Here is a new update for Rocket Cave Adventure! Check out some new skills, a couple of hazards, some boss changes, and tiny milestone cosmetics! This will also mark the game's official release as it has been in early access for too long! Far too long.
Unfortunately, like my other game, Definitely Sneaky But Not Sneaky, this game did not find the public eye as I had hoped, so I must accept my losses and move on. The game is (mostly) stable and it's time I move on to other projects as having this one in this Early Access state keeps weighing on my mind. There will be updates in the future for this game with new skills and physics objects! So do not worry about this being the last update.
So onto the changelog!
Features:
New vehicle color customization - unlock 4 new colors for each vehicle as you beat each of the 4 areas to show how far you've come
New skill [Magic Sparks] - Reduced cooldown of [Tractor Beam]
New skill [Magic Wand] - Kills reduce the cooldown of [Tractor Beam]
New skill [Gold Wire] - Trigger [Auto Turret] when breaking an ore
New hazard - Water Drip - small water drips may be seen in new areas! They may seem innocent until they aren't!
New hazard - Giant Mushroom - Like the smaller mushrooms but a bit stronger
The game would freeze sometimes loading into The Hollows
The Key object was not spawning properly
Max Health achievement was not working
[Powder] skills not appearing for Gravity Cube vehicle during run
All spike balls make the player jump when colliding with the terrain (this should only happen with the Spider Knight boss)
New deposit quests' text was too long
Falling rocks can burn the player in the Lava Pits
Incorrect fill chunk used in The Hollows
Wrong level number displayed in post-level menu
Source of Slime and The Mothership bosses had incorrect spacing for the title text
End-of-floor stats were showing negative numbers
Balance changes:
Damage crystals can now be crushed
Xp thresholds lowered to make leveling up faster
Ore is slightly larger
Spider Knight boss health changed from 12 -> 10
Mothership boss spawns fewer UFOs during the fight
Small additions/changes:
Effects are shown in top-right UI icons updated with new icons
[Helmet] skill now shows visually in the top-right when active
The current gravitational-direction of Gravity Cube is now displayed next to the vehicle for better understanding
Spider Knight boss's spike ball now has a visual when activated
Air vent hazard now has a small model to reflect its base
Auto-turret SFX updated again
Updated rock-break FX
Updated Summoning Bell FX
Touched up various skill icons
Now, to open the shopkeeper in The Pit, you land next to them instead of touching them
A few new menu icons were replaced with new graphics
Added SFX to end-of-floor stats menu
Updated BG sprite of effects in top-right
Thank you to those who have played and given feedback on this game!
Like always, please visit the Community Hub to give any feedback or give ideas/changes! There's also a bunch of social links I'll drop, most notably the Discord if you are interested in connecting!
I have another update for Rocket Cave Adventure! The release is coming very soon, most likely the next update. This update brings Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud integration, more quest types, and multiple bug fixes!
Along with this update comes a few balance changes that will affect runs such as the player no longer leaving gold for the next run upon death and mana no longer having a chance to spawn anywhere. These features that were removed were adding some unneeded complexity that I thought would simplify the game some. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this!
Features:
Added steam achievements!
- Added achievement -> Spider King: Defeat the Spider Knight
- Added achievement -> Slime's Bane: Defeat the Source of Slime
- Added achievement -> Technocide: Defeat the Mothership
- Added achievement -> Light Magic: Defeat the Skelomancer
- Added achievement -> Helicopter^2: Use the Helicopter vehicle
- Added achievement -> You're a square: Use the Cube vehicle
- Added achievement -> So that's how it works...: Unlock a chest with a key
- Added achievement -> Unfathomable: Reach max health (9)
- Added achievement -> Valentines: Use the Cube vehicle
- Added achievement -> This IS the ride!: Escape the Pit
Switched from using Unity save system to utilizing Steam Cloud integration (some prior save data may be corrupt such as meta-currency)
New Quest type -> Student: Collect a certain amount of XP
New Quest type -> Lover: Send a heart to the next level
New Quest type -> Locksmith: Send a key to the next level
New Quest type -> Pirate: Send a chest to the next level
Black Powder skill is now available during a run for Cube vehicle for extra thruster charges
Bugs fixed:
Hot rocks in the Lava Pits do not cycle properly between hot and cold at first
Some generated levels are not fully connected from start to end; hopefully, this will happen less or not at all anymore
Particle systems for the helicopter vehicle teleport around on level start
After the level was completed or player death, player targeting UI floated midair
Level time UI was not very visible in snowlands due to coloring
Tutorial did not reference other controller type buttons
When quit to main menu, stabilizers and boosters would stay on infinitely
Loose XP in the stage would not be collected on level exit
Post-level menu did not show earned xp amount correctly
Tractor-beamed mines incorrect behavior with mushrooms
Currency UI showed as gold instead of mana in the Pit
"Quick Start" menu would send you back to the Pit if selected from the Pit; now there is a separate button to return to the Pit from that menu
Level theme (colors) was set to the last theme played
Balance changes:
Player no longer leaves dead body on death for next run
Mana no longer has a 1% chance to spawn from anything killed/broken
Meta-shop purchase order has been changed slightly
Mana will now fly towards the player even outside the boss rooms
Spider Knight boss now makes the player jump if they are on the ground when the mace hits the wall
Small additions/changes:
Renamed boss Slime King -> Source of Slime
Renamed boss Giant UFO -> Mothership
Renamed boss Giant Skull -> Skelomancer
Removed end-of-tutorial popup
Player health / currency / xp UI updated to look better
I know last update I said this one would focus on boss changes, but this update changed only some Spider Knight mechanics. I am struggling to add an ending to the game, so boss changes should come with the release update.
Like always, please visit the Community Hub to give any feedback or give ideas/changes! There's also a bunch of social links I'll drop, most notably the Discord if you are interested in connecting with me!
A few bugs slipped through with the last update. Here's some quick fixes.
Bugs fixed:
Game will softlock sometimes between levels
Rocks that are marked to fall were not colored properly in The Caves
Cheers!
Thomas boxedworks
Rocket Cave Adventure Update 12
Hey everyone,
I've been working on a few new features for Rocket Cave Adventure. I am trying to get it out of Early Access one of these days! This update strengthens the 4th area, the Lava Pits, to have its own unique features, adds the 3rd vehicle, the gravity cube, reworks level generation, new menus/skill icons, and much more!
Features:
Fire Pits (4th area) is now mostly done:
- New music for the area
- The area is generated backward, meaning instead of going from the top of the level and moving down, you will start at the bottom and move upwards! Hopefully, you know how to fly by now!
- Falling ceiling rises from the floor when activated
- Rocks will cycle between being hot (touch damage!) to cool (normal behavior)
Level generation reworks:
- Levels are generally shorter / smaller as the difficulty seemed to spike after the caves
- Enemies and object amounts are more standard so levels won't feel too empty or full of entities
New vehicle: Gravity Cube => This weird vehicle uses torque force to roll about. Its gravity will compensate for the last surface it touched's normal direction. Meaning it will stick to surfaces - walls and ceilings! It also comes with a gravity lock skill to lock its current gravity temporarily. A weird vehicle with interesting mechanical possibilities! There are no unique skills for it yet but they will be added
All skill icons have been redone
Vehicle loadout menu has been redone to look nicer
Bugs fixed:
Explosion forces were being applied locally
Unhandled error would cause the game to crash in between stages
If the game was paused for a while, the game would freeze briefly on unpause
Auto-turret could shoot through things it should not: Floating mine, UFO bodies, rocks
Fire variants of enemies were not displaying correctly in the Lava Pits
Floating mines would be pushed by wind if not activated in Snowlands
Fire damage could break ores
Certificate skill fired multiple times on level up
Balance changes:
The falling ceiling now triggers at a constant time of 75 seconds. Before, a function calculated the time to fall, granting more time the deeper you went
Explosion Resistance tier changed from 2 -> 3
Charge thruster added to helicopter vehicle
Feather skill no longer applies effect to stabilizer
The Giant Skull boss is now the Fire Pits boss; Spider Knight is the Caves boss
Small additions/changes:
Lizard enemy moved to Lava pits and given a model
Some SFX volumes changed to be less annoying/prominent
All menu UI has been redone to look better (hopefully)
UFO enemy updated slightly to not get stuck as much
Removed lines between skills in skill tree
Renamed many skills:
- Gas Can -> Fuel
- Tempting Button -> Powder
- Speedometer -> Nose Cone
- Magic Carpet -> Jetpack
- Sugar Cube -> Rocket Boot
- Stick Shift -> Control Switch
- Boxing Gloves -> PVC Pipe
- Crumpled Paper -> Nut
- Magnifying Glass -> Ladder
- Gumball Machine -> CPU
- Takeout -> Bomb Bag
- Bike Pump -> Explosion
- Oil Well -> Oil
- Ski Mask -> Coin
- Sneakers -> Ice Cube
- Extra Cog -> Cog
- Glass Jar -> Slime Jar
- Floor Candy -> Candy
- Beamblast -> Beam
- Water Bucket -> Water
The next update will focus on boss mechanics, the mana/meta rework, and adding some additional skills! We are getting closer and closer to release!
Like always, please visit the Community Hub to give any feedback or give ideas/changes! There's also a bunch of social links I'll drop, most notably the Discord if you are interested in connecting with me!
Here comes a fresh update of Rocket Cave Adventure! The main new feature is quests, which will give you more specific goals throughout the levels to get some additional rewards! There are also many other new features and balance changes. One of my favorites is the explosion changes!
Features:
Added quests: Take up to 3 quests in between levels in the skill tree menu to earn extra xp, gold, or dice throughout the run. Quest details and rewards are random
Added quest: Bounty => Kill x number of any enemy
Added quest: Bounty => Kill x number of specific enemy
Added quest: Crusher => Crush x number of any enemy
Added quest: Detonator=> Explode x number of any enemy
Added quest: Pyro => Burn x number of any enemy
Added quest: Miner => Mine x number of any ore
Added quest: Banker => Collect x amount of gold
Added quest: Pirate => Open a chest
Added quest: King => Unlock a chest with a key
Added quest: Expert => Take no damage
Skill tree rework: The skill tree is in the middle of being reworked. The current skill tree becomes limited by size as the run goes on. To fix that, currently, the skill tree starts every run at a fixed size and will expand as you level up and require more skill slots.
Meta shop rework: As the skill tree starting size no longer matters, all skill tree upgrades have been removed and the meta shop is now focused on unlocking new skills and vehicles to start the run with. It still needs a heavy overhaul to change the currency type. Mana will be touched on next update!
Some objects can now transition between levels just like the player, such as: Heart, Dice, Key, Gold, Chest, Gem
Explosion forces now travel farther than their damage radius, affecting physics objects around them
New object: Large Xp Ore => Like the large gold ore, find this for a lot of xp!
New object: Key => Combine this with a chest to affect it contents: double the gold in the chest, add 1 heart and dice
New FX for the Rocket vehicle: smoke and sparks when sliding and colliding on surfaces, wind FX when having a fast velocity
The closest enemy is now highlighted by a red box
The selected object is now highlighted by a white box (for use with tractor beam)
The falling ceiling now bounces upwards after hitting the player, giving you more time to escape!
Bugs fixed:
On level start, some objects attached to the wall would break for no reason (gold ore, hanging objects, rocks)
Floating mines spawned too close to objects and detonated right when the player saw them
Objects attached to the wall would sometimes spawn in the ground
Worms killed by broken robots killed by the player do not transfer damage tags properly (this is important)
Particle FX did not play for objects if they tried to play the same particle system in the same frame
Falling rocks got stuck between other rocks and would not fall
After dying, the lizard could damage the player with its falling body
[Auto Turret] could target spider eggs and lizard dead bodies
Grabbing floating mines with the [Tractor Beam] would cause them to have gravity
The Summoning Bell would spawn mini-slimes instead of varying sizes
Balance changes:
Increased price of skills in the shop from 20x -> 35x the skill's rank
Skills in the shop are now multiplied by what area number you are at => Caves: 1x, Jungle: 2x, Ice: 3x, Fire: 4x
Bats, Bees, Monkeys, Jellyfish are slightly bigger
Gold is smaller and lighter
The chest can no longer break from collisions
[Auto Turret] - added fire mode changing - swap between normal mode and 'treasure' mode, swap from targetting enemies to ores
[Auto Turret] can now shoot through most objects to reach its target
[Bombdrop] is now purchasable from the meta shop for 0 mana
Mana refreshes all active skills when obtained during a run
Rocket vehicle can now charge the three thrusters to fire a larger thruster after 0.75s
[Tractor Beam] physics values have been tweaked to feel better
[Tractor Beam] - items attached to the ceiling will now detach from the ceiling if grabbed
[Dictionary] - max XP decreased per level changed from 15 -> 5
[Pirate Hat] - extra gold received from chests per mastery changed from 35% -> 15%
[Lead Boots] - changed behavior from wind invincibility -> each mastery gives 25% wind resistance
[Helmet] - changed behavior from chance to ignore damage -> ignore x damage per floor (x = mastery)
[Copper Wire] - [Plasmapult] charge time per mastery changed from 0.25x -> 0.15x
Temporarily removed skill: [Pickhead Axe]
Bosses are no longer affected by air vents
Air vents in boss rooms are slightly weaker
UFO enemy behavior has been tweaked slightly
Small additions/changes:
Optimized a lot of code, levels now go from taking 10 seconds to load to near-instant
New particle FX for breaking wood objects and vases
[Auto Turret] changed SFX
Falling rocks now are spawned with a randomized rotation for visual purposes
Renamed Charger_Robot -> UFO
Bee SFX lowered slightly
The next update will focus on level generation, the skill tree, the meta shop, and possibly some boss mechanic reworks. I will attempt to make the areas after the cave a bit easier and simpler as I think they get too large too quickly! Maybe the last boss can even make an appearance (if it hasn't already...)!
Like always, please visit the Community Hub to give any feedback or give ideas/changes! There's also a bunch of social links I'll drop, most notably the Discord if you are truly interested in connecting with me! Finally, I try to play and upload a run of the game (sometimes with webcam) and commentary once or twice a week; check those out too!
Rocket Cave is back! I know it's been a while, about a year (or two) or so since the last update... Life stuff happened as well as going back to other projects like my first Steam game, Definitely Sneaky But Not Sneaky, to finally put it in a place I'm happy with leaving it (for now). So I'm trying to get back into Rocket Cave, and with that comes unfinished work from years ago. What I am doing is this: Pushing out all the changes I made years ago as well as some new changes from recent. This is so I can have a fresh slate to work on, as it's hard to pick up after all this time. Fret not for there are a lot of changes still! Expect more!
Features:
New meta shop progression: Instead of sending gold back between levels, there is a new currency called 'Mana' that you collect separately. It's dropped by bosses, and chests, and has a <1% chance to drop from everything
Added object: Mana => Pick this up for +1 mana sent back to The Pit. Catch it before it floats away!
XP is now an object that is dropped by enemies and floats automatically to you. It is (mostly) visual. (There are some weird interactions such as with bombs and mines to iron out...)
Added the ability to load a level with a level seed (levels will be mostly identical, enemy and object placements may be slightly off, this is WIP)
Added daily seed option
Add player skill: [Tractor Beam] => This is a major skill added! Buy this at the meta shop and enter every run with it. Pick up, manipulate, and shoot objects. Throw or catch rocks! Throw mines! Crush your enemies
Add active skill: [Gold Bag] => Like the XP potion, but for gold!
Add active skill: [Fire Extinguisher] => Temporarily disable gravity
Added hazard: Ball and chain => A spiked ball that swings in a circle. Hide in the rope o and destroy the joint to break it. Find these in the hollows and beyond!
Added hazard: Rotating blades => Ball and chain's bigger brother. I'd recommend steering clear altogether! Find these in the final area!
Added object: Fireball => Dropped by some objects, disappears in a few seconds. Does damage on contact!
Added entity: Fire elemental => Similar to the ice elemental in the Ice area, but drops fireballs periodically
Added entity: Fire slime => Similar to the slime in the hollows, but drops fireballs... periodically
Added entity: Lizard => Find this enemy on walls and ceiling. Avoid its tongue or take some damage! Spawns in the ice area. (Needs a model...)
Added entity: Worm => Small animal that lives in the caves
Added entity: Firefly => Small animal that flies around the hollows
Added object: Giant gold ore => Like gold ore, but giant! You can hit it 3 times
Added object: Stump => It's a small tree stump. In the hollows
Added meta purchase: Shops have +1 item for sale
Bugs fixed:
Giant spider boss was not damaged by explosions sometimes
Giant spider boss could not be targetted by [Auto Turret] sometimes
Camera would break if exiting the game at a boss fight
No music if restarting the run from the shop
[Stabilizer] skill would persist between floors
'Exit to Desktop' did not work (lol)
[Heavy spiked mace] (2x reflect damage) did not reflect 2 damage
Balance changes:
Wooden objects that are destroyed by fire will drop a fireball. This allows fire to spread!
Spider boss: after spawning a certain amount of spiders, "brown" spiders will spawn instead of the normal "red" ones. The brown ones do not drop XP. This is so you can't farm the spider boss infinitely!
Skull boss: Damage reflecting skills now hurt the boss if you get hurt by one of his outer skulls
Slime boss: Now has weak points to shoot. Missing the weak points will bounce back your attacks!
Added some air vents into the first boss room to begin to balance other vehicles (helicopter......)
Lanterns no longer do direct damage but drop fireballs when broken
Broken robots now explode on death after a countdown. This is good right? Wait...
Falling rocks now wiggle slightly when they are still on the ceiling to be slightly more obvious
Gold drop from lantern slightly increased
The skill tree is slightly bigger
Small additions/changes:
Current version displays in main menu and pause screen
Unlocked active skills controls' can now be remapped in the skill tree
Active skills now show their current button mapping in the skill tree
Made the tutorial SLIGHTLY less annoying
Added blood particle system to applicable monsters
Added smoke particles to lanterns
Tutorial popup reworded slightly
Dice makes a different noise when being collected
Sound now mutes if the game is not focused
Loadout menu looks (slightly) nicer
The shopkeepers now have a model! (Too small to see currently :))
Shop skills are generally more expensive
Shop skills are more expensive if they are rare
Added some new hints to the game about the level areas
Like always, please visit the Community Hub to give any feedback or give ideas/changes! There's also a bunch of social links I'll drop, most notably the Discord if you are truly interested in connecting with me! Finally, I try to play and upload a run of the game with webcam and commentary once or twice a week; check those out too!
Latest Let's Dev: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOJKV8tO_Tc Until next time!
Thomas boxedworks
Rocket Cave Adventure Update 9
Hey everyone,
I'm here with another large update, adding a bunch of features and fixing a ton of bugs!
This update comes 41 (!) new skills along with a bunch of rare skill variations. Each time a skill is unlocked or rerolled, it has a 15% chance to become a better, rarer version of itself. You'll know it's rare by its magenta color and extra flavor text. Usually, rarer skills come with a flat upgrade vs its base skill like 25% to trigger vs 15% per mastery. They are also slightly more expensive to upgrade. Not every skill has a rare version, but now, most of them do!
The 3rd area, the Snowlands, has been added along with its respective boss. Be wary of the Snowlands' vast verticality and snowstorms! The 4th area is also in the game, but let's just say I hope you don't reach there yet. It's definitely... in its early development stage...
Features:
Added a shop before the boss fight where you can buy skills to replace current ones with
A magical little particle system plays when leveling up
Added breakable: Lantern; hangs on Caves ceilings, shoot to fall, anything it breaks on takes 1 damage
Added breakable: Explosive barrel; shoot/collide with to explode
Added collectible: Gem - gives 20 gold when collected
Gems have a 5% chance to spawn from a chest
Added 3rd area: Snowlands; A vertical, winter-themed area that includes hazardous snowstorms!
Added Caves boss: Spider Knight
Added Hollows boss: Slime King
Added Snowlands boss: Giant UFO
Added Hollows enemy: Bee
Added Snowlands enemy: Ice elemental
Added Snowlands enemy: Reverse broken robot
Added Snowlands enemy: Snowman
Implemented RNG seeding for level generation. Right now this does nothing but soon you will be able to start a run off of a seed or play a daily run. You can see your seed during a run in the top-left when paused
Added the save/load menu in the main menu; it is now possible to have up to 3 different save files
Added secondary skill [Beamblast] -> Briefly fire a slow-moving laser for an infinite distance
Added tertiary skill [Missle Launcher] - shoot a controllable missle. Has slightly longer cooldown and smaller explosion radius than [Bombdrop]
Added active skill [Parachute] -> Deploy a parachute that greatly slows your velocity; activate again to remove
Added active skill [XP Potion] -> For a short time, you gain 2x XP per kill
Added skill [Pickaxe] -> More gold from Gold Ore (%)
Added skill [Hard Hat] -> Take no damage from collisions with rock / hard surfaces
Added skill [Computer Mouse] -> % chance on kill for [Auto Turret] to trigger for no cost
Added skill [Bandaid] -> Can't damage self with [Lasershot]'s projectiles
Added skill [Lead boots] -> Wind no longer affects you
Added skill [Flak Jacket] -> Invincibility from explosions caused by the player
Added skill [Water Bucket] -> Shortens the charge time of [Beamblast]
Added skill [Pressure Valve] -> Extends the firing duration [Beamblast]
Added skill [Oil Can] -> Extends the rotation speed of [Beamblast]
Added skill [Wrench] -> Shortens the warmup time of [Beamblast]
Added skill [Water Pipette] -> Killing enemies reduces the charge time of [Beamblast]
Added skill [Water Hose] -> Killing enemies extends the firing time of [Beamblast]
Added skill [Water Bottle] -> Collecting gold reduces the charge time of [Beamblast]
Added skill [Rain Cloud] -> +1 charge of [Beamblast]
Added skill [Antenna] -> Increased rotational control of [Missle Launcher]'s projectile
Added skill [Firework] -> Increased acceleration of [Missle Launcher]'s projectile
Added skill [Compass] -> Show an arrow pointing to the exit
Added skill [Radar] -> Show an arrow pointing to the nearest chest
Added skill [Glasses] -> On level up, become invincible for a short duration
Added skill [Cherries] -> Turns [Bombdrop]'s projectiles into 'laser bombs, damaging anything they
Added skill [Gas Can] -> Increase charges of helicopter's booster per mastery
Added skill [Feather] -> All movement skills +1 charge per mastery
Added skill [Pirate Hat] -> More gold from chests (%)
Added skill [Sneaker] -> Reduce all skills' charge times per mastery (%)
Added skill [Magnet] -> Enemies drop flat extra gold
Added skill [Dice Cup] -> Enemies have a % chance to drop a die on death
Added skill [Chocolate] -> Enemies have a % chance to drop a heart on death
Added skill [Ski Mask] -> Enemies have a % chance to drop a gem on death
Added skill [Shopping Basket] -> Shop has +1 item
Added skill [Calculator] -> [Lasershot] does 2 damage
Added skill [Glass Jar] -> Do double damage to slimes (including boss)
Added skill [Broken Glass] -> Do double damage but take double damage (meaning you do quad damage to yourself???)
Added skill [Warhead] -> Do 2x explosive damage
Added skill [Mushroom] -> Your explosions are 2x in size
Added skill [Beaker] -> Explosive kills give 2x XP
Added skill [Electric Fan] -> [Lasershot]'s projectile is no longer affected by gravity
Falling rocks can now be used more consistently to kill things; you should now be able to shoot and push rocks off ledges to make them fall on enemies (other objects still need to be given this treatment such as explosive barrels)
25% for breakables in Hollows to hang from the ceiling with a vine
You can now see if a skill can be upgraded based on your current gold with a new UI element in the skill tree
Skills' rarity tier can now be seen in the skill tree under the skill name. Colors of the text also indicate its rarity (1: bronze, 2: silver, 3: gold, 4: diamond, 5: red lol)
Added 5th tier to skill tree (yet no tier 5 skills yet)
Removed the skill binding menu from the skill tree. For now, there are only 3 active skills you can unlock in the skill tree, and they are automatically mapped on unlock to unmapped DPad buttons in this order: bottom, top, left, right
Added options menu option: change resolution (finally!)
Added UI showing the player's level to the left of health UI
Added back button functionality to menus
Button icons now swapped per controller used (XBOX vs Playstation vs Switch) touch before they explode except you (for now?)
Bugs fixed:
If Steam was not open on launch, Steam would open and attempt to launch my other game, Definitely Sneaky But Not Sneaky, instead of this game, Rocket Cave Adventure (LOL sorry forgot to replace a SteamID)
Explosions would trigger before the player could see them or be near them, destroying the level before the player even reached the area. Explosion that happen off-screen, unless caused by the player, now no longer happen. This should reduce the times the level is destroyed before even seeing it
Explosions were somewhat inconsistent, sometimes blowing up 5 tiles, sometimes blowing up only 1 (they are now more consistent lol)
Rocks would sometimes spawn in the middle of a room instead of at the ceiling
Air tank could trigger and explode simultaneously
If in The Pit, then quit to main menu, then select 'Quick Start', you would be placed back into The Pit instead of into the run
Mushrooms could spawn under/near the exit platform, causing an audio bug
The gold UI did not update between The Pit and the run
[Crumpled Paper]'s skill event did not fire properly
[Extra Cog] did not lower upgrade costs properly
The options menu did not work with the gamepad
Floating skulls and UFOs could fly above or below the level
[Auto Turret] physical gun placement was too low for the helicopter vehicle, causing the projectile to instantly despawn on creation
Propellor noise for helicopter would stop for the level at start of boss fight
Boss Giant Skull got stuck on the floor because skulls would be in the way
Boss Giant Skull's top and bottom half could take damage from the same source at the same time; meaning one bomb could do 4 damage to the boss instead of the intended 2
Boss Giant Skull's bottom half could flash black and white even when dead
[Auto Turret] did not lock on to Boss Giant Skull properly
The skill tree selector icon would not go to the selected skill when first opened
The main menu music would not play on first load
Post-level menu says wrong area name + number
The player console appeared in front of the skill tree
Balance changes:
Added +1 skill slot per skill tree row
Max health set to 9
If you level up with max health, a heart is spawned from you that you can pick up later if needed
The top of the rocket vehicle's collider is now a spere to more accurately match its model
[Stabilizer] skill now works as intended (please)
Boss invincibility reduced from 1 -> 0.9 seconds
Removed the meta-shop purchases: 75% gold courier and 100% gold courier; you can now only send back a max of 50% gold in runs to The Pit
The helicopter vehicle's movement skills have been changed because it was too good compared to the rocket. You can no longer control the helicopter with the left analog stick; you now move by adjusting the pitch of the helicopter with the L1/R1 bumpers. There is now a horizontal booster on the helicopter that allows you to move left and right quickly once charged.
The camera will not be able to see inside the boss room until the boss fight is triggered
[Bombdrop]'s input changed from Triangle -> L2 + Triangle to stop accidental misfiring
[Hourglass] - changed time added to level per mastery from 15 -> 10 seconds
[Floor Candy] skill now spawns a heart at the beginning of the level instead of giving +1 health outright
Boss King Skull should now be fairer; health changed from 16 -> 12, bounces away from players easier, shouldn't get stuck
UFOs now have a damage crystal under them you must destroy to kill them
Slimes that take more than 1 damage will die/split based on that damage. Before, level 3 slimes taking 3 damage would not outright kill them, now it does
Skills can now be linked from right to left in the skill tree (before, only left to right was possible)
Slime enemies are slightly larger
Some room layouts were TOO THICC, meaning if a chest spawned in one of those rooms, it would take 2 bombs to reach it. Now those rooms have a path into them/closer to the wall
Added a few more room templates for Hollows
Small additions/changes:
Mouse cursor is now hidden on game start
Renamed skill: [Pickaxe] -> [TNT]; added a new skill named [Pickaxe]
Renamed skill: [Barometer] -> [Seismograph]
[Barometer]'s timer now turns red if there's 10 seconds left
[Dictionary] should now level up the player on next level start if unlocked in between levels and xp >= xp needed
Added particle FX and SFX for [Gold Vaccume]
Added red eyes to bats to make them more visible
Added two wooden signs to The Pit to assist the player
Play a SFX when changing loadout before a run
Dice UI element in skill tree has unique color
Wow, that was a lot of typeing! I'm getting better at keeping track of balance changes, bugs, and features. However, just like every update before, there are many tiny changes that involve small tweaks to numbers and values that I did not write down. Such as slimes jump rate changing from 1.2 -> 1.3 seconds, or Hollows 3 having one less jellyfish. These, of course, are things I should be writing down. However, they sometimes just happen and slip my mind. So, apologies for anyone wondering why slimes are hopping 100 ms slower...
Like always, please visit the Community Hub to give any feedback or give ideas/changes! There's also a bunch of social links I'll drop, most notably the Discord if you are truly interested in connecting with me! Finally, I try to play and upload a run of the game with webcam and commentary once or twice a week; check those out too!
Latest Let's Dev: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jhLkZHTk7M Until next time!
Thomas boxedworks
Rocket Cave Adventure Update 8
Hello!
It's been a week or two since my last update post. I have still been working on the game! I've been publishing the builds to the beta branch so that the main branch updates will be bigger. So... here's a big one!
Features:
All skills have proper names now along with icons
Added skill [Magic carpet] -> On kill, fill your booster charges to capacity
Added skill [Sugar cubes] -> On kill, fill your thruster charges to capacity
Added skill [Speedometer] -> Increase the strength of booster controls (left stick)
Added skill [Boxing glove] -> Increases the speed of [Plasmapult]'s projectiles
Added skill [Rose] -> On level up, percent chance to get an extra health
Added skill [7.62 round] -> On kill, percent chance for 2x experience
Added skill [Helmet] -> Percent chance to ignore damage
Added skill [Pickaxe] -> Damaging fallen rocks will destroy them
Added skill [Sledgehammer] -> Touching breakable objects instantly breaks them
Added skill [Spiked mace] -> Taking damage does 1 damage to your attacker
Added skill [Barometer] -> Show a timer in the top-left depicting when the ceiling will begin to fall
Added skill [Hourglass] -> Get extra time before the ceiling starts falling
Added skill [Gambling chip] -> Chests have an increased chance to spawn a die
Added skill [Floor candy] -> When entering a new floor, small percent chance for +1 health
Some skills now have a small chance to spawn a rarer version of themselves
Added rare skill [Gold vacuum aura] - Passively draw all of the gold in an area around you
Added enemy: Slime
Added enemy: Jellyfish
Added enemy: Monkey
Added object: XP ore - is like the gold ore you can mine, but gives you 4 XP instead of gold
Added object: Summoning bell - in some levels, a bell can be found. Ring it to spawn enemies for additional gold and XP
Added new collectible: Dice - each collected die through the run grants a free reroll. They have a 25% chance to spawn in chests
[Bombdrop]'s bombs now have SFX and VFX
If you beat the boss without taking damage, you are rewarded with an extra treasure chest
The Giant Skull boss has been given a new, better-looking model
The Giant Skull boss now has stages to the boss fight
Added Giant Skull boss music track
The skill tree menu now shows if a skill's mastery is reached with a star icon for readability
The row number of the skill tree is now shown in the skill tree menu
Added a gamepad button shortcut for binding skills in the skill tree
Active status effects are displayed in the top right (the only status effect right now is the gold vacuum effect)
The player skills UI (bottom left) now uses a gradient instead of numbers to display when the skill is finished charging
Added a run timer to the top left of the screen
Renamed [Lasershot] to [Plasmapult]
When the player reaches 1 health, smoke is shown coming from your vehicle along with a smoke SFX
Added spikes visual to the falling ceiling to convey that the ceiling will hurt you
Game icon added to .exe and taskbar
Added a bunch more tips to be read in between loading levels (if you have enough time)
Balance changes:
[Bombdrop] -> bombs are now sticky bombs - you can stick them to entities and walls
[Gold vacuum] -> increased charge time
[Coin stack] -> reduced double gold on kill chance from 25% per mastery to 15%
[Plasma globe] -> max mastery changed from 2 to 1
[Takeout] -> max mastery changed from 2 to 1
The [Auto turret] skill works more consistently now using a raycast instead of projectile
Tried to make the [Stabalizer] skill more reliable (yet again...)
[Bombdrop] -> if deployed when moving upwards, the bomb is thrown upwards so you can now attach the bomb to the ceiling
Changed when the falling ceiling starts to fall. Before the ceiling would fall 90 seconds into the level. Now, it falls 75 seconds into the level with 5 extra seconds per level depth
The falling ceiling no longer insta-kills you, it does 1 damage per hit and throws you downwards
A particle trail now shows what direction the Giant Skull boss is moving towards
Each area grants extra gold found in chests (Caves vs Jungles)
Bugs fixed:
The SFX options menu option did nothing (the volume and SFX options need to be changed with the mouse for now... sorry, dropdowns are annoying)
Mushrooms and other objects that stick to the ground would spawn floating off of the ground (mostly fixed)
Mushrooms and other objects that stick to the ground would not be destroyed properly when the ground was destroyed
Once the falling ceiling reached the player, it would continuously hit the player and make an annoying sound
The player console (bottom right info) would display the wrong text when taking damage sometimes
The quick restart gamepad button shortcut did not work in the death postgame menu
The skill tree could not be closed with the gamepad button shortcut
The skill tree could be opened in The Pit
The skill tree could be opened if the death postgame menu was showing
The bind skills button was interactable in the meta-shop
The unlock button was interactable in the meta-shop even if you could not unlock the skill
When binding an active skill, you could still upgrade and reroll skills
When binding skills, you could close the skill tree menu and the bind would not be saved
You could change the bindings of base skills (such as the thrusters and boosters)
Duplicate skills did not have their images while the originals did
The loading screen could be paused (lol)
You could unpause the game when the yes/no menu was shown
The player could fling themselves too far into the boss room - the player will now be pushed back if that happens
When the Giant Skull boss is spawned on level load, their damage noise played briefly
The Giant Skull boss would infinitely shake the screen if it killed you
If you died and restarted the game in The Pit, you would respawn inside of a run instead of back at The Pit
Flying skulls and UFOs would fly beneath the exit platform making them hard to kill and an exit hazard
The game could be quick-started into a run even if the tutorial was not completed yet
The Air Tank object would not properly kill the player - you would be stuck half-alive unable to move
The falling ceiling's color now matches the most prominent color in the level - so in the Caves, it has been changed to the rock color to the dirt color. In the jungle, it is the rock color
Tut's engine noise would never stop if he was close to you when beginning a run
The [Plasmapult] projectile could interact with an invisible collider in the tutorial room where you pick up [Plasmapult]
That took a while to write up... As you can see there are 3 new enemies, 3 new objects, and 15 new skills! Also a bunch of balance changes and bug fixes. A bunch of numbers were tweaked too that I forgot to record like some enemy movements, gold spawn rate, and skill upgrade costs. I will do better in the future to track those changes. Finally, I usually upload a new build to the beta branch every day or so, so if you'd like to see content added more frequently, opt-in to the beta branch of the game!
Thanks,
Thomas boxedworks
Rocket Cave Adventure Update 7
Hello!
This update is a smaller one with some bug fixes and balance changes.
Features:
Added skill: [Auto Turret range] - increases the range of the [Auto Turret]
Added skill: [Chest Lover] - increase % chance to get a heart from a chest
Floor name + number is now shown in the top-left
A noise now plays when pressing / releasing the modifier button (L2)
Balance changes:
[Lasershot] projectiles can now hurt the player
The [Stabalizer] skill for all vehicles is now more reliable
[Auto Turret] can now be triggered without having a target - allowing for pre-firing
The falling ceiling at the end of levels does not insta-kill you now; it will do 1 damage and throw you downwards
Rocks that will randomly fall on you are now slightly darker than rocks that won't
Before a spider attacks, it blinks for a warning
Main menu shortcut added - press start to quickstart
Death menu shortcut added - press start to quickstart
The upgrade and reroll buttons in the Skill Tree menu will no longer be selectable unless you have the required gold / prereqs
The shop in The Pit is easier to reach (again)
Air canisters blow up faster after triggering
Tut's audio was not playing properly on load
Bugs fixed:
A noise from the [Auto Turret] projectiles was not removed properly, causing the sound to stay until the game was closed
The XP slider at the bottom of the screen was not working
If found, the dead player's body would not disappear on kill
Entities were spawning beneath the exit platform (hopefully fixed)
On taking damage, the lower half of the rocket vehicle did not change color with the top
There are quite a few balance changes this time around! This update was pushed out so quickly after the last for the audio bug with the [Auto Turret] skill. Stay tuned for more updates!
