The wait is finally over! Thank you for all your patience.
The main feature of this update is Pack #3, adding 35 new units and a new mechanic: 🌶️PEPPERS🌶️ and 🍋LEMONS🍋! Peppers and lemons are held food that act as passive statuses that stay with your units between battles. Some units benefit from gaining peppers or lemons during battle, while some work best from just passively holding their favorite food. Pepper effects boost your allies ❤️, and lemon effects boost 💥. Try to find the best balance between attacking and defending as you power up your team! Pack 3 also plays with some fainting and food synergies, so I hope you find the strategy that works best for you!
The second main feature of this update is 8 new enemy types and an extra 20 new battle formations per tier! That doubled the old number of battles and brings the total count of layouts to 160 🤯. I have done my best to balance these new rooms, but please reach out using the "room_id" in the bottom left of a battle if you find any layouts that consistently seem too hard... or too easy!
This update also introduces ❓MYSTERY SPACES❓ to the map! These spaces could be anything... From boss battles to slot machines there's no telling what you'll get (unless you read these patch notes).
New Additions
- Added Pack #3 with 35 new units, unlock by consuming 5 foods in a single run
- Added 20 battles formations to each tier
- Added Salad item to pack #3 item pool: Start of Battle-> Summon a pepper or lemon on a random space
- Added Rose Flower item to regular item pools: Enemy Defeated-> Give a random ally +1 HP
- Added Interrobang item to Emodjinn item pool: Change 15 random battle spaces in ? spaces
- Added Horse item to Emodjinn item pool: Start your game with a 3/3 cowboy unit
- Added Radio item to Emodjinn item pool: Start your game with a 3/3 satellite unit
- Added Steak item to Emodjinn and regular item pools: Start of Shop-> Give all shop units +2 base HP
- Added mystery spaces to the map. These can send you to one of the following rooms:
- Regular battle
- Boss battle
- Item room
- Regular shop
- Rest room
- Sacrifice Room; Consume on ally to give its LV to all allies as base HP and DAMAGE. Only works once.
- Slot Machine Room: Spend 5 gold to either... 1) Gain nothing. 2) Gain a free Pizza unit. 3) Gain 15 gold. 4) Lose 3 lives.
- Special shop: This shop has 4 units from any tier in any pack for sale for $6 each.
- Added Lobster Enemy: Damaged-> deal damage to a random ally unit equal to damage received
- Added Dolphin Enemy: Deal 1/2 damage to adjacent units above and below attacked ally unit
- Added Cargo Van Enemy: This enemy starts with armor
- Added Dark Elf Enemy: Give +Mana HP to all enemies in column
- Added Space Satellite Enemy: This enemy attacks the left most ally unit in row first
- Added Poop Enemy: Damaged-> Summon a worm with MANA for HP (and no damage)
- Added Piñata Enemy: Faint-> Gain 5 gold and summon a random enemy on this space
- Added Sleeping Guy to pack 1, tier 1: 1/1. Start of Battle-> Give +LV of HP for each empty ally space
Balance Changes
- ? Pack now includes all units from pack #3
- ? Pack is now unlocked by winning a run with both packs #2 and #3... It should stay unlocked if you previously had it unlocked
- ? Pack Tier 1 will always include Chili Pepper
- ? Pack Tier 2 will always include Lemon
- Moved Mosquito to pack 3, tier 1
- Changed the enemy damage buff on boss battles a tiny bit lower
- Changed map generation so that boss battles won't spawn within first 10 spaces on map
- Buffed Pack #1 Cowboy: 2/2. Start of Battle-> Give +LV of HP and Damage to ally on right
- Made it so you gain extra XP for playing on higher difficulties
- Changed Pack #1 Parrot to copy HP at start of the battle, but after other start of battle effects triggered
Bug Fixes/QOL
- Fixed a bug where enemies would not fall off they screen if they died to recoil damage
- Changed the way the Blowfish enemy checks for recoil damage (should be less buggy)
- Changed a loading screen tip that described the outdated method to speed up battle
- Added effect animation to queen ant enemy
- Fixed Pack 1 Zombie description to include damage buff as well
- Fixed Coffin enemy description to include HP and Damage
- Added a note to summoning enemy description to mention summoned enemies drop 0 gold
- Added a little shake effect to shop buttons you cant afford
- Added a little shake animation when you reroll shop units
- Made unit sprites scale up a little bit when they are being held
- Added more fanfare when you open a item present
- Made an animation for end of battle popups
- Added a coin eruption effect when you win a battle
- Added click SFX to menu UI
- Swapped the Fullscreen on/off button to show what you currently have selected
- Added a bounce at the bottom of the screen to defeated units and enemies effect
- Made it so a rat attacking for 0 damage would trigger a draw
- Changed the method for draw checking to make sure that no enemies were defeated in last turn to prevent early false draws
- Added a tag to unit descriptions to identify "Food"
- Changed the fires summoned by ally Welder, ally Volcano, and oil drum item to count as fainted allies during battle
- Added food consumed stat to records
- Changed wording on records to say you "LOST on round ??" vs "DIED on round ??" (lol this is a family friendly game)
- Fixed a bug where records would say you won if you died on the very last battle
- Fixed typo in tutorial "try TO reach level 80"
- Added a picture of the battery map space to the Bucket item description
- Changed the blue circle on the map be above the icon sprite
- Added a animation to map icons that you are able to select from for your next space
- Added the word "Item" to shop item purchase space
Extra Thoughts
This pack has been an absolute blast to make! I anticipate adding one or two more units to Pack #3 to cover any weak spots that show themselves. The mystery spaces added a fun dynamic to route selection and hopefully aid in making each run feel more unique. New enemy additions and battle layouts were a long time coming. I tried to make new enemies that made you really think about your positioning and not just blindly fly through battles with an OP team. i.e.: Attack the poop enemy with one strong blow to avoid extra summons, attack the lobster with a few weak blows to avoid 1-hit KO'ing an ally, go for the high risk vs reward of taking out a pinata, move your weaker units forward to avoid getting sniped by a satellite dish... Hopefully you have fun with all the new layouts! If any feel unfair please feel free to reach out via twitter or email with the room_id and I will absolutely take a look at balancing it out. I hope to add a "report" button in game, but with my version of Game Maker Sudio, url links in game won't open due to browser errors. I'm going to try to figure out a way to make it easy for early access gamers to give feedback on the spot.
For now, I plan on this being the final "Content" update. I will continue to update with balance patches and bug fixes based on your feedback. I plan on shifting my focus to introducing Automoji to as many new gamers as possible. Now that this update is complete, I am going to run a HUGE sale to try to convince any potential players on the edge to give Automoji a chance. Thank you to all players who have been enjoying Automoji this whole time. Please reach out to me if you know of anyone that would enjoy Automoji and I would be more than happy to send you a steam key. At this point, I am more interested in gaining a player base than making money, and word of mouth is truly the best endorsement :)
Thank you as always, happy gaming!
-Karl @AutomojiGame