Space Grunts 2 News

Let's change up the level layouts a bit for this update. The game now comes with a couple of new level-design blocks, and also a new "Mechanical wall". These are walls that slide up and down either automatically, or when you get near them. This makes for some interesting level designs and requires a bit more exploration to discover some hidden hallways.

I also rebalanced the end-boss. He was often found a bit overpowering and too strong to take out, even if you had a huge amount of energy. There's now some capping on his skills, and I think this makes him slightly easier to beat... of course, you first need to reach him!

Full changes list:

• added: update info dialog at start
  
• added: mechanical-walls
  
• added: variation of new level design-blocks
  

Fixes:

• fixed: better balancing on the strength of The Blob (end boss)
  
• fixed: possible cause for rare crashing when using Vial card
  
• fixed: Bio-dome showing up multiple times in a game
  

Hello Captains!  Guess I'm still not done pushing new stuff to this game.. I just enjoy it so much myself, so that does make it a lot easier to keep working on it!

What also helps is the good feedback I'm getting from players and also see new players really getting into the game and talking about it on Discord -  So nice to see!

So this update comes with a few small improvements. I found a weird bug in the level-generator, which mostly popped-up during challenges where you would enter the boss-level and find yourself inside a dark void of nothings ness.. it looked cool, but wasn't very practical !  Found the cause of it, and hopefully it was the only cause, so that it's now fixed.

I also added all the Patrons, who were a Patron during the development of the game, to the credits of the game, thanks again people! And if you want your name in the credits AND support me AND get alpha/beta access to new games I'm working on, then check out the Patreon ;)

Finally, I added some more Captain log voice samples, now every area has it's own samples. On the other end, I also had people requesting the option to turn off the voice sample (mostly due to restarting the game so often, that they got sick of it) ... no hard feelings.. it's just my voice .. BUT the option is added in the sound menu.  Altho I also added a little code that will simply not re-trigger the first level's voice on every game session..  so that probably fixes without having to turn it off.

So the updates are still coming, altho a bit smaller than in the early development stages. Next weeks update is already in development, I just have to do some level designing around the new feature... stay tuned for that ;)

Full changes list:

• added: option to Mute captains voice (see sound in setup menu)
  
• added: Patron-names to the credits screen
  
• added: More information through Captain logs at start of new areas
  

Fixes and changes:

• fixed: Cap-log triggers less often (to not annoy players who don't get far in the game yet)
  
• fixed: bug in level generator causing player to end up in "the void" without a level
  
• fixed: Flamer entity image in Codex
  

Ho ho ho! I managed to squeeze out one more tiny update this year!  When I added the challenges last week I didn't have a good idea on what type of reward the challenges should unlock... and now I do!

In this update you'll find Trinkets, every challenge will unlock a new type of trinket, and once they are unlocked they will start appearing in your game. You can only carry one trinket at a time, and they will have some cool effects. Currently there are 8 trinkets in the game:

• Flashlight - more visibility in dark-areas
  
• Spider - spiderwebs won't slow you down
  
• Metal-plate - randomly defends against hits
  
• Controller - Disables nearby level hazards (flamers, rockets, fires)
  
• Paperclip - Don't need keycards to open doors
  
• Poker chip - +1 on deck when inventory is full during pickup
  
• Lucky card - your deck gets refilled when empty
  
• Bandaid - using level transport completely refills your HP
  

That should give you some good incentive to complete those challenges!

But.. that's not all!  I designed a few new level blocks / rooms / areas, so you'll might find yourself wondering around some fresh level designs.. enjoy the holidays! :)

Full changes list:

• added: collection of new level-layouts for your adventures!
  
• added: Trinket rewards to challenges
  
• fixed: alien-codex information showed wrong names/data
  
• fixed: rare game crash when using idle card on small deck
  

This week I've put some time into adding more content in the shape of a new game-mode: Challenges. The challenge mode allows you to experience the game in a shorter and different way. There are currently 8 challenges added, the first one being "The Dark" where your visibility is a lot less than normal play, another challenge will have all the Tech cards removed from the deck, and a few other challenges.

Besides these challenges I also added a new alternate-route: Biodome, which will contain a new rare card: the Black rose.

And finally, for those good enough to actually beat the game, there are now perma-unlockable Buff cards. For every victory you get to unlock one of the 5 cards, and in all your next games you will be able to pick a single buff-card which will change your characters skills. It will also be possible to play Pure without any of the buffs active.

So that's a lot of extra game this week!  Which is great, because it's the last update before the holidays! :)

I'm also close to having a complete WIKI up for the game, so if you need any information on the cards, events, challenges or area's then check it out here!

No new Space Grunts devlog, BUT I found it interesting to see where this whole project started and what I originally set out to create in the first part of the series:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Full changes list:

• added: Challenge game mode (8 challenges)
  
• added: perma-unlockable Buff cards
  
• added: first 5 perma Buff cards: Adrenaline, Cardshark, Powercore, XP Chip, Crank
  
• added: new alternate route: Biodome
  
• added: new card: Black rose
  

Fixes:

• fixed: some aliens can't be killed (cybergon in most cases)
  
• fixed: continue game doesn't grab correct character name
  
• fixed: red/blue keys not working/showing up when at a door
  

I heard you loud and clear!  So here you go: overview of all the cards in your deck!!... sort of!

So most requested feature I had both on PC but especially after releasing on iOS is a way to see which cards are in your deck. The problem I had with this is that part of the design is that you are blindly pulling cards from the top of your deck and not really know what's gonna happen!  BUT I can't ignore the fact that most people wanted a bit more insight into what's available, so I decided to meet you guys halfway.

The pause screen now shows the last 3 picked up cards (especially interesting for new players or when you bump into a card you never seen before), and below that there's a list of all the variations of cards in your deck and how many of each you have. So it should help you keep track of what to pick up (am I low on defensive cards? or am I low on attack cards?).

You can also tap, hover or select the card for a bigger view of what it does...  early responses to this have been positive, so I hope this is a good solution? - Let me know what you think!

Besides that a bunch of small bugs and fixes, didn't get around to add any big features due to the launch to iOS!
I did do this weeks video on the creation/decisions behind the Space Grunts 2 trailer, check it here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Full changes list:

• added: (mobile) hud now detects screen-notch and moves the hud accordingly
  
• added: pause screen now shows info on last cards collected and current deck
  
• added: (mobile) swipe-to-move controls (see touch in options)
  
• added: "line of sight" now uses gray-scaling instead of blackness for unseen areas
  

Fixes and tweaks:

• fixed: "Inventory full" message spamming is now fixed
  
• fixed: daily-run scores test sometimes overlapping
  
• fixed: high-scores table rendering bugs
  
• fixed: bombs dropped by cybergon now highlight their damage radius
  
• fixed: (mobile) phantom touch-button in setup