Last week we put out a patch 0.2.7 on Friday. It was also our first week doing Mac releases in a long while. When we published the Mac build through the Steam back end, we accidentally blew away the PC patch which reverted people to 0.2.6 over the weekend.
Only triple facepalm can communicate how I feel.
Good news is we saw exactly what we did wrong and it won’t happen again.
Priority Fixes
For this week's patch we're focusing on:
Reports of crashing when loading a save game. We are looking through the error logs right now to try and figure it out. This has been dragging on because we haven’t been able to reproduce it yet. Appreciate all those reporting it, eventually we’ll find the commonality and fix it!
Adding Town Name at the end of tower when teleporting. This is much requested.
The Skill progress bars to actually work!
Patch is coming out Thursday.
Legacy is coming in Sep 25!
It’s mostly working, so we have announced the details of it and the release date of next week Monday!
It’s all hands on deck testing and polishing this mini-update to get it out in time: Zach, Tyler, Jessi, Phil, Mark, Nolan, Thomas.
Combat Rewrite
New combat with better design, balance, and more spells, will be releasing sometime after Legacy update.
Josh and Jonathan are leading the programming, with Michel, James, and Mark assisting.
Rubi, working on the VFX, is off this week because… (see below)
The combat rewrite includes many adjacent updates including spell progression. Here is a WIP mockup of the new Spell Research tab.
Double Weddings
Our tiny team of 11 has two weddings and they are this coming Sat Sep 23! I don’t know how they both chose the same day, but both Rubi (VFX) and Zach (programming) are getting married. No, not to each other, to different people in different states.
Rubi will be off for a month while Zach is back to work next week.
Thank you for your time and attention to our little game. We are 11 people passionate about independent game development who hope Unity doesn’t end up crushing us! :-p
Hello, video game enthusiasts! Unfortunately, we regret to inform you of yet another delay in the release of the update. We will announce the release date at a later time.
As an apology this time, we will share some interesting facts about this upcoming update and the reasons for the delays!
In this update, you can expect:
Achievements.
A large number of exciting mechanical quests.
Enhanced navigation system on the RPG map.
Optimization improvements.
New Localizations
Unfortunately, the reasons for the delays include not only our desire to expand the content but also the illness of many of our developers who have contracted COVID-19. This has significantly slowed down the work process.
We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience! With love for our players, The Extela Games Team.
Introducing EARLY ACCESS UPDATE 19! The concerted effort to squish annoying bugs into liquidated goo continues!
Highlights of this update, fixed a whole host of gamepad controller issues, concerning, amongst other things Playstation controller glyphs not correctly displaying, added Steam Deck glyphs, hardcoding a dead-zone for Playstation controllers, and got the HOME/GUIDE button to respond correctly.
Note on first run of v.1.7.7.4 any previously customized keymaps will be reset to default. Future customized keymaps will be saved as standard.
Update to v.1.7.7.4
Change: In game Options are now activated on gamepad by START button or equivalent right sided OPTIONS button depending on controller brand.
Fix: HOME/GUIDE button on gamepad controller now activates the Steam Overlay.
Fix: Playstation 4 controller inputs now correctly display.
Fix: For menu navigation, have added minimum input for non-dead zoned input devices (PlayStation controllers) so they can no longer spam input changes when in keyboard and mouse control mode.
Change: Dead zone minimum range is now -0.1 to 0.1 for all controller types, previous Xbox default range -0.08 to 0.08.
Change: Changed some of the Playstation Controller icons/glyphs.
Fix: Left and Right gamepad Stick glyphs were displaying the wrong way around.
New: Added Steam Deck icons/glyphs.
New: Cursor keys Up/Down and Return/Enter keys can now be used to navigate menu lists (and only menu lists, any other button on the UI must be accessed with the mouse if not using a gamepad controller).
New: Added a button on the Main Menu screen for reporting bugs directly to the forums (mouse accessable only).
Change: Reduced scripted checks for insert coins when paying for loot by 75%.
Change: Tripled amount of coins spent when paying for loot.
Change: Reduced console spam for player damage.
Fix: Check for unlocked cosplay on game startup with initial Achievement check.
Fix: Achievement MEAT SHIELD had wrong id.
Fix: Achievement MEAT SHIELD did not send percentage complete updates to the player.
Fix: Achievement MINE SWEEPER now displays percentage of discovered Traps towards fulfilling the Achievement.
Fix: Achievement MARATHON check when all players are dead was misidentifying the client on reset.
Fix: Monsters were not getting their appropriate damage bonus increases if more monsters should spawn but the current maximum number of monsters had aleady arrived.
Fix: Loot cost of resusitating a dead player was wrong.
Fix: Monsters did not successfully check to see if they were swarming a single player in online multiplayer co-op, to see if they should target another player.
Fix: Game Control Object was being referenced with multiple local aliases when a client connected to the server.
Fix: Players and Monsters were not receiving the correct buff when escaping a slowing movement trigger.
Fix: Monsters were being given the incorrect vector to flee from Terror Tower special item.
Fix: Unneccessary checks when deciding whether a player or Monster had entered the exit trigger.
Fix: Monster large area attack was recording the wrong hit vector.
Fix: Monster medium area attack was recording the wrong hit vector.
Fix: Bikaver player character melee attack was using the wrong impulse vector for knockback.
Fix: Bikaver player character special attack was not spawning the required particle effect.
Fix: Bikaver player character special attack was using the wrong impulse vector for knockback.
Fix: Water Hazard player character melee attack was using the wrong impulse vector for knockback.
Fix: Monster laser beams striking Traitor monsters under special attack False Flag events were not spawning the required particle effect in the correct place.
Fix: Monster medium energy beams striking Traitor monsters under special attack False Flag events were not spawning the required particle effect in the correct place.
Fix: Monster miniguns were not reporting their hits on players in the correct place.
Fix: Monster miniguns striking Traitor monsters under special attack False Flag events were not spawning the required particle effect in the correct place.
Fix: Level 4 Monster Boss Elafi The Runner special attack was using the wrong impulse vector for knockback against the player.
Fix: Monster lightning attacks were not reporting their hits on players in the correct place.
Fix: Monster multiguns were not reporting their hits on players in the correct place.
Fix: Monster Super Orbiting Laser attacks was using the wrong impulse vector for knockback against the player.
Change: Tweaked the Swag Radar bitmap to give the distance holder more height.
Change: Made the Swag Radar Distance text font larger.
Change: Updated IDE to latest version of Visual Studio 2022.
Change: Updated to a new version of SDL2.
And that is EARLY ACCESS UPDATE 19. More to come in the future! ːhappychappyː
There's only 4 Days Left on our DOOMKIN Minion plush campaign!
We need about ~100 more orders to get these lil cuties made! If we don't hit our order goal, sadly they won't go into production! (And in that event, full refunds are automatically issued).
If you're excited about the new Castle Doombad or if you were a fan of the old game (OR if you just like cute and spooky lil plushies) please consider supporting our campaign with an order -- we need your help! CLICK HERE to order now!
Our partners at Makeship sent us a prototype sample and it's super soft and a great size in real life... plus, check out the little DOOMPAWS!:
(Plus, bonus dog in the above picture! That's French Fries)
As always, thank you all for your support and interest in Castle Doombad! We have a new trailer and more info about the game coming very very soon!
We're continuing to work on a game balance while fixing bugs, including some we introduced when we fixed other bugs. Sad but true, this happens.
Here is a list of chances, please let us know if these made the game better or not. We'll continue improving various things, of course. However bigger dream is making our tools available for community so that you could modify the game yourself. They are messy, so we're still thinking how to do it.
Since the last update you're getting more meta currency if playing on higher difficulty universes (5 and 6), so we added the text saying exactly how much you're getting.
Slightly increased difficulty on final Boss: Mega Draculing.
Slightly increased difficulty on Hell biome (replaced weaker monsters by their stronger versions). Possibly needs some more adjustment, we'll keep an eye on a feedback, reason being: players are usually quite overpowered when reaching this late stage and it's hard to keep things challenging without being unfair.
Changed some parameters on final (6th) Universe, this should probably make it harder: We reduced amount of enemies but powered them up.
Fixed some Relics
(Hopefully) Restored broken "Doom Minigame", you now have a chance to find it in the Desert biome.
Fixed Meta Progression perks which didn't activate unless you manually visit Meta Upgrades gadget in the hub. (Shroom effects, extra inventory space)
(EXPERIMENTAL) Killing enemies no longer destroys all enemy projectiles. This was one of a major changes we made for 1.0, however it made the game significantly easier and maybe sometimes even trivial. So we're rolling back this change for now to see the feedback.
That's right! We're releasing a new branch for you all to enjoy! Introducing... The "Unstable Branch"! This branch can be accessed by right clicking on Run a Café in steam, and navigate to Properties > Betas > Beta Participation > Unstable.
We will be updating this build more frequently with much smaller updates that show off some new features that are in development for a future update! From this, we will be able to get all your feedback from these smaller builds to improve the features with community feedback before releasing a feature to the live build!
With that, Here are the patch notes for the first Unstable Branch!
23B1-P0 | Spilling and Cleaning
New :
Messes :
Filled Coffee Cups & The bucket will spills out their contents when tipped over (measuring cup to be added later)
Items :
Rag
Can be wet from sink or bucket
1 use before it has to be wet from the sink or bucket again
Mop
Must be wet from the bucket
3 uses before it has to be wet from the bucket again
Bucket
Can be filled from the sink
Has 3 uses before it has to get re-filled
Changes :
Misc :
The buttons on the shop screen will now dissapear when using Keyboard & Mouse
