The first update launched today!
Here is a detailed account of everything that's new.
New Team Member: Jonathan Palen!
Jonathan started emailing detailed bug reports shortly after the game launched.
There is a word for this in Game Development: Quality Assurance!
With nearly 100 bugs filed, you can thank him for a ton of things that DON'T happen anymore, because he found them. :D
Guest Team Member: Dana Nelson
Did you know that Endless Mode has 125 unique levels of possible enemy configurations?
Dana helped tackle the meaty design task of designing the difficulty ramp for Endless Mode, and will be monitoring what levels you poor humans die on the most.
She also created most new level layouts. Enjoy the Death Cube!
New Feature: Endless Mode
Endless Mode asks a simple question: How far can you get?
There are 5 Difficulty Tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Titanium
The preview post goes into more detail of how it works.
New Feature: Jetpack!!!
In addition to going fast, the jetpack lets you cut enemies while flying forward.
If you're fast enough it lets you pull off some crazy maneuvers!
New Enemy: Jetpack Bots
The most dangerous enemy in the game is without a doubt the Mark 2 Jetpack Bot.
These Bad Bots appear in the Titanium tier, and will suddenly END YOU when you least expect it.
Their Mark 1 counterpart appears in the Gold tier.
New Enemy: Spider-tron 6000
Bigger, deadlier, harder to kill.
Expect to get knocked into some saw blades!
Spider-Tron 6000 appears in the Diamond Tier.
Double the word count!!
Commentatron and Analysis-Bot have much to say about Endless Mode.
So much in fact, that the amount of dialogue MORE THAN DOUBLED in this update with 4353 new words!
Fun facts:
- Most common word: human, said 291 times.
- Longest word: titaniuuuuuuuuum with 16 characters.
Smaller changes
Here are a ton of smaller things that also got changed:
- 1 of 5 humans got removed from Story Mode. It now ends when you beat the first 10 levels.
- Social buttons now appears on the title screen. Follow me on twitter! :P
- Power Kick upgrades got removed - They weren't actually that helpful.
- Spider Bomb Shrapnel does not fly as far. It should only hit you if you're right next to a bomb.
- New Version Display - The game will now tell you when a new version is available!
- Clones limited to 5 - This is to make the Titanium difficulty more challenging for insane people who somehow got to that difficulty level.
- Error Handling Improved - In the unlikely event that you experience an error, the game will ask you to quit. This is to prevent save data from being corrupted.
- Save Data Auto-Repair - It is very rare, but in case your save data gets corrupted, the game will automatically reset it. Also stores a rolling backup version to minimize the impact of this happening.
- Feedback Form Updated - If you have feedback, there's now a new form for that.
- Separate Commentator Volume - You can now adjust the volume of the commentators. Useful if you're making youtube videos and want to be the one talking.
- Return to Title Screen from ESC Menu - Can you believe I shipped without that? I totally did.
63 Bugs Fixed!
I won't list them all here, but some highlights:
- You can no longer jump through walls.
- Enemies don't kick each other over anymore
- You can't break the game by pushing your clone into the elevator.
This was a crunch build
On a personal note, this build was made while working 12 hour days and not relaxing during the weekend. Next update I'll slow down a bit, to make sure you guys get more than two updates. :) I'm looking forward to working on this game for a long time to come!