Changes:

• "How to play" section now displays some hints.
  
• "Easy mode" becomes available if the mission is failed twice in a row.
  

[previewyoutube=vlZXlH-1bNQ;full][/previewyoutube]
Hello everyone. The spin-off game, Gearbits: Gear Angels is now available. The game is free to play on either Steam or itch.io. Please give it a try! Its a short and sweet experience. By clearing the game, you unlock new characters to play as in Gearbits.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2804580/

https://quackpond-games.itch.io/gear-angels

But if you have no interest in the new game, Ive still got something for you. Theres a new update today! The update adds a new map for the wave battle mode. And three new playable characters, which are unlocked by transferring a save file from Gearbits: Gear Angels.

Today is also the start of the Dinos vs. Robots Fest. Gearbits will be participating and the game will be 10% off for the duration of the sale.

Heres a list of changes:

• A new map is available.
  
• Three new characters.
  
• The elevator containers now deal 50% less damage.
  
• Back button can now be used in the wave battle parameters menu.
  

Hello everyone. We're about a week away from the release of Gearbits: Gear Angels and the next update, which adds three new playable characters and a new map for the wave battle mode.



For the new map, I was going for a more futuristic aesthetic than the base game. I've also taken a new direction with the map geometry. It's got a variety of large open areas and smaller corridors. I've also tried to add some variety, by having half the map be a sleak futuristic city, with the other half taking a more rugged, industrial look.



You'll get to try it out for yourself on the 26th, when the update launches, together with the free spin-off game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2804580/

While working on the update, I've made some changes and fixes to the game.

• Changed UI navigation. Cancelling out of some menus, can now be done with the east controller button, ESC or backspace.
  
• Fixed Geometry in the outpost map. Previously, the collision for the river was triggered on dry land, in some parts of the map.
  
• The shotcannon and shotgun pod are now hitscan weapons.
  
• Made changes to dialogue and punctuation.
  
• Fixed mission 12 health bars scaling incorrecly, on some resolutions.
  
• All lounge conversations are now available, after beating the final mission.
  

[previewyoutube=cSJPz9aVi0M;full][/previewyoutube]
Hello everyone! This is the new project Ive been working on, Gearbits: Gear angels!



The game is a 2D side-scrolling shoot em up, where you collect items to keep up your weapon power and shields. With no power, the weapons wont help you and the shield is useless. You need to avoid the enemy and collect energy to counterattack. At the highest level, your shield will block any attack and the weapons will pierce enemies!



Heres the big feature, Gearbits integration! This game features interconnectivity with Gearbits. By transferring your save file, you can play as the Gear angels in Gearbits. All three angels share the same inbuilt weapon. Just like in their own game, they can collect powerups from defeated enemies to increase the rifle charge. An overcharged volley will wipe out a swarm of bugs in a flash.

So this is the thing Ive been working on. It stared as a quick prototype, where I just wanted to make some effect animations and Ive been expanding it since. The game will release for free on Steam and itch.io 26.2.2024. Im hoping that it will bring some new people to Gearbits and entertain the current players.

You might have noticed, that Ive been saying Ill add new characters to Gearbits. Not Units or GBs. I was struggling to come up with a theme for my new space shooter. And then one day, I was showing Gearbits to someone and they said something along the lines of Anime fans dont care about robots any more, they only care about waifus. And thats when I decided to make it about mecha waifus. Im hoping that this will snare some waifu fans and teach them to appreciate some proper robot anime. I also though that the current playerbase might like it, since Bubblegum crisis and Dirty pair are no doubt familiar to most mecha and retro anime appreciators. Due to prior confusion, I feel that I should clarify, Im using the word waifu to refer to generic anime girls. Currently, I DO NOT have plans to develop a dating sim. Thank you for your interest, but thats not in the cards at the moment. An expansion campaign for Gearbits is still first in line.

The game will release for free, but you can already wishlist it on Steam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2804580/Gearbits_Gear_Angels

Let me know what you think. I read the community forums but if you'd like to join the discord, here's a link https://discord.gg/8DnYx2zB

Hello everyone. Ive got one last update for you before the end of the year. The Gearbits holiday special update adds one new mission and a new map for the wave battle mode. Its just one mission, but it has a special gimmick. The mission has four different endings. Each ending favours a different playstyle, so you can play through the mission multiple times to discover all the endings. You can access the new mission form the extra missions menu. Youll find the mission there, if youve progressed far enough in the story.

Ive also added some small changes and fixes. The resolution settings now have options for 4k resolutions. At least in theory. I dont have a 4k monitor, so I dont know if they work. Another thing I noticed, is if you use the Steam input mapping, the pause menu doesn't work on a controller. So consider disabling Steam input, unless you really need to use it.

The next update is going fine. I put it on the side, to focus on getting this update done first, but now Im ready to continue working on it. But first, I want to take some days off for Christmas. I hope that you all have the chance to do the same.
[previewyoutube=cHVKAJYHVEg;full][/previewyoutube]

Hello everyone. Its been a while since I posted the last update. Ive been very busy with other responsibilities and working on Gearbits hasnt really fit into my schedule. Even so, Ive been making progress on the next update.

Heres the short version of whats coming:

Theres going to be a small update before the end of the year. And then early next year, theres going to be another update that launches with a free spin-off game. Both of these updates will be non canonical and feature some additions I thought might be a bit too silly for the base game. For a more serious update. Ive begun planning out an expansion story campaign.

The first update will add a new map for the wave battle mode and a new story mission. The second update, coming next year, will add three new characters to play as. It will launch with a free spin-off game starring the three characters. The spin-off will be a "shmup" game that I started as a quick prototype a while ago. I'll fix it up to be proper little game and release it to help promote Gearbits. The update is in a pretty good state. I could have it out before the end of the year, but if I do that, Ill have to rush the release. So Id much rather delay it to next year and release it in a more polished state.

Both of these updates are progressing well and they will release at some point. (Hopefully on schedule.) The expansion campaign is still uncertain. I havent begun to properly work on it yet so I dont want to make any promises about it. But its something Id really like to make, so Ill try my best to find a chance for it.

So thats the update. Look forward to the new map and I hope that youll stick around to see the new updates coming next year.

Its been a little over a month since Gearbits launched. And I'm very happy to say that the reception from players has been positive. A small but passionate group of players seems to have found the game. And luckily for me, the release of Armored core 6 brought some new interest towards mecha games. So the amount of players who will discover Gearbits will likely keep increasing.

But I feel like I should clear up, that Gearbits was not an attempt to cash in on the success of Armored core. Gearbits was in development before the first (reliable) rumors of a new Armored core even appeared. Its undeniable that older Armored core games had and influence on Gearbits but they werent the only influence. Some have correctly fingered the Earth defense force series as an inspiration. But there is one more game that only few have managed to point out. Ace combat! There isnt and obvious overlap, since you dont pilot planes in my game. But the influence is there. The way the campaign and missions are structured was inspired by Ace combat. Likewise, the way the weapon selection works is more Ace combat than Armored core.

I started working on the game about two years ago. Before then, I had no experience with Unity or much experience with game development in general. Gearbits started as a 3D demo, where I tested importing 3D models and animations to the engine. Then I started looking into adding more features and eventually I had enough pieces to start putting them together into a real game.

I wanted Gearbits to be an arcadey mecha game. A game where you wouldnt have to rely on, or be restricted by a lock-on system. Where the controls would have some complexity without being so obtuse that a new player couldnt figure them out in a few minutes. I felt that there werent any mecha games that would give the kind of experience I wanted, or if there were, I didnt know about them. So I set out to make that game myself.

Now, anyone who knows anything about projects like these, knows that the #1 thing you should never ever do, is to make your first game your dream game. Ive learned a lot in the two years since I started working on the game. Ive learned about programming, 3D modeling, the Unity editor and much much more. Right now Id be much better equipped to make The dream game.

If I were to make Gearbits from scratch now, with everything Ive learned since I started, there would be a lot of things Id do differently. First of all, the game would be programmed better. I still feel quite ashamed about how there were bugs in the game at launch. Even worse, when I hurried to fix them I ended up making more. This isnt as much a programming problem, as it is a planning problem. It was dumb of me to still add new features so close to launch. I should have focused on QA more. The game needed a period before launch, where no new features are added and all the effort is spent on testing the game diligently to sniff out any bugs. No matter how tempting the new features may be.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can come up with a lot of criticism for the game design. Im quite happy with the pace at which the story progresses, but I feel that I could have done better with the mission layout and introducing the gameplay elements.

For example, I think that starting mission 2 with an escort section was a misstep. By that point, most players hadnt really picked up the game yet, so asking them to pay attention and protect a target other than themselves might have been too much. I also feel that mission 3 could have happened later. That mission has a risk of the player getting lost and frustrated, which some players are not willing to tolerate so early in the game.

Another big sticking point was mission 17. A lot of people had trouble with this mission. I dont personally have a problem with it. But after reading the player feedback, I realised that I made some mistakes. I feel like I should have really driven home how important it is to ignore the enemies and focus on collecting the crates. If I would change the mission dialogue now, I would also make sure that the player understands that the transmitter has to be destroyed. Because the previous mission has the player destroying an identical transmitter, I was expecting the players to figure it out. But I didnt account for the fact that everyone might not play those two missions back to back.

Another thing that came up with player feedback was the wave survival mode. Survival mode really should have been in the game on day one. I didnt really consider it, because I wanted the game to have a single player campaign and I felt that an endless mode would be just filler. What I failed to consider, was that having an optional wave mode would have zero negative influence on the main campaign. I only really realised that a wave mode would be good addition when the first players started asking for it. But Im very glad that they did, because I think that it was a great addition. I thought it was so great, that I worked like crazy to get it out as soon as possible.

There were actually many features that were added due to player feedback. The game has been publicly available for almost the entirety of the two year development. And during that time I got a lot of good feedback and some really good feature suggestions. The testers have been very helpful. But above all. Im most grateful to the testers for not sending me bug reports that are screenshots of the bug enemies, with a message saying I found some bugs in the game. Thank you for managing to restrain yourself and not go for such an obvious joke.


Bout the games storyline. I wasnt really aiming high with the story. I knew it was necessary for the game to have have a story and characters. I wanted the player to feel like their actions actually have meaning and consequences. But I hadnt actually ever written a long form story before. Thats why I went for a very basic plot and used various stock archetypes for the characters. My main priority was that the player likes the heroes, hates the villains and understands the whole way through, what their ultimate end goal is. I structured the story largely around what I wanted in the game. Meaning that I thought I want the player to fight giant insects and enemy robots. What kind of story would facilitate that? And I just went from there.

The story was meant to be a way to string together the set pieces I wanted in the game. Nothing groundbreaking but not unbearably terrible. The reception seem to have been that the story is ok, which is pretty much what I was aiming for.

The story performed its task, but still I feel like the dialogue itself could have been written better. Im not an experienced writer and English is not my first language, so there would inevitably be some awkward lines in the dialogue. Sometimes I intentionally chose to write a piece of dialogue in a way that came off as weird, in the hopes that it would come off feeling like a fansub for an old robot anime. I can't even begin to explain why I did that. If you get it you get it.

However, what was not intentional, were the typos. Ive read the dialogue so many times that its basically white noise. I failed to spot many typos. Luckily, my eagle eyed test pilots did report some typos, but

even so, many of them made it in. Maybe I should have gotten some dedicated proofreaders on top of the gameplay testers. And since I'm thinking about what I should have done, I really should have looked into localising the game. Turns out that it was pretty popular in Japan and many people expressed disappointment that the game only had english text.

The one aspect of the game that I would have the hardest time improving, even with everything Ive learned now, would be the games visuals. Theres a limit to how good a 3D game made by a solo developer can look, but with the right artstyle, even low fidelity graphics can look very appealing. I now understand the engine better, so I could spend more time on considering the art. When I started learning the engine, I was too caught up with getting things to work, to pay attention to making them look good. As a result, the graphics have rightly been criticised for being primitive. The menu UI especially could use an update. Compare the main menu that has been in the game since the beginning, to the extra missions menu I added after launch. And if you want to compare some more visuals, turn off the new dialogue sprites to see the original sprites I drew for the game by myself. I feel like I could draw them better now, but still, its better to leave it to the professionals.

I feel that the only visual part I really managed to put attention to, was the mechanical design. Each unit was designed, modeled and textured from the ground up. The intention was to design units that fit a wide array of mecha archetypes and design inspirations, while still being consistent with the Gearbits artstyle. While it was definitely worth it to put effort into the playable robots, it was pretty ridiculous to model and texture every single weapon. Since almost none of the weapons appear in closeups and most of them are only ever seen from behind the playermodel.


Theres a lot I would change about the game If I were to do it over, but theres also a lot I would still like to add to the game. I have ideas for new maps, playable units, enemies, missions and story events. Ive actually already modeled three new player characters! Ive also got another game that I made as a quick side project. Im thinking that I want to polish it to completion and release it properly. Ive got big plans for Gearbits and Im not the only one. Various people have come to me and offered to help with the game. Im blown away that the game has generated such interest and I hope that I can find a way to move forward in a way that satisfies the most amount of people.


I havent gotten the first sales report yet, but no matter how much money the game will make, I know the time I spent making the game didnt go to waste. Gearbits hasnt become a smash hit (Yet!) But the ones who have played the game have liked it. Some have even loved it. Gearbits was made, because it was the kind of game I wanted to play and Im beyond happy that it turned into a game that other people also want to play.

When I first played Super Mario galaxy, I thought that Mario was just being polite when he said Thank-a you so much for-a playing-a my game! But now, more than a decade later, Ive made my own game and I really understand, that the developers really meant every word. Thank you to everyone who played Gearbits. I hope that youll like whatever I make next even half as much.

• vsync is no longer just a toggle. It now has options for "60 FPS" (Previously called "ON") "30 FPS" and "OFF"
  
• Fixed a bug where some options were reset if the main menu was loaded a second time and the game was saved after.
  

I made some requested changes.

• Added the option to toggle Vsync.
  
• The volume of UI sound effects can now be adjusted.
  

I uploaded a small patch. Here's whats new for version 1.0.3.

• Enemy respawns in mission 17 now have a three second delay.
  
• Bugs, enemy drones and resupply drones now rotate to match the terrain.
  

Hello everyone. Ive got a major content update for Gearbits. This update adds a whole new game mode, the wave survival mode. After the game launched, several people suggested adding a wave survival mode. Well, here it is! I hope youll like it.

Heres how you play:

Start the wave mode by going to "Extra missions" in the main menu. Here you can select a map or change the game parameters. You unlock more maps as you progress through the story.

Each new wave spawns in an escalating number of enemies. Defeating enemies earns you credits. You can use credits to buy new weapons and equipment in between waves. Then you use the weapons to defeat enemies in the next wave to earn more credits.


This goes on until you clear the set amount of waves. You can also set the wave count to infinite to go on until youre shot down or exit to menu.

Ive also added in three new achievements. I was kinda surprised by how many people go out of their way to collect achievements, so heres a little something for you sickos.

Wave motion energy: Clear 15 or more waves with any parameters.

Eight minutes of death: Clear 8 or more waves with "100% bug" and "Catastrophic escalation" parameters.

Mass production miracle: Complete all missions with the Mirabilis regular type.


Some of you might have noticed that the wave mode was already patched in to the public branch yesterday. I uploaded a patch yesterday, but I didnt want to make a big announcement yet, in case some game breaking bug managed to sneak in. Nothing game breaking has been reported, but Ive made some other small adjustments. Heres a list:

• Enemies give slightly more credits.
  
• Resupply, repair and support drops now cost less.
  
• Jammer drones produce correctly coloured wrecks when destroyed.
  
• Fixed a bug where starting a new game and exiting before defeating any enemies caused the previous games enemies to be displayed in the score total.
  
• The shop platform now randomly moves to a new location between waves.
  

• Charged weapons no longer play their charge effects if no ammo is left.
  
• Fixed running animations not playing if the players moves the analog stick very slightly.
  
• It is no longer possible to hold movement keys when loading into mission 4 and avoid getting equipped with the tag gun, making the mission unwinnable.
  
• The animated sample in mission 12 no longer randomly disables its collider and allows the player to walk through it.
  
• Mission 13 no longer randomly spawns the player below the map. This one was really nasty, because it only seemed to happen randomly, and it basically ruined a story set piece for those who encountered it.
  
• Mission 17 bosses no longer stay behind to attack the ground if no suitable targets are in range.
  
• The last cutscene can now be paused.
  

Hello everyone. Ive been working like crazy for the last few days to get the new game mode done. The wave mode has been requested by many players and after thinking about how to implement it, I decided to add it to the game. Ive been making good progress on the new game mode. Its already complete!

Well, sort of. Ive uploaded two patches, where I was trying to rush to fix a small problem, and in doing so I ended up causing a much bigger one. Im not planning on making this a pattern, so this time the update will be tested before it will be made public.

You can test the wave mode right now, if you have done two (2) things. You need to buy the game. (Only 9.99 on Steam! Tell all your friends!) and you need to opt into the beta branch on Steam. Dont worry its easy. Heres how its done.

- Go to your library.
- Right click the game and go into Properties.
- In properties go into Betas
- And change beta participation to wavemode

Your game should now be version 1.0.2. The wave mode can be accessed from the main menu. Press the Extra missions button.

The wave mode is in pretty good shape already. Itll mostly need polish and balancing. I need to figure out an algorithm for escalating the waves and figure out a good balance for the item unlocks.

If youd like to make some suggestions or talk with other players, you can join the Gearbits Discord server. Id like to hear your thoughts if youve tried the wave mode.

Hello, I've uploaded a little patch for today. It's got some features that were requested by players.
- Hover and flight modes now have distinct beeps when switching between them.
- Friendly fire has been disabled.

The biggest changes that come with this patch are modification to game systems that are needed for the wave survival mode. That's right, the wave mode is coming! But because I messed with some stuff "Under the hood" there's a chance that I broke something. If that happens, make some noise in the community forums and I'll come up with a fix.

Gearbits has launched! After two years of development, the game is ready to go. Making the game has been fun and a valuable learning experience. Lets hope that the Steam release wont turn out to be harsh lesson.

I started making Gearbits because it was the type of mecha game I wanted to play, but didnt exist as far as I knew. Now it exists but because I happen to be the one who made it, I cant Play it like normal. Thankfully, a lot of people have said that Gearbits is also the kind of game they would like to play. So Im hoping that everyone else will have fun with it, and my sacrifice wont be in vain.

The game has now launched, but there are still things that you can do to help with it. Play the game! Post about it and tell all your friends. And remember to leave a review on Steam! Id like to know if you liked the game or not. If you didnt, I would have preferred to know about it during the last year of public testing, but beggars cant be choosers.

Heres an opening animation I made for the game.
[previewyoutube=et5Mzy0LicE;full][/previewyoutube]

So, now that the game is out, whats next for Quackpond games? First. Ill take a break from game development for a while. Id like to take some distance and have a proper break, but most likely Ill be back sometime next week.

Ill post detailed future plans later, but the short version is, that Ill write a post mortem for Gearbits and then Ill either start working on my next game, or if Gearbits is successful enough, Ill make some content updates for the game.

Another point that Is pretty much tied to the future of Quackpond games is the Unity situation. Most of you are probably familiar with it, so Im not gonna get into it. The short version is that a lot of developers are moving away from Unity because of changes to Unitys policies.

Gearbits is made with Unity. Im not changing the engine for Gearbits, but for my next game, Ill start learning Godot and Ill do everything I can to move away from Unity. As I said earlier, Making Gearbits has been a learning experience. Ive learned a lot about Unity during the last two years. Itll be a massive pain to start a new engine, but I feel that I should at least explore the alternatives, because if Unity becomes the only option, next time they announce some shenanigans, they might not back down.

I released the game earlier this morning. And in doing so, I neglected to think about timezones. So that means that the 10.10. release date that I chose 50% because it looks cool, wont be showing up on the Steam page. Oopsie! But if thats the only thing thatll go wrong with the launch Ill be happy.

Thanks to everyone for your support over the development. Heres hoping that Gearbits becomes a success and ill be able to make more games in the future.

Hello everyone!

Ive announced the release date for Gearbits! The game launches on 10.10.2023

Since the last public update, Ive made some small changes to the game.

Heres a list:

• Missiles have slightly slower target tracking.
  
• Enemy GBs shouldnt get stuck inside the hangars so easily.
  
• Ive added some more ammo pickups on some missions.
  
• And I fixed a bug where the audio was muted after skipping a cutscene.