YARG
Steam Awards? Sounds kinda epic...
I got an e-mail from Steam informing me of this year's upcoming (as of writing) Steam Awards, suggesting I make a quick post to let y'all know about it! So this is that!
YARG came out last year, meaning it's eligible for the Labor [sic] of Love award! And lemme tell ya, after all this time, with all the updates and the recently released free prologue?
...I wouldn't have done all that if I hated the game, I tell ya that much.
Now, I'm not crazy, I am well-aware that this tiny indie game is but a drop in the ocean of 2D pixel art platformers. But I have a proposition to make that, I believe, no other game of this genre can compete with...
...wouldn't it be really funny if YARG got an award? Like, c'mon now. You know it would be hilarious.
And just to sweeten the deal a lil' bit, you'll notice that this whole shebang is taking place during the Autumn Sale. 20% off for what's probably gonna be this year's Labour of Love award winner? Sounds like a great deal to me, I dunno!
...OK, jokes aside, this game holds an extremely special place in my heart. It was my first large-scale project, and I spent years on it. Whether I got 0 sales, 5 sales, or 30 total sales with 4 people returning it, it genuinely doesn't matter. I am still hugely appreciative of everyone who decided to give this game even just a look. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
As always, feel free to @ me on Twitter or send me an email! Thanks!
- Santum
YARG: Prologue is OUT!
To celebrate, I have taken the old YARG demo (from the 2022 Steam Next Fest), revamped it, gave it a facelift, re-recorded a few voicelines here and there, and turned it into the official YARG: Prologue!!
If you weren't here back then, be prepared for a FREE stand-alone experience with 7 levels from the full game, new characters, a new story, and perhaps even a cheeky bit of lore™!
Also, depending on when you're reading this, the full game may or may not be on its highest discount yet, at a whole 20% off! If you enjoy the prologue, why not see where the rest of the story goes? :)
I've also written a little bit about my thoughts on this whole journey, which you can find as a thread on Twitter. But TL;DR: I am very happy with how the game's been evolving, and I am so excited for the future. Thank you to everyone who's been here, even if you only found out about the game just now.
Anyhow! Time for some good ol' patchnotes!
YARG Demo 1.1/YARG: Prologue changes:
- The old YARG demo has been turned into an official prologue!
- Implemented all the bugfixes and changes from the full game.
- Re-recorded some of the ending voicelines, to bring their tone/mood closer to the full game.
- Fixed possible softlock involving a door and dying too many times.
- Improved the door sprites.
As always, if you come across any bugs, feel free to @ me on Twitter or send me an email! I'm gonna go celebrate, see ya soon!
- Santum
YARG's first year anniversary!
I've prepared a very special surprise for the anniversary! But until then, check out this lil' teaser video!
Can't wait to see y'all then!
- Santum
YARG: Update v1.1.1
This one's labelled as if it were a minor update, but it actually contains a bunch of fixes, improvements, and an entirely new feature: Discord Rich Presence! I decided not to go with "v1.2" for this one though, because...
...well, let's just say that I still have more plans for the future of YARG :)
Anyway, let's get into the patchnotes!
v1.1.1 changes:
Added:
- Discord Rich Presence! Let all your friends know you were stuck for 15 minutes in that one level where all the lasers are aiming at you!
- You can enable and disable this in the Options menu. If you already had a save file from an earlier version, it defaults to being disabled. Otherwise, it defaults to being enabled.
- Every level in the game now has a name! These are still subject to change, but I’m good with how they currently are.
- You can now skip the every cutscene except the ending ones by pressing P (you could already do this with the splash screen).
Fixed:
- When you move your spawn point in Assist Mode, it first checks whether that position is valid. This check is now more accurate.
- The particle effect when a sawblade collides with a surface has been restored.
- You can now pause while playing a custom level.
Changed:
- Changed the sawblade’s hitbox to make it more forgiving.
- Improved one of the backgrounds.
- Switched my Fusion 2.5 license to the “Developer” tier, meaning I no longer need to prominently feature Clickteam logos in my game.
As always, if you come across any bugs, feel free to @ me on Twitter or send me an email! Thanks!
- Santum
...by the way, did you guys play the YARG demo? It used to be available back before the full game was released, but I delisted it once the game came out. It was like a prequel to the main story, with its own characters, cutscenes, voice acting, mechanics, etc.
If you didn't get the chance to do it, then... stay tuned!
YARG: Update v1.1
I've been working on an update to the level editor for a few months (practically since launch lol), and the first half of that is finally ready to share!
So, I'm proud to announce the first content update for YARG: the Level Editor Facelift Update!!!
The level editor has always been my least favourite bit of the game. It was functional, and I used it to make every level in the game, but there were a few weird oddities and seemingly impossible to solve bugs with it. Also, it didn't work too well on controllers.
This update remedies all that! The UI has been simplified and generally made a lot clearer. There are now sound effects and music. And controller support has been rebuilt from the ground up. Overall, I think this is a lot more fit for a proper finished game!
I'm very happy with this current iteration of the level editor, but there's still a few more things coming to it! My plans for it needed this UI to be released first, and it'll take some time to get all that up and running, so consider this part one of a two-part level editor update series!
Alongside the level editor, I've also managed to throw in a few more minor improvements, ranging from adding some missing sound effects to a new visual effect for a major moment in the game. Here are the patchnotes!
v1.1 changes:
Added:
- Gave the level editor a facelift!
- Cleaner UI! Streamlined controls! A brand-new music track! Wow!!
- Cleaner UI! Streamlined controls! A brand-new music track! Wow!!
- Added a "click" sound effect to buttons that were missing it.
- Visual improvement: added some particle effects for the last level.
Removed:
- The previous level editor has been removed.
Fixed:
- The "Loading..." text that appears when loading a custom level is no longer animated.
- ...not that you would've noticed it was animated in the first place, since the engine freezes the screen when loading a new scene anyway
- ...not that you would've noticed it was animated in the first place, since the engine freezes the screen when loading a new scene anyway
- The game's music will now preload on launch. This should hopefully prevent some desync that was happening every so often.
- Squashed some bugs here and there.
As always, if you come across any bugs, feel free to @ me on Twitter or send me an email! Thanks!
- Santum
YARG: Update v1.0.2c
If you've seen the last patchnote, you know that the game has suffered from a huge problem since the beginning: on some people's computers, the game would refuse to load cutscenes properly (often just playing the audio but not showing the video).
I thought I fixed it last time, but as it turns out the bug was still lurking underneath the surface, ready to anti-climactically ruin the ending for another player...
Today, I say no more!
I have reworked the cutscene system entirely, re-rendered every video, and checked and double-checked everything to no end (although to be fair, cutscenes always worked fine on my PC. That's why this bug is so dastardly)...
Today's the day this bug will meet its RUIN!!!!
...ahem. I got a bit carried away there, sorry. Point is, I think I fixed the cutscene bug for real now. Here's the patchnotes!
v1.0.2c changes:
Fixed:
- Replaced Clickteam's own Active Direct Object extension with the FFMpeg object by Defysim.
- Updated the credits accordingly.
- Re-rendered all cutscenes as MP4.
As always, if you come across any bugs, feel free to @ me on Twitter or send me an email! Thanks!
- Santum
YARG: Update 1.0.2b
This is a very small update, so small that it doesn't even get its own number. It involves the game's cutscene system.
For some reason, the game will be able to load some cutscenes perfectly fine, and fail to load others. I came across this issue several times during development, and I could've sworn I fixed it, but apparently it could still happen!
I suspect the problem has something to do with the file format of the cutscenes (something about codecs...). This update changes them from AVI to WMV, which I'm hoping will fix the issue. Let me know if it does!
v1.0.2b changes:
Fixed(?):
- Switched all cutscenes from AVI to WMV in the hopes they'll load properly now.
Changed:
- Locked cutscenes to 30 FPS to prevent stuttering.
As always, if you come across any bugs, feel free to @ me on Twitter or send me an email! Thanks!
- Santum
YARG: Update 1.0.2
At the moment I'm chipping away at what's gonna become the game's first major update, and squashing all the bugs I find along the way. I intend on making a proper update schedule so that I don't release these bugfix updates so quick one after the other, but this is all very new to me...
Anyway! Here's the changelog!
v1.0.2 changes:
Fixed:
- Game no longer softlocks when the Rage Mode failure cutscene file is deleted.
- Potential bug during Rage Mode, in which more than one death might've been counted sometimes.
- The invincibility toggle no longer gets 'stuck' in Assist Mode.
Changed:
- Tweaked analogue stick sensibility to make accidental jumps on controller less likely.
As always, if you come across any bugs, feel free to @ me on Twitter or send me an email! Thanks!
- Santum
YARG: Update 1.0.1
As expected, the release build had some things that needed tweaking. Thankfully it wasn't anything game-breaking, so all in all, I'd call that a success!
v1.0.1 changes:
Added:
- Restored ability to skip the splash screen by pressing P (present in pre-release builds).
Fixed:
- Level counter now doesn't show up in intro levels.
- When a floppy disk is picked up, it now properly rotates around the player (it was previously off-centre).
Known bugs:
- Too easy to accidentally jump on controller.
- In Assist Mode, sometimes the invincibility toggle gets 'stuck'.
If you come across any bugs, feel free to @ me on Twitter or send me an email! And as usual, thank you for reading and I hope you'll enjoy!
- Santum
YARG IS OUT NOW!!!
I've been working on it on and off since 2019, and I genuinely am at a loss for words. I don't know how to express the feeling of having completed a project this big.
...but nothing is ever truly complete, is it?
I am already toying with ideas for free content updates, which will come out at some point in the future. And obviously, I'll be squashing any bugs that pop up (I actually caught a few just 2 days ago... game development is a wild ride).
For now though, I think I've earned a little rest.
To everyone who wishlisted, to my friends and family, to you reading this...
I can't wait for what comes next.