Levelhead Patch 0.9: Painting Buckets!

Patch Highlights

Hey, Levelheads! This patch we honed in on new features to make level editing much faster and easier, lots of quality of life boosts, and multiplayer improvements. And just as a bonus, we threw in a whole new tile set! Be warned, though... After this patch, you'll be moving so fast building your levels that you will windburn your eyebrows off. Don't say we didn't warn you.

The Great Editor Enslickening

BUCKLE YOUR SHOES, PILGRIM. We have a lot of cool editor improvements this week, and we don't want you losing track of your footwear after you blast off into the stratosphere.

I Can't Believe You've Undone This

YEP, you read that right. UNDO. You can now make horrible mistakes and then act like they never happened. Just like real life!

As it turns out, this is easily the most useful thing we have added to the game in 18 months of development. WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG? It's complicated. No really, that's why! Undo functions are complicated! So be on the lookout for any weirdness with this one, and we'll get that stuff hotfixed ASAP!

We currently don't have a REDO function yet, but it's in the works!

Buckets and Buckets

One of the reasons Levelhead didn't have any mass-editing tools was simply because without an Undo feature, mass-editing is dangerous. What if you deleted a huge chunk of your level on accident and couldn't recover it? That's no good!

But now that we have an Undo function, it's time to start implementing some super-slick editor features. So this patch, we are introducing the first of these: the PAINT BUCKET!

The paint bucket allows you to replace any contiguous area of your level with just about anything you want. Want to convert your rickety wood hut into a castle? Paint bucket! Want to fill a large area with background? Paint bucket! Want to assign switch IDs to a huge chunk of coins? Paint bucket! PAINT BUCKET! PAAAAAAINT BUUUUCKEEEEET.

We've also given the paint bucket a hotkey (both on controller and keyboard), so once you get the hang of it, you'll be building levels 10 times faster than before!

Auto-Assigning Switch IDs

Have you ever put down a switch, and then put down an item, and thought, "Crap! What channel was that on?" Well, now you don't have to remember a ding dang thing!

We've added a system that remembers the most recent receiver or switch you set up, and automatically attaches the next thing you add to the level. CONVENIENT!

For those who prefer to do it the manual way, this feature can be disabled in the Editor settings.

Auto-Incrementing Switch IDs

Some of our contraption builders have been using so many switch IDs that we had to increase the maximum switch ID to 999 last patch. Well, it also turns out that when you have that many switch IDs in your level, manually assigning all 1000 of them can be a pain in the butt. We got a request from our players to create an autofill system to solve this problem, so we added it!

This should allow for easier handling of large numbers of switches that are close together. Enjoy, you crazy contraption builders!

To activate auto-incrementing switches, enable it in the Editor settings!

Path Copy/Paste

We heard from some of our players that when they build levels that have tons of paths in them, going in and manually adjusting every path's settings can be quite tedious. So we took that tedium out, by allowing you to use the Eydropper and Paint Bucket on paths, which will copy and paste their properties!

We hope to see a lot more paths being used in the future, now that it's so much faster!

Reversible Paths!

While we were poking around in the path code, we realized we had an old player request lying around -- the ability to give a path multiple speeds, depending on whether it was activated or not. So... we did that, too!

We also allowed path speeds to go negative, which means you can create a path that goes forwards when a switch is pressed, and backwards when the switch is released (or vice versa). PAYLOAD LEVEL TIME!

SPOOOKY STONES!

After last patch's Rickety Wood tile set, we felt there was still a little something missing. Something... dark. Something solid. Something SPOOKY! So Sam dusted off his stylus and hand-crafted a brand-new tile set: SPOOKSTONE! Spookstone has the extra fun effect of having pillars that turn into giant screaming demon creatures, so you can make castles that look particularly horrifying.

We've already had players in the beta branch building tons of cool castle and dungeon levels, so we're excited to see what this tileset brings!

Tidy up that level!

Purge gates got a big boost in utility this patch! They can now block items from passing through!

As a puzzle designer, you can now to segment your level and ensure that objects stay put in certain sections, giving you a lot more control! And since Purge Gates can be activated or deactivated, you can also de-segment your level at any time, based on level triggers. MAXIMUM PUZZLE POWER!

Multiplayer Gets a Lift!

You asked for it! And then you asked for it again! And again and again! Well finally, we got off our butts and did it! That's right: you can now play co-op with a keyboard and controller, rather than needing two controllers.

But we didn't want to stop there! We figured with more people now able to play multiplayer in Levelhead, we should shave off some rough edges in the multiplayer experience. For example, we added Multiplayer Respawn Options to the Editor's Level Details page, so you can have players respawn via the traditional "Bubble" method, or the new "BUDD-E" method -- where players only respawn at checkpoints!

We also revisited a bunch of the controls, to ensure that both players are able to do most things in the game, rather than reserving everything for player 1.

If you haven't dipped into Levelhead multiplayer, now is the time to give it a shot!

To activate Keyboard + Controller Co-op, just go to the Settings menu and activate it under the "Gameplay" section.

FIXES GALORE!

We've got tons more general improvements, fixes, and quality of life buffs all over the place this patch. If you want to know more, read on below! And if not, well... GET OUTTA HERE!

0.9.1 Patchnotes (since 0.8.1)

See the full patchnotes.

New Features

Editor

• You can now choose how players respawn in multiplayer in your levels. By default, the game will use the "Bubble" style respawn, but you can now change it to "BUDD-E" respawn mode. In BUDD-E respawn mode, defeated players will only respawn when someone activates a BUDD-E or resets to a BUDD-E.
• You can now give a path two different speeds -- one speed for when it is active, and one speed for when it is inactive. Path speeds can now also go negative, so you can have a path that moves forward as long as some condition is met, and backwards if that condition is not met. Paths also no longer have a minimum speed threshold, whereas previously they couldn't go slower than 50px/second. (thanks to Joe Ah Oh)
• Purge Gates can now be customized to disallow carryable items from passing through, while still allowing GR-18 to pass through.
• You can now copy and paste properties from one path to another.
• New editor tool: The PAINT BUCKET! The Paint Bucket fills an area that matches the original spot you clicked with a new item. For example, if you select a Whizblade, then click the paintbucket, then click on a large section of Spiketrons, the Spiketrons will all be replaced with Whizblades. You can also swap out backdrop styles and terrain styles. For example, if you have a Rickety Wood fort and you want to see how it looks as Spookstone, just choose Spookstone, then Paint Bucket, and click the Rickety Wood, and this will swap out the stone with wood. The Paint Bucket can be used with most 1x1, non-unique items, and will affect up to 144 contiguous tiles in one click, emanating from the center of your click outward. Items are considered contiguous if they are adjacent to one another (but not diagonally) and are identical in terms of item type and properties. The Paint Bucket also can be used in conjunction with the eydropper. So if for example you would like to update a large batch of Jems to have Switch IDs, you can just update one of them, eyedropper it, and then paintbucket the rest.
• New context-aware tileset: Spookstone! Spookstone is hand-laid stone infused with ancient technology and... green stuff. Don't look at it or it'll steal your SOUL!
• You can now undo actions you have taken in the editor when building a stage in single-player mode.
• GR-18 now leaves behind ghostly images in the Editor of the last few seconds of gameplay, so you can better plan your level routes. Ghosts can be toggled on and off by a new button on the Editor sidebar, as well as in the settings.
• You can now undo actions you have taken in the editor when building a stage in single-player mode.

Gameplay

• You can now play co-op with a keyboard and a controller, instead of needing two controllers. To enable "Keyboard + Controller Co-op", simply go to the "Gameplay" section of the settings, and flip this setting on.

UI

• You can now choose how much to tip with your exposure bucks by clicking the "Tip Size" option in the top-right corner of the Marketing Department. Tip options are 100, 500, 1k, 5k, or 10k. The default tip amount is 1k. If you have less exposure bucks than your set tip amount, you will tip all of your exposure bucks.

Settings

• Added two new settings: Auto-Increment Switch IDs, and Auto-Assign Switch IDs. With these off, the editor will behave as it originally did, but with them on, you get some extra functionality from placing switches and receivers to speed up editing (once you learn how they work).

Demo

• Levelhead now has a Demo mode. In Demo Mode, you can access the first batch of levels in the campaign and use the workshop, but you cannot use web features.

Improvements

Editor

• The level orb on the publish animation now has a rocket engine blast behind it when it flies away.
• Added more visuals to copy/pasting paths via clicking the side buttons, so you know what is happening.
• When editing levels in multiplayer, player 2 can now use all of the hotkeys player 1 can, such as the Undo button, the Play button, steering the camera, changing zoom levels, and, of course, whatnot. If multiple players are steering the camera at the same time, the camera will move based on the net direction between all players. Enjoy our new camera tug-of-war game mode!
• Added "Treasure" to the name combobulator. (thanks to Spekio)
• Dramatically sped up the undo and paint bucket processes for dealing with large groups of scalepopping items.
• Merge pulses now only scalepop items that need to be replaced, instead of respawning all contiguous items.
• When using the Eyedropper or Paint Bucket tools in the Path Edit mode, the cursor now behaves in such a way that it is more obvious what it is doing.
• You can now select the "Delete" tool by clicking on it, and then use the Paint Bucket tool to delete large chunks of contiguous items or backdrops.
• Implemented several missing item selection sounds, including sounds for Relay, Camera Anchor, ZOOM-R, and enemy droppables.
• You can now see the placement area for the "Environment Column" tool. (thanks to misshapensmiley)
• You can now use the paint bucket by pressing a hotkey while hovering over stuff.
• You can now right-click paths to "Eyedropper" them, and use the Paint Bucket hotkey while mousing over them to paste path properties.
• Added "C" and "V" hotkeys to the path copy/paste functions in the editor, and set the Paste function to be grayed out if nothing is copied.
• The Undo button should now be grayed out if there is nothing to undo.
• When you set an item's Sending Channel, the next item you place that can receive signals will have its Receiving Channel set to that channel.
• When you set an item's Receiving Channel, the next switch you place will now automatically be sending to that channel.
• When you are placing items with switch IDs in a row, their switch IDs will now auto-increment by 1 with each one you place.
• Shifted the properties window to the right, so it no longer overlaps with the sidebar.
• Relays are now visible when playing a level in Cheese Mode via the editor, so you can more easily debug your logic. (thanks to Mopuppy Tinwomp)
• Switched the default "Z" hotkey from "Level Details" (which is hit rarely and doesn't need a hotkey) to "Undo" (which will be hit all the time). On the gamepad, left bumper is now Undo.
• Player Ghosts now show GR-18's most recent two seconds of gameplay, down from four (that was way too much).
• Set the maximum stored number of actions in the Undo cache to 200.
• Set the maximum stored number of actions in the Undo cache to 200.

Gameplay

• In multiplayer, the camera should now always try to keep the player with the package onscreen, rather than always focusing on player 1.
• Added sound effects to most of the enemy droppable items.

UI

• When mousing over the "Boost" button near other people's levels, the hover text now says "Tip This Level".
• Increased the limit for how many levels are stored in your "Beaten Levels" list.
• Updated the default eyedropper hotkey to "C", since it is effectively a copy function.
• The "Ghost" button becomes grayed out if you have Player Ghosts disabled in the editor.

Audio

• Implemented new sounds for the Paint Bucket and Undo tools.

Workshop

• The hotkey to proceed to your new level in the Level Creation screen is now the same as the "Play Level" button on all other screens (RB or E).
• You can now participate in the Daily Build even if you are not logged in. However, you cannot view or play other players' daily build levels. This applies to the demo version of the game as well.

Biomes

• Implemented the third music track for the Asteroid Tunnels biome (in development).

Campaign

• The following levels have been updated to include the new Spookstone tile set: Chamber of Magic, Firefall, GR-18, Meet the Flipwip, Temple of Karma, Sting like a Bee, Grand Theft Grotto, Only Air, Temple Gauntlet.
• A new Badge, "Jump Scare", is now available toward the end of the campaign. This includes the Spookstone tile set.
• That's an Incredible GR-18 now has a package cam stopping players from hitting the checkpoint near the bouncing section. (thanks to Xeahappy Breeyuppa)
• Dense Fog Ridge's zoom has been modified.
• Hide and Sneak's zoom has been modified.

Main Menu

• When you haven't played the campaign yet, the ship on the main menu will show the spinning rings around itself to draw attention.

Visuals

• The space ship on the main menu now glints if you haven't beaten any campaign levels.

Fixes

UI

• Players other than player 1 can now press "Start" on confirmation windows without causing it to disconnect their controller.
• You can no longer change multiplayer respawn style on the Finalize Level Details screen before publishing.
• Players other than player 1 should now be able to scroll UIs.
• Fixed some spots in the UI where second-player controller inputs were not registering, such as the level publish animation, or the "Retry" and "Edit" buttons in-game.
• When you had Keyboard + Controller co-op enabled, the game would always show controller hotkeys, regardless of whether you actually had an active controller. This has been fixed.
• Fixed a text overflow issue on the Workshop Unlock screen in Russian.
• You can now use a controller to click on sharecodes in the "Recent Graduates" section of the Marketing Department.
• When you use a mouse and don't have "Keyboard + Controller Co-op" active, all controllers will be disconnected, instead of being secretly connected but pretending not to be, like a bunch of liars.
• The "Back" button wouldn't respond if you clicked on it from the tag selector window. Now it should! (thanks to Blastlumpa Reallyzarble)
• Profile tabs should no longer show their exclamation mark alerts if you have already looked at that tab.
• Fixed the ability for internal testers to see developer options in the in-game pause menu.
• Fixed text overlapping issues on key rebind buttons where the description is particularly long.

Gameplay

• When enemies or pickups were moving through solids after emerging from prize blocks, they would sometimes skip over one-grid spaces and continue moving through solids. This should no longer occur.
• Powerups should now properly take the same path when they emerge from a prize block, regardless of game speed. (thanks to Flipzowee Powwomp)
• Springs that emerge from Prize Blocks (or similar) into solids will now move through the solids and emerge from the other side, bringing their behavior in line with other items that go into Prize Blocks.
• When players join or leave, the level no longer restarts during gameplay. The change in active players will apply whenever the level restarts the next time under normal circumstances.
• Fixed some scenarios where you could still pull items through item-blocking purge gates.
• Paths now check their switch states at the start of each step, which should now allow paths to be attached to one-tick-switches, and should result in their positions being more reliably synced. (thanks to Spekio)
• Grabbing up or down no longer requires the joystick to be pressed quite so far up or down when using a controller. (thanks to Gopie Darrarumblee)
• If you pressed left or right in the same exact frame as pressing the grab button, but you were looking a different dirction than the direction you pressed, your grappler would fire in the direction you were looking instead of the direction you pressed. This should no longer be the case.
• When the player is moving on a treadmill, Prize Blocks, invisible Prize Blocks, and Dense Fog will now properly be recognized as solid and will be triggered when touched. (thanks to Intuition?!)
• Fixed an issue with Spinny Platforms not always correctly calculating player inherited velocity when jumping or falling off of them. (thanks to cprice)
• Checkpoints now properly restore bomb timers.
• Checkpoints now properly restore the directions of rockets and missiles.
• Enemy droppable items that have been manually placed via the editor will now properly record their destructions, so they won't reappear after a checkpoint respawn if they were used before the checkpoint was hit. (thanks to Crushnoil Varkzapee)
• Blopsacks were not floating away when emerging from Blopfush. Now they are! (thanks to Jestypla Funkoumble)

Editor

• Fixed an issue where item properties would sometimes not properly carry over when joining items together.
• Fixed some issues with the Undo feature relating to paths and path properties. It should be more reliable now.
• Selecting different paths should no longer cause the side buttons to flicker.
• When you revert a level back to the workshop, it will now keep its tags.
• Cheese mode was allowing players to set their "Carry" items to things they had not yet unlocked. This should now be fixed.
• Player ghosts no longer clear upon death -- they just record the last 2 seconds of gameplay, regardless of deaths.
• When using the paint bucket, it was possible to destroy items that were required as solids to support other items, such as checkpoints, while leaving the checkpoint (or similar) floating in space. This should now be fixed. (thanks to Crushnoil Varkzapee)
• Fixed an issue where if you used the paint bucket on a large group of scalepopped items, then used the Undo tool, some of the items would not be properly restored. (thanks to Crushnoil Varkzapee)
• Fixed an issue with the paint bucket causing unnecessary "merge pulses" to be sent out around its perimeter, re-merging items that didn't need to be merged.
• Fixed some issues with using the paint bucket and backgrounds that could cause invisible backgrounds to be placed.
• Optimized some slowness with undoing certain scalepopped items.
• Optimized some slowness with using the paint bucket in certain scenarios.
• If you paint bucketed a large area of scalepopped items, the larger items weren't respawning their sub-components that had been broken apart. This has been fixed.
• Fixed an issue where if you used the paint bucket on an item that had identical properties and was the same item as the one you have in your bucket, it would still register as a successful paint bucket action, and would then add to your Undo history even though nothing happened.
• The arrows coming from Blasters were offset by 1 pixel, so they would not line up if your blaster was shooting straight up. This made it look like you couldn't truly shoot the player 90 degrees (though you could -- it was just a visual bug).
• The "Undo" function should now also remember when you paste path properties.
• Optimized placing items so they don't continually re-place identical items on top of themselves. This should speed up the Undo function by not recording unnecessary changes.
• When you place an item while having a variant open, the variant dropdown menu will close.
• Player Ghosts should not persist from one level to another -- they should be cleared each time you load a new level.
• Enemy carryable items that are attached to a daily build's enemy should now always be available to use. (thanks to Tim Conceivable)
• Kronkrete Backdrop is now available for Daily Builds.
• Fixed an issue where GR-18's powerup properties could be edited even if the player hadn't unlocked powerups.
• Portal destination IDs were not keeping their ID numbers past 127 upon save/load. Now they are! (thanks to Packahonka Doordoop)

Audio

• If you cut short the publish animation, its music should now stop.
• If you picked up a Lectroshield around the time another Lectroshield was wearing out, the pitch of the new Lectroshield's audio would be stuck super low. This has been fixed.
• Fixed an issue where the Lectroshield, after expiring, would continue to make a subtle buzzing sound in the background. (thanks to Quickcloud Pangzow)

Campaign

• Some of the spike traps in Temple of Karma started moving around on paths. They should no longer be doing this.

Visuals

• Fixed some depth sorting issues between different types of terrain.
• When you beat a level while hanging on the ceiling, GR-18 will now switch to the correct subimage.

Crash

• Fixed a crash that would occur when beating a Tower Trial level in the Asteroid Tunnels biome (which is under development).
• Fixed a potential crash caused by an edge case when using the Undo function.
• Fixed an issue with Cannons and Lookannons trying to render projectiles they didn't have access to, and causing a crash in the editor.

Demo

• Fixed an issue with tracking player demo progress that would allow the player to go past the last level of the demo, but then never go back to it from the other direction.

Runtime

• Updated Game Maker runtime version, which should cause the game to now allow Windows 7 users to log in to Rumpus and use web features.