v0.31 - Balance changes, bug fixes, and background improvements
Hey all, not a ton of new content to see this update besides some bug fixes that appeared after the release of v0.3. I also did some tweaking to general difficulty scaling, scoring, weapons, and weapon drops:
Changelog
Fixes:
Issue where enemies would sometimes keep shooting even after dying and triggering a bullet cancel
Fixed a bug where the Bit upgrade would still deal damage even if invisible
Stage end warps were being miscounted
No Miss Bonus was always being applied at the end of each stage even if the player died
Issue where Vakterns missiles weren't dealing damage
Issue where Vakterns missiles would sometimes disappear
Fixed a bug where weapon capsules would sometimes hang around after starting the next level
Balance Changes:
Increased energy weapon strength
Increased scores at which players receive extra lives (now 80000, 250000, and 500000)
Slightly increased all enemy base health
Boss and enemy health now scale based on the loop the player is on
The player now de-levels once when killed (cannot drop below level 2)
Increased general bullet count for Level 1 on subsequent loops (loop 2+)
At least 1 weapon should drop at the end of each stage
Increased score gained on subsequent loops (loop 2+)
Stage end boss warp bonuses are now more forgiving
Other changes:
Added new backgrounds for Level 1
Increased resolution of Level 2 and 3 backgrounds
The pipeline hasn't changed much since the last update. v0.32 will focus on adding new enemies and level design to Level 1.
In the pipeline:
New Level 1 enemies
New Level 1 boss fight
Story content for Level 1
New weapons/items
As always, if you find any bugs or issues please feel free to drop a comment here or message me on discord!
Hey all, this update has been in the works for a while now and while there's still a ton of work to do I'm happy to finally share it with everyone.
First off, let me say that this update drastically changes the base game. I recognize that these changes might not be everyone's cup of tea, so I've made some of the more recent builds available for free on the game's itch.io page (the builds are listed as demos).
Changelog
Updates:
Levels 1 - 3 are now playable
New enemies
Certain enemies will now trigger bullet cancels
Gold bars now drop as a pick up and contribute to score
Added a proper loading screen
New weapons and items
Updated the player's hitbox sprite
Added the ability to continue once you've run out of lives
Redid Vaktern's artwork (for the 3rd and final time)
Added a Stage End screen
Added an extend item (grants the player an additional life)
Score-based extends (grants the player an additional life if they reach certain scores during a run)
Pity extends (grants the player an additional life if they reach the end of the level with 0 lives remaining -- only occurs once per run)
Brand new weapon slot and shared energy system
Power orbs now drop as an enemy takes damage
New chain-based scoring system with multipliers
Steam Deck support (I've tested it on my own device and the game seems to run fine, although I'll admit I did very little to achieve this)
New bullet art
Some things I'd like to note from the above:
Weapons, Items, and Passives are all dropped after defeating a boss.
Weapons and Passives will increase in level based on how many times they've been acquired. Meaning, if you pick up the Drone Passive 3 times, it'll be upgraded to Level 3.
The player can now only have 2 weapons equipped at a time and their energy bar will contribute to both.
Gold bars will eventually act as currency and will be used in-between runs to unlock new content.
Once a Continue is used after receiving a Game Over, the player's score is reset.
Currently the player starts with 3 continues, but this number will probably be adjusted in later updates.
Some bosses have been removed for now, but can still be played via Practice mode. However I'm not confident that they'll all properly work given the sheer amount of changes the game has undergone. Practice mode could also use some additional updates as well.
Stage End bonuses are calculated based on how many enemies the player destroyed, how many times the player took damage during the level, how many times the player was forced to warp during the boss fight, and how long it took the player to defeat the boss.
Going forward, I plan on building out each level individually with unique enemies, bosses, environments, and story dialogue. This means that every future update should include a brand new level (starting with revamping Level 1). I expect this to be a slow going process while I figure out the dialogue system and create more detailed environments. Ideally, these environments will make for much more dynamic gameplay and give each level a bit of a facelift.
In the pipeline:
New Level 1 boss fight
New Level 1 environments
New Level 1 enemies
Story content for Level 1
New weapons/items
As always, if you find any bugs or issues please feel free to drop a comment here or message me on discord!
Hey all, Super Crome is 40% off for Steam's Going Rogue event!
I originally intended to pair this sale with a substantial update, but I soon realized that more work needed to be done before it could go live. While I can't push the latest changes just yet, I can however preview some of the features to come in update v0.3:
- Revamped random wave system (streamlined levels removing any lulls in gameplay unless intended) - Redid enemies to more closely fit newer bosses - Normal and Hard difficulty is now reflected during the levels and not just the boss fights - New scoring system for both Normal and Hard modes (the current leaderboard will be archived, but forever immortalized as an in-game menu) - Weapons and Passive Abilities: While not finalized, the player will obtain new weapons and passives (e.g. Charge Shot, Homing Missiles, Drones, etc.) by defeating enemies/bosses. Most weapons will also be upgradeable, increasing their damage output.
There's still a ton of work that needs to be done for v0.3, but I'd expect it to drop sometime in June (late April if things go smoothly).
Hey all, the new Practice mode is now live on Steam! This update doesn't include too much new content outside of this additional mode, but it should make replaying bosses much easier. One thing I'd like to point out is that the older bosses (Calamaro, Fel, The Hive, and Death Comet) are still in line to be remade and are subject to change.
Changelog
Updates:
- New Practice Mode - New Level 3 background art - Slightly increased the player's maximum and minimum warp distance (by roughly 20%) - Revamped player's warp missiles
In the pipeline:
- Boss Rush - New enemy designs - Normal mode leaderboard - Brand new Level 1 boss (still in the works) - Revamp Player Red homing missiles attack
Hey all, the menu redesign and Normal difficulty mode are now live on Steam! This update took much longer than expected (due to rewriting the entire menu from scratch), but should make the addition of Boss Rush and Practice modes relatively painless!
One thing I'd like to point out: custom controller/keyboard bindings have most likely been reset. Unfortunately during this update I ran into a bunch of issues that required me to throw out old logic which means that a lot of custom settings (if not all) have been reset to default. Sorry for the inconvenience here, this shouldn't change again in the future.
Changelog
Updates:
- Redesigned main menu to accommodate future Boss Rush and Practice modes - Added Arcade Normal difficulty (note: this currently only effects Boss fights, but will apply to enemies waves in the near future)
Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where one of Gojin's masks were playing the wrong animation
In the pipeline:
- Boss Rush and Practice modes - Normal mode leaderboard - Brand new Level 1 boss (still in the works) - Revamp Player Red homing missiles attack and passive missiles attack (when warping) - New Level 3 background art + music (still in the works)
Hey all, this update is coming out waaaay later than I would've liked but you have all been patient and I truly appreciate that! This update features a bunch of new music, an updated Gojin boss fight, and a couple other minor changes to the player. The new Gojin fight can be found on level 3 and has a 100% spawn rate for the time being. Bosses are most definitely going to be shuffled around as more are implemented, but I'll talk about that more when we're closer to being boss complete!
I also wanted to address something that's been bugging me lately, which is difficulty. I know some people have complained that the latest additions have made the game far more challenging than it's ever been before. This is especially true for players that just want to see the new content being added with each update. I tend to try to balance to my own skill level, but that can be unfair as I'm the one designing each bullet pattern. I also have free reign to practice as much as I'd like which also gives me an unfair advantage.
So I plan on doing 2 things in the next update to combat this: 1. Normal difficulty mode 2. Practice and Boss Rush modes
The current state of the game will remain as the Hard difficulty and I'll continue to balance this difficulty to my own skill level going forward. For now this will only effect boss fights, but I plan on extending this to enemy waves in the future (which currently need a lot of work anyway).
Practice mode will allow players to replay any boss fight on either Normal or Hard difficulty. I currently don't have any plans for a Practice mode that includes enemy waves since these are completely randomized. That being said, I do plan on reconsidering it once I start working on enemy waves again.
Boss Rush mode is exactly what you'd expect. The player selects a difficulty (Normal or Hard) and will fight through every boss from start to finish with only 3 lives. I haven't decided if I want to include old bosses in this or not, but would love feedback here if anyone has some.
That was a lot of info to drop, but please feel free to leave any questions in the comments and I'll try to answer them as soon as possible!
Changelog
Updates:
- Completely redid the Gojin fight (100% chance to spawn on Level 3 for now) - Player Drones now scale with the player's level (higher level = more damage) - The player starting shot now fires 2 bullets increasing damage output which should make the earlier waves a bit easier - 2 brand new boss tracks - 1 new level track (Level 1) - Added a couple new explosions (big and small) - Added a player shooting animation
Fixes:
- Minor balances changes for Vaktern and fixed an issue where the boss name wasn't showing up - Remastered Vaktern's audio to match other bosses - Fixed a bug (hopefully for good) where bullets would sometimes appear tiny
In the pipeline:
- Menu revamp - Hard mode - Normal mode - Boss Rush and Practice modes - Brand new Level 1 boss (still in the works) - Revamp Player Red homing missiles attack and passive missiles attack (when warping) - New Level 3 background art + music (still in the works)
Hey all, the new Vaktern fight is now live! If you want to check it out, it's the first and only boss you'll encounter in Level 1. I plan on adding a few more Level 1 bosses so this should be short lived. I also fixed quite a few bugs with this update. Mainly an issue with the pause menu that was impacting performance and a nasty exploit.
Hope you all stay safe and have a happy holidays!
PS: Thank you to Swords and Shiki for pointing out some of the bugs that got fixed this update!
Changelog
Updates:
- Reworked the balance on the Triclops - Completely redid the Vaktern boss fight (100% chance to spawn in Level 1 for now)
Fixes:
- Fixed an exploit that allowed players to warp forever - More performance fixes (one explosion related and another pause menu related) - Fixed an issue where the player would lose all lives after resetting from the menu
In the pipeline:
- Redo the Gojin boss fight (will most likely be in the next update) - Brand new Level 1 boss - Revamp Player Red homing missiles attack - New Level 3 background art + music (in the works) - New Boss tracks (also in the works)
Hey all, another quick update here! This time we're doing the Triclops boss fight. I left a lot of his original moves intact, but ended up removing some of the slower/more boring attacks. Let me know what you think, hope he's not too tough!
Changelog
Updates:
- Brand new Triclops boss fight (50% chance of spawning in Level 2) - Added a dark backing to bullets to improve visibility - Added a new diamond-shaped bullet type (featured in the Triclops and Buddy boss fights)
Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where enemies would sometimes be invincible after starting a new run - Fixed an issue where bullets wouldn't de-spawn after killing a boss (thus getting the player killed)
In the pipeline:
- Revamp Vaktern boss fight (Level 1) - Brand new Level 1 boss - Revamp Player Red homing missiles attack - New Level 3 background art + music (in the works) - New Boss tracks (also in the works)
- New Buddy boss fight (50% chance of spawning in Level 2) - New Level 2 background art - New player shot pattern + level progression - Updated most bosses to use new bullets (Fel and the Death Comet updates in the pipeline) - New screen swipe transition between levels - Started pooling explosions (performance boost -- should see a bigger bump next update)
Fixes:
- Fixed a bug where player would lose energy when trying to activate drones beyond the max
Almost exactly a month from the last update, v0.2 brings a new boss fight, a new player shot, new background art, and a bunch of small attack updates to existing bosses! There's still a lot to do and I definitely have my work cut out for me when it comes to balancing, but I think things are headed in the right direction.
The next update should feature changes to both Triclops and Vaktern. I already have new art done for Triclops and a bunch of new attacks planned to add to his existing arsenal. Vaktern's update may be less extensive, but he'll also have a new set of attacks to look out for.
In the pipeline:
- Revamp Triclops boss fight (Level 2) - Revamp Vaktern boss fight (Level 1) - Hook up new explosions for all enemies/bosses (currently only used for Buddy) - Redo camera shake - Revamp Player Red homing missiles attack - New Level 3 background art + music - New Boss tracks
