Hello! I have a lot of things to tell you today. But don't worry, it's good news.
The biggest thing is: we released a major gameplay update to the demo and we're really proud of it! It focuses mainly on adding more depth and variety to how you can play Herringen and optimise your runs to improve your score. And more generally, making sure everything incentivises player dynamics that are in alignment with our intentions.
The main changes are a complete rework of the nearwall mechanic and numerous adjustments to enemy placement and behaviour. The goal for us was to add more depth and variety to Herringen's gameplay while further incentivising players to take risky trajectories and limiting boring downtimes. Also, so far, the ways to get the highest scores were pretty cheesy and repetitive. We wanted to make it more interesting.
In short, the nearwall has much more impact on gameplay values and scoring than before, and is now affected not only by the proximity of obstacles, but also how surrounded by them you are, and how much faster than your default speed you are going.
There's much more to this update, but those two points have been its guiding principles.
Side note: you can expect some score inflation, especially at high level play. The leaderboards have been reset, and the style ranks' score requirements have been adjusted accordingly.
Big nerds (affectionate) can enjoy a more extensive list of the changes below.
We would also like to thank you for playing the demo, and especially those of you who reached out to us on Discord with feedback and suggestions. It's been absolutely lovely getting to read this, getting to see that some people care. And most importantly, some of those changes wouldn't have happened without you.
Spontaneous player feedback has provided new and valuable insights compared to the playtests we have conducted throughout development, and it has been a huge help for us design-wise. It prompted us to examine critically some aspects of the game that had long since faded into the background for us. It made us ask the right questions. And I think both Herringen and we as designers are better for it.
So, once again, thank you <3
Finally, since the release of the demo, we have also applied for some public funding so we can hope to have actual income during production. So, wish us luck!
Making all the documents for that is actually part of why this update took the time it did to come out. That, and we also took a much needed break.
-Matt
Detailed Changelog
General
Increased fortress HP by 20%
To make runs slightly longer and more tense, to avoid them being over after a single evade combo, or worse, before even the end of it. And get you to travel a little more.
Reduced ship HP by 40%
So projectiles feel like an actual threat, and collision isn't disproportionately more dangerous.
Reduced the size of the ship's collider a little
To really let you graze walls crazy style
Adjusted downboost angle curve
So it does something significant even if you're not going straight down or close to it
Reduced the minimum time between two evades from 0.45 to 0.42 seconds
To give you a bit more flexibility and make frustrating "that should have worked" moments less common, while still requiring you to time them properly
Slightly increased the evade radius
To make the timing a little more forgiving, letting you focus more on movement
Removed or adjusted the position of some small obstacles near spawn 7 and 9
Because they were discouraging or obscuring some fun trajectories
Camera
Made camera tracking and positioning a little more tight
To improve legibility of the ship's position and trajectory, especially during accelerations.
Increased how early and how much the camera faces the direction of the ship's X axis rotation
So you can see a bit better where you're going when pitching.
Nearwall
The mechanic was completely reworked with brand new detection logic as well as visual and audio feedback. The gameplay effects have also been adjusted.
The new detection, instead of three discrete thresholds of distance to the nearest obstacle, calculates a "quality" value based on the following parameters:
The number of surfaces with different enough normal vectors
The proximity to each of those surfaces
The ratio between the ship's current speed and its default speed (only if it's going faster than default)
Because it is much more risky and cool to graze walls when going fast
A flat bonus applied over a short direction if the player goes through a particularly narrow crevice or gets extremely close to a surface
To ensure that doing a cool thing, even if it doesn't last long, has a significant effect
This new value is more granular and has much more range than before, rewarding actual daring and fun trajectories, rather that just flying straight with a wall in your general vicinity.
It also means that the evade boost is a way to dramatically improve your nearwall!
Based on the nearwall quality, you will benefit from several effets:
An increase to the cooldown speed of bombs and evade charges like before, but now much, much more significant. Unlike most of the other effects, it has no cap and scales linearly with the nearwall quality
Good nearwall is now an efficient way to reload, and it also grants you virtually infinite evade charges to do last second side movement with
A movement speed boost, in a similar range as before for the most part. Except when performing very good nearwall, in which case it will briefly reach higher values than before, to highlight spectacular plays.
A rotation speed boost, we tried to keep it as similar to the previous one as before, but it'll be a bit different because the detection it depends on is fundamentally different.
A significant increase to enemy cooldown speed (more details in the enemy behaviour section below)
An increase to the evade radius
To compensate for the speed boost messing with the perception of timings, and to let you focus more on movement, and on the aftermath of successfully evading something while you are in a difficult situation
The score granted by the nearwall mechanic is now calculated completely differently. Its value is based on the distance travelled multiplied by the nearwall quality. Like before, it is divided by the completion time to encourage consistency and/or speed over endless grinding.
The quality of the current nearwall is now represented by two flames following the ship. Their size is directly multiplied by the quality value and they become brighter and more opaque with stronger nearwall.
When the player benefits from a temporary nearwall bonus after flying through a narrow space, they flash blue and screenshake and controller rumble are triggered. A new sound effect also plays when this happens. There is also a new sound effect when the flames turn on.
The flames also slightly curve with the player's rotation, to help a bit with the perception of your trajectory.
The nearwall affects the speed post processing effects more significantly than before.
The goal with these effects was to translate the current nearwall quality as clearly as possible and to draw more attention to the mechanic as a whole. We wanted to give the nearwall mechanic the same importance as evades. We want you to have fun trying to take absolutely reckless trajectories.
Some other changes:
Turrets meshes are now taken into account by the nearwall detection.
Turrets now stop rotating towards you if the ship is very close to them
So you don't suddenly get hit in the face with a wayward canon if you fly too close
Enemy Behaviour
Added a cap to the number of turrets that can simultaneously be aggressive towards the player
So you don't get half the map showering you with projectiles (and evade opportunities) as soon as you get a little too exposed
Turrets reload faster when they can't attack the player
So they are quickly ready to fire when you appear after being out of view. Typically when flying near obstacles
Turrets reload slower when they can attack the player
To make it less advantageous to stay exposed for a long time
Turrets get an almost complete cooldown reset on phase change
To reduce downtimes and encourage you to move around the fortress to find more "fresh" turrets
Turrets that can't attack the player can't recover more than 85% of their cooldown
So the other changes don't make them all immediately shoot you before you can see anything coming
Turret get a significant reload speed increase based on the player's current nearwall quality
To further incentivise flying near obstacles than in the open air, and to make the game more intense for players seeking a more challenging experience
Missile turrets' minimal range increased by 25%
They can't shoot you within that radius, so you have actual time to see it coming
Added a new and improved targeting method to turrets (thanks to @slink on our discord!)
They now properly lead their shots according to the player's current velocity. They are a lot more accurate and consistent
Turrets now only account for the ship's forward velocity
So evading doesn't make them shoot wayyy off to the side
Flak turrets now account for the slower speed of the shrapnel in their targeting calculations, not only the speed of the initial projectile.
This helps a lot in making them aim at the right spot too...
Flak projectiles now check if the player can see them before splitting into shrapnel
To ensure you always have the required info to evade them, even if you made a sharp turn between the moment the turret shot and when the projectile reached you
Missiles' speed when they're far from the player is greatly increased based on nearwall value
So they can more easily catch up, without making evading more difficult
Missiles that stay close to the player without hitting for a long time slowly accelerate
To break up massive stacks of missiles that do nothing for ages
Flak projectiles now have a short delay between the split VFX and the moment the shrapnel actually appears
To make them more legible and easier to react to
Missiles have a grace period during which they can still be evaded after being disabled
So evading one missile doesn't waste the next one that hits you while you have iframes
Increased the base speed of flak initial projectiles and faraway missiles
To make them reach you faster without making them harder to evade
Enemy Placement
Now, a small number of turrets are constantly active
So there's always a few projectiles that can follow you between obstacles and some specific spots are always covered
Slightly modified the sequence of existing enemy phases
For pacing reasons
Added and moved a number of turrets
So they can better reach players in major nearwall trajectories
Added a few "close range" enemies with a shorter minimal range
To cover specific spots, either between buildings or right at the start of runs
Spawn Points
Major changes to spawn points 1, 3, 5 and 6
The goal was to make them more interesting and make action happen earlier, as well as make 5 more legible, and 6 less of a slaughterhouse.
Fixed a bug that caused the first run spawn to be unused
It's supposed to give you a bit more time to figure out what is going on
Better evaluated the difficulty of the different spawn points to set the weights on their odds relative to the number of wins accordingly
So you don't get hit with the evil ones before you got your bearings on the game
Adjusted the odds of the spawn points and the picking logic
To prevent players from being confined to certain parts of the fortress too much and distribute runs across spawn points more evenly
Scoring
Reduced the score difference between very short times and medium times
You only start to really lose points on this if you're very slow
Rebalanced the damage taken multiplier
Now if you don't get hit at all it's x3, if you get hit once it's x2, and if you get hit more, it promptly goes down to x1
End screen score breakdown now displays a special message is you took no damage
Because you should be proud of yourself!
Increased score requirement for ranks A, S, S+ and >H to 175k, 250k, 500k and 1M respectively
To account for the inflation tied to the gameplay reworks
Dev scores are explicitly displayed as so
So you can take pride in beating us at our own game :)
Reset the leaderboard
Because the old scores and times are not really comparable to the new ones.
Visuals
Made brand new models for turrets
The goal was to make them feel more sturdy and more connected to the fortress, so players are less likely to think they can be destroyed (please stop asking)
Made the flak split VFX more dense and visible
So you can't miss them and be taken by surprise
Increased the contrast on the fortress textures' close details
To improve depth perception and legibility of close obstacles
HUD elements now sway gently with the ship's angular velocity
Because it's sexy, and I've been wanting to do that for a while :)
Made existing speed-related VFX and post processing effects a little more intense
YES, MORE!
These post processing effects now also include an increase in contrast and post-exposure
To really sell that sensation of overwhelming acceleration and tunnel vision
Made flak projectiles stand out a bit more, and player bomb trails a bit less
Just guiding the attention where it needs to be a little more
Made HUD elements a little more saturated
We felt they looked a bit dull and could afford to contrast more with the cold sky
Made bombs explosions start fading from a further distance
To help with visibility in tight spaces
Reduced the number of particles on bombs explosions and removed the shockwave sprites entirely
To reduce visual pollution, especially when close to them, and make them harder to confuse with the flak split VFX. Generally, player bombs should have less importance in the hierarchy of information than the things you actually need to pay attention to
Added a splash screen on launch that recommends playing with WASD or the dpad for more precise rotations
You are free not to listen to it, but if you're struggling with precise flying, give it a try
Made the damage marker on the fortress healthbar bright off-white instead of dark red
So you can actually see it, including in your peripheral vision, and understand more clearly that your bombs are doing something
Added a light shaft streaming down from the exit at the bottom of the big tower
To make it more clear where it is, and ideally prevent players from getting confused and dying after getting here
Bug fixing & Optimisation
Fixed successful evade sounds triggering with incorrect parameters
Fixed the first run spawn point not being picked properly
Turrets now perform their aiming calculations upon firing instead of every frame
Grazetrail shader now clips pixels if there's no surface behind it
So it doesn't make ugly dark lines over the skybox
Fixed menu selection sound playing repeatedly on hover
Fixed photo mode roll
Fixed the NEW HIGH SCORE text taking 3 lines instead of 2
Fixed turrets not properly checking if the player can see them
(Hopefully) fixed a pesky sound bug destroying the audio when too many bombs exploded in a short time
Fixed the fortress collapse sound not stopping on restart
Fixed a bug causing sound sliders to be at 0 on a first launch
Framerate is now capped. Added a setting for it (tell us if you need other values than 30, 60 and 120)
If you had weirdly high GPU usage before, well, that's why. Sorry about that.
Fixed menu animations not being skippable with controller east button
Fixed some weird cursor interactions when connecting and disconnecting a controller
We also improved our custom development and testing tools and I doubt anybody cares about that, but I wanted to mention it because it makes me happy.