Greetings, Hard Chip players!
Quite a lot happened since update 39. We have a long list of modifications to go through and a major change of distribution. Let's get through it!
1. New from Itch.io to Steam: The reach Steam has is no secret. In 2 weeks, the new HC's Steam page matched the itch.io one's total visits. HC has been on Itch.io for more than a year now. The difference is staggering!
Take a look at the previous version on itch.io
2. New distribution method on Steam: with the Steam page comes all the advantages for release management. Simplified release process and updates are available in minutes. Daily quick fixes are possible. All savegames are kept automatically between updates. It's really fast. We tested a playtest version and it went well.
All HC's new versions will be uploaded to Steam only.
HC already has enough hardcore players giving a lot of feedback (meet them in the HC's discord server!), but nonetheless you could request access to the playtest build if you have good feedback to give!
Note that version 0.0.4.8-legacy will be forever up on Itch.io!
3. New Conducive Gates: before transistors had their gate split in two, each side was isolated from the other. While double gates transistor exists, this was not a proper representation of a simple planar mosfet HC is using. To allow HC to stick to a life-like simulated gate's behavior, the shape of transistors has to change. Introducing dedicated gate blocks:
From the previous shape:
This new shape allows multiple new behaviors! You can short gates now, use them to interconnect each other, connect them from multiple angles, and a lot of other fun tricks I'll let you figure out.
Note that as the shape of the transistor changes, your old saves won't work without an update on your part.
4. Update Online Scores: Online scores have been reset for the new versions of HC (0.0.5.0 and up). A lot of scores could have been made while the simulation allowed strange behavior. With so many scores, it is impossible to triage them properly. So big reset from 0.0.5.0!
Quality Of Life, Bug, and Crash fixes:
1. Instructions are not shown automatically, giving the chance to the player to figure it out by himself
2. Crash fix when creating a blueprint with an empty selection
3. Adding music in the editor, tentative 1!
4. Fix the camera lock when exiting the editor
5. "Remove all readouts" option when selecting blocks
6. Editor shortcuts are disabled when a modal is up
7. Rendering crash fail-safe, tentative fix
8. Key bindings list updated with latest controls (still static)
9. Main menu shows the new starting area (performance greatly improved!)
10. New 30fps refresh rate limits
As always, your feedback/suggestions/comments are instrumental in making this game.
Thank you for playing Hard Chip, and stay tuned for more updates and new features!