Happy to announce that I just published the Steam page for my next game "Virtue's Heaven"! Virtue's Heaven is an action/exploration platformer about living at the End of History, killing God and creating a future. I've been working on this project on and off for the over four years now and I'm really excited that it's finally in a stage where I can properly announce it!
Anyway, you can find out more on the game's Steampage and don't forget to wishlist it!!
Thank you so much for your support!
GB Rober, the next game from the developer of Splinter Zone, has a release date!
Hi friends!
I'm very happy to announce that on October 13th, 2021, my next game, GB Rober will finally be released on Steam. It's been a while since my last big release, so I'm really happy that I managed to finish this project and I'm really proud how it turned out. GB Rober will also be playable during the upcoming Steam Next Festival, so look forward to that as well.
Feel free to check the game's Steampage for more information, and don't forget to put it on your wishlists!
Until then, I leave you with this new trailer for GB Rober.
[previewyoutube="YGrXHGciPbM;full"]
Thank you so much for your interest in my work and your support and I hope you have a nice week!
Wishlist GB Rober, the new game from the Developer of Splinter Zone!
Just wanted to let you all know, that my new game "GB Rober" is now available to wishlist! It will release some time later this year!
GB Rober is an expressive action platformer that is about shooting your Boss and fighting for a better world! Like Splinter Zone it features tons of explosions, precise controls and (new, this time around) some very obvious political symbolism!
Hey friends! I hope everything is well and good! Thanks again for buying Splinter Zone at some point. There aren't a lot of you folks out there, but it still means a lot to me. Anyway, I'm using this great function here in the hopes that some of you might see this and to let you know that I'm working on a new gamer, called "G.B. Rober". It's similar to Splinter Zone in that it is too very much Mega Man inspired, but this time a bit less obtuse about its subject and also much more traditional in how it's played.
But it still has the same kind of dedication to making things explode in nice ways.
You can watch a trailer of the game over here: https://youtu.be/yFxpcBnksh8
There isn't a Steampage yet (still need to get the money to pay Valve for the privilege...), but if you have a twitter account you can follow my games account over there for more updates:
https://twitter.com/mokkograd
Update (04.01.2018)
Hi folks!
I did another small update today that changes some minor stuff and also fixes a handful of bugs that have been brought to my attention.
So here's the list
Got rid of the Holiday decoration just in time before it started feeling weird
Added a differen Explosion sprite
Changed the way some sound effects are played, which should make the overall listening experience a bit less janky
Fixed a crash that happened when you died at the Garbageboss
Changed the layout of one stage a little bit to avoid people ending up with a bugged out camera
Technically I did this during the secret holiday update, but some enemies now leave their heads behind after they exploded. There's no functionality behind it, I just found it funny and wondered why I haven't already done that before.
As always thank you for your support and the feedback. I may not work on this game as diligintly as I did a few months ago, but I'm still looking into small ways to improve it. So please, if you have any thought, don't hesitate to tell me.
Update (23.10.2017) - Get ready to shoot some clowns!
Hi everyone!
Today's update is a big one. It adds a bunch of new content to Splinter Zone and also addresses some of the remaining issues I had. For example, it should now be much easier to actually be able to finish the game, than it was before.
Anyway, here are the notes:
Added a whole new "Circus" Area with 6 new levels and four new enemy types.
Added a secret double jump upgrade that gives you much more mobility
Added a secret "Superlevel" upgrade that extends your Weapon level and adds a new powerup.
Changed the slowdown that happens during large explosions to something that's hopefully a bit less confusing.
Changed the jumping animation to something that doesn't look as awkward as the old one.
Changed the way the game handles the players being stuck in a wall
Tweaked the layout of a large amount of stages to make sure the double jump doesn't completely break them
Probably a bunch of small stuff that I forgot in the time between me working on this update and me releasing it...
This update is probably going to be last content update for Splinter Zone in general. To be honest with you: I'm kind of done with this game. Don't get me wrong I still like it and all that. However working on it got more and more frustrating and (to be frank) boring over the last two months. Then add to this a bunch of personal problems and you get something that isn't really all that healthy.
There's also the simple fact that with the way the game has sold so far (not very well), it seems much smarter for me to just move on to the next thing.
Thank you very much again to all of you who have decided to buy this game or who supported my work in any other way. The numbers might not look all that great, but it's still amazing for me to know that are actually people out there who paid money for something that I have created almost completely on my own.
As I said, I'm going to move on to the next thing now. It's going to be a bit different than this game and I really hope that I'll be able to show some of it in the not so near future.
Update (13.07.2017)
Hi!
I had a chance to watch a lot of people play Splinter Zone during a festival last week and I saw a lot of stuff that I didn't like. This update adresses most of it and should make the game a bit less clunky to play.
I'm also working on a much larger update that is going to add more content to the game, but this one's still a few weeks away from being done.
Anyway, here are the notes:
Arrows on conveyor belts now have different colours depending on their direction
When you're below level 3, your XP only gets cut by 25% after getting hit. You still lose 50% of your XP, when you at level 3 or above
Changed the placement and length of some ladders
Adjusted the height of some platform, to make some jumps less awkward
Made it less likely that the camera breaks in some places
Delayed some enemy attacks, to give players a bit more time to attack them before getting hit
Adjusted the placement of some enemies and also the way they spawn, should you approach them from the right side of the screen
The changes mostly adress cases where people were having trouble, where I did not want them to have them. The biggest adjustmen is probably the XP loss (again) and the reason for it is the same for when I made the first adjustment. First time players get hit a lot, because they're still learning how to deal with enemies. Getting hit often means they won't get enough XP to gain levels, which makes it less likely they start learning about how they work and how to use Hyper Mode. With this adjustment I hope that it's now possible to quickly gain at least one level without much trouble. The higher XP loss at level 3 and 4 is acceptable in my opinion, because the benefit from having these levels is so high. I don't want it to be trivial to reach the higher levels, because the game gets significantly easier once you reach them. At the same time I want people to catch onto the level system and hyper mode as quickly as possible.
Anyway, please let me know what you think. Balancing this whole stuff is tricky, because I need to make it accessible to new players, without trivializing the challenge for those of you who already know the intricacies of the game.
As always, thank you very much for your support and your interest in this game. There are not that many of you out there, but be sure that I appreciate every single one of you.
Update (15.06.2017)
Hi!
Today's update is a bit weird, because it mostly affects the secret levels, or parts of them. My apologies, if the notes seem to be a bit lacking because of that.
If you managed to complete two secret stages within a run, the game might give you a hint on the third stage's location. You still have to figure out the exact location, as well as how to get there yourself.
Fixed a bug with the level sequencing, that affected the levels that have secret level entrances in them. Basically, if you have completed a secret level, the chance of getting a level that has an entrance to one that you haven't completed yet, increases for your next loop (and drops off, if you don't visit it). This wasn't completely working as intended, but it should be fixed now.
Added two things to stuff that I can't talk about openly, because of spoilers.
The description of Hyper mode and the leveling system now reflects the most recent changes to said system.
As always, thank you very much for your support and please let me know, if you have any questions or suggestions.
Update (09.06.2017)
Hi there!
The game's now out for a bit more than a week and let me just take the opportunity to thank everyone who has bought it so far. It's nice to see that people have an interest in something I spend 18 months on creating and it's even better to see that most seem to actually enjoy it.
I'm starting to feel a bit better, so I sat down and worked on another small update. I'm still a bit unsure on how to proceed further in the future. I do have some rough plans for bigger updates, but this will probably take some time. Until then I'm going to make sure that I adress whatever problems arise.
Anyway, here are the notes for today's update
Slowed down the speed of some enemy projectiles
Slowed down the animation speed of some enemies which hopefully makes it easier for you to hit them, while they're vulnerable
Slightly increased the speed in which you're climbing on ladders
If you've managed to complete two or more secret levels, even more enemies will appear
The first two changes address some of the feedback I've been getting and both should make the game a bit more forgiving (at least in some parts). Difficulty adjustment is something I probably still have to figure out for a while, so please bear with me as slowly make this game a bit more beginner friendly. I think both updates this week address the most glaring issues, but there still might be some work left.
To kind of balance this out, I tried to add a few more enemies that appear, after you've complete the secret levels. Those usually don't affect newer players, because it's very unlikey that they complete the stages that triggers them, but they should those of you a bit of an extra challenge, that are already at a higher level of play.
As always, let me know what you think, and let me know if you run into any problems. I've been getting some vague complaints from a few people that the controls seem to be bugging out sometimes, but right it's hard for me to figure out exactly what might cause them. So if you encounter any cases where your controls seemed to have stopped working, please let me know and maybe also tell me which type of controller you were using.
Again, thank you very much for your support.
Have a nice weekend.
Update (05.06.2017)
Hi folks!
Sorry for the silence for the past few days. I'm dealing with a really nasty cold right now that refuses to go away and I was also really tired after the game's launch, so I took a few days off.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I pushed an Update for Splinter Zone, that addresses some of the feedback that I've gotten so far.
Enbabled Steam's Screenshot function (no one told that I had to do this myself!
Added an option to delete your save, in case you want to do that.
Getting hit now reduces your current XP by 50%, instead of setting it back to 0. I hope this makes the levels and using hyper mode more practical for folks who aren't total pros at this game.
Increased the amount of XP you get from some enemies a little bit
Fixed a rare bug, where the game wouldn't let you restart a run, after you've died.
Please let me know what you think. I'm going to keep an eye on the XP-Thing myself. The system is really hard to balance properly, because when you're really experienced, you can keep your levels almost indefinitely with the current setup. However, having you lose all your XP after getting hit, makes it hard for newer players to actually get any levels and therefore they end up never using hyper mode, which they really should.
