- Update 0.5.7 Ball Acceleration - 30 June 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BasicRewardingBetafish-size_restricted.gif To speed things up and make the game more exciting, a new mechanic was put in place to make the ball accelerate towards the shield if things are lined up properly. Some other changes include refactoring the sounds to go through a global mixer. This paves the way for more granular sound options. Level 3 has been redesigned slightly to require less ice and more iron for a win. Another note, Rockochet is now participating in the Steam Summer Sale! Get it at 20% discount
- Update 0.5.6 Grab and Pull Locomotion - 21 June 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DisloyalQueasyGallinule-size_restricted.gif After receiving some new player feedback and actually seeing the struggles during LIV testing, locomotion has been changed to a grab-and-pull style. This is the first iteration, but works well enough it needed to go in the default branch to stop the bad first impressions. Use the same trigger as before to begin moving (grab) and pull in the direction you want to go. Upon release you'll continue to drift in the direction pulled towards with a slow deceleration.
- Update 0.5.5 LIV support & Synthwave Music - 20 June 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/TinyBrokenImperialeagle-size_restricted.gif Music has finally come to Rockochet! About 9 synthwave tracks have been added to fit the pace and style, be sure to post on this update with your feedback. LIV support has been added, so you'll be able to broadcast your mixed reality streams starting with this update. Finally, added magnetic attraction to all powerups, with a smaller radius than orestone.
- Update 0.5.4 Shield Graphics Tweaks - 15 June 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SecretTartBighornedsheep-size_restricted.gif There are not many changes this time, just some minor changes to the paddle graphics. Namely: Inventory now flashes subtly when catching orestones non-lit inventory LEDs are a little bit darker to better differentiate
- Update 0.5.3 New Multiball Powerup - 15 June 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/FamousPlumpBlackfly-size_restricted.gif This update brings a new Powerup, the Multiball! Catching the mutliball canister will immediately spawn a new ball moving in the direction of your shield. This should speed things up and make the gameplay very interesting. Additionally, the shader caching issue for new players is believed to be fixed. Report on this if you see otherwise.
- Revisiting Powerups - 13 June 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/VacantAnyBasilisk-size_restricted.gif Now that the oxygen system is done, it is time to revisit the Powerup system. There's already one available, called the "Force Pusher", but more will be worked on this week. Under consideration: multi-ball Some kind of explosiveness, maybe a grenade oxygen tank Fast or Slow down Laser gun Gravity gun Any other suggestions?
- Update 0.5.2 - 13 June 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SourHarmlessHoopoe-size_restricted.gif Today's update is a minor change to the Oxygen indicator. Starting at 30% the following happens: Breathing sound, starts slow and increases with frequency until out of oxygen "Oxygen" label cycles from white to yellow or Red if below 15% color cycling gets faster
- Main Menu Graphics Tweak - 12 June 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/UnhealthySorrowfulElephant-size_restricted.gif Here's a cool little graphic on how the main menu has been revamped to better orient players to the center.
- Update 0.5.1 - 8 June 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/KlutzyCarefreeDuck-size_restricted.gif Introducing the Oxygen System! To the left of your mining inventory is an oxygen indicator that starts at 100 and slowly ticks down to 0. When your oxygen runs out, Game Over! However, fear not because mining Ice Orestones will replenish 20% oxygen. All levels have been re-balanced to accommodate the new Oxygen system.
- Oxygen - 6 June 2018
https://i.imgur.com/wHZdnfy.png This week will introduce the first hazard to the game. It will be an experimental "timer", but instead of seconds ticking down, it will be an oxygen supply that can be partially refilled by collecting Ice ore.
- Update 0.5.0 - 1 June 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/FaithfulEnragedCalf-size_restricted.gif Version 0.5.0 is a big update with changes to the way the shield gets upgraded and the game is won. Rather than requiring 3 orestones per level, this number is arbitrarily set for each level to better fit with the difficulty. The other big change is each level is customized for aesthetics and strategy. Finally, the shield has a "magnetic" effect for the ore making it much easier to catch. Later levels will have some hazards to offset this ease. Improvements Redesigned all levels Refactored paddle upgrade requirements Changed win condition to be full inventory rather than last ore Reply to this thread with any comments, suggestions or issues
- Level 2 Redesign - 30 May 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/HeavenlyLastHare-size_restricted.gif Level 2 has been redesigned to also remove the unattainable Iron core. A few more features were added to make it look more appealing.
- Level 1 Redesign - 30 May 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DiligentRespectfulHummingbird-size_restricted.gif Level 1 has been redesigned, mostly to make it look nicer, but also to remove the Iron core that is unattainable.
- Level Designer - 25 May 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/IndolentImportantKrill-size_restricted.gif For those curious how the new Level Designer works, here's a 100% hand made level. This all told took about 13 minutes to complete, so we'll be able to pump out some levels pretty quickly. The only limitation should be our imagination! Here's the video: https://youtu.be/cbcBryHX4l0
- Shield Upgrade & Level Design refactor - 22 May 2018
https://i.imgur.com/BJgS1TX.jpg Work over the last couple of weeks has been driving towards a refactor of the following items: Level Design In the current release of Rockochet, levels are procedurally generated using a 2D + height terrain algorithm. While this is great for spherical objects, the time it takes for details is better done by hand. This makes cracks, wells, and interesting features much easier to do. I have completed a "Level Designer" utility that can first procedurally generate a rock, then it allows touch-ups. Level Progression There are multiple layers in a level and the cyan colored "Ice" layer is the lowest level (3), progressing through Iron (4), methane (5), etc etc. In order to progress to a higher level, currently it is hard-coded to catch 3 of your currently level before the shield is upgraded, and the final level there is only 1 that *must* be captured. This ref…
- Update 0.4.14 - Orestone attraction - 8 May 2018
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ShortDeliciousImago-size_restricted.gif The past 2 weeks were taken up mostly with devops implementation to make code-to-build more automated and resilient. The break was good as it helped to come up with a new approach to the "catching orestones is too hard" problem. Rather than tinkering with speeds or spawn angles, the stones now get attracted to the shield when close-ish. This new mechanic does indeed make catching stones much easier, so look to hazards and enemies soon to offset this. Additionally, orestones and balls no longer kill the player when struck, they just pass through. The ball is obvious because if you miss the ball it'll end up out of bounds anyway. The Orestone didn't make sense killing you if the shield is sucking it in anyway. Improvements: Orestone attraction mechanic Player no longer killed when struck by ball or orestone Player will rand…
- Dev Note: This week is about DevOps and Level 2 retune - 24 April 2018
https://i.imgur.com/xsC2J9H.png During the mad dash to release I kinda left a DevOps mess (well, mess according to my OCD) thus needing to spend a good chunk of this week retooling some of the backend workflows and solidify the game's released numbering. Also, There has been a lot of feedback since the release of Rockochet about level 2 being a bit tough to complete. After the first bit of feedback I simply changed the speed of the Orestones allowing the stone and ball a more staggered feel. This introduced a new problem of having to wait for an orestone and missing the ball. I want to convey that keeping the ball in play is priority and losing a few orestones is ok. Some Ideas presented so far: Improvements Have the ball bounce path always be near the player Have ball dislodge multiple orestones Randomize the orestone spawn speed
- Update 0.4.13 - 18 April 2018
This is a re-balancing update. Some players were remarking that the ball and stones were arriving at the same time. The stone spawn velocity now starts at 50% and ramps up to 100% speed to give players a chance to catch up to normal game play. The other alternative is to slow the ball way down and slowly ramp it up to the stone velocity. Please post to this thread with your thoughts on Level 2 difficulty: https://steamcommunity.com/app/761990/discussions/0/3211505894125022581/ Improvements rebalance for Level 2 changed color and urgency of HUD callout to green and cycle every 1 second Fixes fixed powerup continuing to make sound once attached to Shield fixed null reference exception when being hit by powerup
- Update 0.4.12 - 16 April 2018
Hotfix to fix a bug with shield not launching under certain conditions.
- Update 0.4.11 - 16 April 2018
Notice: all leaderboards have been reset due to a redesign on the first few levels. This is a big redesign to accomodate the "New Player" experience. For the first 5 levels, the ball has been slowed down, and certain features are disabled to help dole out some of the features. This should prevent new player frustration with too many things going on in level 1. disabled ball spamming between scene loads for good ... this time. experimented with 3-4 player tutorials, decided on the current one
