The most recent update includes full support for Apple users through MacOS.

Welcome to Verge, Mac users!

The emerge distance of [Subterranean Blitz] increased from 40 to 50.
Attack reduced from 426 to 405.
Upkeep increased from 150/Round to 200/Round.
Bullets now travel 25% faster.
Unit drops will no longer appear two rounds in a row now.
The maximum number of squads that can appear has been reduced from 6 squads to 4 squads.
Significantly lowered the maximum level of Wasp, Arclight, Marksman, and Phoenix when they appear in different rounds.
Nerfed high-level Scorpion cards.
Nerfed high-level Steel Ball cards.
Nerfed high-level Hacker cards.
Nerfed large-quantity Hacker cards.

- Fixed major bug within character death event.
- Version number added within menu

Hello, everyone. It's Kou from FHW.
Today, we are presenting 「SUPER METBOY！」, which has been positively received and is currently available on Nintendo Switch and STEAM！
Today in SUPER METBOY! issue #8,
Rebuild Games' Lead Programmer Hosshy will discuss「Adherence to Load Time」！




Hello, everyone. Nice to meet you all. I am Lead Programmer Hosshy.

At this time, I will be discussing adherence to load time. Please pardon me if I get a little too deep into this presentation.



We considered keeping load time as short as possible.
It can be discouraging to wait a long time to play a game you want.

It's essential to keep the load time short from starting the game to playing it. We considered if the load time is extended, then unconsciously, the hurdle to start the next game will increase.

The experience may feel longer if there is no response, so we devised a way to load the necessary items little by little from the logo scene so that Players do not get tired of waiting.




I digress, but we carefully restricted the load time to make it feel like there is「Instant Play」.
The controller instructions are learned by playing the actual game.






SUPER METBOY! was made with Unity.

In Unity, all resources are usually prepared and loaded during startup, but the load time can be adjusted by stored, archived files called AssetBundles.

In the case of SUPER METBOY!, the necessary resources for each scene are separated into AssetBundles, so the minimum requirements for the scenes are loaded.

Also, duplicated resources are separated again into AssetBundles to not be wasted.





With Scenes In Build in Build Settings, the scene can be loaded at startup, but the scene itself can be stored in AssetBundles, which allows the load time to be adjusted.

In the case of SUPER METBOY!'s Scenes In Build starts processing the script when empty scenes are registered.



Also, the empty Base Scene constantly loads to avoid disordered scene intermissions, so during scene switches, the Base Scene becomes active after the scene fades and loads the next required scene.





BGM file size tends to be huge, but the sound quality was decreased, so there isn't any discomfort while usually listening to it.
（However, the game's central theme is heard during the entry, so its quality is relatively good.）


Also, since the file size is huge, each track is separated with AssetBundles, to prevent multiple BGM tracks from loading all at once.

It can be time-consuming, but the BGM volume is large and surprisingly effective.





The most effective way to decrease load time is to "no load" it.

SUPER METBOY! does not require a lot of memory, so frequently used objects are loaded one by one instead of permanent memory.





Lead Programmer Hosshy

Here I have presented the fundamentals, but load times can significantly vary in these instances.

For example, loading the next screen while the other is still on runtime, etc. There was more that was able to be done, but there was no end to what could be done, so we made a clear decision on what would be the most cost-effective.

1. Fixed a bug where the upgraded Dragon Slaying Blade does not increase armor
2. Fixed a bug that may cause crashes and frame drops in the later stages of the game due to data anomalies after upgrading melee units
3. Traverse: The negative effect of increasing experience points by removing ties increases the chance for a free refresh
4. Thor and Lightning Wings: Quantum damage modification+25%
5. Mist Walker: Movement speed increased from+15% to+25%
6. Peace: Initial operation increased from+10 to+15
7. Experimenter: Initial operation+5
8. Alchemist: Initial operation increased from+5 to+10
9. Lightning Flyer: Penetration damage adjusted from fixed 25% to+5% per level, and 50% at level 6
10. Machine gun pilot, basic damage increased from 3.2 to 4.2"

This interview is from 2022.

Hello, everyone. It's Kou from FLYHIGH WORKS.
Today, we would like to present part #6 of an in-depth interview with Quang, the original creator of “Phoenotopia.” The interviewer is Ochoko, "Phoenotopia Strategy Memo. ( フェノトピア攻略メモ。)" blogger who is also considered to be a representative of the Japanese Phoenotopia fans.

Also, Phoenotopia's composer Will Cho makes an appearance.

Interview #1 is available here→
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1436590/announcements/detail/4179973693293839601


Ochoko　This next question relates to a big spoiler

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Are the guitars in Gail’s room the same ones from where you learned the last songs?
I was captivated by the guitars appearing at the story's beginning and end.
When comparing them, it seems the guitars have different colors.
The hidden episode wherein you learn the last song reminds me of some part of MOTHER 2. Is that one of your other influences? Also, the protagonist's main weapon is a bat (Haha).


Quang　We were very careful about what we put in Gail's room since what's in Gail's room is a direct reflection of who she is. So she has dojo robes and weights to show that she's strong, a picture of her family to show she values her family, books to show she's well-learned. And the guitar was to show that Gail enjoys music and has some musical ability.



Similarly, in the secret room of the final dungeon, that room was carefully crafted to show what the scientists were like. There happened to be a scientist who liked to play guitar as well. But the guitars are different - Gail's guitar in her room is separate from the scientist's guitar in the secret room. (Technically, they do use the same graphic though, haha).

And yes, MOTHER 2 is a big influence too, haha! I love that game! I wanted to name Gail's brother "Klaus" as a tribute to Claus from Mother 3. But the artist said that the name "Claus" has a strong association with "old man." So we went with "Kitt" instead.



Ochoko　Also, I may be wrong about this, but one of my favorite things about Phoenotopia is that “as the game progresses, no one in the game dies from Gail’s perspective (no deaths are depicted)”, so was that the intentional direction for the game?

Quang　Yes, that was intentional. I think if people die the world takes on more gravitas and becomes more serious (unless you're going for "dark humor" but that wasn't what I wanted). I thought of it like early One Piece. When Luffy beats up a bad guy, the bad guy goes quietly and agrees to not cause trouble anymore, haha. I wanted Phoenotopia to be a happy place that players would want to visit and return to.


Ochoko　But there is one occasion when the characters appear to be dead, and everyone is tricked or deceived at that point. When a major character is popular, it seems like a big shock...

So later on, when they find out that the character is alive, they are relieved and think, "Thank God they’re not dead..." or "Argh! It’s a trick!” (Haha)





Ochoko　There are also some dialogues that you can only hear in certain places, although they are not related to the story's progression.
For example, “The event that occurs after the moonstones has been delivered” and “the dialogue you hear when you blow the whistle at a particular location, etc..."

You don’t receive anything in particular, but I like events wherein I can listen to a backstory.
As a matter of fact, is there a factor to a hidden event that no one has discovered yet?
For example, does the development staff appear somewhere…? (Haha)

Quang　I'm glad you liked those! And no, the development staff does not appear in the game. Towards the end of development, we were all too tired and didn't want to go through the work of adding anything extra, haha.

I think all the game's secrets have been discovered. Since the game's made in Unity I think it's easy to decompile. Fans have emailed me about stuff that I didn't even know. For instance, a fan taught me that there's a hidden cat picture in one of the game's opening cutscenes that we forgot to clean up (it's hidden due to the layering).

I have no idea how you would hide a secret completely. Haha, I'm going to research that for my future games.



Ochoko　I would now like to ask you about RTA (known as Real Time Attack in Japan, a speedrun event) challenges...

(To be continued in #7)

Happy Wednesday, snail friends!

This is a bit of a tricky one so I'm actually going to write things here for once 🐌🐌🐌

We're currently using a bit too much network traffic data and I've been implementing a few different network optimizations. This one makes it so that the amount of network traffic you receive drastically decreases when your game isn't focused. 95% to put a number on it.

This is all fine and dandy except for one thing: snail sounds. I don't love it, but until I implement another solution, you will only hear about 5% of "hello"s and "heh!"s if you are not focusing the game.

If you have the game open but not focused, you'll also notice that the other snails jump/rubberband around. That's because, again, you're only receiving 5% of the network data from them.

Wow if you made it this far, thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any questions or comments, and have a shell of a day! 🐌

You can look forward to doing some quests with extraterrestrials you've never helped before! Including one character who is pretty friendly... we'll leave some easter eggs on this post to help you out. Every quest offers a unique reward for your office, including more choices for wallpaper, rugs and chairs.

We've fixed a bug with the quest dialog bubbles that weren't appearing before. Also if you exit the game and sign in as a different user, we've fixed the task assignment bug there so you no longer get the previous users tasks.

If you notice any other bugs, let us know in the comments!


Images Sourced from The Smithsonian Open Access
Fish Exhibit: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Acc. 11-007, Box 011, Image No. MNH-2758
Building: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 79, National Museum Building Construction Records, Image No. SIA2009-1990

Fix small crash in Chapter 15