- Performance Improvements: We've reworked a big chunk of the level generation engine to run more smoothly. In addition, a lot of other gremlins were removed from the codebase such that we can now maintain much higher frame rates on beefier machines. Plus a lot of other niggling little bugs we found during the refactor process.
- Rebalanced Mechanics: The core jump and movement mechanics have received a revamp so that players can move around more freely and better control their jumps. This also includes some rebalancing of power-ups and new dynamics to exploit.
- New Gameplay Modes: Two new single-player modes - Tunnel Turmoil and Ramrafstars Revenge - add a new layer of challenge and online leaderboards too!
- Economy Tweaks: We've tweaked the in-game shop so that costumes, power-ups, and buffs are more easily attainable. You get more chances to collect MIPs during a run and have now included the ability to hack and override in-game challenges via the Shop menu if you want to access content earlier.
Sure Footing
v1.1. Update is now live!
Sure Footing Coming to Xbox One and Series X|S + PC 1.1 Update on May 20th
Sure Footing Coming to Xbox Consoles
On May 20th, Sure Footing will be coming to the family of Xbox consoles. Allowing a whole new audience of players to take on the single and multiplayer platforming mayhem with Pete, Polly, Blip and Plunk. You can pre-order now via the Xbox Store to play on Xbox One or the Xbox Series X|S consoles. We've worked hard on new features and a ton of improvements to the Xbox port, but don't worry, we're sharing these improvements with PC players as well.
v1.1 Release + Changelist for Steam
As Sure Footing comes to Xbox, we will also be releasing a new v1.1 update to Steam that includes all of the work we've done on improving the game in preparation for the Xbox release. This is a combination of new content, bug fixes, reworked elements and more. Here's some of the highlights:
- Performance Improvements: We've reworked a big chunk of the level generation engine to run more smoothly. In addition, a lot of other gremlins were removed from the codebase such that we can now maintain much higher frame rates on beefier machines. Plus a lot of other niggling little bugs we found during the refactor process.
- Rebalanced Mechanics: The core jump and movement mechanics have received a revamp so that players can move around more freely and better control their jumps. This also includes some rebalancing of power-ups and new dynamics to exploit.
- New Gameplay Modes: Two new single-player modes - Tunnel Turmoil and Ramrafstars Revenge - add a new layer of challenge and online leaderboards too!
- Economy Tweaks: We've tweaked the in-game shop so that costumes, power-ups and buffs are more easily attainable. You get more chances to collect MIPs during a run and have now included the ability to hack and override in-game challenges via the Shop menu if you want to access content earlier.
Steam Sale w.c. 17th May
Last but not least, Sure Footing is on sale on Steam during the week of the Xbox launch. So if you still haven't tried it out - or want to encourage a friend or just really like buying games - then this will be a good time to check it out.
Sure Footing v1.0.5 is now live!
Sure Footing v1.0.5 is here!
Hey everyone! So exciting to see so many new players filling up our leaderboards since we were announced just last week in the Yogscast Jingle Jam. Welcome to you all and thanks for joining us here in Cacheville.
So I've been working away on this update for a few weeks now and... man, it got hairy. As mentioned in a recent post this is to get the game ready for porting to consoles as well as generally improving performance. But also adding one or two smaller features and - more importantly - addressing some bugs that have been sitting in the game for far too long that I had a lot of trouble nailing down. Thanks to the folks who have reported their issues. Sometimes nailing down a bug in a procedurally generating game can be a real headache.
Change List
Here's a quick list of some of the bigger ticket items we've addressed in v1.0.5:
- Smoother Framerate: The framerate has been a little variable after v1.0.3 so I went back and optimised this. This isn't finished. I'm still going to work on this further, but I'm getting more consistent 60+ fps even when testing in-engine. So that's a big step forward.
- UI Improvements: a lot of small bugs in single-player, multi-player and shop have been resolved. Including issues with trying to buy skins in the which was a real bummer.
- New Controller UI: As part of the console rewrites we added in an entirely new controller UI system. You should now see new icons for keyboards and Xbox controllers.
- Running Pace Options: You can now change the running pace in the character select UI. This comes into effect both with normal and quickstart approaches.
- Lots and lots of bug fixes: Including most notably issues with the welcome signs not appearing when visiting new sectors, as well as issues with the mutators not enabling/disabling correctly.
This isn't the end of our updates. I'm still working away on new content as well as improvements that will see the game be updated a little more frequently in 2019.
Find New Bugs? Please Let Us Know
While I'm feeling much better about this build, bugs can always arise in new places (or those once thought destroyed can resurrect themselves). We're a very small team (I'm the only programmer) so diagnosing where these occur is always a huge help for us.
Review On Steam?
If you've enjoyed the game - or not - please leave a review on our store page. It's a big help in letting people know about the game (as Steam continues to push small indie games like ours further down the recommendation pile). Plus we try to address your concerns if you have any.
Hope you all have a great holiday season and I look forward to bringing more updates to the game throughout 2019.
Keep Running!
Tommy
Programmer, Table Flip Games
The 2018 Yogscast Jingle Jam + New Update
Sure Footing in the Jingle Jam
Hey everyone! The word got out last night that Sure Footing is part of the 2018 Yogscast Jingle Jam and we're proud to support this initiative that donates all of its proceeds to charity. If you're thinking of grabbing the game, then go check it out and if you grabbed the bundle and are now playing, welcome and I hope you enjoy your time with us in Computra.
https://www.humblebundle.com/yogscast/yogscast-jingle-jam-2018
If you're having a good time and wanna help us out, please go leave us a review on the Steam page. That would be a lot of help! If you have a bug or a cool suggestion, let us know over in the community forums as we're still updating and improving the game over the next year and anything you can push our way really helps!
Speaking of updates...
Sure Footing v1.0.5 Inbound Soon
So first up, sorry that the updates on the PC build have been a little quiet of late. I've actually been working on a couple of bugs raised in the community forums as well as dealing with back-end issues that arose as we started porting the game to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch . I kinda realised that both the bugs raised and the porting overlapped with each other so I've been spending a LOT of time rewriting back-end systems to a) fix bugs and b) allow the game to run more smoothly on both PC and console devkit hardware. This has led to a massive optimisation update that I had hoped to have ready for you in time for the Jingle Jam.
I'm still working away on this over the weekend and into next week. I'm hoping we can push the update w/c 17th December if not sooner. But here are some of the changes you can expect to see in v1.0.5.
- Smoother framerate: The framerate has been a little variable after v1.0.3 so I went back and optimised this.
- UI improvements: a bunch of small bugs as well as issues with purchases in the shop have been resolved.
- Smoother level loading: Not a biggy, I know, but this one was bugging me.
- New controller UI: As part of the console rewrites we added in an entirely new controller UI system. The first part of that will appear in the new build.
- Lots and lots of small bug fixes.
It's taken longer than planned, but we're much closer to getting this build out there. As I say I'll update you as soon as I can. In the meantime thanks for playing and I hope you continue to enjoy your time with Pete, Polly and the gang.
Keep Running!
Tommy
Programmer, Table Flip Games
New Co-op Multiplayer Update!
Hey everyone, this is Tommy from Table Flip Games and I wanted to make some noise about recent updates to Sure Footing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-x9Dv_ozPg
First up, it's been a couple of months since the last update. Sorry about that, we've all been busy on a bunch of things and one of the things we *have* been doing that I can talk about, is working on stability updates, some new content and working away on porting Sure Footing to other platforms. Back in June we pushed version 1.0.3 which included a bunch of UI improvements, improved performance, the PCG debug mode but also a beta build of the co-operative multiplayer modes. This week sees the launch of version 1.0.4 which adds new new modes, improvements to core gameplay, UI polish and a further improved co-op multiplayer, as well as a bunch of other stuff in general. So let's walk through the biggest changes.
Co-op Multiplayer
Alrighty first up let's talk multiplayer. Multiplayer has had a bunch of TLC in the past month or so, with the versus multiplayer getting a bunch of balance tweaks and improvements, plus the HUD has also been improved in order to make it a little clearer for identifying which UI is for which player, as well as a ping feature that let's you quickly check where you are in the game if you get all confused.
But on top of all that stuff, we also added in the new co-operative multiplayer. In the last update we pushed out the first mode in beta: the co-operative survival mode. Here you have to make sure you stick together and run as far as you can while Dave is hot on your tail. We've since improved the UI for this mode so you can see your active score multiplier, as well as add in a new revival feature - where if one of your team dies and you survive long enough, a gold crate will appear that - when smashed - will respawn one of your deleted teammates. But of course we're not making it super easy for you - you gotta make sure you hit the crate otherwise the respawn won't happen. Or you could just ignore it if you're not a team player or just wanna wind up your friends next to you.
Also in this build we just added another co-op mode where you have to collect the MIP target together in the time you have left. Oh and we added online leaderboards to both co-op modes for 2, 3 and 4 player counts. In our next content update we'll be looking to improve overall balance and any bugs that crop up.
Single-Player
But hey just because the multiplayer was getting a lot of love doesn't mean single player misses out. First up, the single player UI gets a little bit of love. We tidied up the HUD a little bit, polished the power-up charge bars but also added in a new quickstart mode in survival. If you've played survival already, the game will remember what power-ups you used the last time around. Next time you go in, all you have to do is use the quickstart option on character select to boot up with that chosen power-up load out. Ideal if you have a particular loadout you like but want to change character or skin.
Hey we even added controller rumble support because it's 2005 and we figured that might be cool for some folk.
Bugs
Last but not least we tidied up a bunch of bugs that cropped up in the last build that slipped past us. This includes fixing the sprint controls on gamepads, as well as improving the left stick controls which were super weird and messed up. Plus that loading icon was broken too! And Matt spent like... 47 minutes making that loading icon and while I fixed it know that he was secretely upset about it and really resented me for breaking it in the first place.
Closing
We're still tidying up some background systems to run more smoothly - which is proving handy for porting to other platforms - but are still adding in new content over the coming months. While we're still polishing the co-op multiplayer we've still got two more multiplayer modes to put in in the coming months. But before that we're pushing new single player content with new challenge modes that include big MIP bonuses (and even some exclusive skins) are lined up next. I'm looking forward to getting it out there - I mean I'm working real hard on it just now and want a sense of gratification.
Also while we're here, if you're looking at this game 'oh, my this looks wonderful, I wonder how this works', well you're in luck. Since over on my other YouTube channel - AI and Games - I made a complete case study explaining how the game builds levels while you play it. You should check it out. It's pretty fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYwfFGJdCqI
Alright, I'm going back to work. Keep running and we'll see you in the next update real soon!
- Tommy
v1.0.3 - Co-op Multiplayer, PCG Debug and More
New Multiplayer Content and Polish
The latest update brings co-operative multiplayer with distance survival, whereby players can work together to get the highest score they possibly can. The more of you that are alive, the higher your score multiplier becomes. It's still in beta at this stage and I'm working on adding the ability to revive dead characters and better improve the UI for co-op modes.
In the meantime, we also added a stack of small improvements to multiplayer. A new MP ping on the RB button on controllers to allow you to double check where you are on screen. The HUD now shows your selected character on screen. We give you a reminder of your power-up layout for a given multiplayer mode in the pause screen.
Game Performance Improvements
We're working hard on improving overall performance of the game so it runs faster and smoother on a variety of platforms. One immediate change we're launching this week is optimisation of in-game textures - plus removal on unneeded old assets. This has the games install size drop by over 0.5GB but without impacting visual performance and quality. I'm still working on improvements for this part in the coming months.
PCG Debug Mode?
Ever wondered how the underlying PCG architecture works in Sure Footing? Enable the PCG debug mode from the options screen and you can see where we place the triggers necessary to add and remove content while you play. We'll update this with some more info over time as well.
Bug Fixes
Last but not least, a stack of little bug fixes. Including a big one that might have broken multiplayer for some players. Sorry about that! Naturally if anything breaks, get in touch via the community tabs right here and let me know, I'll get working on a fix as soon as I can. ːsteamhappyː
And that's it for v1.0.3! Let us know what you think of the new build and please help spread the word and get your friends playing Sure Footing! To keep up to date on all things Sure Footing as and when they happen, keep an eye right here on our YouTube channel, our store pages as well as on Twitter and Facebook.
Plus you can visit our new Discord server too over at the link below, come hang out with us and talk to us about the new update.
https://discordapp.com/invite/mDBgS82
Best of luck out there and don't forget to keep running!
Tommy
Programmer, Table Flip Games
New Accessibility Features and Discord in v1.0.2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIrFpM811BM
So let's talk big features for this version, our goal was to improve the accessibility of our game, as well as add in some small improvements and extra stuff hot off the Steam lauch. So let's talk the two big additions: changes to game difficulty as well as control schemes.
New Running Pace Settings
Sure Footing launched with four running paces: our term for the unique configuration of gameplay variables that make a particular difficulty setting. Each running pace is designed to manipulate how fast players are moving, the challenges presented by the level generator and the aggressiveness of Deletion Dave and Ramrafstar. We have opened this up for players and have expanded the running pace count to six: with a new pace (walker) that is much slower and less demanding, as well as Runner which helps bridge the gap between Jogger and Sprinter. Plus we've added new online leaderboards for both running paces. Players can change this running pace in the options screen like you see here.
Our goal for this is to enable Sure Footing to be accessible to a variety of players. Perhaps the fast-paced nature of some of the gameplay is too much for you? That's cool, you can turn it down. But also if you feel it's not challenging enough, then you can crank it up. In addition, none of the unlock challenges for store items are influenced by the selected running pace. This is critical for us. You can complete challenges and unlock items at your own pace and don't want to force you to play the game at a particular level just so you can unlock a specific power-up or costume.
But perhaps you're wanting more control over those running pace settings? Well then let's talk a look at the new custom running pace setup.
Custom Difficulty Mode
Starting in this build players can build their own custom running pace and decide on the intensity of four parts of the game:
- The running pace of the player themselves.
- The intensity of the level generation system.
- The aggressiveness of Deletion Dave
- Ramrafstar's attack frequency.
So perhaps you want to play the game at top speed with Dave hot on your tail across easy geometry? No problem! What about never having to deal with Ramrafstar because that's a bit too much for you? Turn down the Ramrafstar setting to its lowest point. What about playing much harder geometry on a slower pace? Then you can do that too. Each setting is reflective of how that feature works on an existing running pace, so you can get a feel for how your custom setup lines up with our pre-built running pace settings.
This is just the first phase of custom running pace settings we're providing and we're happy to hear feedback from players on how it can be improved or expanded upon in future.
New Control Options
In conjunction with this, we've built a new feature to allow for Sure Footing to be played entirely with one hand on one side of a controller. We're aware that sometimes holding a controller with both hands can be demanding for some players, so let's change that up! We now have three default settings: standard, which has some controls mapped to both sides of the pad, followed by lefty and righty. Left hand only maps the face buttons to the D-pad and right hand mode maps the left stick to the right stick. In each case we do lose some realtime control: such as changing camera angles and tabbing through the options screen. However, we're looking into alternative means to resolve that in future updates.
In addition, right now our user interface is not updated entirely to reflect the changes made to control schemes. We're aiming to do that also in a future update.
This is far from a complete list of features and we want to improve it and we want to get it right. So hearing from players about their experiences and how we can improve these features is vital.
20 New Costumes!
But of course it isn't all just gameplay, sometimes you just feel like you need to freshen up your wardrobe. With that in mind, we've added five new costumes for each characters, adding a total of 20 new costumes to the game. This includes new dance outfits, business attire and making your way in the world of action news!
UI Polish
We spent some extra time polishing up parts of the user interface to run a little more smoothly and to make it easier to get in and around parts of the game. The biggest addition is the ability to change some gameplay options whilst you're running. If you head into the pause screen, you can find now find the options screen is available to you. There are some changes you can't make during gameplay, such as video resolution settings and the like, as well as the in-game difficulty. But of course you can still do that over in the main menu.
Bug Fixes
On top of all of this, we've made a ton of bug fixes and improvements that help the game run faster and smoother than before. Listing all of the changes we've made is a bit boring! But here are some highlights:
- Ensured the camera in multiplayer eliminates players who fall out of bounds on the left.
- Improved the HUD markers for characters in multiplayer, just in case you had trouble figuring out who is who.
- Fixed a bug where everyone is wearing the same outfit in multiplayer! It's a shame, you all looked pretty dapper.
- Fixed a bug where multiplayer end-game results were wrong. Meaning your friend was declared winner after your hard fought victory. That was a bit unfair.
- Sometimes in multiplayer characters would use the wrong voice! That was confusing...
- We re-balanced the multiplayer so that you're less likely to get knocked out in the opening 20 seconds. I say less likely, the rest of it is on you!
- Fixed a bug where Steam leaderboards would decide they can't read them, they they could, then they can't, then could. Utterly indecisive.
- Deletion Dave had a habit of ignoring the starting speed he should have based on the running pace setting. We told him off.... he's sorry.
- Cathy's costume store had some occasional bugs where costumes were being listed as unavailable when they should. Pascal helped patch that out.
And that's it for this month! Let us know what you think of the new build in the comments. Spread the word and get your friends playing Sure Footing! To keep up to date on all things Sure Footing as and when they happen, keep an eye right here on our YouTube channel, our store pages as well as on Twitter and Facebook.
Plus you can visit our new Discord server too over at the link below, come hang out with us and talk to us about the new update.
https://discordapp.com/invite/mDBgS82
Best of luck out there and don't forget to keep running!
Tommy
Programmer, Table Flip Games
P.S. We also managed to successfully upgrade the version of the Unity engine without any errors! That might not seem like much to you, but I'm super happy we pulled it off. :D
Sure Footing at EGX Rezzed in London, UK 13th-15th April
Seen Sure Footing in the Steam store and wanna try before you buy? Or maybe you've played the game already and wanna come chat with the devs? Well if you're in London next week we're at the EGX Rezzed event down in the Tobacco Docks from 13th-15th April.
We'll be there with a new and slightly updated build from launch that we'll be testing on-site before deploying to players later this month. In addition, there'll be a stack of other cool games from our friends such as Adventure Pals, Armoured Engines and Locomotion.
Details on the event can be found at:
https://www.egx.net/rezzed
We look forward to seeing you there!
Tommy
Programmer, Table Flip Games
Sure Footing is live on Steam!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=044XsZtmA4E
It's not often you get to launch a game and allow people to play it all across the world. That's kinda cool. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of that for us.
Nonetheless, we've been watching out for gameplay bugs that need to be addressed. It's naturally a bit of a challenge trying to clamp down on bugs when your game procedurally generates all the time! We released a gameplay patch on Friday in preparation for the launch and have identified a handful of small collision bugs we will aim to patch out next week. Naturally we'll update players of any patch notes we make. If you spot anything you think needs addressed, please jump over to our Bug thread in the community tab.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/670730/discussions/0/1697168437884724668/
Thanks again to everyone who has played the game thus far.
- Tommy
Sure Footing Launches on March 30th 2018
Hi I'm Tommy and on behalf of the team here at Table Flip Games I want to welcome you to the world of Computra as Sure Footing launches on Steam on March 30th 2018. It's been a long road and we're really excited to get our game into the hands of players. So let me give you a breakdown of what the game is about, what modes you can play at launch and some of the cool stuff we have lined up in the coming months. Read on with your eyes or quick the link below to watch the video where I read all this information into your ears through the power of my dulcet Scottish tones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1_UHpE4zbw
What is Sure Footing?
Sure Footing is a fast-paced infinite runner that challenges you to survive against ever generating landscapes in the world of Computra. Playing as one of four characters, Pixel Pete, Polly Polygon, Blip and Plunk, you need to get as afar as you can while collecting MIPS and avoiding the attacks of Deletion Dave who... perhaps unsurprisingly, is trying to delete you. He's not a particularly nice guy.
In addition, Dave's master Ramrafstar sometimes takes the fight into his own hands: literally destroying the information highways as you run across them. To aid in your fight, players can unlock and equip a variety of functional and cosmetic upgrades to each of your characters: be it skill buffs, power-ups and even costumes. The costumes at launch are inspired by the many different locales in Computra that you will visit, such as LAN-DN, Logiciel and Pixeley each fraught with their own traps and peril.
Sure Footing Launch
So what can you expect when you boot the game up at launch? Right now we have plenty of single and multiplayer content to keep you busy.
First-up, the main single-player mode is survival: run across the lands of Computra as far as you can without being deleted.
Whilst the levels are procedurally generated, we control the difficulty of the generator through use of the running pace setting in our option screen. Is the game too difficult? Or perhaps you fancy a real challenge? Try changing this setting as this will have not just an impact on the length and duration of generated sequences, but influence the types of geometry you encounter as well as make influence Dave and Ramrafstar's levels of aggression. By competing in single-player at any running pace, you can complete a variety of in-game challenges. Each challenge is tied to an unlock you can purchase in the store using the MIPS you collect.
The Cacheville market is home to three merchants: Cathy, who sells you new characters and costumes, Bob: who will train you to become a stronger and faster runner and Pascal who has programmed a variety of power-ups to give you an edge while running. There are over 120 unlocks for players to get their hands on: with over 10 unique costumes per character as well as upgrades to power-ups to make them even more effective.
But if you fancy playing with your friends, be sure to check out the multiplayer modes. At launch we have three competitive multiplayer modes that each have you and up to three friends battling it out for victory. Don't worry, any MIPS you collect and some challenges can also be completed in multiplayer. Plus some unlocks and challenges can only be unlocked by playing multiplayer.
Free Updates
So with four playable characters, over 40 unlockable costumes, power-ups, buffs upgrades and more, there's plenty reason to keep running! But this is just the beginning. We have a variety of cosmetic and gameplay updates lined up for Sure Footing in the coming months. With new locations, costumes, power-ups as well as some pretty cool new gameplay modes for both single and multiplayer.
- New Sector Locations
- New costumes for all characters
- New power-ups
- Single player challenge modes
- Custom single player survival modes.
- Co-operative and party multiplayer modes.
Plus we'll be taking on board community feedback to address gameplay balance, bugs and any cool ideas that come our way. For more information on these updates as they go live, keep an eye right here on our YouTube channel, our store pages as well as on Twitter and Facebook.
Thanks for reading this announcement (you did really well, made it all the way down the bottom and everything), best of luck out there and don't forget to keep running!
Tommy
Programmer, Table Flip Games