Note for Windows users: If you experience laggy animations in the local multiplayer menu (the menu where you rebind your controls), please update your graphics drivers.

Version 0.6

Hi everyone, its finally time for another update, and this time its without a doubt the biggest update Polyminos had yet! Im also happy to report that, starting now, I can return to releasing updates in smaller increments, so theres even more goodness coming soon. Heres whats new in v0.6:

Changes

• The entire input system has been rewritten to allow multiple players to use the keyboard, and allow other players to use the keyboard while P1 is using a controller. The new input system has shifted a lot of the burden away from other parts of the games code, which will speed up future development.
• To compliment the new input system, the local multiplayer menu has also been remade from scratch, implementing all of the new features and a shiny new look!

Any combination of keyboard and controller players you can imagine is possible! But wait, I hear you ask, if the players arent always displayed in order, how do we know whos who when the game starts? OBSERVE:

• The sound effects system has also been rewritten. Aside from internal changes, the game can now randomly pick one of multiple sounds to play for a single event, adding more variety to the sounds of the game.
• Several new sound effects have been added to the menus and in-game, including when you earn bombs and when youre at risk of losing. More are coming soon.
• The outline showing the location of the next junk piece is now animated to show how close it is to dropping:

• The participants from the latest Junk Attack playtesting session have had their names added to the credits. If you want the opportunity to join their ranks, join Polyminos Discord Server!
• Theres a new menu which allows you to view all connected controllers, and enable/disable them. This menu can be used if a single controller shows up as multiple in the game (causing every button press to be registered as inputs by two different players).
  • To my knowledge, theres nothing I can do to permanently prevent this issue: the duplicate controllers even appear to Steam itself, which leads me to believe this issue is external to Polymino. If you experience this issue, you can disable the duplicates in this new menu so the game ignores them, and leave one instance enabled to use your controller.
• The Steam Leaderboards menus have been reworked so the names and scores are aligned, only being adjusted if the users name is too long to fit beside the score.
• The quick drop button is disabled for a very brief time after a junk piece drops. This is intended to prevent instances of mistakenly thinking you have enough time to quick drop before the next piece, only to accidentally drop a piece immediately after it.
• Optimized some menu components.
• Fixed some minor bugs.

Junk Attack

Junk Attack is still making steady progress, and while theres still much work to be done, its functional enough that Im releasing it publicly on the games beta branch! To find it, right click on the game in your library, go to Properties > Betas > Beta Participation, and select beta. Just be aware that it isnt very beginner-friendly at the moment: no tutorials or help are available, mainly because itd all be outdated within a week due to the constantly-evolving nature of the mode. However, unlike with v0.5, Ill be able to release incremental updates more frequently with v0.6, including changes to Junk Attack. So stay tuned for new updates to the mode, guides on how to play, and even how to mod the game and add your own power-up loadouts! After all, if you want to experiment with the game and suggest new content, I want to help you in any way I can! Since Junk Attack hasnt been public until now, I didnt include the changes Ive made since v0.5 in the above patch notes; this post is already getting out of hand, so Ill include them in a future post. Thank you everyone for your support! Polyminos been released for nearly four months, and thanks to all of you, Im still as motivated as ever to keep working on it. It would mean the world if you spread the word by recommending Polymino to your friends, as more feedback from more players will help the game reach its maximum potential! Until next time, Aidan

[ 2024-03-16 19:16:28 CET ] [ Original post ]