-Added visuals to the opening tutorial and trimmed down some of the text. -Added an item info popup window when hovering an item in the inventory. -Increased the duration of day cycles, night cycles are still the same duration. -Added options in the graphics menus for vsync and max FPS. -Fixed screen resolution settings on first launch for computers running at a scaled desktop size.
Rootin' Tootin' Lootin' & Shootin' - Raspberry Jam
Finally, I've added upgrades (passive items) to my roguelike! So far, there are 24 of them, and I made a quick little video showing what happens when you have (almost) all of them.
I'm aiming to have at least 100 of these upgrades in the game, each with upsides and downsides. The plan is to replace all shop items with upgrades - so weapons will instead be acquired by killing enemies and finding weapons strewn about the level. You will have however many points to spend on equipping them, costing more for stronger upgrades, and you'll probably get more of these points by defeating bosses. Another feature I want to include is changing the order of your upgrades, which will be evaluated from left to right, though this will require a menu in my otherwise non-modal game!
Next week, I plan to add more upgrades and maybe start on making more interesting bullet patterns for bosses, like bullets that curve or split. If you want to get involved, I've also made a suggestion form for the game.
The latest update to the testing branch includes the ability to host and connect to friend's games using steam, as opposed to using direct connecting over the internet with the server's IP address. Both Steam networking and direct connecting will be supported going forward.
To join the testing branch, in your Steam Library:
Right click on Gothic Virtual Tabletop
Click 'Properties' in the drop down menu
Go to the 'Betas' tab
Click on the drop down menu next to 'Beta Participation' and select 'testing' from the list.
Steam will proceed to download the application, and you can run the game as you would normally.
To leave a branch:
Repeat the above steps, but choose 'None' in the 'Beta Participation' drop down menu
Changes:
Host games and connect to them using Steam invites and/or the Steam friends list.
Some other small tweaks that I don't remember what they were.
To host a game using Steam:
Open a campaign
Click 'Network', followed by 'Start Steam Server'
Players can then join you though the steam friends list, or you can send them invites by clicking on 'Network', then selecting 'Invite Steam Friends'.
As of today, LionsArt is finally able to work full-time on Penkura. We are gathering once again all the emails, bug reports, feedback, feature requests, and reading up on all the messages left to us at our official Discord channel, and we are working on a patch with fixes that will be released Tuesday. We are also activating our Community Testers group, that will experiment with some changes that hopefully will drastically improve the game.
After the Tuesday patch, we will make sure that all systems are up and running, and if no additional tweaks will be needed, we will be releasing the new level.
A big thank you to all the players who send us very valuable reports about even the smallest errors/problems, using our in-game bug report system, it archived all the reports into a single place making sure its always visible and easily accessible from within the game engine, making our work that much easier.
With that in mind we are also closing the Midway Branch, not only as it was over a year behind the main branch, but we also decided to not lock the players between the patches, and just release fixes, content, features, everything as soon as possible.
Did you miss me?? We’ve been a bit busy, but here it is! The first part of making the game feel better by gutting all the old systems that just didn’t scale up to keep up with Snacko’s size is here: item drops!
Obelisk, MIAOs, crafting...item collection is actually very central to Snacko’s gameplay loop, and we felt like it deserved a clear coat of polish to live up to the rest of the game’s newer features and level of thought put into it.
Nothing felt more frustrating than clearing all the rocks to get 2 measly Citrine Shards.
We outgrew the old way of handling resources and drops quickly, but recursive has gone through the diligent work of converting every single way items spawn into the world into the new system. It was a lot of work, let alone the work that went into creating the new drops and the backend tools to set it up.
Let’s all clap for recursive! Thank you!
🌽 Item Drops
Okay, so, the above screen snips make you feel like you’re an investment banker or something, right? At least, that’s how I feel using it.
This let’s us control a couple of aspects:
Which items drop at what % probabilities
And when it does spawn, what is the % chance it drops X amount?
And are there any conditions that can affect these drop rates?
For example, Aquamarine Shards will now spawn a bit more frequently if you try to hunt for them in the Mushroom Forest on rainy days. Lapis Shards will be more common when you venture into the Desert Canyon after dark.
You also have a very rare chance of getting three shards in one rock!
This gives us more creativity to keep the resource gathering experience feeling rewarding and dynamic, while giving us better control over balancing for grinding in early game versus late game.
One example of this are the changes to Citrine and Emerald Shards. To help players get from the end of Grassy Plains to Desert Canyon, where the game first forces you to upgrade your tool, the spawn rate for Citrine and Emerald Shards are higher in the Spring.
This way, just by naturally playing and bonking the rocks in the farm, town, or Plains, players should have more than enough Citrine Shards to get into the Desert Canyon. Higher drop rates on the Citrine Shards means we can allow players to get that +1 Pickaxe and Axe easily without ruining the balance of giving the player too many gems, as Citrine effects are generally more geared towards the early game where money is still a tight resource.
Outside of just resource nodes, this means we were also able to add non-fish items to the fishing pool. On top of fish spawns should reflect their % chance better, you now also have a % chance of nabbing yourself a useful item while fishing in the Mines. You might get some garbage items, like a Boot, but you also have a shot at some handy materials, like a Fastener.
Another part of the new item drop system meant we could modernize the farm tiles: the harvest animation has been sped up, and items now pop out. You also have a chance to get other items, like Plant Material.
Harvesting large plots of farms should now feel much faster and fluid.
As always, with these new balance changes, we’ll be keeping an eye out on everyone’s progress and feedback and adjust accordingly when something is over or undertuned!
✨ Misc.
Added mirror to Mikan’s house so players can change their appearance early game
Item drops in the mines no longer go through the walls and out of the mines
Traditional Desk now allows you to place items on top
Spinach can now be placed
Farm tile rocks, etc. now share the same drops as the ones in the farm outside the tiles, making it consistent
Fixed issue with gamepad routing in the shop screen
This patch had a ton of hidden work to bring our old systems out of technical debt and setting ourselves up for being to create more engaging systems to work around our planned quest and NPC improvements.
We hope that even though on the surface, item drop %s are not the most exciting, you’ll feel a positive difference in your gameplay.
Thank you very much for reading~ We’re always around in Discord. If you have any thoughts on the new drop rates, please let us know!
More updates are coming! See you very soon ( ･ω･)ﾉﾞ
Fixed the issue where the sushi minigame sound was playing just out of the left speaker/headphone.
Also added a few other things as well:
1. Rocket Ship Cat Bed 2. Space Cow Painting 3. A spaced themed cat toy (The toy now randomly cycles between 4 options now instead of 3) 4. Sushi Minigame - Decoration Item for the games title. (A Bear Wind Chime)
