Hello Sluggle buddies,
It's been a few weeks since the last update to 86, so we thought we would let you know what we're working on. Lots of our time has been spent on our larger project, but we've also been working on 86 in preparation for the upcoming 1.1 update. In this post we'll go through a couple of the major features you'll be seeing soon.
As a recap, the features we've added since release include:
- A "getting started" guide
- Support for community translations
- Faded borders
- Various improvements to level design
And now, onto two of the main features coming in the 1.1 update:
Sprinting
This is a feature that we didn't originally envision, but we think we've found a way to make it work. In 1.1, there will be a new "sprint" button (defaults to Left Shift on keyboard and Y on controller, but can be configured in the options). Holding this button down will allow you to zip across the world at double speed, allowing you to cross large areas much faster than usual.
Of course, with great power comes great responsibility. If you try to sprint everywhere, you'll find that it's almost impossible to make the precise movements that lots of the puzzles require. But used correctly, it will save you a few seconds here and there, making it easier to get to some of the farthest rooms.
For the most part, there is no penalty for sprinting and most achievements will still unlock. The only exception are the speedrun achievements; your fastest wins with sprinting and without sprinting will be tracked separately, and the achievements will check the "without sprinting" time.
Speaking of which...
Statistics
Currently, the game tracks various statistics such as number of deaths, rooms explored, and fastest win times. This is used to trigger achievements, but it's not available anywhere for you to see. So in this update, we'll add a dedicated statistics screen to the main menu! Here's a very rough drawing that shows how we expect it to look:
(Yes, it was our Software Director that drew that, not the Art Director. How did you know?)
As you can see, this screen will show you pretty much all the data that's stored in your save file. So whether you want to see how fast you can beat the game or just want to know how many poor Sluggles you've exploded, we've got your back.
Conclusion
So that's a couple of the features we're working on at the moment, which will be coming in the 1.1 update. There's at least one other feature that we'll be adding, but that's still in the RnD phase at the moment. Currently we don't have an exact time frame for the update, but it should definitely be out before the end of the year.
That's all for now - if there's anything else you want to see in the 1.1 update, let us know with a comment below!