battle as an electrical barrier keeps you and the VDS on separate sides of the screen, but that's okay because your priority now is keeping the Earth safe from harm!
Shots fired at the Monster Rock from both you and the VDS will slowly move this massive granite danger from and towards the Earth. If the Monster Rock crashes into the Earth, it's all over... unless you happen to have purchased or earned a G.E.O.S. gem before this war takes place! The G.E.O.S. gems will automatically be used to save the Earth just before it shatters into a cloud of blue and brown dust as long as you have any to spare! Whew! ..Thank goodness for those precious little magical gems, eh?
The VDS mission is to destroy the Earth, and if he does, it's an immediate "Game Over" for you in this boss battle! You won't go on if the Earth is destroyed here, even if you own 27 ships! ..No pressure!
Your mission is to protect the Earth and destroy this massive asteroid before it's too late! To destroy it, you'll need to use your firepower to push it into the electrical barrier than separates you from the dreaded VDS (Vaporous Death Spewer). Over time under the electrical charges of this barrier, the massive Monster Rock will slowly break down in size. Be careful however, as every time the massive rock breaks down, several asteroids are likely to fall off and present risk to both you and the Earth that you are trying to protect!
If you succeed in destroying the Monster Rock, don't breathe a deep breath yet, as your battle has only begun! Now, the electrical barrier will shut down and it will be your chance to get your revenge on the VDS who caused this whole mess! Taking him out as he roams freely about blasting rocks, you, and the Earth is probably easier said than done!
An A55 Kicker cannot be carried into this end level boss battle, however you can craft an A55 at a reduced cost by collecting the needed resource (shown to you in the same UI location as usual)
This boss battle has none of the usual power-ups from the normal levels found in Rock 'N Roll, however there is one power-up that you'll likely see in this new war! A red cross might be seen spawning at random locations occasionally, and if you collect it, your ship will change colors letting you know you've picked it up. Simply move your ship over the Earth to deliver instant healing power to your home planet!
If you succeed in this all new mission, you'll be rewarded huge with both points and loot, but that hardly compares to the satisfaction of knowing you've protected all of your loved ones back home on Earth, right?
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Want to try out "Monster Rock" but don't want to bother having to advance through one or two levels of asteroids to play it?
...No problem!
From the main menu, just hold down CTRL and hit your M key and you'll activate the "Monster Rock" cheat which will take you right to the battle with 5 handy dandy G.E.O.S. gems to use if needed as well!
NOTES: The Monster Rock cheat will flag you as a "cheater" on the final statistics screen at the end of your game (just for fun) and the Monster Rock content is not available in the Rock 'N Roll demo. - You'll need to purchase Rock 'N Roll to play this all new content, sorry! ;-)
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^^^^^^^_ OTHER CHANGES MADE IN UPDATE 2.10 _^^^^^^^
* The look of the Galactic Resource Selling Station has been changed for a new, fresh look and feel.
* You'll now have the opportunity to sell your resources after the asteroid wave before you enter the boss battle (which could now be either the alien boss ship or the monster rock content) and again you'll go to the Galactic Selling Station after your boss battle before then moving on the the Galactic Upgrade Station. So, you'll now be able to sell your resources twice, once before the boss battle, and once after the boss battle.. before moving to the upgrade station.
* Fixed an issue which caused the mystery power-up to sometimes not be any power-up at all.
* Fixed an issue with the 25 GEOS Gems Steam achievement not sending the information to Steam. If you've earned this achievement in the past, it should now show as a completed Steam achievement.
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I'm sure there will be some issues and bugs that come up as people play my new content in Rock 'N Roll. Please feel free to tell me your thoughts below and also please use the sticky bug reporting thread in the forums should you find any bugs or issues that might occur.
Monster Rock is something I first came up with as just an idea way back in January of this year, and I'm happy to say that it is finally here!
As always, "Rock On!" I hope you enjoy the new update!
The Base Plans for Monster Rock Have Been Made.. Coding Has Begun.. Monster Rock Is On Its Way!
You can take a look at the highlights of my livestream where I brainstormed the Monster Rock content HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGg0RlpXMps
If you want to watch the full 2+ hour long stream, that can be seen HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiK0DHd9d7g
I hope to have a working version of Monster Rock by the end of this week. Once I have it working, I will follow up with a TEST build to let anyone who is curious test it out before I finalize it and patch it in the live game build for everyone.
If you have any comments, ideas, or even just a "thumbs up", please comment below and let me know your thoughts or that you are just looking forward to it!
You'll hear from me soon with more information....
UPDATE 2.09 - UI & MENU Changes (Phase 2) - Overhaul to Rock 'N Rolls User Interface and Menus
In this update, a small performance boost should be noticed in overall game performance with some optimizations that have been done to the game. The scary thing with optimizing a game is that sometimes it might break some mechanics or small workings that were overlooked during the re-work of the code. ..Please let me know if you notice anything that I may have "broken" in this optimization process.
The bigger, much more obvious changes are the overall look I've made to the main menu and the settings screens of this game. You can see the differences shown below between the old screens and the new screens for each.
This update also includes a new tutorial UI overhaul to match the UI changes made in phase 1 of these changes back in April (Update 2.08)
More updates will follow to other screens and menus and I still plan on adding my "Monster Rock" content.. My goal is to get this game completely overhauled and the new content added this summer. It's amazing how much work and time even a small 2D game like this can take as a self taught and independent indie developer. At this point, I have easily passed 400 hours of time poured into this game, and I hope that the people who play this game enjoy it even half was much as I've enjoyed creating it. :-)
Please let me know what you think in the comment section below!
UPDATE 2.08 - UI Changes (Phase 1) - Complete Overhaul to Rock 'n Roll's User Interface (UI) Is In Progress!
I've been working on completely overhauling the UI for Rock 'n Roll for the past two or three days now when I've gotten some time to work on it.. I have backed up the version as we know it now before I started changing everything to give Rock 'N Roll a new, hopefully cleaner look. (So I can easily revert if needed)
This update is the first of probably a few patches coming to Rock 'n Roll to try and overhaul it for a cleaner overall look. Here is what has been done so far in this patch and a comparison of today's patch VS what we knew before today.
You can see a bigger image of the comparison in the UI at this link:
https://imgur.com/anSmN2N
Please let me know your thoughts and opinions below! Do you like the new look? Maybe you like the UI better now as it is? Whatever your thoughts, your feedback is important to me so I can continue to mold this game into a game you and more people can enjoy.
FREE DEMO Is Now Available!
Due to fact there are hundreds of Steam users who have Rock 'N Roll on their "wish list" but who seem to maybe be hesitant about purchasing this game, I've added a fully playable and free demo that you can download!
To download and play the demo, just click the "DOWNLOAD DEMO" blue button just under and to the right of where you can make the purchase!
The demo allows you to play the full tutorial, the regular game mode at any difficulty you desire, and even get a taste of the "Hard Rock!" game mode!
The demo has NO time restrictions.. Play as much as you want for free!
The demo does limit you to a single life (ship) in the regular game mode and gives you no extra lives regardless of points scored. There are also no extra life power-ups as seen in the full game.
The demo restricts you to a 30 second per game maximum time limit in the "Hard Rock!" game mode, but should give a good taste of how this fast and frantic mode plays and feels.
All game modes also display the words "DEMO" in the background of the game screen, but shouldn't affect the gameplay at all. Purchasing the full game will remove these in the backgrounds.
You also cannot save, load, or earn Steam achievements in this free demo. The demo also does NOT upload any high scores. Make a purchase of the full game to activate all of these features!
I hope that this demo will help some people get a feel and taste for my game and have a better understanding of if this game is for them or not.
Happy Rock 'N Rolling everyone, with whatever your choice of games are!
