





🌟 Special thanks to our amazing supporters:
✨ $10 Tier: [Geeks Love Detail]
🌈 $5 Tier: [Arch Toasty][Benedikt][David Martínez Martí]
Don't mind me, just a few more bugfixes.
Ahoy, you! It's been a while (as ever) since last we spoke, but I have news aplenty. Firstly: Many of you may know that I've spent a decent chunk of the past few years working on UFO 50. Which is finished now! Hooray! You should definitely go play it if you haven't yet: It's a wonderful game and I'm very proud of the work that I and the rest of the UFO 50 Recovery Team did on it. So, now that I'm finished with my work on UFO 50, what does the future hold for Catacomb Kids? Well that brings me to the second and more relevant bit of news: I started a game company! Catacomb Kids composer Stevie and I have teamed up to form Odd Object. I'm super stoked! But more than just stoked, this move opens up a number of opportunities for me to grow and evolve as a game dev. This has a couple implications for the future of Catacomb Kids: [olist]
Just a quick fix!
More bugfixes! On all platforms this time.
Just a couple quick fixes! Windows only for now but should be on Mac and Linux by tomorrow at the latest.
Just a horde of bugfixes.
An update! No new content or anything particularly fancy, but this is one I've been working on for a while; Finally upgrading to the newest version of Game Maker Studio instead of using the pre-2.3x version that is - at this point - over two years out of date. It was one of those situations where upgrading to the more recent tools fully broke the game, but continuing to use the older engine was gradually accumulating its own slew of problems, to the point where at last it became imperative to make the jump regardless of the cost in time and effort. So for the past few months that's what I've been doing! I wish I had more content for you but alas, it's mostly just the invisible kind of progress; rewriting old bits of code that have obsolesced or depreciated into non-functionality. In any case, the upgrade has gone relatively smoothly and has also given me access to a huge number of new engine features that I'm eager to use, which should help hasten along the rest of the game just that much faster. I did also manage to fix a bunch of crashes and bugs -- including one elusive crash in particular that had been hounding the game for years! And now that the engine update is mostly out of the way (I'm sure there are still some issues here and there that need addressing, but hopefully nothing too major) I'll be refocusing my efforts fully back onto finishing and releasing the Deep Dark.
Happy Thanksgiving! Have an update.
More fixes, tweaks, and balance changes!
A long-requested feature is for orbs of leveling in co-op to impact more than just the kid that uses them, so I've added a little submenu to the side of the main level-up screen in co-op that grants the other player a half-level.
Also, this update should (finally!) bring the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions all up to the same version!
New
Goodness gracious, when will I stop breaking my game? Here's some more molten hot fixes:
Fixes
Some quick hotfixes for the latest build!
Changes
Here, have an update; 0.2.12! (Technically, 0.2.12b now, after a haphazard bug-fixing morning)
This should address a lot of common bugs and crashes.
I've also changed the way the STR and DEF stats work for calculating melee damage, finally collapsing STR down to a single value like the rest of the stats instead of being a weird range of "x to y".
"Why did you do that?" you may ask.
"Because it always bugged me, having this one odd-stat-out that is represented in a way completely unlike any of the others," I reply.
Now that all the stats are boiled down to a single value, it's a lot more consistent. Additionally, the algorithm for calculating damage is much simpler than it used to be and should be easier to tweak if I need to in the future.
Attacks now deal between 65-100% of the attacker's STR stat, and DEF reduces that amount by (roughly) 10% per point of DEF (capping at a 95% reduction at 10 DEF, with some exceptions for crits and other similar defense-bypassing blows). There are a few extra steps in there to ensure that attackers don't deal too many 0s in a row, but that's basically the gist of it! It's much simpler than the convoluted and opaque 10-step process that damage calculation was before.
I hope I didn't change the way things feel too much, but let me know how the new formula feels!
There have also been a few balance changes to shut down some extremely cheesy builds - like High-LUC + Multicast resulting in essentially infinite spells, or using pilfer and secondhand to constantly trade the same weapon to enemies and get extremely good equipment. If you didn't know about those exploits; sorry, but you missed your chance! I'm sure there are new ones to find that I'll have to fix soon enough, though.
In future news, the Deep Dark update (aka 0.3.0) is coming along very nicely! I'd say it's looking on-track for release later this year - hopefully sometime in autumn? One of the last things left to do is a big audio pass on all the new content; making sure it sounds sufficiently wet and scary, and that all the enemies are properly aurally horrifying. Don't forget that I do weekly dev-streams where you can catch me working on the game, if you ever want to stop by and see what's new (though beware if you don't want to be spoiled!). You can also catch me on the Catacomb Kids Discord, where I'm very active.
We had some unexpected trouble building for Mac and Linux, so 0.2.12 is up on Windows only for now. The other platforms should be available next weekend.
Changes
A couple super quick fixes for the build from earlier today!
Fixes
Happy (just-about) New Year!
Here's hoping 2022 sees the world in a better place than 2021. Fingers crossed!
But at the very least, to round out this year (aka. "2020: Part 2"), have a Catacomb Kids update.
(Just on Windows for now: Mac + Linux following in a few days.)
0.2.11
It's not the Deep Dark yet, but it is a bunch of bugfixes!
The Deep Dark update should be out probably sometime early next spring. It's very nearly done in terms of content, but still needs a big audio pass and some finessing of certain edge cases in the level generation. Once the Deep Dark is released, I'll get started working on the fourth - and final - area: The Mad Hell!
But that's all still in the future! In the meantime, here's the patch notes for this update. Most significantly, I've added a shortcut system, whereby activating a certain machine that occasionally appears in the Anticropolis will thereafter on every subsequent run spawn a shortcut between the Upper Dungeon and Anticropolis. It won't be a free trip though; the shortcut entrance is hidden, and guarded by tough enemies.
New
Some new bug-fixes, as well as pushing some older fixes live for Mac and Linux. Fixes
Changes
New
Some quick fixes for 0.2.6! Changes
An update! Still pluggin' away on the Deep Dark, but in the meantime here are some bugfixes. Also, I've finally begun implementing some of the modular nature of the Tinkerbots! This is something that's been intended from when I first added the tinkerer class; you can now find different motors, chassis, and propeller parts for your bot in mechanist shops and from a new "grumbul workshop" premade room in the upper dungeon. Your bot will equip them automatically upon picking them up. New
Just some bugfixes for now! Still hard at work on the Deep Dark. Changes
Hey! You! Oof, I was hoping to have this update out a while ago - it being mostly bugfixes and all - but fixing bugs is, as it turns out, sometimes difficult. In particular there is one crash that I know I still haven't fixed yet but which I can't seem to reproduce and it's rare and severe and absolutely infuriating. after addressing some of the more common crashes I got so carried away trying to fix that one that time flew by and before I know it an apocalypse has happened and I still haven't pushed out the original fixes! Whoops!! Well, I hope some of the new features help to make up for the tardiness of this one at least. I think the changes to the tinker-bot are particularly neat, personally. Changes
Here's another bugfix patch -- a small but important one, that includes the fixes from 0.2.3a being brought up to speed for Mac and Linux, as well as the following: Changes
Quick fix is up for Windows - Mac and Linux soon to follow in the next few days, but it might have to wait til after Christmas, sorry! Changes
Hey, remember me? Have an update! I'm hard at work on the Deep Dark, and it's coming along quite nicely but isn't quite ready for public consumption yet, so I wanted to push out some bugfixes and tweaks that I think will make the game a bit smoother and more fun. In this update are mirror-and-laser puzzles that now spawn in the Anticropolis, acting as the AC's version of switch barriers. There are also frozen passages that must be broken through in order to traverse, and which slowly close up behind you, as well as a number of fixes for major crashes and long-standing bugs. Also by popular request an option has been added for splitscreen-only mode in Co-op, which you can enable in Options > Gameplay. New
Not a whole lot of changes - mostly bug fixes and such. I did add a post-death preview thing that you can enable in Options > Gameplay, however! It's off by default, because I'm unsure of the impact it might have on performance, but I think it's pretty neat! New
0.2.0d fixes some things, and also brings forward the changes from 0.2.0c to Linux and Mac Changes
Changes
A quick bugfix build plus some changes! The new rewards are much rarer in this build than in the last build - which is intentional - but they might be a little too rare now. I'm still tweaking the balance of their spawn frequency so just keep that in mind! I want them to be not littering the first floor but also not once-every-ten runs, and I haven't hit that sweet spot yet. Anyway here's them notes: Changes
Hey! Here's a video:
More bug fixes, and bringing Linux+Mac versions up-to-date.
Fixes
Crash when wraiths have no target
Player is annihilated upon entering a floor in a snowdrift
Humanoids trying to chase through locked doors constantly jiggle the doorknob loudly
AI_action_backhop crash
Energy bar looks weird when you changing to equipment with less MAG
Regeneration overwrites owl wings when flying
Ceiling spikes draw beneath jump-thru platforms in the AC
Lava bridges are now destroyed when lava loses it heat (Reaper fight, siphon, etc)
Pressing select+cancel at the same time over a gravestone select backs to class select but still shows the custom kid dialog
Backing out of kid select shows particles for destroyed mana batteries
Shopkeepers get mad at you if you're infected with any plague flies
Pressing select+cancel at the same time on the level-up screen levels the selected stat without advancing its tier
Flame cone traps shoot at the wrong angle
Crash when going through the tank door in co-op
SORRY. MY BAD. 0.1.5b should fix the "Fishahna Crash". It's only out for Windows right now, but Mac+Linux versions will be on their way later in the week.
Fixes
Fishanha crash when eating corpses
New
Added "Look" menu!
(default bound to "tab" on keyboard or "select/option" on controllers)
4 New Boons!
Multi-Cast
Siphon
Dangersense
Calculations
New shop type - Gadgeter!
4 new arm types!
4 new leg types!
2 New tinkerer items - Mana Battery, Spring
Changes
Reduced amount of durability damage done to shoes from mighty stomp
Throwing enemies upwards with Grapple no longer tumbles the player
Slamming enemies into walls with Grapple now deals 1 damage
Can more precisely place where enemies are thrown with Grapple
Increased time to aim grappled enemies
Added boon icons to level-up menu
Rewrote flame cone code (Dragon breath, fire pipe traps, etc)
It should behave mostly the same but perform much better
Plague now persists after creatures die rather than needing to re-plague corpses separately
Changed appearance of plague flies
Increased damage dealt by plague flies
Grumbul Tank Cannonball no longer destroys bridges
Slight changes to Grumbul Tank behavior
Reduced size of holes in side of Grumbul Tank arena
Water washes off acid
Kicks deals damage based on which leg is kicked with (differs based on facing direction)
Added gamepad rumble enable/disable option to controls menu
Grumbul turrets are now battery-powered
Grumbul turrets now have sfx when drawing and firing
Increased power of zap grenades
Gas grenades now continue to emit their gas for several seconds
Empty grenades can now be refilled if you have Alchemy
Armor of reflection now reflects boulders
Tracker and Pathfinder no longer stop tracking any items when descending floors
Increased distance of wanderer's farsight
Lanterns no longer reduce their effective distance when low on fuel
Rewrote screen split handling
Co-op split screen bubbles are now a constant size
Reaper platforms once more disappear after a moment when stood upon
Fixes
Spell inspection doesn't work from the skill grid
Undead creatures can drown
Screen steps back a frame when paused
Anticropolis ruin generation crash (for real this time)
Inputs are sometimes ignored when the player is Slowed
Tank door no longer spawns
Grappling enemies can cause the player to shift around strangely
Traveling through lava with Dark Phase still lights you on fire
Crash with certain bow shooting animations
Crash when trying to access a clogged pipe
Eating gorhounds and burrahbois doesn't heal with butcher meal effect
Gorhounds and burrahbois can't be cooked, and don't reflect seasoning in their names
Can no longer manually dodge with Acrobat using keyboard
More gamepads should be compatible, now/gamepad detection should be better maybe???
A shopkeeper crash
Not immune to fire or ice while in Dark Phase's dark phase
No spell description for Orbis Malus
Learning free spells (from the reaper pearl or spell-dealers) doesn't work in co-op
Tracking doors and crush-traps doesn't properly work when using a gamepad
Ceiling-portals repeatedly warp items in 1-high corridors
Crash when trying to track Grumbul Tank door
Screen sometimes continually splits and un-splits in co-op
Orbs summoned by soul weapons can take damage
Striking enemies while pouncing degrades your weapon and counts towards skill increases
Reaper platforms can be destroyed by fire
Reaper rooms don't remove lava drips from vanished platforms
Crush traps stuck between vanishing platforms shake the screen like crazy
Fixed crash upon resizing, moving, alt+tabbing, etc. the game window
Summoning the reaper destroys co-op ghost players if they're in the room
Slimes become faux-blighted when nearly but not-quite destroyed by crush traps
Stone platforms are discolored by burning
Frozen water surfaces can cause the player to clip into walls
A few bugfixes, and bringing the Mac version up to date.
Unfortunately we're still having issues with Linux. We've finally managed to get it to compile after transitioning to GMS2, but there are some severe issues with drawing the screen (ie. it doesn't) that need to be addressed.
This'll be the last update until after New Year's! Hope y'all all have a happy holiday season and New Year! See you in 2018!
Changes
Stronger Byats' eyes now leave glowing streaks to help with color-blindness
and also look rad
Some other stuff maybe.
Fixes
Context button tips appear in the wrong place on the screen
Crash dealing with bows and grave monoliths
Some other stuff probably
A few bugfixes, and bringing the Mac version up to date.
Unfortunately we're still having issues with Linux. We've finally managed to get it to compile after transitioning to GMS2, but there are some severe issues with drawing the screen (ie. it doesn't) that need to be addressed.
This'll be the last update until after New Year's! Hope y'all all have a happy holiday season and New Year! See you in 2018!
Changes
Stronger Byats' eyes now leave glowing streaks to help with color-blindness
and also look rad
Some other stuff maybe.
Fixes
Context button tips appear in the wrong place on the screen
Crash dealing with bows and grave monoliths
Some other stuff probably
Just a quick bugfix build - Windows only for now but again, mac/linux shouldn't be too far behind later this week.
Changes
Removed V-sync option as it's no longer necessary for Win 10 fullscreen
This may or may not fix the game running too fast on certain computers?
I couldn't reproduce that so I'm not sure.
Fixes
Screen goes black when picking up encyclopedia pages
Shaders draw over dialog boxes
Can't equip tomes from the spellbook menu
"Step Softly" pops up whenever you speak to the Ghost
Text popups draw twice at an offset on certain resolutions
Just a quick bugfix build - Windows only for now but again, mac/linux shouldn't be too far behind later this week.
Changes
Removed V-sync option as it's no longer necessary for Win 10 fullscreen
This may or may not fix the game running too fast on certain computers?
I couldn't reproduce that so I'm not sure.
Fixes
Screen goes black when picking up encyclopedia pages
Shaders draw over dialog boxes
Can't equip tomes from the spellbook menu
"Step Softly" pops up whenever you speak to the Ghost
Text popups draw twice at an offset on certain resolutions
Yo! It's update time!
This one might not seem too big at first but there are quite a few changes of note beyond just bug fixes:
Firstly, I've finally moved development fully over to Game Maker Studio 2. This is a much more friendly development environment from my end, and in addition to a number of improvements to the IDE that will make the game much easier to work on it also addresses issues that were a result of using GMS1.4, such as the black fullscreen on windows 10.
Secondly, I've started implementing shaders! I'm still learning about them so don't expect anything too fancy just yet, but with the first couple effects implemented -- heatwaves over lava, distortion to things under water, and a much improved "loud noise" effect -- the way is being paved for implementing much cooler visuals and replacing old ones with more computationally economical effects, which should ultimately help with the game's performance.
However! I am! Aware! That this build does have a few visual oddities as a result of both of the above facts! For instance, the shaders will occasionally render on top of UI elements, and the scrolling text that shows up when you level up or learn a spell might come with some strange side effects. These are all things that I'll be working through in the coming builds, but they tend to be relatively minor (as far as I know!) and don't impact the game too much aside from very occasionally looking pretty silly.
And of course, if you don't like or have technical issues with the shaders, you can disable them in the Options menu to go back to the way it was before!
Lastly! After much ado we've finally got Windows and Mac versions building in the new dev environment, but unfortunately Linux users will have to wait a wee bit longer! We literally (literally literally, not figuratively literally) only just got the Mac build working late last night after hours of trying, and, fingers crossed, the linux version will be coming sometime later this week.
New
Game is now being developed in Game Maker Studio 2!
Added 3 new meals and meal effects
Added new environmental hazard to upper dungeon
Added shaders!
Changes
Can now track entrance/exit doors, boulders, and teleport traps
Tracked objects now have arrows pointing to off-screen instances of them
Increased Catacoin value for depth
Invisible byats' eyes are no longer visible unless they're attacking
Removed hold-to-aim for spellwright to avoid conflict with trance and overload
Can now see the exact health of undead followers
Changed the behavior of teleport:
It now can either warp immediately or leave a waypoint
After leaving a waypoint, casting teleport again will bring you to it
Can now cancel teleport aim by jumping or attacking
Mushrooms now lose their poison regardless of how they're cooked
Cooked mushrooms no longer poison water forever; only when they're first cooked
Improved Anticropolis ruins
Fixes
Black fullscreen in Windows 10
Crash when tinker-bot picks up chests
Unable to cast spells when stuck in a wall
Teleporting into a wall with your last charge of teleport doesn't kill you
Incorrect description text for clothiers enchanting headgear with +Light
Fishanha meal does't work
Tracking light-emitting objects as a pathfinder lights all such objects
Owl-men corpse and zombie heads don't change color to match the rest of them
Potions of might, regeneration, and haste last for 660 ticks with resourceful
Tank door spawns on floor 10 in anticropolis
Tank still spawns in place of the twins
Amulets are equipped to missing arms when looted from corpses
Looting corpses behaves strangely with hates/likes weapons
Weapons near explosions and fire sometimes burn forever (behaving infernally)
Weapons thrown with deft throw and trajectory don't deal any damage
Shops sometimes don't upgrade your equipment (fixed?)
Arrow ammo draws incorrectly in co-op
Crash when attempting to loot the other player in VS mode
Cold burst has no name when casting
Near Future TO-DO
Leaderboards (for serious this time)
Flesh out Encyclopedia
UNFORTUNATELY this patch is only out on Windows for the time being. We've been having mad issues building for Mac and Linux but fingers crossed they'll be coming before too long. Alas, we're not entirely sure what the fix is yet so I can't provide an ETA.
In the meantime, Windows folk, have a bunch of bug fixes!
CHANGES
Reduced Tinker-Bot max hp increase from class-up from +5 to +3 each
Classing to Engineer lets tinker-bot carry heavy items
Reduced Tinker-Bot stat increase when going from Mechanic to Engineer
Added option to tinker-bot to only pick up unusable objects
Added input prompts to tinkerbot's manual mode
Added input prompts to character select menu
Engineer's Tinkerbot changes sprite to reflect improvement
Tinkerbot repairs damage from poor repairs by descending floors
Headaches now last for 2 floors instead of 1
Tinker-bot is better at avoiding shifting platforms in the AC
FIXES
Undo isn't removed from the spell bar when maximum charges reach 0
Missing leg causes air dash to behave strangely
Orb blinks when intersecting walls even when carried by Tinkerbot
Barrels sometimes burn them forever
Can be moved while going through doors
Moving Platforms in the AC can overlap the entrance/exit doors
Bot hits self with thrown arrows
Bot weapons don't disintegrate when broken
Can give bots heavy objects through the idle menu
Likes/Good With [Weapon] doesn't specify weapon type when loading a template kid
Spellbooks stolen by rats become invisible
Reaper weapons fly away after unpausing from tinker mode switch
Spikes in reaper room float when walls disappear
Wind-up turtle can be poisoned
Thrown weapons not reflected by armor of reflection
Potions deal damage incorrectly
Can't change Tinkerbot mode in coop while the screen is split
Bear trap keeps you caught after Undo
If you ride a boulder into a wall, the boulder may push you slightly into it
Weakness and a few other status effects aren't reciprocated by reciprocity
Lava bridges sprite turns to wooden bridge sprite when crushed by crush traps
NB sometimes spawns in walls and other strange places
Tinkerbot mode cannot be changed when class ability is assigned to SPELL
Custom Kids can't start with amulets
"gml_Object_par_player_Step_0" crashes
Locked rooms often generate without treasure
Wooden barricades can block off areas
So, it's been yet another while and a half, and here we are again. I come bearing gifts. Watch this: https://youtu.be/S0DF43O-3mU If you don't feel like watching that then read this stuff (it's mostly the same words):
New
New Class! The TINKERER!
New Items - Grenades
Robot Follower
Catacoins!
Custom Kids!
Battle music!
AC Forts!
Changes
Oog now have energy for the void amulet to drain
Changed some reputation requirements
Large mushrooms are now heavier and bounce away creatures when not upright or when struck
Mushrooms are know knocked away by attacks
Improved Magic 101's charged tome attack
Improved Magical Combat's charged tome attack
As a Spellwright, projectiles from tome attacks will auto-aim
Undo is now removed from your skill grid when its max charges reach 0
Arrow types can be swapped by holding "Stow", even when having held/stown items
Made Anticropolis background details better and more unique
Added splash visual effect for entering water
Added bubble effect to lava surface
Changed explosion visual effect
Changed flame wave visual effect
Made icy slopes much more slippery
Added a V-Sync option in Graphics options for Windows users
Setting V-Sync to "ALT" should help WIN 10 users
with their black fullscreen issue but may introduce other issues
!!-This is only a temporary fix. A true solution is coming soon-!!
Added option to disable contextual prompts in Graphics options
Some changes to lighting in the Anticropolis
Orb of Leveling light now cycles through colors
Classing up as a wanderer more dramatically increases farsight distance
Improved camera point of interest functionality
Doubled charged duration of Soul weapons and added a damage penalty for losing charge
Changed behavior of shadow strikers for Soul weapons
Stronger enemies generate more shadow strikers when killed with soul weapons
Changed the behavior of lanterns to make them more useful
Lanterns now [spoiler]remove invisibility from lit enemies[/spoiler]
Wearing sandals, going barefoot, or being naked in the AC increase heat loss
Sandals have less durability...
Sandals/bare feet kick faster and increase freerun wall-run speed
Boots have higher durability...
Boots kick slower, and decrease freerun wall-run speed
Heavy weapons and equipment increase freerun startup time
Boots reduce damage from ground spikes 1 at the cost of durability
Helms and Coifs reduce damage from ceiling spikes by 1 at the cost of durability
Slightly reduced input window for heavy lifting creatures
Added learned percentage of weapon skill to "Likes [Weapon]" description
[spoiler]Increased shop security[/spoiler]
Shops now come in different types
Shopkeepers offer different services based on their store type
Added living space to shops
Added background details to shops
Merchants will buy your items for closer to their actual value with higher LUC
Mixed potions now identify if their components are identified after being made
Weapons clashing gains the attention of nearby creatures
Disarming enemies while you have [spoiler][Pilfer][/spoiler] now [spoiler][steals their weapon][/spoiler]
Using Grapple on enemies now [spoiler][disarms them][/spoiler] if you have [spoiler][Disarm][/spoiler]
Made gamepad input for mighty stomp harder to do accidentally
Refined Air Dash behaviour
Improved input responsiveness for quickly throwing things
after taking Trajectory or Deft Throw
Changed appearance of Trajectory throws
Trajectory now briefly slows time when initiated
Deft throw now has a slight auto-aim
Weapons thrown with trajectory only bounce once
Realized Amulet of [spoiler]the Void[/spoiler] now only activates upon [spoiler]stealing energy/magic[/spoiler]
Reduced Amulet of the [spoiler]Void's[/spoiler] range
Increased INT requirement for enemy amulet use
Can now ride boulders
Can now initiate trajectory bow shots downward
Crush trap chain reeling sound is now emitted from the crushing head
Corpses are no longer valued by name length
Humanoid corpses' worth now take into account their equipped items
Added ruin structures to Anticropolis
Fixes
Fixed pools of water spawning incorrectly
Fixed amulets de-identifying when INT drops
Energy with Void Amulet drains one from max
Input icon for class ability doesn't display when using controller
Arrows behave a bit better in tight corridors
Crash when drinking Potion of Cleansing Flame
Icicles are fine in lava
Flame pipes add excessive "Charred"s to corpses
Teleport traps can spawn on the ghost and other "up-to-interact" features
Boulder traps don't trigger over too-short distances
Flame Wave, Infernus, and burning enemies don't properly produce light
Fixed a bug with disabling out-of-view instances
Interactable object title text is drawn in the wrong color
Burrah-boi meal doesn't work at all
Strange transparency artifacts with alphas while in fullscreen
Solidified Lava in reaper room is rendered incorrectly
Still climb up and down ladders while tracking/aiming lantern
Can heavy lift creatures while already holding an item
Heavy lifted creatures can be picked up by humanoids
other than the one who initiated the heavy lift
Ghost sometimes provides too many, too few, or incorrect trait options
All the music was in mono BECAUSE I'M AN IDIOT
Crash when ogo slime on feet explodes in a gas trap
Crash when losing one's weapon-arm mid-attack while using a bow
Potions are overly resource-intensive
Firing a bow homes in on switches even when they're behind you
Missing particle effect upon level up
Breathing Masks don't work
NB becomes unresponsive after being blocked or shield parried
Using raise dead on a player in co-op doesn't restore their charge stars
Dead things gain value as they degrade
Near Future TO-DO
The Deep Dark
Tier 3 Boons
More Minibosses
Just some quick bugfixes, as well as getting Mac and Linux caught up!
Changes
Disarm now disarms upon critical hit
Fixes
Some particles are drawing incorrectly
Fixed 2-tile water flickering bug
Tracking off-hand items as Wanderer doesn't properly show items equipped by enemies
Ahh! Sorry! This build is kinda way overdue! I know the last build was pretty buggy and crashy, and this should hopefully fix a lot of that. It's only available on Windows for the time being, with Mac and Linux following sometime this weekend, hopefully.
There isn't too much new stuff to play around with yet, but I'm making very good progress on the upcoming Tinkerer class, as well as implementing a currency to be spent between runs.
New
New Reaper Spell!
New Amulet!
Changes
Can now aim Chain Lightning's trance downward
Reaper spells are now considered "Dark" for charge types
Fully realized Amulets now have a (Realized) tag
Push and Push trance now affect crush traps and falling icicles
Amulet of [Void] no longer drains energy
Absorbing magic with the Amulet of [Void] now restores energy to the bearer
Amulet of [Void] no longer disables the Orb of Leveling
Amulet of [Hunger] now has a fully realized version
Enemy amulet abilities now tied to enemy INT
Enemy amulet effects are now invisible unless you already know said amulet
Can skip logo intro on main menu
Blink trance now protects from projectiles and being crushed by the Grumbul Tank
Fixes
Pouncing with Chain Lightning's trance expends all minibolts at once
Crash when trying to display context button prompts for nonexistent objects
Tomed spellbooks sometimes the visual of being used when using another object
Spellwright shopkeepers crash when casting an aimable spell
Looting menu shows stats for last selected item when selecting Amulets
Sometimes the same amulet type will appear and identify as two separate ones
Sometimes two different amulet types will have the same appearance
Plague poisons allies
Plagued flame bodies are excessively explosive
INT requirement for identifying amulets was wrong
Another crash related to Reaper arena blocks spawning in
Get stuck in ceiling while standing on grumbul tank with extra tough while it jumps
The bottom row of tiles in a level is often cut off or misgenerated
Running Water Anticropolis transition freezes during generation
Thermal indicator shows during level generation
Near Future TO-DO
Next Class
Metacoin Currency
Flesh out Encyclopedia
Have an update!
I've temporarily removed the Wayward kids from normal level generation since they were causing a lot of crashing issues. I'm gonna put some more work into them and hopefully they'll be back next update ready to rock 'n roll!
In the meantime, I'll be doing my usual dev-stream later today over at twitch.tv/fourbitfriday so feel free to come say what's up and talk about kids in 'combs [strike]and ask me why this game is taking so long to finish like I do every night as I fall asleep choking back tears.[/strike]
MAC USERS: Please let me know if this update fixes the gamepad issues! If it does then I'll know what the problem was. If it doesn't then I'll rule out a possibility and know what the problem isn't.
Fixes
Pose doesn't change when climbing up onto ledges
Fixed a bug with giant arrow damage calculation
Arrows catch fire if stuck in someone who runs past a campfire
Player 2 Overheal UI is jank
Casting Raise Dead with overcharges costs no overcharge and ignores blocked energy
Negative status effects on allies may spread to you via Reciprocity
The number displayed for current energy when paused is incorrect when mp is blocked
Flames from Fire and Ice can also burn allies
Reaper room often reconstructs incorrectly after the battle
Goo meal can overheal for greater than ones INT
Teamed-up Wayward kids spawn as though fleeing when traveling to the next floor
Fire and Ice gave only Hot charges when picked up with Innate Power
Dark Arts gave the incorrect charge types
Eeol Labeled Eel in kixll list
Melting/dangerous slimeballs are not labeled as such
Crash when boiling an orb of leveling in a bottle of water
Can get pushed into walls by boulders and barrels
Cannot teleport out of a wall after surviving a teleport into one
Making soup from a frozen corpse makes potato and [thing] soup
Some kids don't drown
Melting and dangerous slimes are not properly labeled as such
Air Dash can be buggy at times
"Down" on keyboard still rolls/bashes even when roll/bash is bound to a different key
Extra Tough doesn't affect Bear Traps
Fixed some typos
Dark Phase has no spell description
Shops in the Anticropolis have no doors
New
New Anticropolis Transition Stages!
Amulets!
Added a few more Encyclopedia entries!
Changes
Increased arrow damage
Increased arrow accuracy
Reduced chance of enemies dodging arrows
Halved the rate at which bows degrade from use
Taunt now affects crabs and turrets
Increased frequency/severity of unstable undo's side-effect
Barrels are empty more frequently
of Health now heals to a minimum of 3hp, regardless of hp max
Spellbooks restore more charges and charge types when picked up with Innate Power
Added Teleport Overload
Added additional contextual button prompts
(Sorry, no way to disable them yet! But there will be!)
Temporarily removed Wayward Kids in order to address an abundance of crashes
Changed Frolix AI
Helms and Coifs now reduce stomp damage by 1
Non-"Hard Helms" and Coifs take a ton of durability damage when stomped
Removed STR requirement for pilfering enemies' weapons
Reduced frequency of barrel assassins
Improved warhammers' stats
Added "Farsight" to Wanderer's Instinct class ability
Spellbooks can be Tomed by using class ability while holding a book
Transition stages don't count against meal effect floor count
Added button prompts for actions
Encyclopedia entry requirements can be met over multiple runs
Animated title drop
Fat humanoids landing don't knock other fat humanoids into the air
Made fat grumbuls much less common
Added sound effects to crabs and eels
Added sound effects to laser traps
Skeletal mages now spawn in the Anticropolis
Made standing torches rarer in the Anticroplis
Near Future TO-DO
New Class!
Flesh out Encyclopedia
HEY! Just wanted to give y'all a heads up that I'll be showing Catacomb Kids at PAX East in Boston later this week as a part of the INDIE MINIBOOTH! It'll be my first time showing the game officially at any sort of convention or expo type thing, so if you're in the area come say what's up and maybe gimme a high five or something! Unfortunately this does mean that the next build won't be coming until after I get back from Boston. I was hoping to have it out in February but obviously that didn't happen -- With GDC going on and PAX stuff to prepare for, I was mostly bogged down in the whole "email and business and taxes" side of game dev that nobody likes to admit actually takes time. That side sucks, yo. Anyway, wish me luck!
Fixed the Crab Crash:
Buncha bug fixes (AND SOME NEW STUFF) Windows only for now, Linux + Mac coming in the next couple days. (Super sorry Linux folk for the delay in gettin’ this update to y’all! It's coming soon though
Fixes
More bug fixes, including the changes from 0.0.16b now on Linux and Mac.
Fixes
Daily Run doesn't reset the next day after a failure
More fixes for gamepad/keyboard inputs
Crash when blocking attacks
Map sometimes fails to draw
Crash when stomping on Ogo or Grumbul Turrets
Two players can pick up the same object simultaneously
Charred corpses not labeled as such
Changes
Discovered teleport traps, doors, passages, and the ghost now appear on the map
Break breaks barrels
Flaming barrels burn their contents
Rottenness of food separated from burnedness of food
Bugfixes! Only on Windows for now, but Mac and Linux should be coming along in a few days. I'm out of town at the moment and not in the most build-ready circumstances.
Fixes
Humanoid corpses' heads crash like mad
Crash when fighting AI in vs mode
Sound effects from Player 1's split screen inaudible when above Player 2 in co-op
Cannot redefine Player 2's gamepad controls
Some fixes for gamepad/keyboard inputs failing for various dialog boxes and menus
Controllers rumble even when not in use
'Nevermind' on Pipes does nothing
Changes
Added action indicator to ui for ghost form in co-op
Made orb and learning points indicator in co-op look less ugly and dumb
Added message for using pipes with nothing to drop
Co-op is finally here!
In Co-op, players still only share a single orb of leveling (I figure having two players alone is a pretty big advantage even without them both being properly leveled). I may change this in the future but I wanted to see how it would feel for a first pass.
When a player dies they become a ghost, able to fly around and absorb the corpses of enemies in order to return to life. The higher your level was when you died, the more corpses you'll need to absorb before reviving. As a ghost, you can also spend some of your absorbed corpses to pick up and drag around items, lending a helping hand to your still-living partner.
There may need to be some performance improvements but for now it should be (fingers crossed) pretty functional!
Anticropolis still isn't quite done yet but I've finally managed to work myself out of the slump I was in, so it should be coming along without much further delay after this.
Also in this build are barrels, which can hold items (and enemies), and pipes that you can use to send items to a later floor for collecting.
Full changelog below:
Fixes
Enemies never pick up weapons
Making undead followers pick up weapons rarely works
"Loot" menu can be brought up for gorhound corpses
Using lanterns interrupts rolls
Kicking locked doors spams the failure message
Other stuff too, I'm sure
New Stuff
Co-Op!
New Main Menu
Pipes for sending items between floors
Barrels
Corn Kernels
One new meal effect
Changes
Significantly decreased steal-range of reciprocity
Can force a pilfer by manually grabbing while rolling past enemies, even if the chosen equipment slot is already taken
Can plant objects in enemies' pockets with manual pilfer
Replaced Heal with Air Dash for grumbul assassins
Removed Air Dash from skeletal spearmen
Reduced Haste charges for Undead Warriors
Changes to Versus Mode menu
Replaced Heal and Regenerate in Versus mode with Cure and Raise Dead
Added pathfinding to Versus Mode AI
Changed how potatoes are cooked
Next Build TO-DO
Leaderboards, Anticropolis???
PS: Ignore the "0.0.16 (DEV)" business in the versioning. It doesn't mean anything except that neither Stevie nor I could be bothered to spend another 5+ hours rebuilding the game to fix what's essentially a typo after we noticed it.
H'okay!
Unfortunately still no Anticropolis yet, but it's getting close. Co-op is very nearly done, so regardless of whether or not The Anticropolis comes out with the next update, co-op will likely be in for sure.
In the meantime, this build introduces many balance changes, including some alterations to the damage calculation formula to make both enemies and players: less likely to deal 0s and less likely to wham for 8-10+ damage in a single hit. I've also consolidated the Heal and regenerate spells into a single, less healing-oriented (but hopefully more interesting to use) Cure spell, with Heal and Regenerate being made its Overload and Trance, respectively. Overall, the result should be that being struck is less of an immediate death sentence but bears more of a long-term cost, with damage numbers being more consistent and healing being rarer.
Additionally, where before your maximum spell charges would increase by simply leveling up MAG, they now only increase once at MAG level 3, and apply to all spells both known and yet-unknown. Some changes to the way charge stars work for Overload and Trance should hopefully make those abilities a bit more fun to use as well.
In any case, there's a bunch of other changes, and some bug fixes that should make this build a bit less volatile. Guess you'll just have to read the changelog or play to find them out!
Fixes
Changing window focus while looting doesn't pause the game
Fixed(?) crash from humanoids attacking with missing weapons
Roll sound plays continuously when looking down with lanterns
Unarmed kick (dagger skill 1) doesn't work properly
Soul- weapons' dark bolt strikes miss frequently
First attack after Taunt doesn't always activate the power strike
Salting food doesn't actually do anything
Sticks continue to burn even in water
Fixed(?) Impossible trap rooms
Fixed several memory leaks
Some optimizations
Fixed wall-grumbuls
Bottles filled with water while held are drawn incorrectly
Voices of humanoid enemies wrongly positioned upon death
New Stuff
New Wizard Throw overload
Added unstable effects for:
Wizard Throw
Haste
Slow
Frost Bolt
Vampirism
Poison Blob
New Spell:
Cure
Removed Heal and Regenerate as individual spells
Changes
Changed how Charge Stars work for Overload and Trance
Stars are now shared among all overloads/trances,
rather than being spent per-spell
Changed how damage and defense are calculated
Fewer 0s and fewer unexpectedly high hits
Changed ladder sprites
Added focus strike abilities to Pounce, Downward Thrust, and Rolling Blade
+1 MIN STR instead of +1 STR at level 3
Max spell charges are now gained only at MAG level 3
Max spell charge increase applies to all spells, known and unknown
Unstable teleport is more consistently unstable
Taunt and Focus strike attacks win weapon clashes
Added different effects when pouncing with different slime balls
Changed rules of Soul-weapons
Increased range of unstable shadow cloak
Made Health and Regeneration potions rarer
Enemies use potions sooner in fights
Boiling Potions can be carried for longer before boiling away
Critical strikes made visible with a green streak
Poison damage now stacks when applied multiple times
Changed the Grumbul meal effect
Changed input of Flourish to match Heavy Bat and Dagger Storm
Improved range, knockback, and stun of Heavy Bat
Changed input for tier 3 Axe / Hammer neutral air to double-tap attack
Increased knockback on focus strike uppersmash
Removed Flourish from spears
Made byat spawn holes more visible
Soups now heal for 1 by default
Added two more ways to cook food
Smoldering foods char much faster
Shopkeepers now have classes and are smarter about catching thieves
Reduced default charge amount for several spells
Increased delay on enemies using weapon skills
Pursuing foes lose you slightly more easily
Next Build TO-DO
Leaderboards, Co-op, Anticropolis???
Fellow humans,
Behold, 0.0.14! Numerous changes in this one. If you missed the status update and are wondering where 0.1.0 is with The Anticropolis and Co-op, please check out the post I made on that subject right here. Long story short; they're a-comin'! Just need some more love and carressin', ya know?
In the meantime, peep this healthy changelog!
Fixes
Regeneration doesn't restore limbs if you have Overheal
Teleport always takes spell charges, even when Energized
Can't back away from ledges while shielding
Can't descend ledges while backing up with a shield
Slow fall while casting empty spell
Wrong coloration for some corpse's heads
Twins flee fights (legit fixed this time)
Grumbul Orb-Bearers can flee the floor
Having Incantation and Overload causes Vampirism and Haste to rapidly cast multiple times
Frozen food doesn't thaw over fire
Spiked equipment descriptions are wrong
Wanderers only hate hammers
Ghost spawns underwater
Bug drawing helms in ui when picking them up
Can't break fallen ceiling blocks in collapsing tunnels with weapons
Gamepad stops working on main menu sometimes (fixed??)
Hidden spikes often appear under gas traps
Grumbul Tank sometimes gets stuck behind the intro wall
Enemies can escape through barred exits
New Stuff
New Trait: Hungry
New Trait: Unstable Caster
New Trap: ████████████
New shopkeeper menu
New ghost menu
New class select menu
Changes
Improved stats of Claymores
Heavy Bat input changed to sprint+attack (same as Dagger Storm)
Ghost dialog box redone
Shopkeeper dialog box redone
Spinning attacks deal less damage per hit
Numerous changes to Weapon Skills:
Backswipe is now Flourish -- moved to tier 2 Axe Primary
Parry is a tier 4 weapon skill for Hammers and Swords
Spin Cleave removed from axes
Increased hitbox on Downward Thrust and The Drop
Numerous changes to Traits
Traits no longer occupy Skill Grid space
Positive and negative traits no longer paired
Loud is louder and increases the range of other noises
Hunger no longer universal: Moved to new trait
Hated weapons now behave like normal carried objects
Weapon hatred cannot be unlearned
Lucky Boots no longer a starting item
Significantly reduced range of Teleport
Leveling up INT increases efficacy of class abilities:
Bully gains more Power Orbs from taunt
Wanderer's Vision ability reaches further
Poet Tomes have more charges
Teleporting into walls will now kill you
Collapsing tunnels will destroy fallen crush traps and boulders
-of Removal weapons blink enemies further away, respecting knockback direction
Using items interrupts blocking with shields
Dropping through platforms requires less horizontal pixel precision
Added telefragging
Began adding Unstable spell effects:
Heal, Raise Dead, Blink, Magic Blast, Teleport, Infernus, Chain Lightning
Boulders and Crush Traps break spikes
Potions of Extra Regeneration last longer
Frozen potion shards have grace period before becoming dangerous
Reduced potency of "--of Light"
Added descriptions for footwear
Can sell items to shopkeepers
Killing a shopkeeper will return spent money
Humanoid AI dodges slightly less aggressively
Decreased LUC requirement for spiked armor to appear, and increased its frequency in general
Break made slightly more effective
Wanderer's "Vision" ability improved
Newest tracked object carries between levels
Can target items to be tracked
Pathfinder improved
Changes to Grumbul Tank
No longer jumps when player is in combat with summoned grumbuls (excepting the rider)
Tank Legs are no longer impervious to physical damage
Added more visual and audio cues for attacks
Removed time limit from chasing escaped enemies
Added indicator to exits when enemies escape
Next Build TO-DO
Leaderboards, Co-op, Anticropolis???
Fixing bugs! Back on that YYC for Windows, no more black fullscreen for Linux, and you can have your soup and eat it, too.
Fixes
0.0.13b
Fullscreen is black
Crash when drinking soups
Byat meal bonus doesn't always wear off
Spicy foods aren't indicated as such in food queue
Twins can flee from the fight
Crashes with AI in reaper fight
Shopkeepers are listed as "Other Things" in the end-of-run kill list
Frequent spawning in walls
Changes
0.0.13b
Added indicator beneath hunger queue to indicate currently active meal effects
Spicy meals made more effective
Added new soup type
Improved mechanics of hot potatoes
Can use grapple on Reaper
Completing a meal shows its final components
A new year, a new build!
Sorry it's a couple weeks late, mostly due to issues actually building the game and not content stuff. Which I suppose goes for the build itself as well: not too much new stuff, but it's [strike]now compiled using Game Maker's YYC (YoYo Compiler), which should hopefully help improve performance a not insignificant amount [crosses fingers].[/strike] [REDACTED] Unfortunately, said issues building affected osx the most and haven't yet been satisfactorily overcome, so the Mac version is still built without the YYC and as such won't see any performance changes for the better this time around.
Most of this past month was spent getting the YYC working nicely, working on Anticropolis stuff, reordering and the optimizing level generator, and an embarrassing amount of time being sad on holidays. Hopefully finally gettin' this build out will lift my spirits a bit though!
The main visible features in this build are soups - which can be made by boiling bottles of non-slime corpses with water in them - and spices, which are sometimes found on tables and can be used to improve food. Neither soup nor spice stuff is nearly finished yet, but it's a start and will hopefully prove an interesting addition that grows over time. Really I just didn't want to put out a build with nothing new to play with in it, after so much work doing invisible backend stuff. At the moment there are four 'spices'. What they do is up to you to find out.
Also relevant: I've hired an animator to help lighten the load on me and speed up the production of all the new frosty enemies that'll be coming to the icy depths of the Anticropolis (and beyond!) His name is John and he's rad. Everybody say "Hi, John!"
You can check out some of his other work here: http://imgur.com/a/HNtO7
and follow him on twitter at @bigbooty2dcutie
EDIT: Temporarily went back to a non-YYC build for Windows, hoping to fix an issue where the game is just a black-screen. Unfortunately this means the game won't have the performance improvements I had hoped using YYC would impart.
Fixes
Humanoid enemies no longer use potions or eat potatoes
Crash upon throwing bottled charge stars
Crash upon throwing charge stars dropped by grumbul tank guards
Grumbul Tank guards causing repeated non-fatal crashes
Undead followers sometimes appear at the wrong position when going to the next floor
Loudness of byat wings unaffected by sound volume setting
Loudness of boulders rolling unaffected by sound volume setting
Bottled mushrooms still burn and give off gas
Several pathfinding-related crashes
New Stuff
Make Soup!
Spices! (WIP)
[strike]Now compiled with YYC, which should give a significant performance improvement[/strike]
Two new status effects
New music in ceiling trap transitional stage
Changes
Made a couple reputations slightly easier to achieve
Byat meals wear off after 2 floors, rather than lasting forever
Food queue gradually empties after a period of not eating anything
Removed COMBO input mode for class abilities
Wizard throw better aligns enemies to the tiles when grabbed
Next Build TO-DO
Leaderboards?
Build 0.0.12 time! Woo!
Golly this one took a while, and then a while again. In case you ever needed confirmation, implementing pathfinding for very mobile platformer characters through procedurally generated levels is tough. But I did it! Mostly! There are still some quirks and hiccups here and there, but I think this new AI, much like the level generation itself, will be the sort of thing that's constantly getting tweaked and improved as development continues.
However, this AI update now marks the last "Large Feature" I needed to get done before the Anticropolis + Co-op build. Does that mean the big chunky Anticroppy update is gonna be next? Well, unfortunately not. As I'm sure you've noticed this last one took way longer than I was anticipating and so I'm a fair bit behind schedule. As such, the next few updates will probably be -- if more timely -- a bit lighter on new features, as I'll be focusing almost entirely on Anticropolis and Co-op stuff. Stevie and I have also been making progress on the leaderboards, so expect those before long as well.
The 'smaller features' that I'll be working on in the meantime will be things like; more meals and food items, further additions and improvements to the new AI, more transitional stages, changes to the way traits are obtained and improved, and, as always, fixing crashes and improving performance.
Lastly, I'll be streaming some gameplay today on twitch.tv/fourbitfriday in about an hour (4pm PST), so if you wanna come by and talk about things feel free.
Without further ado, changelog below:
Fixes
Can interrupt Execute with Kick
Crash when bottling a charge star
Crash when throwing pure cracked force star
Can learn spells without the space for them
Crash in VS mode upon round end if one player's stick has burned away
Fishahna are unaffected by slow, pause, and haste
Horizontally held enemies sometimes push the carrier backwards
Byats grabbed with Heavy Lifting sometimes get stuck in walls
Crash upon casting overloaded Wizard Throw
New Stuff
New Humanoid AI
Enemies will now pathfind to their goals
[to the player, to allies, to water when on fire, etc]
Other tweaks to minimize their dying in idiotic ways
It's not perfect!
New STR Boon -- Grapple
Headgear now shows in character portraits!
Changes
Floor spikes are more forgiving when landing at low speeds; can be safely stepped on from corpses
Revised STR Boons:
Removed Overwhelming and Duelist
Pounce is a tier 1 STR boon rather than part of the default moveset
Focus Strike is a tier 2 STR boon, and more attacks can be focused
Can no longer shield-bash 0-hp enemies
Fixes and modifications to Heavy Lifting
Can climb while heavy lifting enemies
Much more maneuverable when holding small enemies
Descend while holding byats by holding down
Creatures hastened by taunt no longer gain Haste's evasion bonus
F1-F3 now toggle different information
If weird non-crash stuff happens you can turn on these layers to provide more info to help me fix things!
But don't be a cheater
'Overcharge' renamed to 'Energized' to be more different from Overload
Next Build TO-DO
More Traits and Meals
Sproing! Just a couple bugfixes. Literally two.
Fixes
0.0.11b
Game crashes when bottling corpses
Completing meals of +0hp with messy eater deals damage
So this past month I added a couple new transitional stages, made some changes to magic, improved certain boons, and implemented end-of-run Reputations. Unfortunately we weren't able to get online leaderboards done, but I'm hoping the reputations will help tide y'all over in the meantime. I've had leaderboards in too many "next-build to-dos" without delivering yet which makes me feel bad, so I'll leave 'em off this time and maybe it'll actually get done next month! That's how these things work, right? (In all seriousness, Stevie and I have been making good progress on leaderboards so it shouldn't be much longer! <3)
Magic has changed in that all spells are now of a certain type, noted in the bottom-right corner of the spell learning screen (and to be made more clear in more places with further updates). Regaining spell charges (for the most part) is now limited to only recharging one type of spell at a time, though there are certainly exceptions to this.
Charge Stars, previously only used to replenish trance and overload spells, have also become a much more interesting item. They're not quite finished yet, but I've got some fun plans for them in the future.
And as always, there have been a number of bugfixes.
Next month I'll be focusing on a long-coming AI update, as well as improving performance issues.
Here's the full changelog!
Fixes
Pressing "O" gives all grumbuls berzerk
"Delete" crash when opening doors next to boulders
Ice from ice bolt/cold burst/glacial shoes sometimes drawn behind tiles
Game crashes if you pilfer a hated weapon
Heavy bat and Hunter's Thrust don't work with sprint bound to a button
Grumbul Tank pilot is immortal
Still can burn your own shield
Game sometimes freezes after level generation
Byats can die by touching still boulders
Hitting boulders on the back-swing will knock them into you
New Stuff
2 New Transitional stages!
End-of-Run Reputations (WIP)
Status effect icons
Changes
Improved Tier 3 Axe skill
Travels further, curves both up and down walls.
Improved Mighty Stomp
Range based on height of fall
Reduced time after stomp before you can attack again
Improved Tier 1 Sword skill
Reduced time after landing before you can attack again
Improved Disarm
Weapons are flung further away, damaging other foes along the way
Shield parrys disarm
Improved Plague
Infects corpses; infected corpses explode after time
Effect of explosion depends on the type of corpse
Hard Helms offer more protection
Stone footwear offers more protection
Haste increases attack speed
Updated some spell sprites
Fancier/improved event text
Reverted 'Sprint button' to previous functionality; release to stop sprinting
Can no longer roll with heavy lifted objects above your head
Environmental green slime bounces items
Changed Charge Stars (WIP)
Stars are hidden in walls and no longer drop from enemies
They begin as uncharged 'Hollow Stars' and must be charged before use
Spikes can be broken
Rewrote food eating and meal code (behavior is mostly unchanged)
Byat meal doesn't stack
Disease occasionally causes weakness
Crouch-attacking on top of a boulder will strike the boulder
Player no longer immune to [ ]'s destruction
Placeholder sfx for swinging blade traps (WIP)
Next Build TO-DO
Better AI!
Fixed a crash. Windows only for now but Mac+Linux should be coming soon.
Fixes:
Crash upon using Trajectory
Crash upon pressing Enter
Bugfix update!
Fixes
0.0.10b
Magic Beam bending through portals
Fullscreen not centered vertically on non 16:9 resolutions
Wanderer instinct doesn't highlight stairs
Charge stars for Trance/Overload are incorrect for many spells
Stairs that look like blocks
Mixing slimes and potions with alchemy only works when holding the potion
Crash upon bottling orb of leveling
Crash upon using trajectory with bottled balls of slime and mucus
Alchemy and Dipper still say "unimplemented" in the Levels tab of the pause menu
Waterfalls flowing into lava have don't have a graphic
Heavy Lifting enemies while rolling still displays 'heavy lifted' even though it fails
Shopkeepers with Undo crash the game
Crash when looting a corpse with a burning stick
anim_swordStab crash
Learning 'Extra Tough' doesn't actually work :D
Incantation doesn't properly increase spell cost
Fixed and error with oogs that was affecting performance
Improved performance of explosions
Hits don't always connect when pouncing on enemies
Can't pounce when recharging energy
Infinite controller rumble upon death
Controller rumble when using keyboard
Unending purple sparkles when blocked energy is equal to max energy
Off-slot spell charge numbers drawn in wrong color with two-spell option
Blink Trance doesn't use charge star
Air Dash doesn't consume energy overcharge
Undo restores the energy overcharge used to cast it
Small pools of lava don't light up
Disappearing platforms insta-kill the reaper
Max mp STILL doesn't increase with the proper meal
Crash in shops selling unstable potions
Changes
0.0.10b
Push now has instant recovery
Slight changes to Grumbul Tank AI
Less lava in Grumbul Tank arena
Grumbul Tank doesn't lose as much mobility with busted legs
Break breaks boulders
Boulders break bottles
Overwhelming's speed boost lowered
Overwhelming no longer counts bosses
Changes to Hammer vs arena
Only need to tap sprint button to sprint, rather than hold
Assigning sprint to a button disables double-tap sprinting
Improved accuracy of Chain Lightning and Dark Arts Tome
Art by Joe Gribbin
SO.
It's been a minute, eh? A minute and a half, even. That's fine though, because I'm still alive, and this is still happening. That's right! As a beaten, bleeding, heart-still-beating Kid once said; "I'm not dead yet!"
So what have I been up to, you may be asking yourself. Maybe you aren't. How would I know? I'm not your brain. I'll tell you anyway though:
Wandering is what I've been up to -- as in, making the new Wanderer class. They're speedy and have senses sharp as knives, they do. I hope you enjoy them. As well I've laid the groundwork for unique weapons and added a few, and made some not insignificant changes to the level generator, not least of which are locked doors and new premade rooms. It may have taken a while but I can say at last that the generator is ready to be iced over and flipped upside down for the coming Anticropolis.
I've also added Alchemy and Dipper, the two second-tier INT boons, which marks at last the implementation of all the first two tiers of stat boons. Some of the other boons, spells and skills have also been updated and improved.
For the next update (IN A MONTH I SWEAR) I'll be working on finishing the things I didn't manage to for this update: Daily run leaderboards, more and better transitional stages, and certain talked-about changes to magic that those who watch the dev streams might be aware of.
Full changelog below:
[code=CHANGELOG]Fixes
Casting Flame Wave burns your own shield
Several crashes
Kept gaining overheal even after hitting max hp limit
Max mp doesn't increase with the proper meal
Poets' tome is unwielded after going through a level door
Class Input method doesn't save for gamepads
Class ability icons appear incorrectly in the spell slots
Third spell slot miscolored when low on spell charges
Issues with using tome as a 'Skill' class input
Food queue doesn't show up in pause menus
Eating twins results gives a grumbul food instead of undead
Heavy Lifting doesn't properly override normal object pickups when grabbing enemies
Certain spells show a charge star when they shouldn't
Tome attacks hurt your own followers
Footwear with stats don't apply their stats
New Stuff
New Class! -- Wanderer
New INT Stat Boons
Dipper
Alchemy
Waterfalls
Couple new weapons
Locked doors and keys
Wooden barricades
Stairs
Intra-floor doors
New premade rooms
Many changes to level gen
Changes
Sticks burn
Fire spreads more from enemies to you
Being struck physically by burning enemies has a high chance to burn you
Limited foes' ability to spam kick
Infernus flames start blue, but turn orange quickly
Infernus now burns the caster once orange
Sword Skill 3 (Hack 'n' Slash) is easier to use:
Strikes at least 3 times in succession upon hitting an enemy
Additional enemies caught in the flurry add more strikes
Stun upon missing or ending the flurry is longer
Gorhounds have more hp, more DEF, and are more evasive
Crush trap chains behave more predictably when struck
"Poised" now reflects knockback from attacks back upon the enemy
A few new things
Changed the way levers spawn and are placed
Changed the way ladders/elevators spawn and are placed
Improved Air Dash
Now chains from enemy to enemy
Added trances to Blink and Frost Bolt
Left joystick now triggers class abilities on gamepad
Class ability trigger now defaults to "Button" rather than "Combo"
Poet's Tome behaves differently
Activating Tome uses the books' ability rather than wielding/unwielding
[except on 'combo' input]
Charged Tomes follow behind the player charged until used again
Grumbuls will stow items that spawn near them
Relatedly, added two new grumbul types (based on what they grab)
Grumbuls no longer wield bardiches
Normal Grumbuls sometimes occasionally wield hammers
Grumbul assassins slightly more common
Blue slime balls (now "mucus") have their own properties
Reaper no longer immune to invisibility
Grumbul Turrets can now spawn on main floors
Shop doors lock behind you
Stat loss from severed limbs is now repairable
Stat loss from severed limbs doesn't stack through repeated dismemberments
Regeneration only restores one limb at a time
Losing an arm penalizes both STR and DEF
Learning points now appear next to the orb of leveling icon in the hud
Haste is slightly slower
Haste grants the auto-dodge from Freerun
Haste auto-dodges jump attacks
Removed auto-dodge from Freerun
Extra Tough protects from death as long as your hp is over 75%
Regenerate heals more slowly
Overload Break deals more damage to equipment
Jumping will cancel trajectory throws
Stampede no longer runs through cornered enemies
Stampede tramples multiple enemies at once
Poison Blob bounces off of walls
Temporal Tricks tome time bubble bigger by bunches
Increased range of Slow
Lucky footwear is luckier
Byats are more evasive
Next Build TO-DO
Changes to Magic
Daily Run Leaderboard / General Stat-Tracking (for realsies!)
What! What! Another bugfix update, as well as a few minor changes.
Fixes
0.0.9c
Sometimes armors are mis-drawn with objects in them
Fullscreen is offset/doesn't fit at certain resolutions
Using shield-bash to pilfer weapons ignores missing arms
Eating severed limbs with resourceful screws up food queue
Shields are wrongly colored
Game crashes upon startup if game_data.ck fails to load
"MISSING DS MAP" In place of the Daily Run
Weapons are called shields in the equipment menu
Enders and their skeletal spawn aren't on the same team
Poet's Tome disappears upon Undo death-save
Closing doors forces you into crush-traps
Can get stuck in walls when defeating the reaper
Exit doors sometimes spawn in walls
More objects properly darken when outside of viewing range
Changes
0.0.9c
Overheal maxes out at max hp+INT
Wooden shields burn
Shields degrade with use
Health increase on level-up doesn't eat Overheal
Added missing indicators on spellbook menu
Changed Poets' "Combo" input to "Hold Stow"
Spirit followers are immune to fire
Being in lava deals more damage
Clarified that Dagger Skill 3 (Execute) needs to be done in midair
Evasion for Freerun and Acrobatic no longer trigger while attacking
Mad quick super small bugfix update!
Controller doesn't stop rumbling upon death
Tutorial ghost is aggressive
Tutorial text background is offset
Debug keys are active??? (could not reproduce)
~Enjoy
It’s that time again!
A not insignificant number of changes in this build, such as the game now being w i d e s c r e e n, with an accompanying UI overhaul, and Wordsmiths not being entirely useless! Also, there’s a Daily Run mode! I’m still working out some kinks though, so everyone’s levels and kids might not be as-exactly-the-same as I’d like for them to be eventually -- especially between different OSes. There’s also a lack of proper Leaderboards and such, which will also be coming in the future. But hey, the foundation is laid. Just needs to be built upon, now!
For the next month I’ll be focusing on finishing up the Poet (finally), adding the long-awaited new class, and working a bit more on the Daily Runs -- in addition to some Secret Things that I’ll not speak of here. I also anticipate touching up the level generator a bit, with new rooms and some funky new transitional stages, as well as more fundamental changes that’ll become necessary as I progress on to the Anticropolis.
Full changelog below:
Fixes
Crash when gorhound corpses are destroyed
Pressure plates aren't properly held down by the player
Class abilities don't appear when equipped to the third spell slot
Controllers rumble when not in use
Can't walk on lava with boots of gossamer
Corrected text descriptions for certain Boons
"Stuck!" text and noise spamming when in contact with purple slime
Aiming boulders downward with Trajectory kills you
Grumbuls spaz out in water
Armless enemies still punch
Legless enemies are mad whack
Flame Wave direction doesn't change through portals
Can take damage when going through the exit door
Can unstow and hold items without arms
Entering a level with one leg causes kids to fly upwards
The Reaper can strand player in the reaper room if distracted by another enemy
Black Chests can spawn Growth
Spells from the Black Chest twitch oddly
Spells from the Black Chest can be stown
Reaper's diving spin attack is basically instant-kill (oops)
Some bugs with properly choosing keyboard and gamepad inputs
Twins exit door can spawn on top of entrance door
Reaper gets drawn behind the environment after doing its super
Skeletal Mages leave no corpses
Black Chest missing noise when opened
Boulders don't release properly when grabbed for rolling
Crash when throwing a bottle of goo or slime through a torch
Flame Wave doesn't change direction through portals properly
Dragon's Breath doesn't ignite explosive gas
Overloaded Frost Bolt (Glacial Grinder) doesn't cost a charge star
Overloaded Slow (Pause) doesn't cost a charge star
Crash when sprinting up walls with glacial footwear
Pouncing on frozen enemies is mad whack
New Stuff
UI overhaul
Daily Run Mode (WIP)
Wordsmith Charged Tome abilities
Changes
Duelist now slows all enemies on screen, not just the ones targeting you
Added targeting reticle to duelist
Overwhelming made more visually obvious
Max HP caps out at 25
Spellbooks are destroyed after one use
Crush/Spike traps no longer trigger at all with boots of gossamer
Spellbooks can only be used once
Tome abilities come out much faster
Failing to identify a potion now results in a message
Might is now called Might instead of Strength sometimes
Disarm and Extra Tough switched places in the boon order
Byat holes now spawn a maximum of 5 Byats
Fire and Ice Tome attack burns for a shorter duration
"Pickpocket" changed to "Pilfer"
"Pilfer" steals shoes, hats, and weapons from enemies if you are shoeless, hatless, or unarmed
Portal no longer illuminates the darkness
Can no longer move portal outside of the view when aiming it
Poisoned slime poisons enemies when used to blind them
Can now aim Tome spells
Headless skeletons are blind
Tier 3 taunt no longer grants might
Tier 2 taunt weakness wears off faster
Shopkeeper gets mad a little more easily
Spirit followers have slightly more hp
Spirit followers shoot faster
Spirit followers don't return to you between shots
Ogo now ignore wooden platforms like oog do
Enemies become more aggressive when taunted
Alterations to Reaper
-of Stopping procs less frequently and for a shorter duration
Striking paused foes always unpauses them
Shadow Cloak lasts slightly longer
Tomes attacks cost the same amount, regardless of entities affected
Tomes start with more charges
Temporal Tricks' Tome attack deals damage now
Enemies have a brief warning before casting spells or executing any nonstandard moves
Most trances last longer
Charge stars restore energy when used
Charge stars auto-collect (like coins) if any trances or overloads are empty [experimental]
Spellwright's aimed spells are no longer offset in front of you
Tomes don't consume book charges if they fail
Next Build TO-DO
Finish Poet (For Realsies)!
New Class!
Daily Run Leaderboard / General Stat-Tracking
Just a quick bugfix build
Fixes
Crash upon defeating the reaper
Plague overload and trance costs no charge stars
Slow overload costs Magic Blast charge stars
Removed "L" debug key for disabling lighting
Crash if killed while in Force Bubble
Crash when casting overloaded Raise Dead
Flame Form burns your own spellbook
Crashes when killing yourself with dragon breath
Water looks weird at times
Magic blast overload costs 4 charges instead of 2
Spell-slotted class abilities cost energy
Portal shows a cost of 3.5
Leveling weapon skills via Bully class-up still rounds them down
Leveling weapon skills via Bully class-up doesn't remove 0-Skill traits
Game crashes when whirlwind and flame wave meet
Looting corpses tips over torches
HEY.
So here's the first full month update for CK! It's a lotta bugs addressed, gasses re-gassed, trances trancified, and goo balls ga-boinked.
Hope you're not too disappointed if you were lookin' for a new class and daily run mode. Between GDC, getting ready to move, and addressing bugs, I figured it'd be better to focus in this build on several less involved things so as to get you all something substantial rather than half-assin' two major features without first addressing the existing issues.
As I was working on those other tasks and thinking about classes, however, I hit upon a bit of a problem. My plan has always been to completely finish the Poet and bully Before moving on to the next classes - so that they can serve as sort of a template and guideline for the others in terms of scope and ability. However, as I tried briefly to tackle finishing the Poet this past month I found the UI unable to accommodate the vision I have in mind for the class.
So now, fixing up the UI has become a much larger priority if I am to finish the Poet and move on to the other classes quickly as planned, so that's going to be the first order of business going into April.
Don't be a blue blob, though! I had always planned on redoing the UI once co-op was implemented, and to change the game to a 16:9 aspect ratio. It's just gonna happen now rather than later. This is also good news because the new UI will be made specifically with multiple players in mind, meaning I'll be able to jump into work on Co-op much sooner than the 'later' I had planned.
So that's what's coming in the future, but let's check out the now: You can find the full patch notes for alpha 0.0.8 below!
Fixes
Fixed some issues with level connectivity
Orb of leveling spawns in walls
Non-humanoid enemies try to drop weapons when parried with Disarm
Grumbuls will attack mushrooms even when they're held by an invisible player
ACTUALLY fixed infinite byat flapping
For real this time
Removed debug shortcut for activating 'tome' ability
Fixed crash when dying while talking to the ghost
Trampling enemies with Stampede now makes them target you
Raise Dead spirit followers now properly follow you through doors
Chain lightning cost unaffected by energy overcharge
Spells equipped to slot 3 offset text alinment for alt spell charge count
"Your lantern goes out" text stays for as long as you hold a spent lantern
Rats don't bleed
Moving portals into boulders gets them stuck
Lifting boulders sometimes drops them on your head
Can't walk backwards while charging hammer focus strike
Crush trap chain sound continues even after breaking
Spaz out when dragging boulders
Crash when throwing certain enemies with trajectory
Potions caught in explosions boil infinitely
Performance improvements (Ever-in-Progress)
Item bottles played no sound when broken
Whirlwind doesn't cause items to hit enemies
Some Trances cast the Overload versions of spells
'Acrobatic' overrides taunt combo input
Ladders interfere with Sword Skill 1 and Axe Skill 3 (Downwards Thrust, Earth Splitter)
Reduced number draw calls for Temporal Step. Hopefully this fixes a crash?
"+" symbol offset when learning 1x1 spells
Balls of goo stay suspended in air if the wall they're stuck to is removed
Rerolling transitional levels doesn't bring you back to the same level type
Trances don't follow from floor to floor
-of Escape doesn't escape
Simple enemies die when they touch immobile boulders
New Stuff
More Spell Trances
Charge Stars
Overhauled Gasses
Changes
Globally reduced enemy damage on the first few floors
Enemy damage ramps up more gradually
Shadow Cloak wears off much faster
Statuses from armors "Of The Ghost" and "Of Power" wear off faster
Portal has fewer charges
Infernus has fewer charges
Balls of Goo have increased knockback
Balls of Goo bounce off of the environment and creatures
Being jumped on no longer immediately removes invisibility
Leveling up weapon skills no longer rounds them down
Being struck while speaking with the ghost will exit the menu
Fishahnas can no longer crit
Byats only crit on their charged attack
Moved "show info" to 'F1', instead of '1'
Looking around with lanterns shifts the view
Refueling lanterns gives a bit more fuel
Reduced size of camera influence area during reaper summon
Changes to lava and water appearance
Made spirit followers more accurate
Slime-blinded enemies are more blind
Mushrooms now only grow with each poison burst
Some level generator changes
Added option to control config menu to use class abilities
Changed collision shape of broken crush traps
Casting portal on top of a door breaks the door
Wet status shown in pause menu
Bottles and other items continue to make noise after first impact
Bottles of Lava
Potions slightly more fragile
Potions won't identify if the target is immune to their effects
Swarm Form is now the Trance of plague, rather than its Overload
Things thrown with Trajectory can pass thru portals
Can't go through level exits while attacking
Can't go through level exits while looking around with lantern
Purple Slimes ignore wooden bridges
The Twins' door locks behind you when the fight begins
The Grumbul Tank entrance door stays locked after the fight
Minor changes to Level Generation
Minor changes to enemy AI
The Cursor Keys, Enter, and Escape always work on the main menu
Press Delete to unassign individual keyboard controls and backspace to reset to default
Some Changes to Potions
New Potion "Colors"
Next Build TO-DO
Overhaul UI
Make game 16:9
Finish Poet?
Add Daily Run mode
(note: These are the actual, real changelog notes. Any others are dumb liars.)
So, it’s been a little over a month since the Early Access release! Q: How’s it going so far? A: GOOD. Following the first quick bugfix build a few days after the initial steam launch, I continued working on fixing bugs and crashes, and easing back into game dev mode after the hectic weeks leading up to Early Access. Then, March kicked off with the Game Developer’s Conference, where I gave a talk about procedural level generation. People seemed to like it, so that’s cool! Since I had to gather some resources and make slides for that presentation anyway, I’m gonna use that as an excuse/jumping-off point to finally do a write-up about CK’s level generation that I’ve been talking about making for a while, so look forward to that happening sometime very soon. At GDC I also met a ton of rad people working on groovy things, like moppppin, who’s making Downwell, and Tim Keenan, who got me excited for Duskers, and Nihilocrat, who does cool nice things that I dig. And, I mean, there were a ton of other folks. Like wow so many — all doing groovy cool rad things. Jeez, just too many. -- Anyway, after recovering from GDC and getting that wombat of creativity dug down in my gut again, I got back to The Kids. Since the EA release I’ve been keepin’ three eyes on Twitch streamers and Youtube Let’s Plays of the game - due in part to narcissism but also so that I can see the areas people are having trouble with, take note of bugs and balance issues, and laugh at their many, many (many, many) deaths. Watching these videos has brought about a few balancing changes, like making enemies hit softer on the earlier floors, severely shortening the duration of the spell Shadow Cloak, and a few other tweaks and changes to make the game easier or harder in the proper places. I mean really, why did Shadow Cloak even last that long in the first place? -- During the Monday streams, I continued work on Trance, adding another valuable tool to the player’s arsenal. Trance is the counterpart boon to Overload: where Overload focuses on making spells more outwardly powerful, Trances are more about imbuing the player with a more passive aspect of the spell. This doesn’t mean that Trances are always merely defensive - though that is a trend they have - but that rather than having an immediate outward effect, they grant the player some trait or ability that persists for a short duration. I’ve also made Trance and Overload require Charge Stars, which was actually the intention for them all along but which I didn’t have finished in time for the release. Essentially, casting a spell as an Overload or Trance will cost a kind of spell charge called a ‘Star’, and that spell can’t be Overloaded or Trance’d again until its Charge Star has been recovered. Charge Stars can be found in fancy chests and may sometimes be dropped by tougher enemies. They also make a nice sound when they hit the ground; a consequence of the work Hryx and Doseone have been doing to make the game sound amazing. Hey did I mention how pumped I am to have Doseone working on the game? I don’t think I have, so there’s that. Him and Stevie have been killin’ it together aurally for nearly a year now, and I can’t wait to make some headway on the Anticropolis so you guys can hear the beauty it’s shaping up to be even in these early stages. Lastly and most recently, I’ve set to work knocking out some of the inefficiencies of the code that had been having a significant impact on performance. Not least among these elements are gasses, which have been completely reworked. They now are able to spread around corners an be blown around by Whirlwind, in addition to their previous functions. This is also good because gasses will be an important aspect of the Anticropolis, and even moreso the Deep Dark. -- So that’s how my month has gone. The first real monthly build update to the game will happen sometime later this week, and include all of the above changes plus a bunch more, as well as a couple other announcements. Look forward to it!
[ 5971 ]
[ 1742 ]
[ 1755 ]