Hi all, welcome BACK to Beta Bytes.
Today we're gonna talk about the current version of the beta, what we've added, what's coming next and a potential date of when we're wanting to release this version.
Money System
We added the finalish version of our paid-skins system. All skins should now cost "pings", the game will give you 1000 pings when you start the game and the deluxe edition of the game should give you an extra 1000.
In future versions earning points within the game (without cheats) will earn you x amount of pings per x amount of points (The actual ping-point ratio is currently being decided and figured out. We want to make sure it's fair and not too easy to earn pings)
Settings Save between launches
The settings system has been updated so that some settings save between game loads, this means that if for example you mute the music within the game, the music will automatically be muted when you reload the game. There are a few issues with this system right now, but we're working on it and hope it'll be finished soon.
In a future version all settings will save between loads, we're considering the possibility of saving settings to a file instead of to playerprefs so you're able to keep your settings on different machines.
Steam Deck compatibility update
Following the instructions given to us, we've updated various UI elements to be more visible on smaller screens. This means that when using the Steam Deck you SHOULD be able to see everything more clearly and won't need to squint your eyes to see it better. We've even improved controller input so that for example pressing the left/right bumpers will change pages.
There's a bit more we WANT to do to help with this, for example in a future version controller input will be enabled by default.
Bug Fixes
We've fixed quite a few bugs within the game. We've also attempted to fix quite a few more. We're hoping to make this update as bug free as possible.
Coming Soon
Online Multiplayer
We're still not ready to reveal the Online Multiplayer portions of the game. We're working on a separate branch of the game in order to update some core systems for the online multiplayer update.
Remote Play & Steam Input
We're still working on these two features. Steam Input for example will require a rewrite of parts of the bumper controller and the game manager scripts. Both of these are currently setup with Unity's default input manager which isn't designed for input editing. It's designed to be hard coded. We may even update the game so that you can customize controls... We're not sure yet, and will keep ya'll updated.
Remote Play is still not ready. It's something none of us have ever used before nor developed for. We MAY scrap using it entirely, but it's still something we're willing to try.
New Game Modes
We want to re-release the 3D and continuous game modes from the Legacy Edition. We'll be working on these soon and hope to have a beta out next month (April 2023)
Potential Release Date
We're hoping to have the next version ready for June 2023. It's a long way away, but we want this update to be as polished as possible to hopefully break the cycle of broken updates. From now on updates will happen once per quarter as opposed to once a month like we had.
Closing
Thanks for reading through todays Beta Bytes. In the future these will happen once a month (At the most).
If you would like to test the game, be sure to join the "beta test" on the games store page.