Hey y'all, small weekly update is here! It features a new Buginis level 1 boss and has few gameplay tweaks/experiments to make fighting a little bit more pleasant. The update, as usual per 0.7.x is currently available only in [staging] beta branch: Here's how to get it:
Version 0.7.2 f3
For timestamp of last input device use return minimum value when input device is unknown instead of zero - might fix controls sometimes locking up
Plant boss 1 - Patroller
Disable default collider on Tree_1
Optimize initial spawner spawn to not sync physics objects when it's not necessary
Delay forceful whirlpools by 5 seconds
Experiment with quick heal distribution
Prevent Layout corruption at rare cases when zooid repositioning happens very fast
Reserialize all Environment Objects to ensure correct data
More strict serialization validation of Environment Object to catch out-of-sync serialized values
Grid spawner improvements
Buginis boss setup and WIP arena
Make Queen area use new sprites
Version 0.7.2 is now available in [staging] branch!
As weather is getting colder in our Northern hemisphere, water starts solidifying into ice and so does our update!
We had a bunch of sneaky updates since our last update post. Most notable changes are:
You now keep all adapted Zooids throughout runs. It means that with every replay extra Zooid selection list grows with new zooids. We thought that previous behaviour was just unpleasant for inexperienced players and nothing of value for experienced ones.
There are new Powerups - Damage Increase and Cooldown Efficiency Increase
And exactly this update features new sprites for Buginis environments.
Meanwhile movers have received some additional interesting mechanics:
Advena movers regenerate energy on hit - we hope that this will play well with Advena's aggressive idea
Saenus movers have a little pushing effect as their pusher - even better defensive Saenus capabilities, we'll see how this goes
Buginis movers decrease cooldowns of neighboring zooids by 10% - plays well with Buginis skill
oriented breed. Since skills are not separated for each zooid and connections can be more intricate, mean value for cooldowns is used. For example if you have a Flak with 110% Cooldown Recovery and another with 120% CR, skill cooldown will be reduced by 15%.
Cra'Than movers have additional connection points - crazy, we know, let's see how this works!
Vagorian movers regenerate health - destined to bump into spiky things, Vagorians have evolved to regenerate their wounds,
Our near future plans involve implementing new Buginis bosses, improving their environments and rebalancing skills, so they are more useful while your Sipho is still young. We will talk more about these once we actually do the work!
Known issues: - Game performance drops drastically while levels are collapsing. We are investigating how could we fix this while also evicting players from levels more gracefully
Changelog megalist:
Version 0.7.2f1
Add experimental Bouncer script
Always create new campaign state if it's not present after loading
Do not flip current spawners in Plant 2 area
More plant objects renamed
Tidy Plant Obstacles. Now all Plant objects are Obstacles
Do not error out when there are no zooids in inventory
Branch leaves fade with depth correctly
More user friendly spawner depth settings
Linear campaign level size scaling rather than exponential
Plant 1 area using new sprites
Add WIP sine wave spawn function
Various noise textures and import setting tweaks
Allow scaling spawner tiles to rectangular shapes
Add a bunch of patterns for noise
Correct collider references
Tweaks to leaves
Make branch leaves a nested prefab and set it up
Add leaves to plant branches
Tidy up skill names
Version 0.7.1f5
Always allow selecting all adapted zooids ever
Revert "Decompose Zooid instantly if it gets overkilled"
Show sonar in Freeroam
Decompose Zooid instantly if it gets overkilled
Fix some non-damaging debuffs having damage over time set to non-zero
Don't unlock pop zooids that have been disconnected from Sipho
Fadeout environment objects render above player
Fixed rare occasion of Head Selection throwing error when enabling UI before Head Selection was initialized
Correctly fully fade-out decorations when close to them
Update rotation in deformable when adding first zooid
Hard limit Spike distance to 2x of normal distance
Missing verlet meta
Add experimental Verlet Constraint based soft body simulation
Version 0.7.1f4
Fix input not working when hovering objects in game
Version 0.7.1f3
Do not display multiples of same skill in tooltips
Show tooltips for world objects - specifically zooid unlock drops
Add ReadOnlyInspector attribute
Report when game fails to load Input Manager
Add reference to the names
Add community event participant names
Attempt to fix breaking input after update
Version 0.7.1
Change buginis mover bonus show up as percent
Increase buff duration to 20 seconds (was 10 seconds)
Fix Siphos not starting rotated correctly
Remove greaser buff effect from other effects
Add test to check for zooid prefab reference validity
Rename Buginis mover buff asset to conform to new buff naming pattern
Do not allow kill point receivers (Soul Eaters and Swarmers) have negative charge
Attempt to fix errors on level leave
Fix Whirlpools popping into existence
Fix missing reference to Cra'Than boss zooid
Cooldown recovery is now 1 for all relevant zooids
Make some buffs only become applied if stats are relevant
Allow skipping applying buffs if buffed stats are irrelevant
Cleanup buff code
Organize buffs and debuffs
Make Advena Boss 1 cage openings more varied
Make tutorial toggle On for new players by default
Advena Lava 3 obstacles were missing rigidbodies and caused lag
Make Spike feel better - increase launch force to 200 (was 150), make launch direction based on Zooid direction rather than tip direction
Fix default dash button to be Left Mouse
Return default skill cooldown if there is no skill group (for example if zooid is dead)
Advena mover regenerates energy when damaged
Update mover descriptions
Vagorian mover regenerates health over time
Add Pusher functionality to Sea mover when it dashes
Put Cra'Than mover connection point inwards so it looks good from any connecting angle
Add additional connection points to Cra'Than mover
Add skill cooldown reduction buffing to Buginis mover
Version 0.7.0a8
Return default skill cooldown if there is no skill group (for example if zooid is dead)
MegaDebug buff buffs all stats
Fix Despawner breaking due to referencing deleted food prefab and not respawning anything when it's empty
Tidy consumables
Tweak Cooldown Reduction and Damage powerups
Make Cra'Than Boss 3 spawner zooid regrowable
When rebinding keyboard, ignore special controls as anyKey and imeSelected
Add Cooldown and Damage powerups. Spawn them everywhere
Add Health Regenerator script
Remove accidentally added component
Pusher tweaks to allow it being put on anything
Serialize reference to Zooid in Zood component
Support arbitrary connection angles for zooids
Add Cooldown Reduction Powerup to destructible food containers
Support cooldown scaling with most of the zooids
Add cooldown reduction stat
Make renderer cloner more silent
Make Seanus boss 2 asymmetric
Place Growth Point UIs in Zooid local position. Obstacles block new zooid growth
Remove buffs before dead zooid is destroyed
Announcing the winners of Sipho Boss Design Contest!
After lots of judging and criteria-quantization we have decided upon winners of the Sipho Boss Design Contest! Judging was not easy. To reach the decision we have tried to imagine how your creations will work in various game scenarios. Less violent boss fights, based on boss behaviour and its "decision making" were evaluated more highly. Some entries even felt like they have been mind-read out of our design ideas list and that gave a lot of confidence in both ideas and entries. We also looked at additional mechanics we would have to implement for some of entries to work and how well we could re-use them in the rest of the game. More re-usable game mechanics were rated more highly. Let's get to the business. First place winner is:
You are in a maze with 4 - 6 boss Siphos. Each one aimlessly wander around until you are in their line of sight, where the one that sees you would chase after you. You have to maneuver the maze and not be seen by them, they can only see from their front side. You can safely attack them from the sides and easily kill them that way, but doing so will make all others seek to where the kill was, so you have to be careful. When you wither it down to around 3 or 2 left, the rest will flee into a whirl pool and you win the fight. You should not attack form the front side of them.
This kind of boss behaviour which is also arena-layout dependant should encourage players to take more cautious fights. Sneaking up on the boss and hiding from other bosses after a kill should make a nice pace-changing challenge. Congratulations! The runner-ups are:
Twin boss idea was something that we kept in our backlog and this entry illustrates it very nicely. It also encourages us to expand Sipho screech vocabulary with "your turn" and "maybe I'll take a little break".
A boss slithering through small cracks and acting as a whack-a-mole, but the mole is pretty dangerous and lays exploding eggs is something we haven't thought of! It would be as if fighting an invisible enemy that can only be seen with "sonar" indicator. Very creative entry and hopefully won't be as hard to implement as it sounds.
Many small enemies instead of big boss? Yes please! Implementing boids-like behaviour which would flock the player or even try to open their own whirlpool? This should be fun.
Another award-worthy entry by z0mbiesrock. Potentially technically challenging, but absolutely awesome big boss idea of inter-connected Cra'Thancipede
Winners listed above will be getting Steam keys for each winning entry! We will contact you personally.
Thanks to all participants for your support!
skipydog, Popcorn dust, z0mbiesrock, TIC, Salreix Von Otsuu, Max77, Camille, DrakonyxX, your entries have been great and inspiring in many ways. We hope to use this inspiration to push Sipho further than it has been before. Stay tuned for new content and let us know what you thought of this contest!
Version 0.7.0 Alpha 7 is available in [staging] branch!
It features enabled Development mode which will report issues more visibly - both to you and for us automatically. If you find yourself looking a red text at the bottom-left corner of the game, please report it and tell us what you were doing! We hope to catch issues faster this way and stabilise faster.
Changelog:
Graphics settings after build
Preload Input Settings
Track Burst compilation settings
Allow Renderer Cloner be destroyed when scene is being unloaded
Change linux build target to x64 - which is now only Linux architecture supported by Unity
Upgrade project to Unity 2019.4.13f1 (518737b1de84) - this might cause various unexpected issues
Grappling hook is now affected by Penetration stat
Update zooid graphics when outline color changes
Re-gather Environment Objects for spawning and automatically gather them on build. Fixes missing objects after save load
Fix Side Popup double translating
Play sounds when zooids are picked up, grown and placed
Remove obsolete deformable synchronisations - we don't rely on world positions that much anymore
Halloween Event - Design a boss challenge which will be put in the game!
Sipho is a pretty spooky game as is and boss fights make it even scarier. From weaksauce first boss, which looks daunting at first, but falls easily, to nerve-wracking (sorry!) stronger, gimmicky bosses - we are looking for your ideas to implement. We had suggestions for boss fights in the past and this is a great time to officially add them to the game and reward idea authors!
Boss fights are all about an isolated challenge and means to overcome it - boss arenas are separate levels which can have various gimmicks which help defeating larger and superior boss Siphos. With that in mind - get creative in Aquarium or just open up MS Paint, sketch your crazy idea for boss layout, arena and tell us how the fight is supposed to go. There can also be various unususal objects in the boss lair that affect the fight - maybe there are unstable currents moving everything around or breakable rocks that allow player getting in better position to strike the boss. Creative freedom is yours! After your are ready to share the idea, post it in our Discord or on Steam's Artwork page. Most unique and technically achievable ideas will be remade in the game!
You don't have to be a professional designer to participate in this event. A basic doodle on a napkin and a description of a fight are enough for us to make it into a proper game asset. Anyone can participate. Although if you haven't played Sipho before, be sure to check videos or screenshots to get familiar with its world and creatures.
Basic guidelines:
A picture or a sketch of the boss Sipho and its minions, if present
A picture or a sketch of the arena with starting player and boss positions marked
Let us know how the boss fight goes - what does the boss do, how does the boss and player interact with environment
If there are special environment features - let us know about them!
Boss designs and environments should be using existing Sipho assets. Slight variations of these assets - size, colour, mashups of several assets are allowed. Minor unique features like particle effects and sounds are also allowed
More unique and technically achievable fights will be better judged. For example we can't technically achieve a multiplayer boss fight. Cleverly using existing game mechanics are much more welcome
Post it on Sipho's Artwork section. If you can't post it there, leave a comment with a link here or post it on our Discord
Have fun!
Our team will pick one or more winning designs right after the end of this event. Winners will be awarded with Sipho Steam keys and their name in the credits.
The event ends at November 10th, 00:00 UTC
Have a taste of what's coming in Sipho 0.7.0!
Hi everyone! We have been silently working on this update for a while now and we're getting comfortable of sharing part of it with you. This is going to be a largest update so far, overhauling how levels work and adding much more replayability and polish to the game. Our Discord Server members had a little heads-up about this.
And you can try it right now in Steam's [staging] branch:
The current state of 0.7.0 alpha contains and will contain:
New and re-designed environments for Advena and Saenus Beefuorus breeds. That includes area layout tweaks, new obstacle and decoration sprites and bosses. Layouts and boss fights are subject to change. In fututre versions Cra'Than and Buginis environments, along with their bosses will get this treatment as well. Currently, new bosses act as placeholders for missing bosses for these environments.
Random order of environments - you no longer start in the same Sea environment and end with Advena. Environments are shuffled for every playthrough and are scaled for level accordingly. In future versions Large Enemies will also be correctly scaled and offer different kind of challenge comparted to regular ones.
Zooid unlock drop options increase with each level - first boss drops two zooids to choose from, second one drops three and so forth - we hope this gives more freedom and incentive to continue playing in further levels.
New type of Siphonophore enemy - Polyp, which are stationary, turret-like Siphos. They don't think much and certainly don't move. Currently they can be found in single boss fight and spawned in Aquarium. In future versions we might use them as enemies in regular areas as well as in different boss fights.
Polish and bugfixesAnd more to come - we love making the game feel good and play right. Growth Mode improvements, graphical improvements, more existing zooid interactions, more stats and powerups are coming.
Localization - we have been working hard to convert existing code to support localized strings. The work is done and what remains are translations themselves. In the future we hope to ask you, our community members, to help us translating the game. More news on that later.
We hope this brings some light into our development and will help us accelerate testing and development of Sipho so we can bring these changes to [default] Steam branch as well. We can't stress enough how our Discord Server members have helped us and participated in various occasions. So if you use Discord, come say us hi!
Your Creations are now available in Version 0.6.9!
Another great Layout competition is over with 115 new designs added to the game! Breed distribution ended up being quite uniform, which is great for filling up all levels. Saenus was least submitted with 21 entries and most loved one were Buginis - 26 entries! 100 Designs featured breedless zooid aiding their colony in things whatever Alpha creatures do. We've seen more intricate zooid combos which we hope AI will be able to handle and not be too hard to deal with when encountered! Note that these designs will be standouts in lower-size areas which will shake things up a bit causing you to retreat or have an epic fight against.
Together with adding new Layouts to the game, we tackled some of community reported issues and added a tiny juicy feature which will make Claw feel more physical. Enjoy, while we are working on largest Sipho update so far!
Version 0.6.9
Never select larger enemies when scaling with player's wealth
Apply Aquarium enemy settings after load
Add July event layouts
Tweak Grinder sparkles
Add new zooids to inventory silently when assigning head, so there's no "green" effect shown
Move invalid layouts away from importing them every time game launches
Do not load empty Layouts
Fix deleting Layouts messing up other layout UI
Remove duplicate built-in Layouts
Make ZooidButtons appear below Growth Sidebar UI so they don't obscure Growth Zooid selection
Fix input deadzones at the top and bottom of the screen
Adapt Advena zooids from the start
Add Chip effect to Claw
Fix incorrectly shaped builtin layouts
Fix exceptions and various other issues when pressing F while dragging a zooid in growth mode
Announcing Sipho NPC design contest!
Dear Whirlpool Surfers and Aquarium Caretakers, Sipho team would like to invite you take another opportunity to design Sipho NPCs and have them immortalized in the game!
Previous design contest was aimed at smaller and pure-breed creatures to fill in their future habitats. And it has been a wonderful success with many different designs:
This time we are looking for beefy "alphas" that are found swimming along smaller ones. They are big and menacing, but have an exploitable weakness that makes them vulnerable to your attacks even though they are more than twice the size of your Sipho. Maybe one of their sides lacks any kind of defence or their movement is weak and they can be outmanoeuvred. And since these alphas are so old and powerful, they can also have adapted one of non-breed Zooids. These breedless zooids are: Agonizer, Energy Leech, Flail, Grappling Hook, Greaser, Grinder, Muck, Sniper, Soul Eater, Sprayer, Swarmer - any of zooids that do not belong to any of the starting breeds. Take a look at this example: It is a buginis Sipho with a not-of-its breed Greaser, which increases range and effectiveness of connected Zooids. It does not have many weapons nor its sides are very protected from attacks. This is just an example, so go wild!
We will be accepting entries as Layout text. Layouts are data structures we use in Sipho to define what Zooids have been grown where. When you grow a new Spike or a Claw, your Layout is modified to resemble what you have grown. Something like a recipe to grow your Sipho. We can save and use Layouts to define enemies that you encounter in different areas or restore your Sipho when loading the game. Manual Layout management is possible through Aquarium game mode and that's where we ask you to create your event entries.
How to enter:
Using latest version of Sipho and Aquarium mode take a screenshot of Layout you would like to submit. Feel free to modify the environment keeping Layout clearly distinguishable
Upload the screenshot to our Discord server's #event-entries channel with following formatting:**Name:** Name of the layout **Author:** Optional author name. Leave it out if you want to remain anonymous **Value:** Layout value - shown at the top of Growth mode **Description:** Optional Layout description **Layout data:** || layout data ||
In Aquarium, export the Layout text data as shown in picture below and paste it on layout data. Please keep data between double || marks so it remains spoilered. If Layout data is too long, submit the entry without it and upload layout data as a text file in following message.
Congratulations, you have submitted your Layout! We are looking for as many Layout designs as possible, however we keep our rights to reject some by our judgement or incompatible requirements:
Layout requirements:
Layout should not mix breeds and can contain a breedless Zooid. For example: Advena Layout can contain Spikes Zenoplates and Swarmers (breedless), but not Claws (mixing breeds) or additional Greasers (another breedless zooid).
Layout value should be between 150-300 nutrition. You can see current Layout nutrition value at the top of Growth screen, under the Sipho name.
Layout should be created using Growth mode of latest available version and should contain valid positions and rotations
Layout should be created by you or the author rights have been passed to you by the original author
Layout should not be already in game or already be a valid submission prior to yours
Once the event ends we will go through all submissions. Submissions that pass the requirement criteria will be added to the game. And we will also credit you, the author, in the game!
Version 0.6.8 and Snappy's new home
And update arrives with small bugfixes and Quality of Marine Life improvements. Sipho version 0.6.x phase is coming to a long end - from now on we will be delivering small bug fixes and minor improvements suggested by community. This doesn't mean development stops at all, it's the opposite - major features and reworks are being developed in a separate version control branch with higher velocity.
One thing that will be coming with new levels are new Graphics for those environments. Take a look at this snappy in his new habitat:
We plan to have several variations of Obstacles per each environment. In this case rocks are "fresh" and sharp, rounded or old and corroded. Rocks also have several different color variations. Together with those features we are experimenting with "depth" value of Obstacles and Decorations. Depth controls layering of objects and their color saturation. You can see in the animation that some rocks are above corals while other rocks are below Snappy Sipho and are desaturated. We feel that all these layering features will tie environment objects together into believable underwater environment.
Version 0.6.8
Thicken every 3rd gridline in growth mode
Cleanup builtin layout Sea Creature 5
Add option to turn off Layout autosaving
Use Steam name as base name for player and as Layout author
Rename GlobalSettings to PlayerProfile and store Player's name in it
Handle missing saved head zooid gracefully
Rename April event layouts by Author's request
Update Zooid Graphics on the first frame the zooid is grown
Your Layouts are now in Sipho 0.6.7!
We bring you a new update, featuring Layouts or NPCs designed by our community members. The restrictions for designs were that they can only contain single breed zooids and can not be more "expensive" 150 nutrition. Let's see how that went: In total 74 Layouts were added. Here's a breakdown for each breed:
Advena 21
Buginis 17
Vagorian 14
Saenus Beefuorus 13
Cra'Than 9
Our team is sending a huge thank you to Aldwyn, Araylie, DastianZerg, Iztacmizton, LittleSmog, NovaStar987, Salreix Von Otsuu, TIC, TotalBlazing, skipydog, z0mbiesrock. These are our Discord members who have participared in this event and created the new layouts.
These layouts are now available to play with in game in Aquarium mode. In future, we will use them in Campaign levels where applicable. We are really happy how this turned out and are looking forward to hosting more events with different rules. Stay tuned!
Version 0.6.7
Pre-initialize procedural growth next growth type
Increase potential Leech target count to 16 from 4. Fixes sometims leeches not attaching to things properly
Add text-file based credits. Add Community Layout creator names
Pre-sort Layout Databse layouts by name
Show author in Layout info panel
Make the killer's name appear in red
Show killer name
Set prettier names to all built-in Layouts
Add name generator utilities and expand dictionary
Allow Sipho names contain apostrophe ' symbol
Update dirty serialized asset name
Update Layout tests to new Layout serialization layout
