BIT RAT : Singularity

A hand-pixeled story-driven cyberpunk puzzler · By [bucket drum games]

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BIT RAT : Singularity community

Welcome + Version History + FAQ Sticky

A topic by [bucket drum games] created Jan 14, 2018 Views: 1,326 Replies: 6

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[bucket drum games]Developer6 years ago (7 edits) (+1)

Hey there! Thanks for checking out BIT RAT: Singularity. We created this thread to provide some release notes and a brief FAQ for new players. Feel free to comment on this thread, or email us directly at bucketdrumgames@gmail.com

Version History:

1.0.2 - Initial Release

Tested in Windows 7/10, Ubuntu 16.04, and Mac OS High Sierra (10.13)

Linux build requires Xpad driver for Xbox controller support. Available by default in most current Ubuntu distros.

Mac build requires 360 Controller driver for Xbox controller support. Available here: https://github.com/360Controller/360Controller/releases

Known Issues

- (Windows only) If the game crashes on the title screen, you need to update your DX9 runtime. We are working on a better fix, but for now this should do: http://bit.ly/1Np6fsw

- (Mac only) Switching from full screen to windowed mode is laggy. Our current workaround should get you to the right resolution, but expect some flickering and whatnot.

- (Mac only) If you are on Sierra or High Sierra, you probably have to use the itch.io app to launch BIT RAT. This is because Apple requires a sandboxed environment to "safely" quarantine horrible indie games like ours. Luckily, the kind folks at itch have taken this into account!

- In some circumstances, Steam may interfere with BIT RAT detecting Xbox/Xinput controllers, resulting in weird in-game control prompts. If this happens, try killing Steam before you start the game.

FAQ

So is this a demo or a complete game? What are you creeps peddling?

BIT RAT: Singularity is a standalone prologue to BIT RAT. Basically, this is the first act of the full game, which we plan to release sometime in 2018. It sets the stage for the larger story (while resolving its own mini-arc), teaches you core mechanics (plus a cool variant), and includes a dozen or so puzzles to get you thinking like a rapidly-evolving AI. It was important to us to pack a really substantive vertical slice into peoples' initial experience of the game world. This ended up feeling right.

How long will it take me to beat it?

Based on lots of playtesting at public events, 2-3 hours. Maybe less if you're some kind of wizard. Maybe more if you take your sweet time. There's also a freeplay mode that lets you revisit puzzles from the main story and track your stats.

What are the system requirements?

We've tested on a handful of machines across our supported platforms, and found that you can have a great, full-speed experience on pretty much any semi-modern dual core CPU with 4GB of RAM. If you find this to be untrue, please tell us!

Why are there black bars around the game when it's full-screened?

BIT RAT scales up by integer multiples of the game's native resolution (640x360). If your monitor doesn't display 720p or 1080p, there may be a bit of space around the edges. Trust us, you don't want the game trying to interpolate those extra pixels.

I found a bug! You guys suck.

Gah, sorry about that! Let us know and we'll deal with it as quickly as we can. Please also know that we are just two people with jobs and lives outside of game dev, so turnaround may vary. That said, we are so grateful for your support, and we will not leave you hanging.

Are you sure this game isn't called BAT RAT? Because that's what the logo says.

Shhh. BAT RAT is in top-secret development for 2019.

Er, that's all for now. Thanks so much for stopping by!

- bryan and Nick

himselfe6 years ago

Game seems linked in an unportable manner to OpenSSL(?) as it searches for libcrypto.so-1.0.0 and libssl.so.1.0.0 which don't exist on many Linux systems (I've seen reports for other games complaining about the same issue). A workaround that works for me is to create symbolic links for the missing library, ex:

# ln -s /usr/lib32/libcrypto.so-1.0.0 /usr/lib32/libcrypto.so-43.0.1

# ln -s /usr/lib32/libssl.so-1.0.0 /usr/lib32/libssl.so-43.0.1

However, while this works, it's not recommended that people go poking around in their system directories unless they know what they're doing. I'm not sure which engine the game uses, but it should be possible for the developers to link to the above libraries in a more portable way!

I'm on Void Linux, but I've seen reports of the same issue for the game The Red Strings Club on Linux Mint and OpenSUSE, not sure if the same engine is used?

[bucket drum games]Developer6 years ago (1 edit)

Hey! Thanks so much for catching this. I'm guessing the library calls have something to do with the way we encrypt player profile data. My co-dev is more knowledgeable than me about the Linux build/our profile management code, so I'll check in with him and we'll work on removing unnecessary dependencies.

BIT RAT is built in Gamemaker: Studio. I believe this is also true of The Red Strings Club, so similar problems cropping up makes sense.

Really appreciate the feedback in any case! Will post again here when we have an update.

-bryan / [bucket drum games]

himselfe6 years ago

No problem, thank you for the response! It's an enjoyable game that's well worth the $2, so it'd be a shame if people didn't get to play due to a minor dependency issue!

TTIO4 years ago (1 edit)

Game maker is indeed the issue, and this has been plaguing me for years. Turns out it's possible to link in the steam version in case your OS doesn't provide the right version of the libs, like with Fedora. They can be found in:
~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/lib/i386-linux-gnu/

PugByte4 years ago

Instead of creating symbolic links, you can set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable just before executing the runner. The variable's lifetime is that of the terminal it was set in.

For example, on Ubuntu you could reference the Steam libraries and run the game like so:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/.steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/lib/i386-linux-gnu/
./runner

It would be great if the itch desktop app had a way to launch games with user defined options and environment variables. At least, I don't see a way to do it.

[bucket drum games]Developer4 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

As a workaround, you can launch the game from the itch app by replacing the runner with a bash script that runs the actual runner prefaced with the environment variable.

Rename the actual runner to something else:

mv ~/.config/itch/apps/bitrat/bit_rat_singularity/runner ~/.config/itch/apps/bitrat/bit_rat_singularity/runner.bin

Create a script at ~/.config/itch/apps/bitrat/bit_rat_singularity/runner that runs the renamed runner prefaced with the environment variable:

#!/bin/bash
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/.steam/bin32/steam-runtime/lib/i386-linux-gnu ~/.config/itch/apps/bitrat/bit_rat_singularity/runner.bin

Make the script executable:

chmod +x ~/.config/itch/apps/bitrat/bit_rat_singularity/runner

Launching the game from the itch app will now use the environment variable.

-nick / [bucket drum games]