Now that Infested Planet is in the polish stage, patches will contain a ton of small changes. For example, this patch has a billion different tweaks and fixes to missions and mechanics. Most effort went into polishing the missions in the middle of the campaign.

There are actually quite a few major changes that didn't make it into the patch, since they weren't ready yet. Get ready for the next patch - it'll have some major gameplay modifications.


Infested Planet now works on the OS X version of Steam. Please let me know if it works for you and whether you run into any issues.

• Mine fields explode aliens without marine help
  
• Mine fields don't use ammo any more
  
• Increased marine spawning cost by 1
  
• Helidrop buff: 10 sec of shield (up from 5) and -30% respawn time
  
• Marines out of battle for a long time don't die from poison
  
• Made infested marines more vulnerable to siege cannon
  
• Siege cannon doesn't use ammo any more
  
• Made all marines more vulnerable to concussion damage (mines + grenades)
  
• Increased flamer armour
  
• Made barriers vulnerable to rocket damage
  
• Made rockets be fired even if barrier is in way
  
• Completely reworked mimics - no more clones from those aliens
  
• Mimics are now "Enraged" - fast kamikadze aliens
  
• Slowed down clones
  
• Reworked "Contact" mission
  
• Reworked "Preparations" mission
  
• Altered "The Return" and "Night and Day" to be easier
  
• Revamped the way weapon purchase and recycle work (only 1 at a time now)
  
• Bumped up the infested structure respawn time
  
• Numerous tweaks to early campaign missions

• Added esc-closing of build menus
  
• Extended respawn period for infested structures
  
• Made hive respawning and upgrades take longer
  
• Made hives not respawn on top of marines
  
• Made barrier mutation not trigger for vulnerable hives
  
• Changed guardian colour to be more distinctive
  
• Added bleed graphics effects to guardians
  
• Added cheat code to unlock all campaign missions
  
• Made towers randomly 100% vulnerable to scout and siege
  
• Made hp circle colours for marines and humans distinct
  
• Extended shield generator shield duration
  
• Mortars start firing immediately now after construction
  
• Increased flamer knockback
  
• Upped starting BP in "The Return" mission
  
• Moved some campaign shop items earlier up to tease the player
  
• Swapped mines and mortars in the campaign

• Fixed crash bug with pathing outside of the map
  
• Fixed scaling for static mimic aliens
  
• Fixed audio glitches when shielded marine is under attack
  
• Fixed loading narratives being cut off on some resolutions

Now that Infested Planet is in the polish stage, patches will contain a ton of small changes. For example, this patch has a billion different tweaks and fixes to missions and mechanics. Most effort went into polishing the missions in the middle of the campaign.

There are actually quite a few major changes that didn't make it into the patch, since they weren't ready yet. Get ready for the next patch - it'll have some major gameplay modifications.


Infested Planet now works on the OS X version of Steam. Please let me know if it works for you and whether you run into any issues.

• Mine fields explode aliens without marine help
  
• Mine fields don't use ammo any more
  
• Increased marine spawning cost by 1
  
• Helidrop buff: 10 sec of shield (up from 5) and -30% respawn time
  
• Marines out of battle for a long time don't die from poison
  
• Made infested marines more vulnerable to siege cannon
  
• Siege cannon doesn't use ammo any more
  
• Made all marines more vulnerable to concussion damage (mines + grenades)
  
• Increased flamer armour
  
• Made barriers vulnerable to rocket damage
  
• Made rockets be fired even if barrier is in way
  
• Completely reworked mimics - no more clones from those aliens
  
• Mimics are now "Enraged" - fast kamikadze aliens
  
• Slowed down clones
  
• Reworked "Contact" mission
  
• Reworked "Preparations" mission
  
• Altered "The Return" and "Night and Day" to be easier
  
• Revamped the way weapon purchase and recycle work (only 1 at a time now)
  
• Bumped up the infested structure respawn time
  
• Numerous tweaks to early campaign missions

• Added esc-closing of build menus
  
• Extended respawn period for infested structures
  
• Made hive respawning and upgrades take longer
  
• Made hives not respawn on top of marines
  
• Made barrier mutation not trigger for vulnerable hives
  
• Changed guardian colour to be more distinctive
  
• Added bleed graphics effects to guardians
  
• Added cheat code to unlock all campaign missions
  
• Made towers randomly 100% vulnerable to scout and siege
  
• Made hp circle colours for marines and humans distinct
  
• Extended shield generator shield duration
  
• Mortars start firing immediately now after construction
  
• Increased flamer knockback
  
• Upped starting BP in "The Return" mission
  
• Moved some campaign shop items earlier up to tease the player
  
• Swapped mines and mortars in the campaign

• Fixed crash bug with pathing outside of the map
  
• Fixed scaling for static mimic aliens
  
• Fixed audio glitches when shielded marine is under attack
  
• Fixed loading narratives being cut off on some resolutions

Infested Planet is officially code complete! Everything that I wanted to have in the game when the beta started is here. Even better, there's a few months left where I can focus on adding extras and polish.


You can now show off your Infested Planet skill to your friends with Steam achievements! For those of you who beat Terminus mode, you now have proof that you did. There are also achievements for beating campaign missions, extra mission goals and beating some mutations.

When you log into a profile and go to the campaign screen, you should get achievements retroactively for completed missions.


Several months ago, one of the artists who did the Dawn of War II planetscapes made a new campaign background for Infested Planet. In this patch, I finally had the time to put it into the game.

The campaign screen has been revamped to be more intuitive and attractive. You can see all of your campaign missions at a glance, their progression and status. As an added bonus, the planet background changes as you play through the campaign.

• Added terminus difficulty raid mode
  
• Tweaked campaign structure (may break saves!)
  
• Finished hatchery level skin and applied it to campaign levels
  
• Added commas to raid mode messages
  
• Added compatibility mode to graphics (for Intel cards)
  
• Made spore mines not capture points
  
• Added check for insufficient desktop bit depth on init
  
• Added pause if Steam overlay is on
  
• Added fast capture for last point in "Memento Mori" mission

• Fixed grammar mistake in endgame slideshow
  
• Fixed typo in monochrome shader

Infested Planet is officially code complete! Everything that I wanted to have in the game when the beta started is here. Even better, there's a few months left where I can focus on adding extras and polish.


You can now show off your Infested Planet skill to your friends with Steam achievements! For those of you who beat Terminus mode, you now have proof that you did. There are also achievements for beating campaign missions, extra mission goals and beating some mutations.

When you log into a profile and go to the campaign screen, you should get achievements retroactively for completed missions.


Several months ago, one of the artists who did the Dawn of War II planetscapes made a new campaign background for Infested Planet. In this patch, I finally had the time to put it into the game.

The campaign screen has been revamped to be more intuitive and attractive. You can see all of your campaign missions at a glance, their progression and status. As an added bonus, the planet background changes as you play through the campaign.

• Added terminus difficulty raid mode
  
• Tweaked campaign structure (may break saves!)
  
• Finished hatchery level skin and applied it to campaign levels
  
• Added commas to raid mode messages
  
• Added compatibility mode to graphics (for Intel cards)
  
• Made spore mines not capture points
  
• Added check for insufficient desktop bit depth on init
  
• Added pause if Steam overlay is on
  
• Added fast capture for last point in "Memento Mori" mission

• Fixed grammar mistake in endgame slideshow
  
• Fixed typo in monochrome shader

This update has two big features and a couple small bugfixes. Here they are:


You've been asking for a way to change the keys, or perhaps to view what all of them are. Well, I've been listening and now the options screen has a new, spiffy keybinding menu. You can change the key setup for your profile and decide what the keyboard shortcuts are.


Infested planet already has caves and jungle map skins, but I wanted to have at least 3 in the final game. The third level skin is "Hatchery" and it will be used for the final levels in the game.

The hatchery graphics are not 100% complete - I'm going to be prettying them up in the next patch. Meanwhile, I thought that I should give you a peek. Those of you who have reached the last 2 levels will find that they look different now.

• Fixed infested and AI marine shaders (on some video cards)
  
• Updated credits
  
• Fixed structures remaining in limbo is their builder is despawned
  
• Fixed green hive blood spray in the last mission

This update has two big features and a couple small bugfixes. Here they are:


You've been asking for a way to change the keys, or perhaps to view what all of them are. Well, I've been listening and now the options screen has a new, spiffy keybinding menu. You can change the key setup for your profile and decide what the keyboard shortcuts are.


Infested planet already has caves and jungle map skins, but I wanted to have at least 3 in the final game. The third level skin is "Hatchery" and it will be used for the final levels in the game.

The hatchery graphics are not 100% complete - I'm going to be prettying them up in the next patch. Meanwhile, I thought that I should give you a peek. Those of you who have reached the last 2 levels will find that they look different now.

• Fixed infested and AI marine shaders (on some video cards)
  
• Updated credits
  
• Fixed structures remaining in limbo is their builder is despawned
  
• Fixed green hive blood spray in the last mission

This patch marks a milestone, of a sorts. The campaign is finally complete! I will probably be tweaking missions all the way up to release, but nothing too drastic. I hope that all of you check out the final mission and let me know what you think of it.

Since I finished the bulk of the level design, I had time to do some fixes and improvements on the game. Small things that you've been asking for and were bugging me - this patch has a bunch of them

Here are the changes for version 0.79:

• Added final campaign mission
  
• Added endgame slideshow epilogue
  
• Changed Virulence mutation to send clone strike teams; renamed to "Hunters"
  
• Mutation icons are now different for each mutation
  
• Took out shield bullet reflection and ai hesitation to shoot at shields
  
• Added Terminus mode to custom skirmish
  
• Added malicious mutations mode to custom skirmish settings

• Necrophage mutation now only works on player marines
  
• Gave fusion shotguns a knockback
  
• Reworked the way knockback works slightly
  
• Made special attacks be cancelled if the mutation is disabled
  
• Made marines in protect mode counter-attack when hurt
  
• Made it harder to kill bunkers in mission 8 with scouts
  
• Added script short-circuiting to weapons tutorial
  
• Added another way to recycle (through weapon menu) to weapons tutorial
  
• Combat tutorial now has a "how to spawn marines" section
  
  
• Made the marine tab ui expandable
  
• Added item cost to its title on build menu
  
• Added exit button to main menu
  
• Added auto-login for last used profile
  
  
• Added fire puffs to burning human buildings
  
• Restored damage effects to prop structures
  
• Added blood puff impact to bullets
  
• Added blood puff velocity to create better aoe death animation
  
• Added swirling to most fire puffs

• Fixed "getting stuck in walls" issue
  
• Fixed recycle script bug in structures tutorial
  
• Fixed human path aborting if bumped into something (was breaking clone strike)
  
• Fixed some high resolution fullscreen ui issues
  
• Reworked entity shaders to use latest OpenGL standards
  
• Fixed issues if window size is different than the game asked for
  
• Made the directional formation move less sensitive

• Revised hive boss god mode
  
• Added ability to load extra lua scripts; now used for hunters mutation
  
• Updated ui text for virulence mutation to new hunters text
  
• Updated ui text for minigun and reinforcements tech
  
• Made weapon crate give more detailed info notice
  
• Changed title of shotgun class from "FUSION" to "SHOTGUN"
  
• Added "marine cost" note to that ui element
  
• Made mouse grab sensitive to window focus
  
• Added 4 more mutation spaces to the UI
  
• Made text fields in main and profile menus clear when first key is pressed
  
• Added username back to main menu and made the game title slide in
  
• Disabled profiler in release mode

This patch marks a milestone, of a sorts. The campaign is finally complete! I will probably be tweaking missions all the way up to release, but nothing too drastic. I hope that all of you check out the final mission and let me know what you think of it.

Since I finished the bulk of the level design, I had time to do some fixes and improvements on the game. Small things that you've been asking for and were bugging me - this patch has a bunch of them

Here are the changes for version 0.79:

• Added final campaign mission
  
• Added endgame slideshow epilogue
  
• Changed Virulence mutation to send clone strike teams; renamed to "Hunters"
  
• Mutation icons are now different for each mutation
  
• Took out shield bullet reflection and ai hesitation to shoot at shields
  
• Added Terminus mode to custom skirmish
  
• Added malicious mutations mode to custom skirmish settings

• Necrophage mutation now only works on player marines
  
• Gave fusion shotguns a knockback
  
• Reworked the way knockback works slightly
  
• Made special attacks be cancelled if the mutation is disabled
  
• Made marines in protect mode counter-attack when hurt
  
• Made it harder to kill bunkers in mission 8 with scouts
  
• Added script short-circuiting to weapons tutorial
  
• Added another way to recycle (through weapon menu) to weapons tutorial
  
• Combat tutorial now has a "how to spawn marines" section
  
  
• Made the marine tab ui expandable
  
• Added item cost to its title on build menu
  
• Added exit button to main menu
  
• Added auto-login for last used profile
  
  
• Added fire puffs to burning human buildings
  
• Restored damage effects to prop structures
  
• Added blood puff impact to bullets
  
• Added blood puff velocity to create better aoe death animation
  
• Added swirling to most fire puffs

• Fixed "getting stuck in walls" issue
  
• Fixed recycle script bug in structures tutorial
  
• Fixed human path aborting if bumped into something (was breaking clone strike)
  
• Fixed some high resolution fullscreen ui issues
  
• Reworked entity shaders to use latest OpenGL standards
  
• Fixed issues if window size is different than the game asked for
  
• Made the directional formation move less sensitive

• Revised hive boss god mode
  
• Added ability to load extra lua scripts; now used for hunters mutation
  
• Updated ui text for virulence mutation to new hunters text
  
• Updated ui text for minigun and reinforcements tech
  
• Made weapon crate give more detailed info notice
  
• Changed title of shotgun class from "FUSION" to "SHOTGUN"
  
• Added "marine cost" note to that ui element
  
• Made mouse grab sensitive to window focus
  
• Added 4 more mutation spaces to the UI
  
• Made text fields in main and profile menus clear when first key is pressed
  
• Added username back to main menu and made the game title slide in
  
• Disabled profiler in release mode

The second October update is larger than the previous one. I've been able to sneak in some improvements from the last mission of the campaign into the random game modes.


The campaign is almost complete and here is the next-to-last mission in it. In this one, you get to face off against someone you've seen before.

For this mission, I was inspired to ask what a MOBA would look like in Infested Planet. Both you and the aliens have 3 bunkers that are pumping out squads of marines and you have to tip the balance in your favour.

The result is a mission that feels quite different from the other ones. You're not as worried about protecting territory, because the marines can do a decent job of it themselves.


Some of you have asked for modes more difficult than The Abyss. I think that's rather insane, but who am I to argue?

I've been working on some AI for the final mission of the campaign. Normally the mutations are picked randomly. Well, I wrote something to have the aliens look at your build and pick the most evil mutations that exist for that build.

It's horrible, scary and unfair. When I plugged this mode into Abyss mode, I was able to complete half the map before the aliens stomped me. Yup, it's hard.

For those of you who think Abyss is a walk in the park, try the new Terminus difficulty. It's available after finishing Abyss or in the skirmish mode browser.


Most of the time I hear you talk about minigunners, you say that they're underpowered. I had a bit of think and I think that they could use a buff.

The first buff is that their shield allows them to survive even longer now - up to 75 seconds from 40.

The other change is that I changed the "BLAST" damage type to go through shields. This includes minigun bullets, the second part of the helicoper salvo and rockets.

This means that all of the things above can punch through the reflective shields. No more minigunners and clone minigunners standing there for half a minute shooting each other. This also means that you can nuke the clone minigunners with rockets if you have to.

• Lowered alien mine radius
  
• Added temporary shield to marines heli-dropped by "Reinforcements" tech
  
• Expanded mutation UI to handle more mutations
  
• Fixed objective typo in convoy mission
  
• Changed ammo belts not to be dropped or picked up by AI marines
  
• Made blast damage (rockets, minigun and helistrike) pierce shields
  
• Upped the resilience of minigun shields
  
• Fixed some human navigation bugs
  
• Reworked scripted marine god mode to be more reliable
  
• Blocked all tech effects for AI marines
  
• Changed marine assault mode behaviour (optimization)
  
• Changed prop building damage resistance (since it can be a target now)
  
• Fixed audio issue with lots of barriers being killed

The second October update is larger than the previous one. I've been able to sneak in some improvements from the last mission of the campaign into the random game modes.


The campaign is almost complete and here is the next-to-last mission in it. In this one, you get to face off against someone you've seen before.

For this mission, I was inspired to ask what a MOBA would look like in Infested Planet. Both you and the aliens have 3 bunkers that are pumping out squads of marines and you have to tip the balance in your favour.

The result is a mission that feels quite different from the other ones. You're not as worried about protecting territory, because the marines can do a decent job of it themselves.


Some of you have asked for modes more difficult than The Abyss. I think that's rather insane, but who am I to argue?

I've been working on some AI for the final mission of the campaign. Normally the mutations are picked randomly. Well, I wrote something to have the aliens look at your build and pick the most evil mutations that exist for that build.

It's horrible, scary and unfair. When I plugged this mode into Abyss mode, I was able to complete half the map before the aliens stomped me. Yup, it's hard.

For those of you who think Abyss is a walk in the park, try the new Terminus difficulty. It's available after finishing Abyss or in the skirmish mode browser.


Most of the time I hear you talk about minigunners, you say that they're underpowered. I had a bit of think and I think that they could use a buff.

The first buff is that their shield allows them to survive even longer now - up to 75 seconds from 40.

The other change is that I changed the "BLAST" damage type to go through shields. This includes minigun bullets, the second part of the helicoper salvo and rockets.

This means that all of the things above can punch through the reflective shields. No more minigunners and clone minigunners standing there for half a minute shooting each other. This also means that you can nuke the clone minigunners with rockets if you have to.

• Lowered alien mine radius
  
• Added temporary shield to marines heli-dropped by "Reinforcements" tech
  
• Expanded mutation UI to handle more mutations
  
• Fixed objective typo in convoy mission
  
• Changed ammo belts not to be dropped or picked up by AI marines
  
• Made blast damage (rockets, minigun and helistrike) pierce shields
  
• Upped the resilience of minigun shields
  
• Fixed some human navigation bugs
  
• Reworked scripted marine god mode to be more reliable
  
• Blocked all tech effects for AI marines
  
• Changed marine assault mode behaviour (optimization)
  
• Changed prop building damage resistance (since it can be a target now)
  
• Fixed audio issue with lots of barriers being killed