Finally! After months of hard work we are pleased to present you all UPDATE 23! This is going to be the last big update before the end of the EARLY ACCESS and the final release of Super Cane Magic ZERO. Let’s have a look at the most relevant things in this new patch: Complete Game Campaign You will be able to play the full version of all the 20+ game levels included in the Super Cane Magic Zero Campaign. Some of them are yet not 100% tested, but all the main content, characters and treasures have been placed in the game levels for you to discover! The campaign should last more than 10 hours of play, not including all the secret areas and optional levels. Have fun! New Levels and Content This patch includes 2 brand new levels and a few secret areas. During the last few months of development we also tested, reviewed and improved many of the existing levels, finalized missing or incomplete areas and added additional challenges, secrets and characters.
Horse-Dimension Portals We added many more horse-portals for you to discover. This should make the experience of exploring the world of WOTF more pleasant and interesting. Performance Optimization Super Cane Magic ZERO update 23 has much better performances than the previous versions. We optimized rendering, level management and enemy AIs in order to make the game experience smoother, faster and much more fun. Further optimizations are coming in with future releases. You should be able to see a visible boost in frame rate and game responsiveness on both old and new computers. Fixes and Balance This latest patch took a while to complete, but includes many big and small fixes to the game balance, characters abilities, items and enemies. Our main goal was to make the combat more interesting, readable and challenging in a way that feels fair. To achieve this we reduced the amount of enemies on screen, and diversified their attacks and abilities to create interesting combinations. The improvements on the enemy behaviour patterns is an ongoing task, so expect further improvements in future releases. No More Large Throwables On our task to make combat less confusing, we decided to remove empty containers from the game once they are smashed open. Before this update, emptied containers (like chests and food boxes) would remain in-game as large, cumbersome throwable items. They added very little to the game experience but at the same time could end up occluding a large portion of the play-area, hiding bullets and useful items. New Minimap
We finalized our minimap, It's now glitch-free and shows the terrain altitudes as shades of grey. It also highlights point of interest with clear icons, that can be recognized by their shape and color. Changes to the Life System We changed a few things in order to make the mechanics related to extra lives more fun. We wanted them to be an interesting resource: relatively scarce, but useful in different ways, we also wanted to give the player more ways to obtain them.
We reduced the minimum amount of lives available at the start of the game or after you are defeated. Then, to compensate this, we significantly reduced the cost for extra lives at vending machines and sprinkled a few extra lives on top of secret or hard-to-reach areas. We also made extra lives drop kibbles if smashed. This way you have a use for them even at the minimum game difficulty where you have unlimited lives. As a finishing touch, if you happen to talk with all the weird people in the WOTF Jail, the first level of the game, you might find someone willing to gift you some extra lives, just once. Changes to Kibble Economy We noticed that the game-time required to obtain the amount of kibbles that is necessary to rebuild vital elements of the Poptarts village was extremely long. To fix this we increased the drop rate of kibbles by roughly 50% and added more treasures containing them. Changes to “Shield” Type Equipment Blocking with a shield is now slightly more difficult. We reduced the actual parry duration from 1.5 seconds to 1.2 seconds. Shield with explosive retaliation now inflict 20% less damage with their explosion.
The Blocking ability granted by standard shields now absorbs roughly 10% more damage and the Counterattack effect activated by blocking an attack, now last 25% more time and grants 50% extra critical chance instead of an extra 100% damage. This way you can use counterattack in combination with other perks that grant you on-crit effects. In addition, the counterattack buff has now a visual clue that is visible on the character. Monastery Lasers Laser traps in the Monastery now deal 400% more damage. Be careful!
Improved Perk Descriptions We changed many perk descriptions to explain what each perk actually does. New Items We added several new throwable/edible items based on mana regeneration and unconventional diet buffs. We also added new equipment items, both standard and unique, and re-balanced several of the existing ones. Character Ability: Dudette We wanted to make Dudette’s special more fun to play. To achieve that we changed her ability from an in-your-face, heavy damage aoe to a shockwave that stuns small enemies and knocks medium and bigger ones away. Enemies that are not stunned suffer a brief daze that slows down their movement speed significantly. Character Ability: Yogurt
When Yogurt activates her special ability, in addition to the standard life regeneration and damage reduction, she also gains 20% extra damage. Arena Mode We widened some narrow areas and passages in the arena levels to make sure combat was always fun and the game space readable. We also re-designed the terrain in the Bouncy Bombers arena so that most of the arena space can be reached even without using a spring to jump. Final Notes After more than 3 years of development we are finally in the last stages. It has been a big adventure for us, and we’ve gotten to a point where only testing and refining are missing. But we are not going to stop there, the final release will have a few more extra levels and arenas and will be even more fun and optimized! Keep following us, we have big news coming in about console ports and localizations!