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Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all, but I messed up this month! I have to capture the scores before any regular players take a shot for the next month or it clears your score, and I wasn't able to get the scores in time before that happened (twice). It used to be that I had more time as you would have to beat your last months score or the score would have to age 30 days before it would clear it, but this had its own set of issues so I fixed it. I'm trying to think out how I can automate things so that the game can do the work for me.
That takes us to the November results... I think I have the ranking right below, but the actual scores are lost to me other than for Drakkett Aranthe. I think Vavilenus had something like 9 million from earlier in the month, and I think I saw SirRave with something more along the lines of 500-600k, though I'm fuzzy on that one. Plus I don't know if you got a last minute round in up until midnight on the 30th. If you know your score, let me know in the group chat and I'll fix it up. Otherwise, I'll try and make sure this can't happen again in the future. Please accept my apology for my mistake.
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Many thanks for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Another month and another set of high scores for Solaroids. Hope everyone is enjoying the hot summer warmth in the northern hemisphere and getting lots of vacations and summer activities in. If you're down south, hopefully there's a light at the end of the tunnel and Spring is on its way soon!!
The all-time champs have deferred this month to make way for some of the rising challengers - I didn't pay them I promise!
Last month Morg556 had achieved a top score of 73M and this month takes the lead slot with their new personal best of almost 138M. Congratulations!!
Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.
Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.
Cheers and as always Happy Blasting!!
Chad (kiates)
Welcome new and veteran players! Happy new year and many thanks for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Happy new year and many thanks for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Happy new year and many thanks for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Happy new year and many thanks for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Happy new year and many thanks for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Happy new year and many thanks for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Happy new year and many thanks for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Happy new year and many thanks for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Happy new year and many thanks for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Minor feature updates and/or bug fixes.
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Minor feature updates and/or bug fixes.
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Minor feature updates and/or bug fixes.
*Asteroids Deluxe vector theme shown
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Hello Solaroids players around the world - literally. It was high time that the supported languages get an overhaul after adding so much TEXT to the game. So, with this release I'm happy to announce that all major supported languages will be complete once again - now or very soon. They are actively being worked on by localization experts around the world so expect a few small patches to complete to the work over the coming weeks.
Oh and another thing... It's also time to drop the Prologue from the title and branding. I conceived of the Prologue sub-text as my way of introducing an incomplete game to the Steam Early Access community. While I still plan more updates before leaving Early Access, the game has grown out of its Prologue moniker. In addition, I've noticed a lot of demos being branded as Prologues over 2020, and Solaroids: Prologue is not a demo! Hopefully, this reconciles that annoyance as well. If you see any references to Prologue lurking about, let me know!
Those are the big things this round, but on a smaller scale I've tweaked the default options to something that I think will improve the first player experience. If you want to "trust me" and try them for yourself, just go to the Miscellaneous menu and hit that Reset button steamsalty.
Enjoy!
Chad (Kiates)
*Asteroids vector theme shown
Welcome new and veteran players! Thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Minor feature updates and/or bug fixes.
Welcome new players and thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
Hello Solaroids players around the world. I've got a potpourri of improvements ready to ship out to you this spring. There are a bunch so I'll get right to them!
Welcome new players and thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
I see some regulars this month after radio silence for a while. Welcome back and thank you for playing and competing in the :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS: monthly high score challenge.
Congratulations to all!
1st place this month goes to long time player BLURR with a score of 49,838,145 using the ultra-competitive Classic (Asteroids-like) control style. BLURR's either getting rusty, or this is just a "casual" practice run for the new year, steammocking. Looking forward to seeing you beat your all time high score of 259,940,365 in 2021.
2nd place, with a score of 28,526,215, goes to another regular this side of the galaxy, Harnulfson, also using the Classic control style. Harnulfson ranks on the all-time boards in 7th place with 186,697,535, just behind yours truly.
Finally, 3rd place goes to another regular player PunchDrunk with 14,630,535, only with the Modern (dual-stick) control style.
Note: Only the First Credit leaderboards are used for the monthly challenge.
Wow, the number of players just continued to climb through December! Lot's of new names this month!
Welcome to the new players, and thank you for playing... :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS:
Congratulations to all!
1st place goes to brand new player Starcrunch with a great score of 119,771,885 using the Modern (dual-stick) control style. Kudos also for the solid placement in the top 10 on the all-time boards as well.
2nd place, and also a new name this month, is Arcadae with 21,294,740 points and also using the Modern (dual-stick) control style.
Finally, in 3rd place is ioClone x-45 with 5,738,680 and also using the Modern (dual-stick) control style.
Note: Only the First Credit leaderboards are used for the monthly challenge.
Minor feature updates and/or bug fixes.
Minor feature updates and/or bug fixes.
Another update coming at you in time for the "cold" holidays here in the northern hemisphere. This one is primarily some quality-of-life features.
A lot of new players this month due to steam sales!
Welcome and thank you for playing... :solaroidsS::solaroidsO:solaroidsLsolaroidsA:solaroidsR::solaroidsO::solaroidsI:solaroidsD:solaroidsS:
Congratulations to all!
1st place goes to mon-stryder with 5,010,775 using the Modern (dual-stick) control style.
Coming in 2nd place is -Fish- with 1,494,415 points using Classic (Asteroids) control style.
Finally, third place goes to Yarvik with 787,475 also using the Modern (dual-stick) control style.
Note: Another quick reminder that only the First Credit leaderboards are used for the monthly challenge.
Hello arcade shoot'em up and classic Asteroids lovers across the globe. I have a "small" update for you this fall primarily focused on performance improvements, but has a few significant changes under the hood that especially benefit those with either "creative" steam names, or are from a culture with vast numbers of unique characters.
Some of you that also play games on Xbox One may already know, but I released a free demo for Xbox One last summer along with an update earlier this fall that added full leaderboard including daily, weekly, and monthly support to that demo. If you play on that platform too, please give it a try! Anyway as a part of that effort, I've done a ton of performance tuning in my custom engine under the hood to support consoles. This should translate to lower resource/gpu usage for PC/Linux/Mac users, so everyone wins.
In addition I have ripped out my entire text rendering system and replaced it with an improved framework. Everyone should notice slightly improved text rendering, but the big feature this enabled is the ability to render more character sets such as Chinese and Japanese as prime examples. ? marks in steam leaderboards should now be a thing of the past for non-vector mode. Vector mode will still suffer until I can figure out how best to create a vector font that can encompass these diverse characters.
For first time players, I've also introduced selection screens on game launch that allow to to pick both an initial theme and control style. This should help those just starting out get familiar with some of the ways to play and reduce initial frustration. The demo always shows it, but the full version will only show it the first time playing. There is an option under Miscellaneous to force it on/off.
Finally, I've started work on additional difficulty settings. For now, I'm only exposing the new Easy mode for more casual players, but in the future I'll enable Hard and Insane modes, once they are ready.
Cheers!
Chad (kiates)
BLURR holds 1st place for October with their early-in-the-month score of 259,940,365.
Flu Orid swooped in later during the month, I presume to assert their grand-champion dominance, but failed to topple BLURR while still securing a solid 2nd place entry with a score of 100,002,490.
Rounding out 3rd place is Harnulfson with a respectful score of 86,097,960. Harnulfson seems to have been enjoying some much-needed R&R over the last few months, as I haven't seen them in the leaderboards since they took the July 2nd place slot.
It was a casual month on the Solaroids leaderboard for September 2020. Maybe everyone is settling into the change of seasons for those of us that don't live near the equator? Maybe we need to recruit some fresh pilots to up the challenge, maybe the pandemic is weighing on everyone, or maybe everyone is playing that Among Us game these days?
Raining all time champion Flu Orid skims through this month and takes 1st place. Probably didn't even break a sweat collecting a score of 45,715,435. Or maybe with one hand tied behind your back?
Another regular, morg556, coasted into 2nd place with a score of 25,461,215.
Coming in 3rd place is mochoaxx with 5,168,925. Welcome to the winner's circle.
Congratulations all, hope you have a great October, and let's fill the monthly board this month!
Sorry for the delay on the August scores. I took some needed time off and it overlapped the transition. I don't have a backup at this stage of the game, it's just me.
morg556 is back, taking first place with a monthly high score of 206,137,240 with Classic controls after a several month hiatus. Good to see you in the periodic boards again!
BLURR, who took first place last month, is back taking 2nd place with a score of 99,376,995 using their favored Modern (dual-stick) controls.
Rounding out the top three, philipmccaffer comes in 3rd with a high score of 3,114,600 using Classic controls. Of note is they also had a score of 14,067,190 on the Any Credit board, but I use First Credit scores for ranking each month, so scores achieved on the first play starting at Level 1.
Congratulations all!
Cheers!
Chad (kiates)
P.S. I released a demo of Solaroids on Xbox One this summer as a part of an online event, and it's still available! In the demo you can only play through Level 4 or 15 minutes which ever comes first, but if you have an Xbox One give it a try, a rating/review and let me know how it goes. Right now it doesn't support Xbox live, but I plan on submitting a patch that adds Xbox live support including global leaderboards, stats, and saves in the near future.
July high scores!
First place for July goes to Blurr, congratulations for your top score and new personal best of 190,476,485.
Harnulfson comes in with a close second of 186,6997,535, also another personal best.
Finally Yancy Fry places third place with a their personal best score of 36,474,095.
Thank you to all the familiar players as well as the new players this month. Congratulations and stay safe out there!
Cheers!
Chad (kiates)
June high scores are here!
Flu Orid is back! Not only taking the lead position for the month with there incredible score of 596,174,085, but reclaiming the all-time first position on the global leaderboards once again!
2nd place this month goes to Harnulfson with a score of 104,237,145 who's become a regular on the monthly leaderboards, rising higher and higher each time.
3rd place, and neck and neck in the fight for 2nd, goes to long time Twin-Stick Control Style player Blurr with 101,908,730.
Give a big congratulations to the top players this month!!
Cheers!
Chad (kiates)
It's time to announce the top scores for the month of May! I would also like to give a big thank you to all those that took the recently released update for a couple of rounds!
1st place goes to long time player Flu Orid with an astronomical score of 400,382,820. Welcome back, and great to see you in the monthly leaderboards again!
2nd place goes to Harnulfson with a score of 57,317,495. It was just last month that Harnulfson's top score was a solid 9M. Congratulations on the big jump over the last 30 days or so!
3rd place goes to Blurr with a score of 56,983,750. Neck and neck with Harnulfson. Blurr was also 3rd place last month with just over 6M, and using the modern twin-stick control style none-the-less. I mention this, because that control style has different ship and scoring characteristics to go with the more direct automatic thruster control it provides.
Congratulations to all!!
Oh, one more thing....
I've been thinking about putting some modest prizes up for a competition... some Solaroids shirts and soundtrack cards, but maybe a few other perks depending on the participation. Let me know in the comments if this is something you would be interested in participation in, or if this is a horrible idea.
Cheers!
Chad (kiates)
Greeting and welcome alpha fighter pilots; whether your are a medal laden veteran pilot, a new recruit cutting your teeth, from Earth, or from one of the furthest corners of the known universe.
I hope you've been priming your trigger fingers, as the Nexus Galactic as deployed several important milestone updates to whet your appetite for unmatched precision controlled skill based combat across the solar system.
Probably the biggest features added are CRT emulation capabilities, and an almost complete rendition of Vector mode.
CRT effects including scanlines and phosphors are now available.
Vector mode now has additional monochrome palettes in addition to the full color Solaroids palette.
Each aspect of the simulated XY Vector display can be tweaked to your taste and combined with other options like Bloom, Background Opacity, Stars, and CRT effects to simulate a variety of looks.
Many more tweaks and adjustments have been made to improve the experience. See the full list below.
This update comes on the eve of Solaroids Steam anniversary date of May 26th.
Cheers!
Chad (kiates)
Another month of Coronavirus... and another month of Solaroids high scores!!
1st place goes to Jbiah this month with a score of 38,401,650. This beats their all-time best last December of 27M.
I've been busy porting Solaroids to other consoles, and mostly playing on another system lately, but had a moment to play a run on Steam and achieved a solid 30M score this time.
Rounding out the top four this time making up for my entry, we have...
3rd place goes to Harnulfson with a score of 9,4762,010.
4th places goes to Blurr with a score of 6,308,155.
Congratulations and stay safe out there!!!
Track me down on Discord!
Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.
Sign-up
Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.
Cheers!!
Chad (kiates)
What a crazy and scary time we are in across the world! I hope everyone is staying safe out there during this global phenomenon that is the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCov) outbreak. We have very little "known" exposure in our small university community in Idaho, USA. But we locked down weeks ago as a city, and as a household.
Glad to see folks had a little time to still launch an attack against the high score tables of Solaroids despite the sobering background of the virus spread. Anyone want a virus theme to take out frustration on?
1st place goes to morg556 this month with a score of 342,642,665 which is also their best all-time high score in the global leaderboards.
2nd place goes to rethdakair with a score of 4,508,085.
3rd places goes to John Lemon with a score of 3,317,035.
Congratulations and stay safe!!!
Yesterday closes out the 2nd month of 2020, and with that another set of top scores. February this year closed out with a full 29 days thanks to it being a leap year. It's nice to see some regulars playing a few rounds in what has typically been typically a slow time of year for bringing in new players. Many thank yous to you folks, you really keep me motivated to press on.
Hold the press! It has been awhile, but this month we have a new all-time high score! I've seen them in the leaderboards in the past and have even reported on it here many months ago as they entered the top ranks. So with that... I give you a new global high score of 590,985,040 brought to you by !
If my bit of research serves me right, 's Steam handle is a single Japanese character which is pronounced "ge" in romantic languages such as English. I can't hope to explain the meaning in the choice of Steam names, so perhaps Ge could enlighten us as to his origin story.
2nd place this month is held by long time player flu Orid with 176M, and previous 3rd place in the global top scores. 3rd place for the month goes to new player DarkBlooster with just under 69M.
Congratulations!!!
Off to a slow start in 2020 with plenty of room in the monthly leaderboards. I may need some help recruiting new pilots in the coming months while I finish up some pending updates!
It's nice to see long time player Flu Orid in the monthly leaderboard this time around, and taking 1st place with a semi-serious 34M score. morg556 who took 1st place last month, came in 2nd place this month with a score just shy of 24M. Weasel managed to "scurry up" and take 3rd place with 16M - sorry about the play on your name, I couldn't resist.
Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great Holiday, had lots of rest, and had lots of fun too. It's monthly high score time!!
Lots of activity from new players taking advantage of the rock'n Holiday sales recently, and some familiar names from last month mixed in.
Congratulations this month goes to Jbiah with a top score just shy of 27M, establishing there place early in the month, and holding strong. Several runners up came very close to topping first place. leonski goldberg with a close 2nd place of just over 24M, and alienmigboy not far behind and in 3rd place with just over 21M.
Happy Holidays! Hope you're all enjoying the beginning of the Holiday season here in the US as well as from various parts of the world. A shout out to those that played this November even with the Steam Autumn sale in full swing.
Congratulations this month goes to morg556 with a top score of 154.6M playing with the Classic control style! I myself managed to end up in the 2nd slot with a mere 17.3M. Rounding out the top 4 over 10 million were R'kik D'nec and new player Astelan both neck and neck around 14.5M each playing with Modern (a.k.a Geometry Wars) control style.
Hope you had a great October and a Happy Halloween! October high scores are here!
Congratulations this month goes to R'kik D'nec with a top score of 14.5M playing with the Modern control style! Kugelblitz, a player frequented in the leaderboards and a long time player, comes in 2nd this month trailing by over 5M with a score of almost 10M using the Classic Asteroids "Tank" control style.
Lot's of runners up in the over 1 Million category using various control styles. I look forward to the coming competition!
Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.
Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.
Cheers and as always Happy Blasting!!
Chad (kiates)
Welcome Fall for the Northern hemisphere. September high scores are here!
Flu Orid is back and reclaimed the title of best player for month this round with 252M. Morg556 with great score of 107M takes the runner up slot. My attempt this round, and a bit late none-the-less, still got me a 3rd place score - not my finest for sure.
I see some new players this month breaking the 10M barrier with the Modern (Dual-stick) control style. Welcome!
Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.
Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.
Cheers and as always Happy Blasting!!
Chad (kiates)
Another month and another set of high scores for Solaroids. Hope everyone is enjoying the hot summer warmth in the northern hemisphere and getting lots of vacations and summer activities in. If you're down south, hopefully there's a light at the end of the tunnel and Spring is on its way soon!!
The all-time champs have deferred this month to make way for some of the rising challengers - I didn't pay them I promise!
Last month Morg556 had achieved a top score of 73M and this month takes the lead slot with their new personal best of almost 138M. Congratulations!!
In addition to high scores, I've also been busy working on Solaroids in between trips and other summer fun. Not much in the way of visual features lately, but a lot of performance optimizations and internal changes to get ready for some new features this fall. To be honest some of the optimizations were driven by trying to run Solaroids on a mobile device - iOS in particular, but these are things I'll need for "other" mobile platforms and Xbox One too. But everyone wins, as now Solaroids is much more efficient at drawing Vector shapes, and HUD elements which should result in reduced CPU/GPU usage equating to better performance on smaller systems with integrated GPUs.
Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.
Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.
Cheers and as always Happy Blasting!!
Chad (kiates)
July has come and gone, and with that another time to reflect on recent high scores! Things have been a little less competitive at the high end, with the warm weather and myriad of other activities that abound, but some great scores and budding pilots none-the-less.
With no sight of previous two time champion GreyWolf, the montly title has fallen to none other than long time player Flu Orid with a mind blowing score just shy of 326M. While not topping their previous best of 436M, or the all time high still held by GreyWolf, it is still nothing short of an amazing score and still over double my top.
New challengers are rising up to face the toughest pilots at the top of the boards. with a solid 136M and Morg556 with almost 73M round out the contenders this month.
Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.
Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.
Cheers and as always Happy Blasting!!
Chad (kiates)
June has come to a close and with that another set of high scores! I didn't think the top scores could get much higher, but the two elite players at the top have proven me wrong yet again blasting through the previous ceiling.
I thought Flu Orid was going to take and keep the lead with his new best of 436M. After all, that is quite a jump up from 257M, an increase of a whopping 179M. Still an absolutely amazing score.
So... drum roll please... With a score of over 577M, up an astounding 282M points from 294M, and achieving a new milestone for Solaroids of over 1/2 a billion points, the champion and our reigning champion for the last three consecutive months is... Grey Wolf!!
Just when I thought I was "almost" getting competitive with my 205M 3rd place score I find out that Flu Orid's and Grey Wolf's increases alone are in the ballpark of my best effort.
While the best players have held quite a lead ahead of the rest of us mortals, there are some budding players that have been getting some respectable scores in what I would consider the next class on the leaderboard, those in the double-digit millions. I'd like to specifically mention Kugelblitz with almost 50M, who I've noticed increasingly higher and higher scores over time, newcomer Ezekiel with 36.5M playing with the simplified Modern Dual-stick control scheme, and Morg556 with 31.5M.
Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.
Sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.
Cheers and as always Happy Blasting!! You are our first and defense!
Chad (kiates)
Hello classic and nostalgic modern gamers. Hope you are enjoying the summer so far and the steam summer sale. I've decided to put Solaroids on sale for a steal of a price to bring in more competition for you all ;) In addition, Ive made some significant progress on the Vector Mode, added a 3rd background "Stage 3", as well as the usual collection of smaller tweaks and requested options.
The work on Vector Mode has made a new milestone with the completion of conversion of the fonts to 80s style vector fonts. These will also smoothly transition when switching back and forth between the regular graphics and the vector mode graphics. This includes the main menu, option menus, leaderboards, stats, and in-game prompts and scores. They still could use some additional optimization, so if youre playing on a modest system, you may notice a loss in framerate when things get serious. This will improve over time as I squeeze out additional performance. Only basic characters are supported at the moment as well, so you may notice some missing punctuation, or in the case of fancy non-ASCII characters, missing characters.
I've incorporated a 3rd background accessible under "Stage 3" in the options under the Gameplay category. In addition, there is now a "Random" setting (the new default) that will give you a random background each play. You can still set it to a specific one if there is a favorite. I have some other backgrounds designs available and will be hopefully incorporating them real soon.
Finally, worth mentioning is there are a few other little features that have been added. One is a requested Reset Options feature is now available under the Miscellaneous category that will reset all the options back to the defaults, not just the controller bindings. Another is when accessing the "exit to main menu" dialog, you can do a quick restart instead of returning all the way to the main menu and then restarting from there.
Many thanks to the great players that have helped shape things with feature requests and stay tuned for more enhancements based on your feedback.
Come visit us in real-time on the recently Discord approved (Solaroids Discord Server) and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet. Also, don't forget to sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms.
Cheers and happy blasting!
Chad (kiates)
Another month of competition with both some old and new names in the ranks. Grey Wolf and Flu Orid went head to head leap-frogging each other earlier in the month. Both crushed their previous bests, with Grey Wolf (MizzKitty on the Solaroids Discord) securing the lead for a 2nd month while almost breaking 300 million!
There was a good mix of Classic and Modern control styles in play during the month with Ezekiel and Crysyn leading the Geometry Wars style players with what used to be pretty respectable scores in the double digit millions. I learned that Crysyn actually holds an achievement of his own. At a game developer conference, and playing on a 30ft screen none-the-less, he was able to achieve over 1 million in Geometry Wars. It's no surprise that he took to the twin-stick controls so quickly.
Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.
Sign up my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.
Hope you in the northern hemisphere are enjoying the spring weather. I know we are!
Cheers and Happy Blasting!!
Chad (kiates)
Greetings pilots! A potpourri of new features and corrections for this release, but mostly centered around enhancements to the HUD.
Many of you will be happy to know that Solaroids now has a health bar for player ships. Previously the amount of smoke and sparks emitting from your ship was the health indicator, and was meant to be a soft indicator, introducing a little uncertainty to whether you really can take another hit. But by popular demand, the ships computer system has been upgraded to be able to take more precise measurements of the hull integrity. I've decided to introduce an inner ring just inside the current reticle, allocating the back half to health. As you take hits, this "bar" will shrink from both sides and the color will go from happy green through yellow and orange to unhealthy red. I expect this will also help to get a better understanding of how much damage different hazards and enemies inflict.
But wait, that's not all. Since I've allocated a whole new ring to the reticle, why use it all for health when I can use the front semi-circle area to add another requested feature... Ammo indicators. Rather than having to always glance back up to the corner of the screen to assess what kind of ammo you have available and about how much, I've added some mini ammo "bars" for all three weapon types: primary, secondary, and defensive. The area is divided up into thirds, with primary front and center, secondary to the left, and defensive to the right. Each is color coded based on the weapon slot, and in the case of Xbox controller users playing with the default classic controls, also matching the colors of the controller buttons they are assigned to.
Following with the interface changes theme, I've added some additional indicators to help provide additional useful information.
First, Whenever the multiplier moves by a whole increment, an indicator will be shown near the player ship. The multiplier goes up incrementally as you destroy things, down incrementally when you're not destroying things, and by a lot when you take damage. Now you'll see these changes as the multiplier goes up and down.
Second, most things have a score adder associated with it, and that score is further adjusted by your current multiplier. In this version, the final score adder will now show up at the point where the score was accumulated. This also helps to see the exact score value for point pick-ups since I don't show the exact value on the pick-up itself, but you're guaranteed the points are at least that amount. I expect to add an option in the future to turn showing score adders on/off if it's too distracting - let me know.
Finally, how many times have you started flying towards a power-up only to find it "expire" in a pop of sparks right before you're about to pick it up. This last feature is for you. Now a count-down timer will show up near the power-up/pick-up if it has less than 10 seconds before it expires, giving you a chance to decide if you've got the skill to swoop in and grab it in the nick of time.
A huge thank you to twitch streamer Drakkett and his devoted community for testing out many of the above features last weekend and for the great feedback in shaping them!! Also, many thanks to Ultra C for taking Solaroids for a spin on their YouTube channel and providing feedback/bug-reports.
Work continues the Vector Mode as well. With this version, the configured player ship colors are now rendered, which includes incorporating the player stripe color into the missile fins. Power-up icons now render at the correct size in the HUD as well. Like I've mentioned before, Vector Mode is still very much an experimental feature and is incomplete. Reticle, fonts, and other bits are still missing and/or incomplete.
Come visit us in real-time on the recently Discord approved (Solaroids Discord Server) and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet. Also, don't forget to sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms.
Cheers and happy blasting!
Chad (kiates)
The end of April marks the first complete month since the periodic leaderboards were added. The competition was pretty fierce resulting in two new all-time high scores and the emergence of a new top player using the Classic control scheme.
Congratulations to Grey Wolf for a zero to hero show, and Flu Orid, the reigning champion for some time, for putting up a good fight to try and hold the title!
Talking to Grey Wolf on the (Solaroids Discord Server) a few days prior to the achievement, it sounds like they play inertia based shooters almost exclusively, and have spent a lot of time honing their piloting skills playing the famous Subspace.
Come join the (Solaroids Discord Server), exercise some much needed bragging rights, say high to other players, share some tips, and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.
Sign up my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms, not just Steam.
Hope you all had a good April and I look forward to what May will bring!
Cheers and Happy Blasting!!
Chad (kiates)
Hello everyone! Needed to do a quick update to fix an issue with Mouse Locking that was being a little to aggressive in dual monitor setups.
A big thank you to twitch streamer Drakkett for tracking me down, bringing it to my attention, and working with me to isolate the cause. The result is not only the fix for the dual screen issue, but the full ability to turn mouse locking on/off (MS Windows only) from the option menu as well as a hot key (F5). I also added a hot key to toggle borderless window mode on and off (F6) in addition to the existing option menu item. Now dragging the Solaroids window to a second monitor and pressing F6 is a quick way to get it on a 2nd monitor.
Finally, I had made some additional progress of Vector mode, so might as well push it out to everyone, right? Vector mode is now in Color! The colors aren't finalized, and especially ship color isn't respecting each players choices, but it's starting to take shape. I'm also starting to work on converting parts of the HUD to vectors, so now the icons for the power-up prompts are showing up as well as your extra ships and active primary, secondary, and defensive weapons. With respect to those, they are showing up way to small, so I'll be tracking down the cause soon. It's still very much and experimental mode with score, fonts, and such needing the vector treatment, as well as refinement of the current vectors to make them more readable - especially in the case of power-ups.
If you miss the Asteroids Deluxe color scheme, don't fret. I plan on making it an option as Vector mode matures.
Come visit me in real-time on the (Solaroids Discord Server), and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet. Also, don't forget to sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms.
Cheers and happy blasting!
Chad (kiates)
Hello everyone! Thank you to all the players that have tried out some of the recent updates and posted scores to the new Daily/Weekly/Monthly leaderboards.
It's been about a week since the update to add Daily, Weekly, and Monthly leaderboards and I see both some familiar names as well as some new ones. What do you think so far, yeah or meh?
Here's the top scores for the week!!
And for the month of March (partial month)!
Speaking of leaderboards. I think it would be fun to have a speed run leaderboard. For the current Campaign it would be through Level 10 possibly with intermediate ones for each level to track progress, and for Free Play mode it would be through a certain number of waves possibly with intermediate ones as well. What do you think?
In other news, work continues on the experimental Vector mode. I've converted more of the graphics and have been playing with simulating the look of a real vector display. Here's what it looks like with the Asteroids Deluxe colors -- as available in this EA V1.2.4.2 build. This still picture doesn't really do it justice, as the flicker effect adds a nice touch of authenticity.
I'm also playing around with adding color into to the mix. Here's a early sample of what it's looking like so far. What do you think? I'm thinking of making options to tune the vector mode to your liking. If I do it would probably include an adjustment for full-color vs a single color, line thickness, beam intensity, and flicker. Would you rather see these kinds of detailed options, or just a high level Monochromatic/Multi-color option where I pick the settings?
That's all I have for this update as far as the bigger changes, but there have been several other smaller tweaks, so see the patch notes below.
Come visit me in real-time on the (Solaroids Discord Server), and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet. Also, don't forget to sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms.
Cheers and happy blasting!
Chad (kiates)
Hello players! Round one of leaderboard enhancements is ready for prime time. Solaroids will now show Daily, Weekly, and Monthly scores.
During the EA V1.2.4.0 update last week that released the early version of the Vector mode, I also put in behind the scenes work in to start collecting scores for some additional leaderboards. This includes Daily/Weekly/Monthly boards that are like the First Credit and Any Credit boards that are already established, but also starts recording scores for Control Style specific leaderboards (not exposed yet in-game as I'm working out details on where and how I want to display them).
Anyway, this update allows the Daily, Weekly, and Monthly First Credit / Any Credit leaderboards to be displayed in game. They show up on the left side of the main leaderboard display where the local leaderboards show. That area now cycles between Daily / Weekly / Monthly / Local boards, switching every 5 seconds.
Don't forget to come visit me in real-time on the (Solaroids Discord Server[discord.gg]), and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet. Also, don't forget to sign up on my Early Access Page[www.solaroids.com] to be notified at full launch across all platforms.
I hope you enjoy the new boards, and stay tuned for more tweaks related to leaderboards soon.
Cheers and happy blasting!
Chad (kiates)
Hello everyone! A little update with some new features mostly around options and to give you an early glimpse of the work-in-progress on the new Vector mode.
Yip, I couldn't resist getting your feedback, so I exposed an option to change the theme between the normal modern vector illustration style graphics and a more raw classic vector style. It's still very much a work-in-progress so be gentle. I still have to do work to swap out more shapes/symbols, particle effects (explosions/missile trails), fonts, and of course the main title, but I'm interested to hear what you like and don't like with the direction. Eventually I want to support additional themes too, so I can put in a nod to my old workhorses, the Commodore Amiga and C64, and hopefully some other classic systems as well. You can change the theme from the Effects menu, or for the brave, you can switch while in the heat of battle with the T-Key or DPad-Up, which are the default controls mapped to the feature.
There are also a few smaller updates focused on some usability enhancements requested from players and Youtubers. You can now fine tune the sensitivity of the thumb-sticks and triggers for the supported game controllers. This shows up as Thrust/Rotation Sensitivity options under the Controls option menu. In addition, you can also tone down the power of the thrusters if they're just to much for you to handle using the Max Thruster Power option. It's also fun to dial it down just for more deliberate thrusting experience and a different feel, but unfortunately, if you dial it down too much, you're bound to take a beating from random debris and bullets!!
Come visit me in real-time on the (Solaroids Discord Server), and give me your thoughts about what would make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter on the planet.
Also, don't forget to sign up on my Early Access Page to be notified at full launch across all platforms.
Cheers and happy blasting!
Chad (kiates)
Hello everyone! Hope you had a great winter and holiday season. We're still buried under snow, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
Not a lot of updates for Solaroids for Steam, so my apologies for that. I've been adjusting the infrastructure of the game to support multiple platforms, so mostly hidden work behind the scenes. I'm also working on the promised Vector Mode from the Early Access Roadmap, and Monthly and maybe Weekly leaderboards. I'll hopefully be able to wrap those up soon, but either way will share some progress as it gets more concrete.
With that said however, I was able to spend time to finish a set of Steam Trading Cards that Valve approved late December. So if any of you were wishing for some extra Solaroids "bling", those are available to collect. I tried to make them both showcase some of the artwork I created, as well as be useful for players. As such they include design notes and descriptions of the capabilities of some of the enemy types. They are English only for now, but I would like to commission localization where there is enough popularity and if Steam will let me add them. Here are a few samples from the set of five available.
For those into starry-scapes, in addition to the trading cards, I created several Steam Profile Backgrounds to go with the set. You can collect them while crafting trading card badges. Here's a preview from the set of five available.
There is also a set of Steam Emoji Icons in the Solaroids theme. Collect enough to spell out Solaroids before I do! (SOsolaroidsLsolaroidsAROIsolaroidsDS)
Thank you for supporting me on my journey to try and make the Best Asteroids Style Space Shooter. If you ever want to chat about Solaroids with myself or other players, or brag about your top scores and share tips, join the (Solaroids Discord Server). It's quiet there now, but maybe you can help change that!
I've also created a dedicated Early Access Page filled with, gifs, links, and a place where you can sign up to be notified at full launch.
Cheers and happy blasting!
Chad
Hello! Another small update to release a few small fixes and a couple of new features.
I've added a new type of mine I call Mini-Mines. These are smaller weaker versions of the larger mines already in game, but don't unleash a plasma wave when detonated. They also have an interesting feature where their lights blink the closer you get and make an audible chirp. I may add this effect to the larger mines too, since some times they are a little too stealthy. What do you think? They are now introduced on the level the existing mines were, and I've moved the existing mines a few levels later.
Another feature is the addition of an option called Player Spawn Position to choose where new player ships spawn. This is mostly for multiplayer scenarios, but like other options can also be used in single player as well. The default has always been for players to spawn near the sun. Under multiplayer situations, especially Player vs Player setups, this isn't always ideal. So now there are two other modes available under the Gameplay options menu in addition to the default of Near Sun. Random will spawn player ships at a random place on the map, and Near Other Players will spawn player ships near the average of the positions of other players. This later mode is useful when playing Co-op.
I hope you enjoy the tweaks.
Hello everyone!
I've got another small update to incorporate a few new noteworthy features that I wanted to get wrapped up before the Portland Retro Gaming Expo (PRGE). Yes, that's right... Solaroids will be showcased at PRGE this year thanks to the Portland Indie Game Squad. This is the first event for Solaroids outside of my local community, and I'm excited to show it to the retro gaming lovers at PRGE.
Well enough with the ancillary commentary, let's get on to the update.
First, I'm happy to present a new "shared" screen Local Multiplayer option. In this mode, rather than split the screen into up to 4 smaller screens, you can play with or against friends in a single screen. The camera will pan and zoom to keep all active players visible. Dueling has never been better.
The down side is things can get on the small side if players a long way from each other. Use the reticle to keep your direction straight - it always stays the same size and now displays the primary ship color. I'm still working out how to make power-ups readily identifiable when zoomed out for easier identification. You can find this new option under Gameplay in the option menu.
Second, I'm starting to map out additional stages and levels, and I just couldn't wait to share some new background elements with you. For now, I've added an option under Gameplay to select the "Stage" for the background elements to use. Ultimately this will be incorporated into the campaign along with additional enemies and other hazards, but for now it just adds an alternate view. Please let me know what you think and if it's the right direction.
Finally, a message is now displayed to compliment the final level wave warning sound. Players have all too often wondered what the warning sound means the first time they play. In addition, in Free Play mode this message is accompanied by a list of the end-of-wave baddies your about to face. You'll have to let me know if you find it useful to be able to anticipate the onslaught your about to face and possibly be defeated by, or just find it useless noise.
This release is dedicated to YouTube player/reviewer Big Joe Bear who was kind enough to both make me aware of a key issue now fixed in this release, and to also make a stellar video tour de force of Solaroids. Note to self, cause internet outages around the world to entice more players to play!! If you can, give his channel a look and support him if it interests you: https://youtu.be/l9pLqZpr_SA Hello Everyone! Things have been quiet on the Solaroids update front lately. Work hasn't stopped, but I've had to focus on some other aspects related to the game that are outside of the game itself. Stay tuned. Some things I'm working on, but aren't ready yet, are additional leaderboards. I'm considering weekly and monthly boards, as well as per control type boards. I will probably be adding daily leaderboards once I have the planned Daily Challenge game mode implemented.
Hello Everyone! Just a small update to release a few new features, and round up a few bugs -- some of which were released as hot-fixes several weeks ago. As players rack up more and more impressive scores, I thought it would be cool for you to be able to compare the control style you typically use with those of the other players. Classic and Hybrid (single-stick) control styles are the purest and most challenging modes, and as discussed in a previous update, come with some scoring advantages. Now you'll be able to see what control style a given score was achieved with. Next to scores in the global leaderboards you'll see a symbol denoting which control style was used: (C)lassic, (H)ybrid, and (M)odern. Note that this is only computed for new scores going forward, so any current scores are classified as Unknown and won't show a symbol until you beat your previous bests.
Hello everyone! Happy June and congratulations on the great scores!!
It is awesome to see the competition getting fierce on the leaderboards as well as players taking advantage of the new Control Styles and score Multiplier. That's the good news... the bad news is that 10 of the slots are being removed from the in-game list to make room for a small Friends leaderboard ːsteamhappyː&ːsteamsadː.
If you enjoy Solaroids, please consider leaving a review as it is critical to the amount of exposure provided by steam and could really help spread the word.
I'm happy to release some new features focused on competition. I've had statistics behind the scenes for some time, but I've always wanted to present them in-game. Showing the last/best score in the HUD was one such feature, and I'm happy to report that now several other useful (and maybe some non-useful) statistics are now readily displayed while playing alone or with friends.
The current set of stats are shown once a round has been completed and before continuing (or while requesting to forfeit). For player 1 (normally tied to the steam account), It will display the recorded Overall steam stats in addition to showing temporary session stats for Current, Last, and Best, For players 2-4 only stats for the current game session are tracked. If there are particular stats that you think should replace some of these, let me know in the comments or community hub.
In addition to stats, I've also decided to give each player their own mini high score listings to show their overall ranking. This includes Local, Global, and Friend listings.
What's a game based on a competitive score mechanic without more ways to rank yourself? I hope you enjoy 1-UP'ing your friends, or at least knowing at a glance who's the best!
I also managed to get a couple of smaller features in based on community feedback. If you are one of the players that had wished for "classic" twin-stick style controls (aka Geometry wars / Robotron) when using the Modern (dual-stick) control style, then you might enjoy the new Fire on Aim option under the Gameplay menu. Fire on Aim augments the Autofire setting to start firing just by aiming the ship. One consequence of this though, is that it is harder to conserve your Primary Weapon ammo. However, if you're careful not to fully press the thumb stick all the way, you can actually aim without firing as well.
Another set of small features relate to a recent request by a player to "simplify" the arena. I think they were longing for an experience closer to some of the retro games long ago, without backdrop clutter competing against energy bullets etc. As such, I've made it possible to adjust the background elements, such as the stars and nebula, to simplify, fade, or turn them off completely. Find these settings under the Effects options menu.
Hello everyone! This is just a small update to release a few features that I didn't want to wait for a bigger update.
First, watching players at a local gaming event, and on YouTube, I fast tracked an idea I had for helping to identify power-ups that can be used. Now if a power-up can't be collected, or wouldn't be useful to collect, they will be drawn ghosted as an indicator. Cases where power-ups can't be collected are when you're maxed out on a capability such as bullet rate/velocity/strength, or for repair power-ups, when your already fully repaired. In the later case, previously it would collect it anyway, but I felt that was misleading since other power-ups would just fail to collect. I hope now it will be more clear when to chase after the buggers!
I also improved the ability to swap outriders for fresh ones. If you have a bunch of outriders and one of them is more damaged than the one your about to pick up, they will be exchanged. Previously it wouldn't always swap them out.
Oh and one more. After watching Space Game Junkie do infinity circles around two of the early bosses trying to get their own missiles to hit each other, I just had to enable it. So now after a short delay, enemy missiles can actually hit enemies if your adept with the piloting skills!
I hope you enjoy the mini-update and have a great weekend!!
It's finally here!! In addition to the expert control and challenge of the classic Asteroids® controls, Solaroids now has more modern control styles for your (or your friends) enjoyment! I'm happy to introduce Hybrid (single-stick) and Modern (dual-stick) control styles.
If you enjoy Twin-stick shooters, now is the time to test your skills against veteran players. Just select the Modern (dual-stick) control style before joining or from the player options menu while in-game. Use one thumb-stick to thrust and orient your ship, or both at the same time to perform advanced dodging and strafing.
If you almost like the classic controls but wish you could use one of the thumb-sticks to control the orientation of your ship, we have you covered too. Just select the Hybrid (single-stick) control style.
If you're a classic player and worried about new twin-stick cowboys besting your scores, have no fear. This version now supports score Multipliers and taking direct control of all the ships thrusters via Classic controls has a few rewards. While using Modern (dual-stick) controls there is a bit of a multiplier penalty, and the multiplier increases and decreases at a less advantageous rate. These aspects may be adjusted over the coming months as necessary to balance things.
Another requested feature by several players has been to add "drum brakes". While I can't literally add them, it is space after all, I've done the next best thing. I've added lateral thrusters that you can use manually for advanced strafing maneuvers, but you can also activate all thrusters to dynamically slow your ship regardless of the direction it is facing. In Modern (dual-stick) mode this happens automatically whenever you release the movement stick. For Hybrid (single-stick) and Classic modes it can be engaged by pressing both forward and reverse thrusters at the same time.
But wait, that's not all! All these control styles are also available using keyboard and mouse. Yes, that's right, if you prefer to use the utility of the mouse to aim and fire, both Hybrid and Modern styles are augmented with mouse controls along with the ability to re-bind the mouse buttons to your liking.
In addition to mouse support in-game, the main menu and options menus have been re-written to support the mouse as well so click away. This also includes the control layout editor, so now you can click controls to re-bind them instead of having to hold the existing binding to activate reconfigure mode. Something that you may need if you have a controller that doesn't have some of the default bindings.
With the exception of the mouse movement, all thumb-sticks and buttons are reconfigurable to your tastes so if you don't like the default layout I've chosen, mix it up!
These are the big features, however there are a lot of other little features that have also been tweaked or introduced. Let me know if I hit something you like, or if the feature you've been hoping for is not available yet. I'm totally open for suggestions, and most have found a way into the game in one form or another.
I hope you enjoy the update. Let the blasting commence!
The next big thing I'm working on (and getting close to completion), are alternatives to the classic "tank" controls. Soon you'll be able to use the mouse to orient the ship when playing with keyboard controls, and use the thumb sticks to orient the ship when using controllers with analog capabilities. I’m also planning some limited twin-stick style controls. This update adds a few small features and tweaks that I hope you'll enjoy till then. There's a new power-up, along with some balancing/bug fixes, but probably the most exciting is that some of the Terminator style bosses can now be destroyed before finishing off all their peripheral parts. Alas, normal energy-based guns can't do this, but missiles can, and so can your ship. So… as at least one person requested, and others have eluded to, the ability to kamikaze is born! It's quite satisfying to see the remaining pieces of the boss drift off as space debris.
Hello everyone! Just a small update this time to add the new Parallax option. A often requested feature, parallax now adds depth to the background elements providing a richer visual experience. I've also now discovered that the frameworks that I use (XNA/XACT/FNA) do not support disconnect of external audio devices that the game is using. I've come up with a workaround for Windows Vista+ but finding solutions for Linux/OSX (and pre-vista) are still ongoing research.
EMERGENCY ALERT!!!
Space is a cold, even frigid, place and a sinister plot has been hatched by unknown forces. Working against us, an alien presence has deployed the biggest snow machine known to man, or any other-worldly inhabitant for that matter, in the hopes of sneakily invading our little corner of the galaxy.
Battle the most fearsome and retaliatory snowflakes (and the slithery snowman) you've ever laid eyes on, in a deadly battle against what would appear on the surface as a winter wonderland.
Use your skills acquired playing... ahem… Solaroids, to defend our little home. Do you have what it takes? Do you even care enough to stand up and be counted among humanities last hope for survival?
Briefing Instructions to access the xmas game branch:
[olist]
Happy holidays everyone! I present to you a small but significant update, as it has a few features that have been commonly requested. Now that I have an option menu in place it makes it much easier to surface some of these tweaks! First, a very common request has been to eliminate the traditional "screen edge effect" that simulates the classic Asteroids wrapping from one side of the play area to the other. As Solaroids has a much larger playing field, this can be jarring (especially in the arena corners) and is unnecessary. So now the default is to use a Seamless Wrapping mode where there will be no discernable edge to the play area. The sun becomes a constant landmark to help re-orient yourself and is conveniently shown in the player reticle. While this is the new default, you can globally turn the mode on and off during gameplay from the video options. Second, there are several options geared toward tweaking the visibility in the game. One is that the faster you are flying the more the camera will look ahead. This should give better visibility of what your heading towards, like a giant space centipede (Infiltrator). In addition, I've adjusted the default camera to be panned back just a little more, but you also can now adjust it even further (within reason) using the new Zoom video option. Third, you may or may not have noticed that at the end of November I released a FREE DEMO, so if you can, please spread the word. The demo has a few limitations, one being you can only play for 15 minutes at a time or through level 4, whichever comes first. In addition, Free Play mode is locked, and Steam global leaderboards and achievements are unavailable. If the full game is purchased in-game, then these restrictions are lifted except for the global leaderboards and achievements. A restart is necessary to activate these Steam features. I hope you enjoy the new additions, and I would love to hear any feedback you are willing to share via reviews or discussion threads. Thank you for your continued support, and happy blasting!!
Hello everyone!! I'm happy to announce the V1.1.0 release of Solaroids. This is a big update (at least for me) as it is one of my milestones to finally have proper option menus to control various typical game settings as well as a few extras for tweaking the mechanics of the game. I'm planning some additional options in the future, but this definitely feels like a good base. A few of the other gameplay tweaks that are worth highlighting are that friendly fire and friendly collisions can now be turned off. While friendly fire was a specific design choice for the game to allow a co-op (or not) experience as well as a little extra danger, it has been a top requested feature. Note that these are available from the global options menu before starting a game; they are not available from the player-centric option menu in the pause screen. Similarly, there is also now the option to globally turn Auto-fire on/off for all players. When Auto-fire is on, you can still take control of the shots to fire bursts when things get intense and you need a little extra for a moment or two. This is the default for new installs. Another tweak is the ability to control how many "credits/continues" are allowed per game session. Previously this was unlimited, which required discipline to not continue if you wanted to compete only on the "first credit" leaderboards. I've defaulted this to zero for new installs, but it can be changed from the option menu. Also, this update provides a tip system to give a little coaching here and there. There are a lot of subtle/hidden details with how things interact in the game, so along with the typical instructional material to help clarify key game elements quicker, the tip system sheds light on many of these. Not all tips are available immediately, but they present themselves the further you progress. Similar to power-up prompts, they are not available in Free Play mode, so they are only available in the normal "campaign" mode. They can also be turned off via options once you've mastered them. I hope you enjoy the new additions, and I would love to here any feedback you are willing to share via reviews or discussion threads. Thank you for your continued support, and happy blasting!!
Hello everyone!! I'm happy to announce the V1.1.0 release of Solaroids. This is a big update (at least for me) as it is one of my milestones to finally have proper option menus to control various typical game settings as well as a few extras for tweaking the mechanics of the game. I'm planning some additional options in the future, but this definitely feels like a good base. A few of the other gameplay tweaks that are worth highlighting are that friendly fire and friendly collisions can now be turned off. While friendly fire was a specific design choice for the game to allow a co-op (or not) experience as well as a little extra danger, it has been a top requested feature. Note that these are available from the global options menu before starting a game; they are not available from the player-centric option menu in the pause screen. Similarly, there is also now the option to globally turn Auto-fire on/off for all players. When Auto-fire is on, you can still take control of the shots to fire bursts when things get intense and you need a little extra for a moment or two. This is the default for new installs. Another tweak is the ability to control how many "credits/continues" are allowed per game session. Previously this was unlimited, which required discipline to not continue if you wanted to compete only on the "first credit" leaderboards. I've defaulted this to zero for new installs, but it can be changed from the option menu. Also, this update provides a tip system to give a little coaching here and there. There are a lot of subtle/hidden details with how things interact in the game, so along with the typical instructional material to help clarify key game elements quicker, the tip system sheds light on many of these. Not all tips are available immediately, but they present themselves the further you progress. Similar to power-up prompts, they are not available in Free Play mode, so they are only available in the normal "campaign" mode. They can also be turned off via options once you've mastered them. I hope you enjoy the new additions, and I would love to here any feedback you are willing to share via reviews or discussion threads. Thank you for your continued support, and happy blasting!!
Hello everyone! I need your help! The next version of Solaroids is almost ready and I need people to try out the beta. It has a lot of new features such as tips, options, and gameplay tweaks. Most of the changes are documented in more detail here: Alternate Beta Branch It also explains how to access the beta. The build is stable. The main thing that is still wrapping up is updates to the supported languages. Brazilian Portuguese is done and in the beta. Spanish, Polish, and Italian are done but still awaiting final review before entering beta. German should be finished sometime next week, and the others are still pending. If you could try out the public beta and report any feedback or issues you encounter I would really appreciate it. Thank you for supporting a solo (and part-time) indie developer!!
There are a lot of small but significant changes in this update. Of special note is that you should find the early level progression quicker and with more to do than just mine asteroids for ammo/power-ups.
Just a small update primarily to support Steam Music! There are also a few other small features and fixes.
This update mostly includes game play updates to re-balance some elements, but also includes a few fixes.
I have an alternate branch available in Steam, where I sometimes publish experimental features or possible game play changes before being incorporated into the main/default branch. It is called 'beta' and can be accessed from the BETA tab in the Steam game properties window. Currently this branch is hosting several game play tweaks that I think may help address some "slow burn" issues in the first several levels, as well as fine tune some of the boss fights. If you are up for it, feel free to try it out and let me know what you think about the proposed changes good or bad.
Many thanks to those that have jumped in and started playing and reviewing! Your feedback is very much appreciated! Please continue to let me know of any issues you encounter or ideas that come to mind. This is a small update that contains several fixes and tweaks.
The day as arrived to let Solaroids: Prologue out into the wild. Early Access began today at approximately 2:40pm PST. I hope your as excited as I am -- this is a big step for me as a solo/part-time indie developer. Many thanks to all those that helped with play testing and localization. Most of my goals for hitting this milestone have been met, but there are a few stragglers.
The day has arrived to let Solaroids: Prologue out into the wild. Early Access began today at approximately 2:40pm PST. I hope you’re as excited as I am -- this is a big step for me as a solo/part-time indie developer. Many thanks to all those that helped with play testing and localization. Most of my goals for hitting this milestone have been met, but there are a few stragglers.
Solaroids has a large playing area, and as such it is easy to lose track of your friends when trying to coordinate an attack on the more difficult bosses, or for those times when your “friends” have gone rogue and they need a little justified payback.
When bosses first enter the playing area, often it isn’t till they are on screen, or you start seeing a barrage of incoming missiles headed your way, that you realize where they are attacking from. While sometimes the surprise is warranted, with a resulting spike in adrenaline as you attempt to quickly maneuver to evade sudden destruction, sometime it just feels unfair, and a way to anticipate the interaction better would really streamline things.
I’ve had it on my radar, so to speak, for some time to create a basic way to indicate player positions and other threats or items of interest. It is the current #1 requested game feature that comes up during local multiplayer sessions.
So, without further ado I introduce the new Player Reticle feature. Currently, a Player Reticle will show three types of information:
First, small triangles arranged around your ship indicate the direction to distant players using their respective colors. The current orientation of the other players are also show, as well as relative distance indicated by size. As another player gets close enough to come into view, the indicator fades out.
Second, the locations of active enemies are similarly indicated with small red squares.
Finally, enemy missiles that are currently locked onto you are indicated with smaller red triangles, and the reticle ring will change to red to indicate the incoming threat.
The Player Reticle feature will be ready in time for the Early Access release of Solaroids: Prologue coming up later this spring.
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