5th character, QOL changes, online teams, and a workshop update
SARISSAE, THE SPEAR
i will get right to the part people will probably care about the most. sarissae, our 5th playable character will be available this month. i will NOT give a release date this month, they will just be out one day, and a trailer along with them. no more release dates lol
btw it is pronounced s-air-iss-aye. if you don't like it you can make your own game and decide everything over there.
i've revealed before that our 5th character will utilize a spear, but i'm trying to do something that's *fairly* unique in the platfighter space with them, so it's been a bit complicated to balance and problem solve. while holding the spear, they operate similar to a swordie (on steroidsd), BUT....sarissae can THROW THE SPEAR! this doesn't sound too crazy at first, it's just an item right? no, sarissae has a completely different moveset when they aren't holding the spear, meaning i am basically making two characters. they are intended to be much weaker with no recovery without the spear, so this means i had to find reasons to make you throw it. for now, it's mostly coming from the fact that all the kill moves/specials/smash attacks are throw moves that FORCE you to do it, to interact with the system. i'm debating forcing it in other ways, like hurting sarissae if they hold on to it too long, but i think this gets a little silly. for now, all you need to know is that this is really hard to make work but it's really fun to work on lol. there are a few example attacks below, as well as the spear mechanic. when it hits an opponent, it comes back to you right away, but if you miss (or do certain attacks) you'll be forced to go pick it up or fight with your fists!
full moveset will be shown when i actually know every move. this character is strange and complicated so i'm honestly just experimenting until things feel good.
QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES
plaguye took a small break from workshop to make some much needed improvements. most notably, the game is just much more optimized now (please...please tell me we fixed the memory leak this time)
online teams will also be coming to this update, and i will be updating color palettes to help that along. ALSO, you now have the ability to select random on the character select and stage select. you can also enter training room on any stage now! (and pick training stage for fights if you're weird). for newer players, there will be more tooltips and popups to help navigate menus and delete profiles, etc.
MANY bugs and crashes have also been addressed, including a nasty one that should help quickplay find matches faster even if the player count is low.
WORKSHOP INFO
workshop/custom characters will not release with this update, but the hardest part of developing it is behind us! (and by us i mean plaguye). characters are finished, and i've even been using the mod tools to edit sarissae. most features are in place, there are just things to clean up with menus/implementation/optimization, and then last but not least, connecting it with steam's backend to make it easy to use. we also want to make tutorials and documentation so it's very easy to use right away! adobe gave us a big scare last month, so we started work on our own app for creating the characters. this is still FAR away and will be after the workshop update, but it's nice to have the bones in place. i'm sorry workshop has taken so much longer than we planned for, but i think the systems we have and the ease of use will be worth it in the end.
despite the game's low concurrent players, the daily active users is still quite healthy, and the game is still selling consistently. i think workshop and a few more characters/stages/content will breathe new life!
love you guys, lemme know what colors you want to see for sarissae :))