Progress Menu (in game) now shows Total Verses Typed by Everyone on Steam!

This update has been a long time coming, but it brings a lot of changes that we're excited for everyone to see. We've worked with the super-talented Nicole Marie T to completely overhaul the game music. This includes new takes on the tracks that were already in the game as well as several all-new tracks! We've added the first 5 levels to World 4! We've also made a bunch of gameplay tweaks and fixed numerous bugs (most listed below).

TECHNICAL

• Added native support for Linux, Max, and 32 bit Windows

GAMEPLAY

• Updated most hazards to now also hurt enemies (Anchor, Flame Pillar, Falling Rocks, Saws, Spikes)
  
• Tweaked swimming mechanics, holding "up" now aids in swimming up faster
  
• Updated camera during Mansion Siege to center on the action
  
• Tweaked Victory Tonic state to last one second longer
  
• Starting a New Game and Game Over now reset lives to 3
  
• Added a particle showing the weapon being lost when hit on Babushka difficulty
  
• Added "Best Time" display to the World Map for the campaign levels
  
• Added controller rumble

LEVELS

• Added Level 4-1
  
• Added Level 4-2
  
• Added Level 4-3
  
• Added Level 4-4
  
• Added Level 4-5
  
• Made small tweaks to every level in the campaign
  
• Improved checkpoints in some levels
  
• Fixed misplaced world tiles in some levels

ART

• Completely overhauled music created by Nicole Marie T
  
• Added final art for Scuba Pig
  
• Added final art for Mine
  
• Added final art for Anchor
  
• Added final art for Drone
  
• Added final art for Sign
  
• Added art for Conveyor Belts (near final, we have one tweak planned)
  
• Added animation for Bomber Pig
  
• Added white metal tileset
  
• Added tileable wires (including Smart Tile version)
  
• Added tileable pipes (including Smart Tile version)
  
• Added controller icons for Steam Deck

LEVEL EDITOR

• Added ability to load all campaign levels as examples in Industrial Forge
  
• Added ability to resize levels from the properties panel in Industrial Forge
  
• Added Right Stick camera movement when using a controller in Industrial Forge
  
• Added some controller shortcuts in Industrial Forge
  
• Added controller shortcuts informational display in Industrial Forge
  
• Added toggle for auto-drawing collision in Industrial Forge
  
• Added configurable settings for backup interval and max backups in Industrial Forge
  
• Animated the 4 main panels in Industrial Forge
  
• Improved Smart Tile behavior in Industrial Forge
  
• Improved documentation in Industrial Forge

UI

• Addressed odd text size for "FEATURED" in Common Good
  
• Fixed navigation issue in Common Good
  
• Removed Resource total display from Game Select screen and World Map

FIXES

• Fixed bugs around death and character swapping
  
• Fixed bug when using "Retry" after death
  
• Fixed bug where finishing level swaps characters
  
• Fixed camera following the player character on death
  
• Fixed missing animation transition between walking and swimming
  
• Fixed not being able to whistle when only 1 twin is alive
  
• Fixed characters showing up darkened during the mansion siege
  
• Fixed signs showing controller prompts for the wrong controller in co-op
  
• Fixed non-leading player biasing camera by holding up or down
  
• Fixed exploit allowing jumping up steep slopes
  
• Fixed Flame Pillar flames being solid
  
• Fixed Spike trap rendering on wrong layer
  
• Fixed dragging objects in Industrial Forge
  
• Fixed several other bugs in Industrial Forge

OTHER

• Updated Credits
  
• There are probably other changes that we missed calling out here!

Various bug fixes, as well as a handful of rebalances.

Highlights:

* Hot gets additional slight bonuses to relationships with other characters. (Already a hidden benefit of the Hot trait, but we amplified its effect slightly.)
* Doctor Kelly romance post Episode 4 no longer locked exclusively behind the hot trait.
* Late Episode 4 cutscene remastered. Final shot lingers less + music is sync'd better. (Whoops I loaded an earlier cut of the animation into imovie for the release build)
* Added some extra dialogue to a couple of post Episode 4 big decision branches.

Heya folks!

I already posted a brief update in the Steam forums, but I forgot to post here as well. This won't be a long post, but hopefully good news for anyone excited about Headliner!

The game now has funding and is back in full development!



Oh cool, who's funding it?
Clam Man 2: Headliner got picked up by Fig Portfolio Shares, which is a initiative that raised a couple million dollars in order to invest in indie titles. Unlike typical publishers, the FPS doesn't oversee development and instead provides funds for development for a share after release - that means the project still very much is in my hands, and the creative process begins and ends with me. That said, however, they have been suggesting I look into porting the game to other platforms, which I'm more and more interested in.

Wait, I thought the game was already in development?
Unfortunately, no - I initially sought out publishers to help me go solo with Clam 2 and pay the bills during development, but although I had a few interested parties, publishing a solo dev is generally considered a risky undertaking. For the last two years since the release of Open Mic, I joined another indie studio as director and writer for a prequel to their debut game, so with the massive amount of work that came with that there hasn't been much time to work on Clam 2. As of now, however, I've officially wrapped production on that project and I'm back to Clam 2!

That's all good and well but when is it actually coming out?
I'm not sure yet - to give you an idea, the funding I have is roughly for two years of development, but I'm hoping to have the game out sooner than that. More news on that later!

That's great! Congrats!
Thanks, me!

So what are you going to work on next?
One of the main criticisms Open Mic got, both in reviews and time played, was that the intro was too text-heavy and felt railroaded. I'm reworking the intro, and along with that, I'm having a look at some of the internal systems of the game. The stats and dice rolling work in a way that I'm happy with, but there's a lot of features I've wanted to add that don't necessarily work with its current implementation. If it takes a month or so to rework those systems and the final product has far more depth and variety, I'd consider that effort well worth it.


That's all for now - huge thanks to everyone still excited for Headliner. I'm happy to be back on track, and I've got tons of plans for the full game. This thing is a passion project, and since I'm developing this one alone, there's no one to stop me from making it as weird and unique as I want it to be.

Much love,
Martin

The Winter Plaza has now been ushered in, and with it are some bug fixes, changes, and optimizations!

Keep your eyes out for a larger Holiday update soon! Santa Claws will be coming to town with presents and events for all to enjoy.

You can now adjust the volume of players in the Plaza/Condos!



Below is the full changelog!

Changes

• You can now adjust the voice volume of other players individually
  
• End of Halloween events
  
• Plaza: The red foot-paths on the jungle side of the island now have a path cleared through the snow down the middle of them
  
• Plaza: Added snow coatings to several structures that were missing them
  
• Plaza: The winter plaza now uses the new volumetric fog
  
• Plaza: The boardwalk has been properly set up for snow, with mounds of snow littered about and paths cleared through the snow
  
• Condo: Improved rotation gizmo handle so it's easier to grab
  
• Added a setting to zoom mode (default Z key) that toggles zoom mode on key press instead of requiring you to hold the key down. This setting is in Gameplay > Camera/View
  
• Little Crusaders: Reduced minimum player count to 2
  
• Condo: Improved holiday string lights generation

Bug Fixes

• Fixed custom input/keybind settings not saving
  
• Plaza: Removed a duplicate sign for Dark Voyage that was Z-fighting with itself
  
• Plaza: Fixed panes of glass at buildings around the plaza having strange black lighting on one side
  
• Condo: Fixed alt-drag copy creating a group of the selected items, even if the selected items were not in a group previously
  
• Dark Voyage: Doors are now properly baked animations, so they will open properly and in sync with the ride
  
• Plaza: Fixed some holes at the docks area between the beach and the tiled walkway
  
• Fixed broken reflection captures in Ball Race: Event Horizon, Ball Race: Nimbus, Condo: Courtyard, Condo: Highrise, Condo: House, Condo: Underwater
  
• Workshop Editor: Fixed workshop shoulder inverse setting being reset if any other metadata was changed
  
• Workshop Editor: Fixed workshop shoulder data being lost when loading shoulder metadata that had the inverse option checked
  
• Condo: Fixed Canvas Door & Canvas Door Hatch not restoring/saving canvas data properly

Optimizations

• Optimized more flying pets: UFO, flying pumpkin, flying skull pet, flying flaming skull pet, skeleton friend, wizard fish pet, and cupid pet
  
• LOD bone optimizations on various character models, including zombies in Zombie Massacre and default player models. Should help lower bone calculations on the CPU & GPU
  
• Optimized fish AI, creating a fish AI subsystem that manages fish AI in a more controlled way which will help reduce CPU usage when having lots of fish in a condo
  
• Reduced the resolution of several over-sized textures in the plaza for optimization reasons
  
• Pre-recorded movement of the monorail, alleviating stutters resulting from speed changes (does not alleviate all stutters)

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun!
https://discord.gg/pixeltail
We love awesome people like you!

We're also active on Twitter!
https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

Take a peek at what's being worked on every week in our weekly dev logs! There's bound to be something interesting every week!
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report/18
For suggestions: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/suggestions/7

<3 PixelTail Games

This update is the culmination of 8 years of development and everything our players love about the game, all in a new pay-once-play-forever package. As we explained earlier this fall, we decided to pivot away from free-to-play in this new version that removes the Playful-hosted elements and puts the entire game into your hands.

This change allowed us to make things vastly more customizable for players. Want a world with infinite stamina, a 1 second timer on all processor materials, one-hit kills on all mobs, and holiday events turned on year-round? Done. Want under-the-hood options for managing a server, its players, and backups? You got it. In fact, if this pivot proves successful, we could add support for even wilder stuff like mods. And while multiplayer will now be up to players to host, there will still be a list of public worlds to join.

On top of this, we've added a ton of new content and improvements, overhauled the core progression loop, and added a new mailbox tool for sending messages to players in other worlds. There's also a bunch of new tools for managing your world and its players, including a separate web admin interface with a lot of neat extras.

Here are 2 important details you should know:

1. If you purchased either DLC or bought coins, this is a free update!

2. For the next 90 days, you'll be able to migrate all of your worlds from our servers. You can also migrate any worlds other players have whitelisted for download. Please download your worlds asap and back them up, as we won't be able to recover them once the deadline has passed!

Finally, for more details, check out our FAQ. And for an extensive dive into the ins and outs of this new version, check out the full guide.



The game is all-in-one - Creativerse now runs entirely on your computer!

• Worlds are created and stored on your PC
  
  • Playful hosted worlds can be migrated to your PC
    
  • World templates are now hosted on mod.io and will be automatically downloaded as needed
    
  • The game automatically performs world backups at regular intervals
    
  • Local world data location: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\PlayfulCorp\CreativerseServer\worlddata\worlds
• New main menu options
  
  • PLAY – opens the server browser, world creation form, and template viewer
    
  • MIGRATE – new tool for transferring Playful hosted worlds to your local machine
    
    • After you have migrated a world you need to switch back to the PLAY menu, go to the Local Servers tab and launch the world you have migrated
      
    • You will be able to migrate any worlds you own
      
    • You can also make your Playful hosted worlds available for others to migrate by editing the description to include “#migrationallowed”
• New customization options when creating worlds
  
  • More than 2 dozen new world templates have been added
    
  • Choose your world template from a new template gallery viewer
    
  • Options to fine tune damage, gravity, stamina, ability cooldowns, spawn rates, claim costs, and more
    
  • Option to turn on holiday events
    
  • Additional options (e.g. timer and mining speeds) tweakable via config file in local world folder (config_world.json)
• Multiplayer is now player hosted
  
  • Host your own custom worlds
    
  • Join worlds hosted by your Steam friends
    
  • Find public worlds to join via Steam’s server list
    
  • Note: hosting locally behind a LAN router requires port forwarding
    
    • Default ports to forward (customizable): 26900, 26901 and 26902
      
    • If customizing the port: only the base game port can be specified; the other two ports will be just the base port +1 and +2
      
    • Instructions for port forwarding vary based on your router but here’s a general how-to: https://www.noip.com/support/knowledgebase/general-port-forwarding-guide/
  • More instructions can be found in our full guide

In-game store removed

• Premium recipes are now unlocked via the crafting tree
  
• Premium consumables (QBits, Rocket Fuel) are now earned via quest rewards, spawned treasure, and mob drops
  
• Costumes can now be purchased with QBits in the character customization tool
  
• Costumes and player customization are now world-bound instead of account-bound
  
• All Creativerse Pro perks are enabled by default

Design improvements - Overall pass on player progression to streamline everything that’s been added over the years

• New progression tiers
  
  • Wood, with new gauntlet
    
  • Stone, with new armor set
• Streamlined crafting, recipes, and unlocks for most items
  
• Quests have been simplified to reinforce but not compete with core progression
  
  • Existing badges and perks have been reassigned to the new streamlined quest line.
• Combat stat rebalancing
  
  • Weapon, armor, mob HP, attack, damage, and explosive values have been fine-tuned
• Loot rebalancing
  
  • Updated loot for all treasure chests, mob drops and ranching rewards
    
    • Includes newly-added unique loot tables for all variant mobs (e.g. Night Leafi, Corrupted Miru, etc.)
  • Mob loot includes a few new unique drops for updated recipes
    
  • Treasure and ranching loot have been updated
    
  • Premium consumables (Qbits, Rocket Fuel) are now obtained via loot tables
• Updated mob spawn conditions to push biome identity, uniqueness, and utility
  
• New mob variants to add life to under-served biomes and serve rebalanced recipes
  
  • Twiggy (daytime variant)
    
  • Truffl (Red, Brown, and Glowing)
    
  • Night and Corrupted Baby Leafi
    
  • Frosty Leafi
    
  • Snowfury (Dustevil's cold cousin)
    
  • Swamp Trog
    
  • Night Pebble
• New weapons (found in treasure chests)
  
  • Fire sword
    
  • Ice sword

Mailbox - ability to send messages to other players who’ve joined a world

• New mailbox item now available for sending messages to other players in a world
  
• Craft and place on the ground to interact with messaging
  
• Get the mailbox from the crafting list under Machines or search for it in the Creator menu
  
• Privacy note: messages are not secure and are viewable by world owners via the web admin

Web admin interface - allows additional management for world owners

• Allows player management in your world
  
• Includes a map view with ability to view claims and pets by player
  
• Ability to rollback world to an older backup
  
• Options to customize the Qbit cost of costumes
  
• To view admin tool, open this link in a browser while your world is running (world must be running on the same PC):
  
  • http://127.0.0.1:26902/admin/admin.html
    
  • Note: if you customized your world port, you’ll need to change the number after the colon, which will be two ports higher than your custom port
    
  • For example: If you’re using base port 9000, the web admin would be: http://127.0.0.1:9002/admin/admin.html

New blocks and items

• Nearly 300 new blocks and items have added
  
• Some are brand new, e.g. a new canvas set that is affected by both paint colors (search for "paint mix" by text)
  
• Others fill in the gap of missing variants of existing blocks, e.g. slabs, slopes, stairs, columns, eighths, corners
  
• All roofs now have a corresponding “full cube” version
  
• New variants are created using the Processor via the following workflow:
  
  • Full blocks >
    
    • Slabs > Slices
      
    • Slopes, roofs, and stairs > Inner/outer corners
      
    • Columns > Quarter Rounds

Visual improvements

• Re-rendering of all template map images—they are now 100% prettier!
  
• Mask improvements for many blocks, e.g. snowflake glasses, plants
  
• Some blocks have reduced visibility in the dark, e.g. holiday garland, industrial gear, industrial LED, some gingerbread blocks
  
• All blocks now use both primary and secondary colors, e.g. death statue, goo cauldrons, gold blocks
  
• Some blocks that were too dark or that caused nearby blocks to become darker (regardless of painting) have been tweaked not to “cast darkness” anymore, e.g. the hotel jabot, the wooden and clay planters, many doors
  
• Some blocks that weren’t affected by artificial lights now either get affected properly, e.g the arc vault
  
• Overall paint strength slightly lowered to be closer to the tone of the natural blocks (you can still go full neon with glowing paint)
  
• Paint intensity has been further tweaked for more consistency when using the same paint, e.g. peakstone, dirt, grass sets
  
• Glass block mask now allows painting in full
  
• Option to remove blur filter for pixelated look [chat command? settings?)
  
  • Command: /pref texturefiltermode 0
    
  • Toggle off: /pref texturefiltermode 1
• Additional tweaks to further improve block and item visuals

Additional improvements

• Max view radius distance increased from 16 to 24 (note: may cause performance issues on older PCs)
  
• Improved in-game player management tools
  
• Improved world editing tools
  
• Replaced world password with whitelisting system
  
• Template picker and gallery showing the actual preview of the template/map
  
• Multiplayer:
  
  • Ability to create direct connections to worlds that aren't announced in the lists
    
  • Ability to use domain names instead of IP addresses when creating direct connections
• Web admin alpha features (aka very WIP):
  
  • Quest editing for creating custom quests
    
  • Reference tool with detailed info about all blocks and items
    
  • Procedurally generate very simple custom world templates

Please note that the servers will be temporarily unavailable due to the release of an update. The schedule is available below.

Maintenance times are tentative and subject to change. Please accept our apologies for any inconveniences.
The new update will go live some time after it's been downloaded because the client and server sides are updated separately. While the client begins to update immediately, it takes time for the servers to be updated across all regions.

If there are problems with downloading or launching the update—please perform files integrity check.

Subtitles can be enabled in the video player separately.

• New Year Celebrations
  
• Dockyard
  
• Japanese light cruisers: Part 2
  
• Battle Pass
  
• Bounty Event
  
• Brawls
  
• Armory
  
• Content Additions and Changes
  
• Other Changes and Improvements

Thank you for being an attentive reader! Click “Collect Your Gift” to claim 1 day of Warships Premium Account. The day of Warships Premium Account will start immediately after you click the button.

You can claim your reward before: Mon. 16 Jan. 14:00 CET (UTC+1)

Update #308 adds 4 new pieces of gear you find in early-game Orbital Salvage and rebalances the life of the clothing merchant -- both regular Clothing and Luxury Clothing and increased the risks of Salvaging while Radiation Storms hover over the quadrant.

Thanks to everyone posting feedback, reviews and sharing the game with friends this wintery season. The Pirate's Life Community Challenge is still on-going so be sure to join up and we'll see you on the boards --

Right now ~1,000 of the Kickstarter backers for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint have access to the game’s private alpha and are giving us great feedback as the game gets closer to Early Access. Make sure you’ve wishlisted and followed Cyber Knights for news and a special discount when it’s released!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/


With Update #308, we've expanded the options for lootable items while Salvaging. These new items focus on survivability builds, increasing Armor, Fortitude and Initiative and are great starters but will likely be phased out by future purchases and discoveries during Salvage or stories.

The new items include the Tarbax Plate (+Armor, +Debuff Res), Penta Scale (+Armor, +Dodge, +Fortitude), Galbreth Bright (+Resilience, +Debuff Res, +Deflection) and Memret Scale (+Armor, +Init).


The life of a cloth merchant has gotten more interesting with Update #308 as the flow of both regular Clothing and Luxury Clothing has seen overhaul.

There are minor and major changes to demand and production -- Farming zones are now major producers of Clothing while Industrial and Hi-Tech Orbitals have had minor increases to Luxury Clothing production. Population and Tradeway demand for clothing has increased. The voracious Luxury Population zones want Luxury Clothing even more than before.

And there are some new vectors altogether -- Hi-Tech Orbitals no longer manufacture Clothing and Tradeways are now interested in Luxury Clothing where they were not before.

And remember, all of these demand factors are scaled by the zone's Population, so the highly populous Lux Pop zones -- so seek out those large pop worlds for the best trade triangles.

Salvaging under dangerous conditions -- with disastrous Radiation Storms threatening on the horizon -- has become even more risky. Now, the "Reduce Duration" card which will slash the durations of other positive Rumors in the area savagely are even more likely to appear when you have Radiation Storm Rumors in the Quadrant. This is another way that the risk in Salvaging ticks up and that the local context is even more important to your choice of when and where to take these risks.

- Economy adjustments for Clothing, Luxury Clothing to improve trade flow
- During Quadrant-wide Radiation Storms, Orbital Rumors will draw 50% more Rumor Duraction Reduction cards
- Added 4 additional early-game Salvage loot items focused on combat survivability
- New Military Gear: Tarbax Underplate
- New Relic Gear: Penta Scale
- New Medical Gears: Galbreth Bright, Memret Scaling
- Minor performance improvements, fixed reported typos & crashes

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