This was an intense week. While the changelog is not very long, it features some significant additions, and it feels as if every single aspect of the game has gotten a major boost.
First of all, the characters now all have their own animations to play when selected in the main menu. Scrapyard and Frozen City both now have decals a bit like the bones you find in the desert.
The game now also sounds better! We have a first sketch of what Rebel will eventually sound like, and every boss has gotten their very own theme. Fighting Big Dog and Lil' Hunter will never be the same again.
The code also got a big overhaul, with all new input code. This fixes some major bugs and also opens up cool future possibilities like customizable controls. It should significantly increase performance for a small group of players
Of course we also have gameplay things for you! Two very challenging types of I.D.P.D. have been added. The Shielders shield and carry heavy machineguns with them, while the Inspectors have powers you are probably familiar with and come equipped with lethal sluggers.
Finally, we bring you a very work in progress Lightning Pistol! Enjoy.
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Features
- All characters have their own selection animation for the campfire scene now. We are incredibly happy with how this turned out.
- Rebel no longer sounds like Fish! She now has her very own voice. This is not her final voice, as we intend to get a voice actor, but should give you a first impression of what she´ll sound like.
- Two new types of I.D.P.D. troops: Shielders, and Inspectors. Both should seem pretty familiar...
- Every boss now has its own musical theme.
- The way player input is handled has been redone from scratch. This does a couple of things. First of all, performance should be significantly better for at least a small portion of our players. It also fixed the infamous "Crystal Shield Bug" where keys did not register when pressed during the small pauses that happen during explosions and the like. Finally, it will also make some planned features such as customizable controls a bit easier to implement.
- Scrapyard and Frozen City now have decals like the bones in Desert.
- A Lightning Pistol! Still very work in progress, but this should give you an idea of the lightning type weapons we're planning. Balancing
- I.D.P.D. explosions now blow up walls, but Grunts (and Inspectors) no longer have infinite grenades. Fixes
- The blood launcher can be used without fear of errors again.
- As mentioned above, keys pressed (or released) during freezes are now registered. No more Crystal getting stuck in shield mode!
- Some players should experience a significant performance increase. Misc
- You can now set the amount of auto aim for gamepad support in the options menu. It can be set from 0-200%.
Next week will bring a last, tiny update before the Game Developers Conference, where we'll be visiting, speaking and getting a short break and some time to hang out with our fellow developers and get super inspired for the period after GDC. Expect some bugfixes, balancing, and maybe a couple more lightning weapons early next week. We'll keep track of what's happening, but we'll be a bit more quiet than usual and the updates will cease for a week or two. We won't cease streaming, but we'll have guest streamers during this period.
Keep letting us know what you think, though, and keep in touch on http://twitch.tv/Vlambeer, http://twitter.com/Vlambeer or http://facebook.com/Vlambeer.