A Giant Problem News

Hell it’s nice here in Helsinki which we sometimes call Hel. That said we certainly want to be outside. And we will be soon. Just after we make another update to A Giant Problem for you!

To entice you in we’ve got a summertime treat for you. A big tasty update! And this update has lots of goodies. Such as:

• A Progression System,
  
• Game Save System,
  
• A New Level,
  
• New Music and some Additional Sounds,
  
• A Rebalanced Difficulty, and
  
• Some minor bug fixes.
  

[h2]Progression[/h2]
Being a giant is great. You’re big. You’re powerful. You’re good looking. Because of the first two no one is going to say otherwise on the third. But we recognize that you want more, you want to work towards something. So we’ve introduced our progression system, and as a requirement for that a game save system.

In terms of progression, we’re only starting with three aspects to upgrade across two abilities. Those are the amount of time magical effects remain, how quickly the club recharges, and how many hits the club can deal before it breaks. Because this is early access, don’t get too tied to these upgrades. They may change in terms of effectiveness or price. They may even be replaced.

If you’re concerned about your progress that’s fair. But we do plan on resetting everyone’s progress upon launch. We want to be clear with you about this from the start. You’re helping us develop this game, and we’re taking all your feedback into account. Resetting is something that we’re firm on, given the changes and developments we have planned for the rest of early access.

[h2]Game Save System[/h2]
With the launch of the progression system we’ve had to add a game save system. It’s purely a background thing, and you don’t need to do anything. But as part of this we’ve enabled Steam Cloud saves. This is in part to make sure all your upgrades are stored correctly.

[h2]Lost Ziggurat[/h2]
It’s hot, it’s muggy, mosquitoes are buzzing, and the sun is streaming down. And that’s just in the real world. And so it is too in the world of A Giant Problem, especially on the new map, Lost Ziggurat. It’s the first map that you can move vertically on, and we will be refining this feature in future updates to make it more apparent where you can and cannot move. If you’re using smooth locomotion then you need to use Stomp to climb to higher levels of the ziggurat.

[h2]New Music and Sounds[/h2]
Lost Ziggurat means new music! We’ve got a lovely new track from our composer Jonathan. It’s very in keeping with the other music already in-game, while being fantastical and moody that’s perfect for this new map. In addition, we’ve fixed the crystals on The Cauldron so they now sound appropriate when they shatter.

[h2]Rebalance[/h2]
We’ve been playing A Giant Problem for a while… so we’re kinda good at it. Which means we fail to see the difficulty or flaws in the game. It’s part of the reason we entered early access. And that’s why the feedback we’ve gotten from you has been great. We’ve seen that play sessions are quite short, and people are losing quite quickly. So we’ve set out to remedy that.

It’s not that we’ve made the game easier. We’ve made it a more gradual curve, so the beginning is smoother and helps you get into the flow of things. But like all things, this too could change based on feedback. And of course it’ll change as we add more features and content to the game that change the balance by their very inclusion.

[h2]Bug Fixes and Known Issues[/h2]
We’ve dealt with some other minor issues related to the characters’ navigation. We wanted to ship something significant to you this month so here are some known issues, that we’ll work as quickly as possible to resolve, none of them are game breaking so don’t worry. Those issues include - decals not always conforming to terrain, and some other minor UI problems.

As always, we have more in store for A Giant Problem. But for that we need your feedback. Please be sure to reach out to us on the Steam Forums, on our Discord or via our support email.

It also helps that some of us… okay one of us and we won’t name who, (it’s Greg, it’s always Greg) keeps going around singing:

Stomp.
Stomp Stomp Stomp.
Stomp Stomp Stomp.
Stomp Stomp Stooommmpp!

And all to the tune of Eye of the Tiger.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
That tangent aside, this is a fun patch. Simply cause we’ve added a really nice new feature. Along with some other fixes.

This patch includes:

• A New Player Ability: Stomp
  
• Key remapping for Smooth Locomotion,
  
• Holster bugs sorted plus UI and UX clean-up,
  
• UI Updates - Instruction Images in the Controls Menu, and
  
• Art Improvements to the maps.
  

[h2]Stomp[/h2]
Giants stomp. They’re big. They’re heavy. And they make an impact. That’s why anytime you teleport now you’ll be stomping your way around the world. We’ll be building out this ability more in the future, we’re aiming to make it feel more impactful. At the moment you’ll squash a single enemy, and leave a very nice impression on the world.

For those using smooth locomotion, don’t worry you aren’t being left out of the stomping fun. You’ll still have your preferred method of movement. We’ve just added another button for you to utilize. So if you’re using the Oculus Touch, or Valve Index then Stomp aka Teleport has been added to the top button on your turning hand. For the Vive Cosmos Controllers it’s the bottom button on your turning hand. With the Vive Wand it’s up on the touchpad on your turning hand.

With the stomp you’ll get some nice effects on the ground to show where you’ve put your foot down. There’s also a beautifully appropriate sound effect that goes with it. And of course you get to squash one enemy for free. Does this hint at possible upgrades? Maybe, giants do tend to have two feet after all.

Does it need to be said that any flying creature cannot be stepped upon? You’re big, just not that big. So you’ll have to wait for any dragons to land before you can try your foot at smooshing them.

[h2]Key Remapping[/h2]
It’s a simple thing and something we’re continually working on - letting you play your way. If you’re not comfortable in VR then you’re not going to play. So we’ve enabled controller remapping for Smooth Locomotion. That way anyone who wants to play with a Southpaw setup can.

[h2]Holsters[/h2]
There were some minor bugs with the holsters but those have been fixed. Go figure. In addition, we’ve improved the user interface and experience for making the holsters comfortable. These improvements include additional audio cues when retrieving the club from the holster and placing it back in.

[h2]UI Updates[/h2]
For further clarity, images have been added to the Controls Menu section. They help players new to VR understand the different modes of movement and turning. Once you’re in the game you’ll see what we mean.

[h2]Art Improvements[/h2]
We’re not exactly throwing shade here. But we are putting in shadows. Though they’re not the traditional kind, generated by light. They’re there simply to make the world more realistic and engaging.

All in all we’re quite pleased with this patch and what it adds. You can expect the next one in time for the Steam Summer Sale, unless we have to release a hotfix or two before then. As always, we have more in store for A Giant Problem. But for that we need your feedback. Please be sure to reach out to us on the Steam Forums, on our Discord or via our support email.

Who ever said that game development was easy? But that's why we're in Early Access, so that we have some leeway when it comes to the introduction of minor bugs like this.

In Patch 00.04.00 we introduced a couple of bugs related to the Club. That magic weapon we've gifted you with. And we've managed to resolve one of them in this patch.

So what's Solved:

• The Club falls through the world, sometimes.
  

Now it doesn't do that at all. Yeah for consistency and physics emulating the real world.

What still needs to be solved:

• The club is immediately available even though it is recharging, and
  
• The right hip holster has some trouble, sometimes.
  

We're working on them and will get a fix out as soon as possible.

Until then, do something nice for your mothers. It is Mother's Day this weekend.

And as usual please be sure to reach out to us on the Steam Forums, on our Discord or via our support email.

Well actually it’s more about clubbing. But we’ll get to that in a moment. Before we ramble on, it’s time for what the cool kids call TL;DR. Or as we call it, just the important bits with none of the fluff. We do love our fluff though.

This patch includes:

• Hip and Shoulder Holsters and relevant UI
  
• Grabbing Improvements
  
• Art improvements to Ragged Shore and The Cauldron
  
• UI Fixes
  
• A Quicksand Fix
  

[h2]Holsters[/h2]
We’ve added more holsters for your club. Now you can slot it on either hip or either shoulder. Because the Club is a magical weapon, in the vein of Mjolnir, it returns to you when you throw it or when it breaks. But because your hands might be busy at that moment it returns to your holster.

Smart, right? Well it gets smarter. The club can either return to the same holster every time. Or it can return to the holster you last put it in. And that’s up to you. We’ve updated the UI to reflect these changes so be sure to go explore and figure out what works best for you.

We’ve also made the hip holsters adjustable, since we know everyone’s a different size and shape. So you can change the width and height of the holsters to make sure they sit comfortably for you. All this means you can go full Geralt on those goblins or rock a more Han Solo style with your club slung low.

If we were to have a motto it’d probably be, “Play It Your Way”.

[h2]Grabbing[/h2]
We’ve been honing the grabbing, so it’s not as reliant on what we call Reach. Reach is that beam that highlights anything you can pick up in game. It’s been a bit troublesome when it comes to using the holsters and grabbing the club. So when now all you have to do is simply put your hand in the area where you expect the club to be and you’ll grab it when you press a button.

[h2]Art Improvements[/h2]
Both maps have seen some lovely visual updates. Plateaus are topped better with grass. There are patches of grass that appear throughout Ragged Shore. In both cases we’ve also improved our decal blending.

[h2]Other Stuff[/h2]
Along with all of the above we’ve done some minor UI changes to improve the flow. We’ve also sorted an issue with what we call Quicksand. That’s the stuff near the exit portals that prevents you from just piling up trees and rocks to keep the enemies from escaping with all your gold.

We have more in store for A Giant Problem. But for that we need your feedback. Please be sure to reach out to us on the Steam Forums, on our Discord or via our support email.

More maps, more maps, everyone wants more maps! Not just you, but so do we. That said we want them to be good maps. It’s a matter of quality over quantity. So while we had originally planned for the third map to be out today, we’re holding it back to make it just that little bit better.

Still we have some nice fixes for you including:

• New Wave Balance,
  
• Updated Quest Select UI,
  
• Two Hand Indicator,
  
• Teleport Collide Bug,
  
• Particle Effects Appearing When Blinded Bug,
  
• Grabbed Tree Thump Bug, and
  
• Grab Beam Deactivated Only on Teleporting Hand.
  

We’re good. Some would even say very good at playing A Giant Problem. But we’re the developers. And that in itself is an issue. So while we know what to do, and how to do it we’ve noticed that new players are struggling to get past the first couple of waves. So we’ve softened the wave balance. Meaning players should have an easier time and should be able to proceed further in the game.

There are a number of small UI changes. For example, in the Quest Select menu you’ll get more information about which map is and isn’t available, what that map looks like, and more. There are more UI fixes coming, but we just wanted to get these out.

Did you know that you can pick up boulders? And that they take two hands? Well, now the game will provide an indicator for just such a thing. Why? Cause you’re a freaking giant. And picking up boulders to drop them on passing goblins is fun.

When we’re not squashing goblins we are squashing bugs. And this patch includes fixes for a number of bugs. Some you may have encountered, others you may have not. Regardless we’re hunting all of them. And this round we quashed a bug with the teleporter, being blinded and yet seeing particle effects, and even an audio bug when you picked up trees. Did you know you can pick up trees?

Other than that we made it so when activating the teleport feature, the hand you’re using to teleport cannot also grab something new. Your other hand will still work as normal. And if you have something in your hands when you teleport you won’t drop it.

We have more in store for A Giant Problem. But for that we need your feedback. Please be sure to reach out to us on the Steam Forums, on our Discord or via our support email.