Aug 4, 2023

UpGun - MaxEstLa

First of all, thank you so much for the reception of the previous update. This was wild!
The UpGun player base doubled for an entire week!

This week we are releasing another update with new content, new fixes, and balancing!

New skills !

Rifle butt
Replace your knife attack with a hit from your rifle butt, way easier to aime, way faster, but it does less damage.
Heavy magazine
Make every bullet count, each bullet contained in your magazine will add more damage if you manage to hit someone with it.
Shotgun fire
Set enemies on fire with your shotgun.

Balance changes :

-IMPORTANT Killing yourself to get back to full life will now award you -100pts.
-Buffed a bit Speed is key. (+5% base damage)
-Decreased ghost haunting ability cooldown under 4 players.

Changelog :

-Added a Spanish translation !
-Added an Italian translation !
-Added some spawn points for Arcadium.
-The TP disk now have team color variants.
-Added 2 new achievements.

New skins :

Bug fixes :

-The knife could be inspected when thrown.
-Fix various typos and errors in the game texts.
-The Helmet wasn't always showing up.
-The jump boost skill didn't work.
-Fixed collision issues on PP.
-Fixed some OOB exploits.
-Allowed ghost to crouch to get into smaller places.
-Fixed Around the earth achievement to make it faisable.
-Added a close button to avoid getting softlock in a dec kmenu.
-Fixed a glitch making the scoreboard unreadable.
-The decoy's screen did not appear red on the ghost X-Ray.

Side notes :

The UpGun plush is stll available here for a few days ! Get the Plush to support the game

Also ! Some members of the community started working on custom maps and mods for UpGun! I did not think it was possible since I did not write explicit mod support, but they managed to do it!
This is still really early but it is available on Discord and it is open source. Check it out!

The new version is 2.0.5.0.

Aug 4, 2023

Community's Q&A with the Game Dev Part 1 of 2

Gravity Circuit - VioletAmy

Hello Fellow Circuit Admirers,

We are very grateful for all the positive feedback, bug reports and all the support from the players.
As you all already know, the game has become so popular that people are even more curious to know all the nitty-gritty details of the game, its history, conception, inspirations and story.

So, we have gone and done it again and here are all these questions that have been collected from the community discord and we decided to answer them all here, in one place and to be documented into the history to be available forever to be found by players new and old!

The answers are a mix of Antti, Dominic and sometimes both, just like the game's conception story. So, its only logical that the answers reflect that too. Okay enough introduction, here you go for the Part 1 of the Q&A as we got so many questions!

Question #01: Will you guys ever consider adding DLC to the game as time progresses? I love it already in its current state I am just extremely hungry for more content pertaining to it. 'CAUSE I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

Antti: For now, the main focus is stability and performance patches, with the occasional adjustments to gameplay wherever necessary. Any additional content or features beyond, that is TBD.

Question #02: Were there any circuits planned but rejected/replaced in the final game? Or were all of them pretty much locked in from the start?

Antti: Most of the characters appeared in the final game with little to no changes from their initial concepts. There were some slight tweaks, but the broad strokes remained the same through out. No characters were left on the cutting room floor.

Question #03: What was your favorite boss to make in the game?

Antti: Out of the main eight, Ray, because he was the most straight-forward to code, animate and test.

Question #04: The game already has a wide selection of booster chips and burst techniques, but were there a lot of cut/rejected ideas for them during development?

Antti: In terms of chips, no cuts had to be made. For techniques, the last few were a struggle to come up with, where some alternative ideas were explored - but these either tended to overlap with existing techniques too much (e.g. one scrapped technique just being a weaker, short-range Flying Strike), or had to be changed to be more unique (e.g. Function Overload originally was a damage buff, but got changed to a speed and double jump buff).

Question #05: Where do the robots get their source of energy from? Is it something they can regenerate over time or does it have to be fueled by something? If the latter, what exactly does fuel them?

Antti: The common bots have an internal reactor that can keep them going for a fair while, only requiring occasional refueling. This fuel can be produced from the various byproducts the city's various facilities output. In a pinch, some bots may be equipped with solar panels for emergency recharges. On the other hand, Circuits can harness alternative sources on top of this, like Cable could get some extra juice out of being struck by a lightning bolt.

Question #06: How tall are all the Circuits, do you have specific heights for them?

Antti: Don't think we ever gave this much thought. Probably human sized?

Question #07: What was the inspiration to make this game to begin with? Obviously mega man inspired it heavily, but what made you want to make a game like this? Was it due to lack of official mega man content or other reasons? Also to add rq: was there any other robot media besides mega man that influenced this game heavily?

Dominic: It was partly because of lack of new mega man content, but we also wanted to make a game combining all the things we love about the mega man games and mix them with other things we love from other games and franchises. Aside from Mega Man, Gundam was a big influence when it came to the designs of the Circuits and Bots.
Antti: Various fighting games also served as a source of inspiration for various attacks and techniques.

Question #08: Were the circuits designed based on the levels, or the levels designed based on the circuits?

Dominic: The levels were designed based on the Circuits. Most of the Rebel Circuit levels were in fact made after their respective boss fight was completed.
Antti: This is why some level gimmicks tended to show up in the boss room as well as the level itself.

Question #09: Out of the main guardian circuits, who would you trust most with looking after an egg?

Dominic: Probably Kai.
Antti: Anyone but Crash.

Question #10: Why does Hash have four arms?

Dominic: So he can hack type faster.
Antti: ...does he ever type, though?

Question #11: Were there ever ideas to have the Rebel Circuit's techniques be each other's weaknesses, like in MegaMan/X games?

Dominic: Very early on during pre-production yes, but it was never put into practice.
Antti: Burst Techniques eventually became more like fighting game super or special moves, so it didn't make much sense to make any of them any particular boss' weakness.

Question #12: What is in Kernel's files?

Antti: Oh, they contain [REDACTED BY GUARDIAN CORPS] and [REDACTED BY GUARDIAN CORPS]. Not sure what the big deal is?

Question #13: What is Dominic's favorite circuit?

Dominic: I know it's a boring answer, but I like them all equally!

Question #14:What music artists inspired the OST the most? This OST is an absolute bop as the kids say!

Dominic: Basically most of the music written by the many artists who have worked on the Mega Man franchise, Mega Man X in particular was the main inspiration for the OST.

Question #15: What came first when designing the circuits? Their abilities, name, looks, personalities, etc.

Dominic: Their abilities, or rather theme/element came first in most cases, then their design and lastly their names.
Antti: Trace and Medley's names and titles took particularly long to finalize. We also debated a lot about Blade's "Cooler" Circuit title.

Question #16: Do you guys plan on making any more games in the future either like this or any new projects altogether? Also how did you guys manage come up with the idea for this game in the first place? P.s. Love the game so much you all put in so much love and dedication into this game.

Antti: Time will tell, might need some recharging before another big project! Gravity Circuit's development happened over many years, nearly a decade in fact, but most of this time only saw on-and-off development and conceptualization, since we were busy either studying or working other jobs. The game didn't enter full-time production until early 2021, so a lot of things changed from the initial ideas or gameplay concepts, with the only real constants being melee combat, platforming and eight main stages. The hookshot wasn't there from the start! We just wanted to make a game in somewhat similar style to our favorite franchise, Mega Man, and slowly built up from there through trial and error.

Stay tuned for more updates and follow us on our official Steam page, Twitter (@GravityCircuit), and join our vibrant Discord community as we all celebrate Gravity Circuit!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/858710/Gravity_Circuit/

Aug 4, 2023

Bjorn to be Wild Update

Shop Titans - Zesty Hamburger

This updated is slated for release next week!

New Content

New Champion

Bjorn and Bamham have joined the city! This orc and boar duo acts as one and specializes in Flash Quests. Not only do they make the party extra strong while in a Flash quest, they also allow an extra attempt per Flash Quest! You’ll definitely want to take this pair along to maximize your Flash Quest rewards.

Bjorn (and his buddy Bamham) will be visiting the shop of Shopkeepers of level 35 or higher.

Content Pass

To celebrate the release of this new Champion, we’re doing things a bit differently.
Instead of a Champion offer* to hire the Champion early, we’ll be running a Bjorn Content Pass. The full content pass contains enough Bjorn Tokens to hire Bjorn (and get a few ranks in). The free portion also grants some Tokens to get you started.

This Content Pass features no new exclusive content, but does include a variety of Antiques and various other rewards. New to this pass, it includes an extra Hero slot if you haven’t unlocked all of them yet.

The Bjorn Content Pass will run for 2 weeks, starting on August 8th and ending August 23rd. It is available to players of level 35 or higher. Much like the previous Content Pass, there is the exclusive Explorer title available to unlock for players who manage to complete every task.

*That offer will still be available later for people who may have missed out on the Content Pass

Minor Changes

Suggest

Currently, when suggesting an item to a customer, items that closely match the item currently desired by the customer are cheaper to suggest. For example, suggesting a Superior Vorpal Sword to a customer that wishes for a Vorpal Sword, (very cheap), or a different sword to that same customer (rather cheap).

The rules have been modified to always remember the customer’s first requested item. If the customer first requested a Sword, but you suggest a Mace, further suggestions will still favor Swords (rather than maces).

Other Minor Changes

The Zero Waste and Crafter’s Trick talents (chance to not consume resources/components when crafting) now play an audio cue when they trigger.
Quest Talents now display a visual cue on the quest reward screen when their effects trigger.
Reward tracker for guild events (e.g. Lost City of Gold, Dragon Invasion, etc) will now focus to the end of the tracker when the event is completed.
When Champions request an additional food sale, both sales will trigger the Champion Coin reward screen to better communicate the fact that you’re getting double coins out of the deal.
Chests on the chest opening screen are now sorted in a more meaningful manner.
Energy from visiting guildmates will now be granted immediately upon claiming it.
Both halves of a Mega Pack (or the Mega Pack itself) now need to be purchased to trigger Flashback offers instead of just one part.
Items no longer have to be in “go to rack” mode for Reinhold to consider them. This rule was highly obscure and led to much confusion. Items still need to be on racks for him to see them, though.
Added red notifications leading to the Talent Tree upon unlocking it.

Balance Changes

The King shop visit odds has been tweaked. While he is still limited to one visit per 24h, he will generally show up faster after that delay.
The Phoenix Tonic blueprint now has the Phoenix spirit affinity.
Champions can now request items up to Tier 8 (from 7). In exchange, they’ll more frequently ask for lower tier items (up to 3 tiers lower).

King Schedule

King Reinhold’s immense generosity has seen him fit to join your ranks temporarily, arriving on August 21st and leaving the 24th.

Bug Fixes

Customers coming in to sell you stuff no longer have a chance to activate the Brand Loyalty talent, causing them to surcharge YOU! How did you like the taste of your own medicine, shopkeepers?
Fixed an issue with Flawless quality visual effects on celebration screens.
Fixed several items not properly displaying their quality visual effects.
Fixed a few other visual effects that displayed strangely.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur when a major event ended.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur when updating guild rankings.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur after logging in after the Dragon Invasion event had ended.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur upon logging in due to stuck NPCs.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur when claiming a completed task.
Fixed "Most Recent" sort option in Dragon Invasion supply menu sorting improperly.
Fixed an issue where players who have not yet participated in the current Dragon Invasion had scores from a previous Dragon Invasion.
Fixed a scroll positioning issue caused by progress not properly animating in Dragon Invasion reward tracker.
Fixed "Current Rank" in guild events displaying as 100 if your guild's rank was above 100.
Fixed an issue where the shine effect on rewards in event reward tracker would remain visible if you claimed the reward while it was animating.
Fixed Gem rewards not having tooltips in event reward trackers.
Fixed an issue where sound could continuously play after interacting with an event reward tracker.
Fixed the “Just Wing It” Talent not properly applying to Sondra’s fusions.
Fixed the "Friendly Favor" Talent only applying to the maximum amount of items a Champion could request; it now also applies to the minimum.
Fixed an issue preventing the suggest button from being utilized when selling to the King (when using the Royal Advisor talent).
Fixed the Moon Dragon, Sun Dragon and Scholar visitors not properly benefitting from Bartering talents.
Fixed erroneous talent tree tabs remaining highlighted after exiting and relogging into the game.
Fixed a few cases in the Market where filtering by Tier 13 would erroneously filter by Tier 12.
Fixed a case where customers would not properly inform the player that the counter is too busy.
Fixed a case where a red notification would not appear on the Food category tab of Collection Book.
Fixed Champion Requests not actually being fulfilled if the player attempted to use enchanted items.
Fixed quest outlook (the hero faces) not properly updating when adding/removing boosters.
Fixed various inventories (items, enchantments, special items, etc) retaining their current position when switching between them.
Fixed a display issue with trophy silhouettes in the Bounty menu.
Fixed an issue where a Pet's image did not match its currently selected species.
Fixed an issue where item models could appear improperly positioned when fusing.
Fixed an issue where the resource bar button could appear unexpectedly.
Fixed a display issue with affinities when viewing items in your inventory or on the Market.
Fixed an issue where the Cross Connect menu would be completely blank in Ukrainian.
Fixed an issue where the Gem cost of a furniture upgrade would sometimes appear as free.
Fixed an issue where the inspect button on the quest repair screen could inadvertently exit the entire screen.
Fixed an issue where the item value would not visually update after using the “Pay More” option when buying from a customer.
Fixed an issue where Champion could be misaligned when ranking up while a Familiar was equipped.
Fixed component quantity text on item cards wrapping to a new line in certain languages.

Coming Next

Talent Trees launched last month, and we’re happy to see everyone creating their own specializations! We’ve also been gathering feedback all this time and began preparations to act on it.

In the near future, we are looking into a small update to the Crafting Tree, adding a few extra goodies to give it a stronger identity for crafting specialists. The Questing Tree will also be receiving some love in the form of a significant overhaul.

Aug 4, 2023

RoboCo Early Access Update - Version 0.7.3.310

RoboCo - Robo_Luis

NEW!

Linear Spring - A spring of uniform diameter that compresses and extends with a damper inside.
- Linear springs come in two sizes - small (1x1x1) and large (3x3x1) -- which can be resized to a length of 1x1x25 and 3x3x25 respectively.
- Similar to the large piston, the large linear spring takes up more space but is more powerful, capable of higher settings in its Properties panel.
Torsion Spring - A spring whose endpoints twist, storing and releasing rotational energy.
- The torsion spring comes in one size (1x1x1) and isn’t resizable.
Suspension Wheels - Left and right wheel constructs that provide basic spring suspension.
- Suspension can help steady the chassis of your vehicle as it drives over uneven terrain.
- Each construct includes a wheel, motor, and spring with some default properties.

These will be available right away in the Sandbox, and you can unlock them in the Campaign if you have at least 18 bits.

Changes:

Chatterbox and Seat text has been localized to:
- Spanish
- French
- Japanese
- Portuguese
- Polish
- Russian
- German
- Korean
- Chinese

Bug fixes:

[Steam Workshop] Badges for Dance, Dance, Robot Revolution and Piñata's Peril were not showing up as completed mission tags in the Steam Workshop.
[Steam Workshop] Local copy was not saved to robot list after loading a Steam Workshop robot that was created and the user chose to restore local copy.
[Across the Goo] It was possible to earn the "Without touching the pipes" secret after touching the pipes to get across.
[Saving/Loading] After overwriting a robot, the robot was deselected in the save/load menu, even though its name remained filled in the filter bar and the Save New button was still available.
[Usability] Humans lost line of sight of the robot too easily, which made it difficult to navigate them to specific areas.
[Build] When first dragged out of the parts menu, long wheels did not validly snap to short rods that were attached to other parts.
Additional minor fixes and updates.

Noteworthy known issues:

If you’ve attended any backyard parties in RoboCo lately, you may have noticed that a certain Pinata appears to be made of titanium alloy, and is nearly unbreakable. It’s a real vibe killer! Accordingly, we’re switching Pinata suppliers and will have a much more breakable version of this Pinata available in our next update. In the meantime, we recommend sticking to the main objective in Pinata’s Peril while we sort out this pesky supply chain issue. For a brief and mechanical description of this issue, see the bullet points below:
- [Pinata] User is unable to achieve "Break the Pinata while it's high up" objective.
- [Pinata] Achieving the "Destroy the pinata in one hit" objective is inconsistent.