Hi!
Thanks to the community feedback, I have been able to improve Super High Ball, and made it less frustrating when it comes to goal hunting. This update also includes some look improvements and a new pass of optimizations! You can also view the patch note from the main menu by pressing Y/Triangle/Tab.
Game changes:
* Thanks to the community for their feedback, the game should now offer a better progression regarding goal rewards!
* The deathless goal is no more, now, each level has a different death limit.
* The time to beat goal is now much easier to get. Each level has three times, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. Beating the Gold time will grant you the reward, Platinum and Diamond are here to motivate you to beat them, but won't reward you anything except satisfaction (Take a screenshot to show your friends your achievement!).
* You might have to replay the levels to unlock the goals, sorry for that. Just finishing the level should update your goal rewards.
Smaller changes and Optimization:
* Added the option to slow the time when the camera moves from one place to another during gameplay. This should help players anticipate the next screen, although it is recommended to play without this setting for the best experience. (Work in progress)
* The camera will pull out when the ball is too close to the screen borders.
* Some UI tweaks. Material icons in the ball customization are now gold color when they are available to use.
* Added extra on-screen checkpoint dots to fit the number of checkpoints in the Peak world.
* New banner when the level intro is playing, showing goals requirements and progression.
* Lighting optimization for various assets, reducing the number of lights during gameplay.
* New shading for every level, adding more shine and making the levels more interesting to see.
* Added the ability to rebind the keyboard keys for menu navigation.
* Removed the ability to have limitless frame-rate, limiting it to 165 FPS. This was causing issues when the frame-rate was varying too much during gameplay.
* Fixed some asset animations that were bound by the frame-rate. This should make most of the game moves the same at 60 or 165 FPS. Ball physic remains unchanged.
* Some particles optimization.
* World map optimization (removed a very heavy geometry and replaced it with shader work).
* Removed Occulus VR and Steam VR plugins from the engine, this should fix the VR popups when launching the game.
* Ball reflection optimization. Also, the setting to disable the realtime reflection should improve performances.
* Adjusted some ball materials. The color should now be displayed properly.
That's it for now, this has been a difficult one for me, but I'm happy how the game is now!
Many thanks for playing Super High Ball, as a solo developer, seeing peoples playing my game makes me the happiest man on earth. If you like the game, even if it's not perfect, please consider leaving a nice review on the game store page, this will help a lot to bring Super High Ball in front of potential new players.
If you are facing any issues with the game, or if you would like to get in touch to chat about it, please join the conversation in the forums of the game!
Enjoy!
Michael.