Today is a great day, it is a day of victory and celebration, a day where there are ....less bugs.
Okay okay, once again, I'm terrible at this speech thing, but THERE IS A BIG FREAKING BUG FIX UPDATE!
Not only that, but there's some new content to whet your appetites!
I have been working super hard to test as many annoying possible combinations that could cause bugs as I possibly can. There are still a few that remain, but I can't bear the thought that you guys are all still fighting with the big bugs, I must save you!
First up, THE NEW STUFF!
Don't get your hopes up too much, there's not going to be any more mini-games added to the demo, but there are a few new heads to choose from, along with a new mini-game mode added to Falling Apart....which is basically a new mini-game in itself!
FALLING APART SURVIVAL MODE AND EXTREME LAG FIX
Sad that you can't play Falling Apart in solo mode?
Well now you can, and it's brutally fun!
While it is still not finished yet, Falling Apart survival will drop tiles in patterns on the arena, and you will need to use concentration and timing to safely jump and avoid falling into the molten metal below.
This is also hilarious fun with multiple people, but I warn you, it is in it's early stages, as is incredibly difficult, especially when lag is factored into the gameplay when playing online, but I will work towards reducing/removing that at some point.
Aside from survival mode, Falling Apart got some much needed network performance increase.
I won't go into detail as to why the performance was so bad, but let's just say I durped and leave it at that.
NEW METAL HEADS!
BUGS SQUISHED!
Since the list is so vast and trying to get all of the fixes listed would take a while to do, I will summarize the fixes.
The focus on this update was to fix up the game breaking bugs caused from connecting and disconnecting, joining and un-joining, crashing and re-loading, and joining mini-games at various times.
There were issues where player counts would get messed up, both in the lobby, and during mini-games, and this was caused by a number of things, normally from new players joining or leaving.
Sometimes players would spawn duplicates, so sometimes there would be 2 or more of 1 character in the level, this should be fixed now.
When the server crashed, or the server host suddenly exited the game via ALT+F4 or another method, the clients would be returned to a black screen or something else, and their game would be messed up, this is no longer the case, now if players are dropped back to the main menu for whatever reason, the game will restore to the state that the game was in before joining a server.
This means no more needing to ALT+F4 out of the game to resolve these annoying issues.
There were other bugs in regards to players losing control when someone would join, or disconnect and rejoin, or drop into the game and join....it was just messy and painful, drop in-drop out is NOT fun to work on haha.
The scoreboard still has some minor issues with it, but nothing that should impact gameplay at all in any significant way. I will be working on getting some smaller hot-fixes out over time too.
The bugs aren't ALL fixed, there are still some really annoying ones that remain, but the online multiplayer connectivity is almost 100% stable.
There are obviously noticeable lag problems still with many of the mini-games, but over time I will work towards reducing this lag with things such as lag compensation and more client based synchronization techniques.
I will begin working on more mini-games again so that there are at least 30 for launch, then the board game mode, followed by character customization and other features.
I have given myself a pretty short deadline and these bugs have been holding me back significantly.
This is typically the kind of thing that big companies do with teams of people, so please bear with me while I power on ahead.
OTHER NEWS:
I RECEIVED AN EPIC MEGA GRANT FROM EPIC GAMES!!!
What does this mean for Metal Heads?
It means that I have been able to finally quit my day job so that I can work on Metal Heads even more than I was and be financially stable.
It also means I can properly afford to pay for more of Andy Gillions incredible work on Metal Heads.
I honestly don't think I can call this a solo project anymore.
While I may be the only DEVELOPER working on the game, he is quite literally putting the METAL, into Metal Heads, and without his incredible musical talent, the game may not have such awesome music.
Thanks Andy!!!
I don't have days off, and I work anywhere from 8 - 18 hours a day, most days I work 14-16 hours however.
I am determined to make this the next best party game, and the Epic Mega Grant gave me the nudge I think I really needed to get it to that point.
Epic Games has really helped out in a big way here!
Also if you haven't yet done so, please...
WISHLIST THE GAME
(there is now a wishlist button in game)
It actually helps a LOT, giving it more exposure and helping me understand how many of you actually want to buy it when it eventually releases.
It also helps expand the player base, which means more people to play online with, however it's probably best to organize play sessions with your friends until I sort out some of the very important online multiplayer features like being able to kick/ban players, inviting friends from Steam directly etc.
FINALLY, I want to...
THANK YOU ALL
You guys help with every download, and every wishlist you make, and it fills my heart with happiness to see that so many of you are playing my game, so thank you!