This update took slightly longer to get done than I would've liked on the account that a virus decided to visit us to squat here for a while. They are fascinating yet horrible little things.
Anyway, only a few fixes and additions this time but I would like to tackle the performance issues next as the random lag spikes seem to be getting worst, at least for me. Fortunately I have finally found a very nice looking free profiler which will hopefully help a lot with finding performance and memory issues.
Leaderboards
- Added a new leaderboard for the total aced season time. The first time you load this version of the game ALL your times will be resubmitted. This procedure will save the remaining uploads upon exiting the game and resume them the next time you play.
Fixes
- Fixed a bug on level 2-Boss (Grate Escape) which caused the scroll camera to start in the wrong position when entering the final scrolling section.
- Fixed "You wot mate!" achievement so that it doesn't immediately stop logging after starting.
- Fixed final room desync of Tox Patrols by adding the missing look trigger. A trigger should encompass all the enemies in the final room and would normally activate their movement once the trigger is in the camera view. The enemies default to activating when they're in the camera view themselves which explains why entering the room from the center is fine but spawning from the checkpoint isn't.
Quality of Life
- UI element selection now wraps around vertically.
- Pausing the game no longer requires standing on a floor while not pressing left or right but still will only work during active play. This is unfortunately due to the state based nature of the game screen and refactoring the pause state to work independently could be a nightmare.
- Added speedrun UI toggle which adds extra UI elements for easier speedrunning. These extra options have dashes on either side of their label text.
- Added a return to title screen option to the in-game pause menu.
- Speedrun UI 1 (Checkpoint practice mode): A button in the pause menu that sets the last respawn position and disables all other checkpoints. However, if you set your respawn position to the start then all check points will be disabled.
- Speedrun UI 2 (Restart speedrun): An option again in the pause menu to delete your save game and send you back to immediately before starting a new game.
- Credits screen can now be always skipped. Also, it now functions as a skip and not a speed up. Changed text from "Boss level" to "Skull levels" in the music track section.
- End screen is much faster and some of the final message texts have been fixed/updated for spelling and punctuation.
- The options menu has been added to the map screen UI.
Other
- Restart and death tolls on the level clear screen are now always coloured Lumi blue as the red would slightly ruin what should be a great moment.
EDIT: Removed a change to the credits that wasn't actually added yet.
Patch notes v1.6.1 - Level editor, Assist mode removed and more.
Hi,
So this began as kind of a strange update with the removal of a feature but since I was quite productive, for a change, I decided to finally update the level editor to work through the release build of the game instead of a seperate one.
Unfortunately, the game doesn't support playing custom maps at the moment which is why I haven't added the map editor also. I didn't want to delay the other updates any longer so I figured the level editor would give you guys plenty to get to grips with.
Also currently, custom levels can only be played through the editor but a full Steam workshop solution will be the final goal for the editors.
Other changes include the aforementioned removed feature which is the assist mode option. To be more precise though assist mode is now always on and the option to change it has been removed. I feel the game is more streamlined without assist mode options and I've also heard reports of people not even knowing it existed! So since there is already challenges which require you not to respawn at checkpoints, they should be used more liberally to lower frustration.
The removal of assist mode also ties into the last major change that comes along with this update and that's a level by level re-examination for odd checkpoint placement, better flow by smoothing down remaining difficulty spikes and repositioned tokens that were either repeat patterns or forced you to wait too long. This is a long overdue revisit addressing key problem areas on some levels that create poor flow. Rest assured though that most of the levels are exactly the same and any changes made have been nerfs that donn't affect routing through the them. The levels in the final world however have not been touched and remain the most difficult levels in the game.
List of changes
Level editor
Integrated the level editor into the release build. It's not completely functional in terms of synchronising with the main game but all the features for level design are fully working. Also please note that the editor could be unstable and may crash. Whenever the game exits/crashes while in the editor, the current level will be saved in an autosave folder within "My Documents/My Games/Super Lumi Live".
Assist mode removal
Removed all options to change the checkpoint mode. The game will now always use assist mode with has the extra checkpoints set up.
Removed the L-Plates on level nodes in the map screen.
The blue L platforms are now just normal platforms.
Removed Pass Plus achievement.
All checkpoints now use the diamond shaped sprite.
Re-examnation of levels
Some levels have received small changes for better placed checkpoints and to smooth out any disruptive difficulty spikes remaining.
UI
New save games will only be created after all UI choices have be made. This is after entering a name using a new profile or after selecting a campaign on a new save game using an old profile. This stops blank saves being created when backing out of the aforementioned UI menus.
Profiles and save games can now be copied.
Deleting profiles is now done on the profile select screen instead of the screen shown after selecting a profile.
Timing
Main game loop timer now uses (total elapsed time - previous elapsed time) as a delta time calculation instead of using discrete nanosecond ticks which, over long periods of time, could lose synchronisation with "in real life time".
All decimal based statistic totals (Total Time, Distance Travelled etc..) have double point precision now which will allow a lot more accurate calculations with large numbers.
Added speedrun timer option to show current play time and/or total time.
Quality of life
Added option to turn off the achievement pop-up window.
The level clear UI will now show your level time even when it's above 10 mins. However, the level clock will still show dashes when 10 mins is reached.
The level clear UI also shows the number of deaths and respawns/restarts. Restarting a level from the beginning or warping to a bonus level will not reset these counters. Picking a level from the map screen or retrying a level from the level clear screen will reset them.
Several UI texts corrected.
Thanks for reading,
Marios.
Super Lumi Live v1.5.3 (Assist mode, Toll changes and lots more)
Hi,
It has been a while since the last update but I'm happy to say that there's a lot packed into this one! The biggest changes to the game come mostly from wanting to make the campaign a little easier for the first playthrough but also to provide a better speedrunning experience.
The best choice in this situation is to include an unlockable speedrun mode for the main campaign and this would be great but I feel keeping the game a singular experience instead of split between two modes simplifies the overall feel and presentation. I instead settled on two major changes to the game which I've explained in the gameplay section below.
Other changes include a few tweaks on some levels to tidy up any missed loose ends. This included ceilings which look like they could be a secret but aren't and smoothing over one or two major difficulty spikes by removing particularly problematic objects.
I also really wanted to add a number of visual upgrades to the game so now it's got a wider bloom effect, better map screen visuals and tweaks to the other full-screen effects. The biggest one being changes to the chromatic aberration from it having uniform strength across the screen to now having a stronger effect towards the corners. This is to simulate the effects of an old CRT TV.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the new changes,
Marios.
Here's the full list:
Gameplay
Assist mode added to the game! You can now select to have more checkpoints on the levels! The setting can be changed at any time in the map screen menu and levels completed with assist mode on are marked.
The checkpoints now also have three different shapes to represent which mode they show up in:- circle for assist mode, square for normal mode and diamond for when the checkpoint is in both modes.
Almost all token toll amounts have been lowered so that they fall closer to a speedrunning type of route rather than a slower, first play through route.
Levels
Level 1-3 (Discs of Fury) had a ceiling altered to look more natural with the surrounding ceiling and less like a hint of a secret there.
Level 2-3 (Uptown). The warp portal room has a few extra knocker hopper's added.
Level 2-5 (Temp Work) has had a disc launcher removed just before the final gauntlet section. The launcher created a huge spike in difficulty for what was already a tricky section.
Visuals
New bloom type added. This type of bloom has a much wider radius and the intensity of both bloom types can now be scaled in the graphics menu.
The new wider bloom type tends to blow out the picture when the colours are inverted so a per level setting was added to make adjustments.
Heat haze effect has been added to some levels.
Full-screen effects such as screen bulge and scan-lines have had their beat matched scale turned slightly down mostly so that chromatic aberration doesn't get too extreme when set to a high intensity.
Default values for the full screen effects is now 2.0 instead of 1.0.
The chromatic aberration red-green-blue spread pattern now forms a triangle instead of a line which will give right most edges a green tint.
Also the chrom. abb. is a bit wider towards the corners of the screen.
Neon signs have a black backing to them for better readability. This has also been applied to the world tiles and title logo but to a lesser degree.
Title logo has been adjusted with the same perspective effect used for the key art. Also the background level has changed to match the key art.
The dash move now has a sound and white glow effect to make it more obvious when triggered.
Doors will now make Lumi disappear in a flash of light when entered to avoid enemies moving into you while the door entry sequence occurs.
Doors that have a destination will be white during the initial "ready" phase instead of starting black and instantly turning white after the "ready" phase.
The level end goal has been given "god rays" similar to the final exit.
Increased the width of the achievements window so there's more space for the descriptions.
Audio
Changed the music on the final level.
Fixed sounds starting at position (0,0) for a single frame resulting in a click sound at the start of some levels.
Removed end screen sound loop.
The static noise is muted after touching the final levels exit.
UI
Standing still for a few moments will now display the collectables HUD. Un-pausing the game will also show the HUD.
The list of saved games has had a much needed update to read better. They now have a description above each statistic and the name of the campaign is now shown on the left. This is in preparation for a new campaign coming soon as well as custom campaigns.
Pressing backspace (keyboard) or the back/cancel button (gamepad) while in the name entry UI will go back to the previous screen if the name is blank. The back/cancel button now also deletes the right-most character.
Some UI elements now display info text at the bottom of the UI window.
Map Screen
Land tiles no longer have a bright edge on them and instead now have a fading edge for better contrast against the paths. This also removes a lot of visual noise from the map screen.
Level nodes have a dark backing for better clarity.
Level nodes have been given the shader treatment to match the rest of the game.
The number and letter icons on the level nodes are larger for better readability.
When a UI window is displayed the background will now go darker in addition to it's usual blurring.
The game no longer saves your profile after unlocking a toll. This will remove the short pause caused on profiles that have a lot of saved games and/or replays.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the new changes,
Marios.
Update 1.4.3 (Season 5 Gold Token fixes)
Hi, It's been a short while since the last update so here's a small one to fix a few outstanding issues and to implement a few quality of life improvements suggested to me.
I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas Holiday and wish you all a prosperous New Year!
Changes
5-Boss' third token is now correctly marked as the third token and not a duplicate of the first.
5-B (Side Way Round) is no longer missing a third token.
Removed the white dot that appears on Energy Disc launchers as they are priming to launch a disc.
The respawn button now triggers respawning after dying in addition to the jump button.
The map screen now resizes the silver tokens text appropriately to how many tokens are in the level. This only affects one level in the game.
Map Progress UI has been renamed to Seasons Progress. Also, all the percentages which aren't 100% are now slightly darker for better readability.
Timed solid platforms (The dark-ish green ones that change to and from solid and non-solid) no longer spaz out when they kill you as they become solid.
It's no longer necessary to 100% the game to unlock the final challange of the game. It will be unlocked sooner and that is all I will say on that :)
Game will no longer crash during profile saving and loading. An error message will pop up if this ever occurs. Any failed loading attempts will back up the problem profile(s) before being replaced.
The name input cursor position now starts on the End button. This will allow you to type your name and then press enter without having to scroll to the End button.
Thanks for reading,
Marios.
Update 1.4.1 - Leaderboard hotfix
Hi,
I had a slight mishap and left out a zero on the minutes calculation for the game clear leaderboards. My bad :)
This made the leaderboard show 10 times as many minutes for the game clear catagories! Fortunately I won't have to wipe the game clear leaderboards again as this only affected the display of those times. The new times that have been reuploaded are correct and match the previous entries from the old seconds-based leaderboards.
This hotfix will display the minutes correctly now but also I've placed a boolean flag in the profiles so that the best game clear time from each profile only gets sent to the leaderboard upload queue once. This should help keep the queue down.
Thanks for reading!
Marios.
Update 1.4 out now - Replay Sharing
Hi,
Replay sharing added! A screenshot is created with each replay and shows a graph with your X and Y speed over time. A secondary screenshot is also made showing a larger version of the graph so you can directly compare runs from different replays.
Features
Replays can now be uploaded and subscribed to (downloaded) using Steam's workshop functionality.
Replay UI has been improved and now shows replays from other game saves, profiles and now of course from workshop subscriptions.
Consolidated achievements and statistics into a new window and added a new button to take you to the map progress window where you can see all the percentages for each Season as well as use this window to warp directly to a Season.
Added option to the main map menu which will warp you to any visited season.
Fixes/Improvements
On level 3-7 (Futile) the final section has been adjusted to feel less random.
In-game ghosts will now show the name of the authors.
The game complete percentage has been adjusted to take into account levels cleared without a time target medal (ie. taking over 10 mins to clear a level). Because of the way the weights are now calculated your percentage will likely be slightly higher than previously.
Time during map and level loading is now ignored by the total time on your stats. This is to eliminate loading time variance from your final time. This probably saves about 0.1s - 1.0s per load but all maps and most levels load very quickly. The levels that take a while to load are usually the ones with 10 or more fluids like acid or lava.
Level ace times of 10 mins or over will be no longer valid for leaderboard entries or replays.
Changed the game clear leaderbaords to use milliseconds instead of seconds with the limitation of 20 days being the maximum.
UI no longer wraps vertically when there's a greyed out option at either the top of bottom.
The game saves upon exiting the map screen so you always start in the same map that you exited.
Upon entering a bonus level from a Warp Portal the game will now use the bonus level's previous Gold Token count instead of the level you warped from.
Improved the look of the hidden platforms distortion texture.
The level clear screen left-most button will now say "Restart Replay" instead of "Restart Level" when in replay mode.
Decreased the second and third set of tolls for the final season to allow more levels to be incomplete before the final levels are available. This is so you're not stuck with only 2 or 3 levels before playing the last one.
Thanks for reading and I can't wait to see how some of you got your incredible times!
Marios.
Update on upcoming version 1.4 - Replay Sharing
Hi,
A few days ago I finished implementing a basic system to upload and download replays via the Steam Workshop. I wanted to have a meaningful screenshot for the uploads so a screenshot similar to one above is created for every replay uploaded. It displays a bunch of replay data including a graph of your x and y speed over time.
The replay and ghosts window has also been given a much needed update. From v1.4 it will show all the replays from your other saves, other profiles and subscribed replays from the Workshop. I'm in the process of refining a few remaining UI elements and handling any remaining errors or failures during Workshop interaction but if all goes well I should have a patch out by Friday 17th Nov!
I'm also looking into implementing a new game mode which will remove all Silver and Gold Tokens and the Token Tolls on the Season maps. This will have to probably wait until v1.5 but a mode like this will allow for a slightly different style of speedrun. It will be more streamlined and skill based speedrun but without the token metagame. (Thanks Kepsert for the idea!)
Looking forward to watching your replays soon, especially Jas' seemingly unbeatable time on level 1-1 :)
Thank you for reading,
Marios.
Update 1.3.5 (Delete save hotfix)
Hi,
Just a quick hotfix to sort out a bug with deleting game saves. It use to delete the top most save regardless of which one you selected to delete.
Changes
Fixed game save menu deleting the incorrect save. I'm really sorry to all those who experienced it.
Lowered default volume from 14 to 10.
Increased default brightness and contrast from 0 to +1.
2-1 (Knocker Hopper) has had the pointless platform removed in the area just after the second Gold Token.
Thanks for reading,
Marios.
Update 1.3.3 (Full leaderboard support)
Hi,
This update marks the completion of the leaderboard system barring any bugs they might pop up. You can now view a selection of leaderboards across different catagories as well as view them by your rank, the top 100 ranks or your friends' ranks.
The leaderboard catagories include but aren't limited to:
Best level clear times.
Total Season times (once you've cleared all the levels in a Season this will be the combined total of all your best level times).
Game clear times (essentially your best any% speedrun).
Perfect game clear time (your best 100% speedrun).
Changes:
Added UI support to view all of the leaderboards. This is provided you have the prerequisites to access certain catagories.
Fixed not being able to exit from the map screen by putting an "exit to title" and "exit game to windows" options in the map menu.
Swapped the map menu button and leaderboard button around so that the buttons used for manipulating the leaderboard UI feel more intuitive.
Fixed 1001 Deaths Steam achievement showing progress everytime you load your game.
Moved the Steam rank system to a static class so that it can't be left in a inconsistant state when going to a new Season map.
Changed the minimum value from 5% to 10% for certain cheats as it caused problems with gameplay.
Removed the intro to the title screen. It will now start immediately.
Fixed option select UI from accepting input when at either end of the list of options. This fixes the video restarts that happen even though the settings for V-Sync or fullscreen don't change.
Thanks for reading,
Marios
Update 1.3.1 (Leaderboard hotfix)
Hi,
I'm afraid I have some bad news. It appears my initial thoughts of attaching replays to leaderboard entries might not be possible after all. I noticed that once the leaderboards began being populated I checked and found out that the workshop item ID was 0 for everyones entries. Slight oversight on my part but I soon fixed this only to run immediately into another problem of the ID number for the handle on all of my different scores were the same ID number.
Unfortunately I cannot find any info on the subject and have decided to fall back onto a more robust system of allowing you to upload and subscribe to replays manually. This is a little bit of a shame as it would've been really nice to have a completely intergrated system. At least having the leaderboards and downloadable replays seperate will be less prone to error as well as being simpler to implement while also allowing you to edit them in your workshop files.
Changes:
Completely removed uploading and attaching replays to leaderboard entries.
Added a safeguard for saving remaining leaderboard scores. If you losed your Steam connection during the game being open, upon shutting down the game it would still run in the background as it waits for Steam to timeout. The game previously saved the queued scores after this loop but will now save the progress before every upload to ensure you have way less chance of losing the ability to upload a score.
Leaderboard UI starting element index is now your score instead of the top entry.
Fixed player being in the wrong position when coming back to the map on nodes changed in the last update.