Hello Hello! It's me again, this time with another update for War Islands. This one focuses on quality of life and general improvements for the game. Here's the list of changes:
Lighthouse & Wookikota level changes
New item pickup HUD notification
New selected character HUD health bar
Items now glow for easy visibility when they're on the ground
Coin bags now give random number of coins
Sarsi's boulders now get destroyed on dash hit
Sarsi combat mode duration tweaked
Sarsi AI improvements during Reerion's battle
Icicle hit location indicator visuals updated
Fixed Possess indicator showing on non controllable animals
Fixed crash when carrying Little Timmy too far away from quest area
Fixed mount animation glitching when mounting deleted character
Saturday Island snail button no longer closes gate if Snail move away from it (Avoids sea turtle being locked inside)
Fixed being stuck using cannon when swapping characters
Fixed crash when moving animals too far from their original location using Almika's possess
Ships network lag improvements
Shop now sells the original boomerang weapon
Shop items price updated
So there's some major visual changes to digest here, let's talk about some of them!
Item Glow, Pickup UI and Coins Amount
A good example of how one thing leads to another. I wanted to increase the amount of coins you get with every coin bag that enemies and crates drop. The game was literally giving you 1 (one) coin per bag which made it extremely difficult to afford shop items. From now on the game will randomize a few coins every drop.
Now after implementing this I realized that you need some sort of feedback of how many coins you're getting so for that I've created a new pickup pop up that shows on the HUD. This should tell you how many coins you got and for consistency sake it also shows any other item you collect there too!
Another thing I began to notice is sometimes those coin bags are hidden on the grass or bushes, so I also added a new glowing effect to all items so you never miss them!
New Health Bar For Selected Character
Sometimes we forget about the most obvious things, this one is no exception. Your selected character (the one you're controlling) now shows their health bar at the bottom of the screen during combat or when losing health in general. Once health amount restores to 100% it fades to still maintain a clean HUD design.
Icicle Hit Location Visuals Updated
This one specifically I haven't heard anyone talk about, it's mostly me thinking that's not really obvious where the icicle will hit. This should help beat the Crystal Cave quest!
Sarsi's Dash Now Break Boulders
Boulders in general were most of the time just blocking your way after being pushed so there's no point in keeping them rolling. From now on they will break after being used.
Anyways, that's all for now :)
Cheers, Lucas
Another Round Of Small Fixes
Hey everyone, sorry for the frequent patches. This one is important since the shop wasn't working properly. I still need to balance the coins to make it easier to buy new gear though.
Fixed Characters ragdoll mode teleporting player randomly to beginning of the game
Fixed Translator and Shop Dabirius not working
Default Items now show on the Wardrobe menu
You can now close the Game Menu by pressing Escape (Esc)
Cheers, Lucas
Small Fixes Update
Hello, it's me again!
I'm back, after a little bit of a break! Here's a quick update to War Islands, fixing a few issues:
Fixed custom keybinding of WASD movement not working properly
Added the Honey Cave mountain to the Main Menu so you can see it on high FOV settings
Fixed intial Wookikota puzzle explosive barrel sometimes not going all the way when not blocked by a snail
Christmas season disabled
Cheers, Lucas
Feedback Update: New Features & Improvements
Hello everyone! Today I'm happy to announce that War Islands just got a brand new update ready for you. This time it's more of a major feedback update, I've read the reviews and the comments on the Community Hub and decided to gather it all for a single large update. Here's the key new features:
Jonathan now has a sword!
Almika now uses the Boomerang and Staff (Boomerang is no longer a Jonathan weapon)
New skills for Jonathan, Sarsi and Almika
New Character UI Screen
New Melee Combat Lock On mode
Skill Points are now given when you complete main quests
New Intro tutorial puzzle
New keys added for custom keyboard binding
Puzzle helper signs can now be disabled in the settings menu
New Bullseye textures for explosive targets
Crosshair now becomes red when aiming enemies
Mount system to help easily jump in/out of sea turtles and other animals
Split Screen Keyboard & Controller mode
Main characters can now swim!
Sharks are now actual NPCs!
Main characters clothing/hair physics added
Various game bugs fixed
So for this post I would like to do a breakdown of the reasons why I've decided to make these changes and how I think they really benefit the game!
Main Characters Redesign
One of the things that always bothered me a little bit is how the characters were originally designed, when I first created them, I don't think I did a good job of making sure they felt good. Also stuff such as having a boomerang melee attack never really made much sense.
As of today, Jonathan now has a sword and no longer uses the boomerang, the boomerang has been moved to Almika so she can do two range attacks. The weapons are now actual items in the game and you already start with a crossbow and sword for Jonathan, staff and boomerang for Almika and lastly claws and armor for Sarsi.
The importance of having those as actual items is because I've refactor the way the game deals damage by now getting the damage from the weapon itself, meaning in the future I'm planning on adding weapons that deals more damage.
This leads us to the next topic,
New Melee Combat Lock On Mode
"The controls feel loose"
It took me a while to figure out this one since it's not an easy thing to change. I eventually realized that all melee attacks in general were really difficult to do. Seriously on previous versions of the game attacking with your boomerang was hard since you most of the time would miss your attacks.
Now the game has a brand new combat system that makes your character lock on enemies so you can strafe sideways and dash without worrying about facing the right way. Brand new animations were added to make this happen!
For ranged attacks, some such as the boomerang also got some love, in fact, the boomerang was completely redesigned as well and it's more of a quick auto aim attack for Almika. The boomerang can be used on certain skills as well but those are now made more for a support role.
Swimming & Sharks!
"I managed to slip off the pier and into the water like 5 times in a row because the whole movement is so jerky. Did I mention this means instadeath?"
I personally think the movement in the game is relatively good, happy to further improve it but I did realize that it makes absolutely no sense to just touch the water and get insta killed by a shark. So that's why sharks are now npcs that see and chase you. With that in mind I decided to go a bit further and straight up add swimming mode to all main characters.
For now there isn't much in terms of what you can do underwater though, maybe in the future this can be expanded. Happy to hear more feedback on this!
Mount System
"movement is clunky."
I couldn't figure out exactly what is clunky but a few things were really bad for sure, one of them is how there was basically no way to mount a sea turtle, essentially you just had to jump at the right time and location. Now that's also fixed, when you jump to a turtle the game snaps you to her shell meaning you no longer randomly fall or miss it.
New Keys for Custom Keyboard Binding
"The controls are not freely configurable (try the number block, right ctrl key or the keys above the arrow keys)."
I would like to apologize for that one, I never really thought about adding all possible keys available for keybinding in the game, so this also got some love; you now can use most of your keyboard and mouse buttons. (I believe I covered all supported by the game engine)
Split Screen Keyboard & Controller Mode
"is the one player on keyboard and one on joystick feature still unavailable?"
Not anymore! You can now play War Islands having only one controller for your friend. So you play using Keyboard & Mouse and your friend a controller. Heavy improvements to how the game detects controllers as well, you can pick how many and which controllers to use!
Christmas Special Quest
Lastly, the Christmas quest is back! This time the tree is sitting outside, get ready for some action fighting the evil snowmans!
In Conclusion
This is my first time making a post going into details exactly what each individual review and comment has to say about the game and trying to improve that. I hope I got your feedback right as I'm trying my best to ensure the game feels great.
There's a few more improvements I would like to do but couldn't be ready for the Christmas season so I had to postpone.
I genuinely hope you like these changes! <3 Lucas
Tutorial & Small Improvements
Hey everyone!
I know this small update came out of nowhere but it's just some minor improvements to the game to make it more enjoyable!
Improvements to the initial game tutorial: The game now explains Almika's possess ability, points Jonathan to the Fort lever and saves tutorial state if you quit the game during the tutorial.
Fixed game being too dark on low graphics settings: It now uses the correct lighting setup even in low settings, it's a small cost to performance to ensure accurate brightness/color levels.
That's it really, a quick one :)
Cheers, Lucas
The Battle Of Nine Lives Update: Available Now!
Hey everyone! I'm happy to announce that The Battle Of Nine Lives Update is out now! Call your friends and return to War Islands on this brand new update! Lots of new quests, items and puzzles to beat!
Key Features:
New Main Quest! Meet Me Halfway: Continue the story of Jonathan, Almika and Sarsi by going to the Honey Cave in order to find a cure for Sarsi, fight the cats and meet Nekomata (the cat's leader)
New Level! Morumotto Forest: This level will provide two new side quests and extra puzzles for the game, including a brand new weapon for Jonathan!
Check out the trailer if you haven't seen it yet!
If you already have a save game from past updates, don't worry, you can use it to continue playing the storyline just fine. As soon as you load your save game it'll automatically add the Honey Cave quest for you. Don't forget to also visit the Morumotto Forest for new undiscovered side-quests!
A few major bugs from past updates were also fixed, such as screen input indicators not showing for your friends, crash fixes and even some issues with restarting the game were fixed.
There's also lots of game balancing tweaks for Wookikota Forest, not only by tweaking enemy spawn frequency but also separating the Snail Maze puzzle into it's own separated area, If you beat the maze you'll get a cool new Snail Armor for Sarsi!
So what do you think about this update? I would love to hear your feedback, feel free to share your thoughts on the Steam Community Hub or directly on our Discord page!
Lucas
Get Ready! The Battle Of Nine Lives Update Arrives On May 11th
I'm happy to announce that the new The Battle Of Nine Lives Update got a release date: Thursday May 11th
Key Features:
New Main Quest! Meet Me Halfway: Continue the story of Jonathan, Almika and Sarsi by going to the Honey Cave in order to find a cure for Sarsi, fight the cats and meet Nekomata (the cat's leader)
New Level! Morumotto Forest: This level will provide two new side quests and extra puzzles for the game, including a brand new weapon for Jonathan!
This update will feature more game balance changes, including tweaks to enemy spawners in Wookikota Forest for a better gameplay experience, previous levels improvements and also fixes to lots of known bugs from previous versions. Such as loading screen crashes, game not restarting properly and others.
I hope you like this new update, see you on May 11th!
Lucas
COMING SOON: The Battle of Nine Lives Update
Hello folks! It's me again, this time with a fresh new trailer for you of the upcoming "The Battle Of Nine Lives" update which will include a brand new campaign quest and extra side quests for War Islands! You'll be able to visit the Honey Cave, explode the lands of Morumotto Forest and visit the underwater world of the Goonches.
The update will also feature new puzzle elements, items and weapons, new Dabiriu (guinea pig) colors and lots of game fixes.
If you wanna know more about the update be sure to follow our social media pages as I'll be posting lots of new content about it soon!
So what do you think about the trailer, do you like it? Let me know in the comments!
Lucas
Let's Talk #14 - Wookikota Forest Soundtrack on YouTube!
Hey everyone! For this Let’s Talk I wanted to show something a little different, me and Gabriel (our soundtrack composer) just published on YouTube one of Wookikota Forest’s soundtrack.
Currently we only got the (Part II) of the “Welcome To Wookikota Forest” soundtrack available, I’m interested to see how many people would enjoy this type of content, if you do please drop a like or a comment! It really help us out!
As for game updates, I’m still working on the Honey Cave update and will have much more details to share about it very soon! Hope everyone had a great new year!
Lucas
An Iceberg of Emotions - New Side Quest!
“Reerion has once again found a way to shapeshift into a werewolf! This time he's out for revenge troubling the woods of Wookikota.”
Happy Holidays everyone!
Today I’m super excited to release this brand new side quest for War Islands called “An Iceberg of Emotions”. A completely new cold environment with a very angry fella at the end :)
In it you’ll be able to acquire 3 new items for your wardrobe: A Crystal Armor for Sarsi, Boomerang for Jonathan and Staff for Almika!
To start the quest make sure you beat Reerion the first time then go to the location below! From there it’s a easy walk to the Crystal Cave where your adventure begins!
This update also features a brand new lighting, weather effects, game menu UI improvements and a awesome new LOD system for seeing areas from far away with more detail!
Lastly, the Christmas Special side quest is now back online, so if you haven’t played it already make sure you also stop by Dabiriu’s main base to beat it and get cool rewards!
As always, let me know what you think of this update! I’ve changed so many things under the hood that’s really hard to count, hope you have a great time playing it! If you do need any support you can always contact me through our community channels.
