Recently it's been brought to our attention that there's been some trolls on the loose in Zeepkist servers, annoying other players with mean, inappropriate, or abusive chat messages.
To deal with this we've quickly developed a small hotfix, adding a menu to the online pause menu that will allow you to mute unwanted players!
Muting players put them on a local, personal to you, blacklist that will mute them in every room you find them in. Muted players will not be told they've been muted, so for them it just looks like they're being ignored.
Feel free to mute any annoying players you come across :)
As always, I hope we didn't break anything.
Happy Zeepkisting!!
Zeepkist Awesome Alpha - Version 9, Patch 2
- Fixed unintended text formatting. Texts for Usernames, Level names and chat messages are now properly parsed - Improved game startup time
We're still hard at work to finish the next big update! This is only a small hotfix to alleviate some issues that were easily fixed :)
Zeepkist will be showcasing at INDIGO this Friday!!
I'll be showing off Zeepkist to some cool streamer(s) for about 20 minutes, so be sure to put it in your calendar and come watch! :D
What's INDIGO?
INDIGO INDIGO is the leading game business and showcase event in the Netherlands. Organized annually by Dutch Game Garden, INDIGO has brought together the game industry from the Netherlands and beyond since 2008. This year INDIGO welcomes you to both an on-site and online program.
Online Discover Showcase Discover 25 new game creations from the Netherlands and beyond. The games will be played by streamers who are with us live in the INDIGO studio. Developers are invited on the stream to talk about their game and streamers will answer questions from the audience.
Game Update Preview: Zeepkist Rewired
Zeepkist Rewired
Hey everyone!!
I figured I'd give a quick update on what we're working on, because while things may seem a bit quiet, behind the scenes we're working very hard to deliver an awesome new update! :D
We got a new programmer!!
Due to increased sales I've been able to hire a freelance programmer to help me out with programming and bugfixing, that sort of thing!
They're absolutely brilliant at their job and with their support Zeepkist development should be speeding up quite a bit!!
As long as Zeepkist keeps selling properly, I can keep hiring them. So tell your friends! <3
Unity Engine Upgrade
Goodbye Unity 2018, Hello Unity 2021!
We've managed to upgrade the Zeepkist Unity project from using Unity 2018, to using Unity 2021!
This new version of the engine adds many awesome new features under the hood, and players should notice that overall the game runs a lot smoother than it did before!
We've also been able to fix a weird wallride porpoising (bouncing up and down, like in Formula 1) issue.
Input rebinding
One of the big big things that's always been on my list has been input rebinding, however I've always had other things that were more important that needed to be added first. That means input rebinding kept getting pushed back further and further and it never really got added.
However! It's finally time!
The next Zeepkist update is planned to finally feature input rebinding!
We're also upgrading the input framework under the hood from InControl to Rewired, to give us more flexibility and to allow support of more input devices!
That's it for now!!
I hope ya'll enjoyed this quick little update post!
Keep your eyes peeled for more update posts in the future!
And in the meantime, happy Zeepkisting!!!
Zeepkist Server Capacity Increased from 100 to 600 Players!
Server Upgrade Time
Due to an increase in player number it was necessary to increase Zeepkist's server capacity from 100 concurrent players to 600 concurrent players! And because the King's Day DLC has been selling well, I've been able to do that without impacting the rest of the game's budget :D
In time I'd like to further upgrade Zeepkist's networking framework/code/etc, but more on that in the future.
Happy Zeepkisting!!
Zeepkist Awesome Alpha - Version 9, Patch 1
- Level E1 is now called Level E01 - Level E2 is now called Level E02 - Level E3 is now called Level E03
💨 The Big Fan Update 💨
The Big Fan Update!!
Hello everyone!! It's time for a new content update!!
It's big fan blocks!! :O
The Fan Block
Fan blocks apply a directional force to your Zeepkist, and will push it around to where ever the fan is pointing!
You can adjust fan color, range, and force. They can push you away and pull you in!
Fans will help you create massive jumps, upside down levels, and generally all sorts of stuff that's never been possible before!
Changes / Fixes:
- Level editor icons for checkpoints - Level editor icons for finishes - Level editor icons for first/third person view switch block
- Booster block now has a “Booster Force” option - Gave first/third person blocks a different color - Level start timing should be more consistent between runs - Workshop levels should no longer get updated while racing - Added drift “Particles” for when particles are disabled
- Fixed online lobby refresh - Fixed issue where default cosmetics are missing - Fixed a workshop uploader bug
- Booster block now has a convex trigger - More debug logs for level loading - More debug logs for leaderboard sorting
New Content:
- 4 new adventure mode levels - 8 new hats - 8 new soapboxes
- 8 new rock/concrete colors - 8 new wood colors - 4 new leaf colors - 2 new metal panel colors
- 3 fan blocks - 4 more rocks of varying sizes - 5 new checkpoints - 2 new finishes - Trash can dynamic object
- Sunflower block
✨ The Next Update ✨
The next update is not 100% decided on yet. It's very likely going to be a feature update that will add new functionality to the game.
King's Day is an annual Dutch holiday where we celebrate the birthday of our king!
This day usually involves heavy partying across the entire Netherlands, dressing up in a lot of orange, and wearing a bunch of orange hats!
So of course, I couldn't just let this day pass by without dropping some King's Day swag in Zeepkist!
The Contents
The DLC contains 9 hats and 13 zeepkists:
You can read the announcement post with further info here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1440670/announcements/detail/3201504529544900037
Happy Zeepkisting!!! :D
(And happy birthday mr Dutch king!!)
Zeepkist Awesome Alpha - Version 8, Patch 11
- Added a settings file error catching + error message - All start block properties can now be toggled off at the same time - Fixed an issue with negative times I think - Yellow split-times at checkpoints are now italic, to facilitate colorblind accessibility until Zeepkist has true colorblind settings:
Announcing the King's Day DLC!
New DLC
Hey everyone!!
I would like to announce Zeepkist's first paid DLC: King's Day DLC
King's Day is an annual Dutch holiday where we celebrate the birthday of our king!
This day usually involves heavy partying across the entire Netherlands, dressing up in a lot of orange, and wearing a bunch of orange hats!
So of course, I couldn't just let this day pass by without dropping some King's Day swag in Zeepkist!
The King's Day DLC will launch with a 33% launch discount.
The Contents
The DLC contains 9 hats and 13 zeepkists:
Why DLC?
I'd also like to take this opportunity for a bit of transparency, and why I've chosen to add DLC.
Originally, Zeepkist was meant to be offline only. Meaning you'd just have singleplayer and local split-screen multiplayer. This also meant that my expenses were non-recurring. I paid development costs once and then didn't need to worry about upkeep of any servers or anything.
However, after launch it quickly became apparent that players were really eager to also have online multiplayer. I hadn't planned for this because online multiplayer is notoriously difficult to program well. (Which turned out to be true, it took me about 3 months to actually develop online multiplayer).
But anyway, online multiplayer was added. And with this came the cost of running servers!
Every player costs me an amount of money each year. It's a recurring cost. This means that every year I'll need to keep making money to keep Zeepkist running.
Some games pay for this upkeep with a subscription model, other games use loot-boxes or purchasing of in-game currency. Personally, I'm a fan of keeping it as simple as possible: DLC that gets released every now and then to pay for server upkeep.
It means that if you want to support Zeepkist server upkeep and look swag, you can buy some DLC. And if not, then that's fine too.
I intend for DLC to be cosmetic only, so that you'll still be able to enjoy the entire game as it was meant to be by only buying the base-game.
I feel this is the most fair way to deal with the costs of online multiplayer, and I hope people enjoy the exclusive cosmetic content :)
