Hello everyone, hope you are all doing well! Venge 2.23 is out now. I bet you're wondering about Act 2... here's an update:
Huh, another Act 1 update? Just work on Act 2 already!
TLDR - Old Venge code bad, lucy needs good code to work :)
I know I know, work on Act 2... I am don't worry! But because this game is old (I started development in early highschool), Venge has a lot of tech debt. For those unfamiliar, my old code was badly written which made it hard to develop & expand for the future. This worked fine for Act 1, but as I continue working on Act 2, I'm running into tons of blockers preventing me from implementing features and awesome story moments! Like for example:
Act 2 has a lot of significantly more complex decision based moments. The old save system simply couldn't support this.
Act 2 has chests and more sophisticated item management, this plays an important role in the story. In the old save system, this was all basically impossible.
Act 2 requires way more fancy player controls (minecarts, swimming, etc)... lots of new stuff I've never done before! I'll need to rewrite the player controller to make these possible
This unfortunately means during the period before Act 2's release I need to make some massive under-the-hood changes to keep Venge up to date and development speedy. These changes impact Act 0 and 1 too, so rather than sit on them, I'll be releasing these new systems as patches (like this one!). This means you can expect a few more updates such as this in the future:
Update 2.23 - New save system (this one!)
Update 2.24 - Completely new player controller. This controller will be modern, WAY more dynamic, and so much better for me to use. Act 2 relies on this change really bad...
MAYBE multi-language support soon??
So while this sucks, it is ultimately really important to make sure Act 2 is as good as possible. If Act 2 is a big wonderful train, I am miles ahead and laying the tracks. Hopefully you can understand!
Anyways, let's get into the patch notes:
Completely new save system!
The old save system was very old and was causing a lot of problems / blocking act 2 progress, so this new system will resolve that! This also means your save data is no longer pointlessly obfuscated from yourself, so you can edit it all you want!
Your save data will automatically transfer without issue. If something does manage to go wrong, don't worry! The game backs up everything and will not destroy your save. Please join the discord and ping me, we can get it all recovered and sorted!
Trophy Improvements:
The bronze, silver, gold, and item trophies now check ALL universes, rather than just your active universe. This means they'll be slightly easier to get and and are consistent regardless of your universe.
The artifact trophy now requires ALL artifacts be discovered, not just collectables. Reminder you can check your progress in the artifact menu.
Path System Improvements:
The path system has been improved with some improved UI, better stability, and more clarity. For example, if a previous scene invalidated your current scene, the game will now explain why:
This will hopefully help make the game more clear and less confusing!Additionally, if a hardcore universe has been killed, it'll now show it in the universe menu.
Various other ui polish and fixes in the path
Extras Menu:
You can now switch, create, and edit universes directly from the extras menu. If your minigames suddenly are locked, you can switch to a different universe where they are unlocked!
Misc:
Improved the bug report ui, fixing a bug that prevented some people's names from being properly credited (IM SO SORRY)
All flashlights will not bounce light near the camera! This means your flashlights will feel much more useful and bright!
Improved the bike controller, specifically keeping the boring handlebars as off-screen as possible
Improved the bike ride minigame, it is now way more polished
Improved bike clipping, it should be way better now
Fixed footsteps appearing white
Slightly increased the player speed in various places (will rework this in a bit)
Fixed some text rendering issues with text on the task popup
Fixed a bug causing a Helpsie death to incorrectly show Laserette's
Fixed a super rare bug which caused helpsie to ramble about the plant after the princess tower
Fixed an rare issue causing helpsie's running to be weird and break
Fixed an issue where sometimes the strawbelly monologue wouldnt start on time
Fixed a bug preventing the cartoonist spare bridge from lowering
Fixed a bug with the exit warning indicator, it will now correctly show the time and items you'll loose
Repositioned the items within the play selected ui, should feel more clean now
Tons of various bike scene fixes
Various other fixes and improvements I forgot to write down
Thank you all so much, let me know any issues you may have, or just feedback in general. Thanks!
- Ethan