Hello!
It's good to be posting an update again after all this time. I'm officially back on the dev train and have been doing a smattering of additions, tweaks and fixes. This update has a fairly substantial patch note list but it mostly concerns QoL and polish. There are a few new additions to boost your gameplay though.
UPDATE: Linux version of this update is now available too
Urnest's Animations
The main new stuff is all of the grumpy ghost Urnest's animations are now in game as well as the moves being generally tweaked and improved to add more clarity and fun to his moveset.
FX Work
On top of that, the wonderful artist Gabriel Lima, who did all the background art until now, has been working on a whole bunch of FX work for the game, elevating the feel of the game. For the full list check out the patch notes below.
Credit Where Credit's Due
And finally, I've added in a playable credits sequence at the end of cup runs as an opportunity to score some extra money. This is skippable of course, but it does feature a brand new cheesey song by Bruises and yours truly, that I think you're gonna love. The assets on this one are placeholder, this whole sequence will be slightly expanded in the future, but for now it's perfectly functional and does the job. Of course, the new music is also unlockable after viewing the credits once.
https://twitter.com/all_in_indie/status/1679613510341255169
Fixes Fixes Fixes
As always, there are a whole host of fixes and minor changes that come as part of this update to improve your general experience. Read through the patch notes below to see the full extent of these.
ZONERS v0.28 Patch Notes
[ADDITIONS]
- Urnest Move, Dash, Melee, Shoot, Super, Hyper, Hit, Stun, Wallstun, Ukemi, Electric & Dazed Animations anims added to the game
- Added character specific aura effects for every character for when the ball has it's special aura that deflects projectiles and increases speed before slowing down
- Credits sequence at the end of the cup has been added with placeholder assets. This is an interactive sequence that can earn additional money. This will be slightly expanded upon in a future update to track highscores and have some other additional elements as well as proper assets. Features a brand new song which is also unlockable for the jukebox after viewing the credits once
[FIXES & CHANGES]
GAMEPLAY
- Urnest Super projectile can now make contact on it's way out
- Urnest Super projectile no longer has a gravitational vortex as it has a larger sprite hit box instead
- Urnest Super projectile will try to reach 15 speed even after being deflected by a weak move
- When possessing a ball using Urnest's hyper move, you can now press the dash, melee or projectile buttons to end the possession early and launch the ball in the direction you're aiming
- Changed the highest non-hyper state ball power level colour from black to white and added some rainbow effects when in this state
- Updated the basic ball aura to have two states that reflect speed and improved the special aura end animation fx
- Fixed issue where ball could still be hit by projectiles when in its special aura state
- Improved the visuals at the start of the Basic Training to make it more clear the player is supposed to move towards the targets
- Reduced the amount of score that is taken away when continuing from a loss in a cup
- Fixed crash when beating the King boss at the end of the cup
- In response to observations during testing over the years, when using a gamepad, letting go of the stick no longer resets your aim to straight ahead
- Fixed issue where when using KBM controls the starting aim is in the wrong place
- When using KBM controls and aiming, if your character has some momentum, the cursor will move relatively to the characters speed
MENUS
- Fixed crash when completing an advanced training tutorial
- Updated the Character & Arena select menus to have new fixed position and improved character select icons and mini stage pics as well as simplify the character information that is displayed in the Match Maker
- Fixed bug where player 2 could not back out of being ready with their character
- Fixed a bug that meant player 1 couldn't select their character as quickly as player 2
- Fixed names of seer paintings in the shop not showing up correctly
- In the Hall of Fame changed the "special items collected" stat to "songs collected" and made it reflect total songs collected
- In the Hall of Fame fixed the win percentage calculations in the character match up chart
- Money breakdown displayed at end of a match maker game is now shown in correct positions
MISC
- Optimised drawing of ball auras
- Fixed small issue where the ball's fake self shadow effect would leave some unshaded pixels at certain angles
- The ball now hovers slightly up and down whilst tilting when in a 0 speed or goal paused state
- Updated ball wall hit and goal score fx
- The ball now leaves a small damage sprite relative to the material type of the wall when bouncing off a non-goal part of a wall
- Corrected the material type for some walls on some stages so the correct sfx play and vfx show
- Updated/added character dash fx including a small general animation for the brief window when a dash will parry
- Updated all smoke & dust fx
- Fixed issue when using alternative colour palettes where characters and objects that were associated with the palette would appear in base form when the character had flashing fx active in any capacity
- Fixed a number of issues of character colours & themes and other music not unlocking when completing the cups under certain circumstances
Next on my list is to start animating Rhapsody. Really want to get the rest of the cast finished off to complete phase 1 of Early Access. Then we can start looking at adding some genuinely new content and unlocking some of those locked off slots. Other than that, Gabriel will be working on the Credits assets in the near future and with any luck I might also have some very exciting news for the game as a whole soon...
Peace & Love,
Paris