Baldi's Basics Plus News

Hey everyone, in this status update I'd like to discuss the new version of field trips that will be added in version 0.7 of Baldi's Basics Plus! Camping will be the first to be re-added, with the farm to follow in a future update, and then brand new ones on occasion after that. Before we can head out though, first you'll need to find...


The buss pass is a new item that will be added in version 0.7 which will be required to go on a field trip. One will always be found in level 2, so if you want to go on a field trip be sure you find it and take it with you to the next level! You can get some big rewards from field trips, so it will be worth the effort.


Once you reach The Pitstop for level 3, you'll find Baldi outside waiting to take you on a field trip! If you have a bus pass in your inventory, you'll be able to click on the bus door to be taken to a field trip hub area.


The field trip hub areas are freely explorable spaces where you'll be able to find minigames to play and take a break from the main game. You'll also be able to find and talk to Baldi who will explain how each minigame is played, which will make instructions less intrusive than they were in the previous iteration of field trips.


Many of you missed when field trips offered 3D spaces to explore, so for some time I'd been thinking of a way I could bring that element of the old field trips back, and this seemed like a good solution! While the minigames themselves won't take place in the hubs, these spaces still provide a nice change of scenery from the rest of the game.


Once in a hub, you'll be able to freely explore and find not one, but two minigames to play! By offering two per-field trip, you're less likely to end up getting forced to play a minigame you don't like. Each time you go on a field trip, you'll be able to play one of the two available minigames and if you win, you'll be given a large selection of items from which you'll be able to grab up to 3, and if you win without making a single mistake, you'll be rewarded with a Perfect Bonus of a few hundred You Thought Points!
Item loadout in screenshot is subject to change

Each minigame is a 2D affair as in the previous iteration of field trips, but I'm putting a greater emphasis on keeping minigames fast paced, simple and fun. In particular, each field trip will have at least one minigame which only relies on using one button, which not only forces me to think more creatively about how the minigames should play, but it also ensures there will always be a more user friendly option for people using a controller or touch pad which can make moving the in-game cursor harder than intended. That said, I plan on keeping minigames that use the cursor relatively simple as well. No more mazes or anything else that requires complex movement!

I want to mention that this video by Masahiro Sakurai was really helpful in getting me to reconsider what makes for a fun minigame and to put a focus on one button minigames. To anyone who is interested in game dev, check out his channel if you haven't! He has made a ton of great videos on the topic.

As before, each minigame will have two modes. An in-game mode when you are playing Hide & Seek where the minigame will last about a minute, as well as a scoring mode accessible when playing the Field Trips mode. The scoring mode of each minigame allows you to try and set high scores and in many cases only ends once you make too many mistakes!

Now that I've given an overview of the new field trip system, let's take a quick look at one of the two minigames that you'll be able to find at the campsite!

[h2]Campfire Frenzy[/h2]
Campfire Frenzy is a fast-paced one-button minigame where you'll have to keep a campfire lit by launching fuel at it. Different objects will be tossed into a launcher from the side of the screen and, if it's fuel such as a log, you'll click to launch it into the fire. If it's not fuel, you'll have to wait until another object is tossed onto the launcher to take its place. If you fail to launch proper fuel into the fire, or launch something that isn't fuel, the fire will die a little, and if it goes out that's game over! It sounds pretty simple, but it gets hectic quick when the speed increases and when multiple objects get tossed at the launcher at once!



That's about it for this status update! I'm trying my best to take the lessons learned from the first two iterations of field trips to make something that will be a solid addition to the game. At this point, even if it's not perfect, I'm confident it will be good enough for me to safely say that this will be the final iteration of field trips and that I won't be reworking them again! Which is a relief to be sure, because I hate thinking about time spent working on stuff that ultimately ends up getting scrapped.

Currently, the plan is to launch the 0.7 pre-release on September 2, then the public release on September 9! Oh, and speaking of the pre-release, I now have a Patreon which you can find by clicking here! Anyone who joins will also be able to access the pre-releases, so if you missed out on the $30+ Kickstarter tier and would like to try out pre-release builds, check it out.

That's all for this status update! I hope you all enjoy the new camping field trip when it releases in version 0.7!

Hey everyone! A small patch was released today which fixes a few small bugs. Mainly, the water supply has been cleaned of the mysterious pink elixir Baldi spilled into it and whirlpools are back to normal. Here's the full changelog:

• Restored a missing depth buffer shader that made whirlpools appear pink.
  
• Fixed the inventory item sliding animation being tied to the frame rate.
  
• Fixed the staminometer needle sliding speed being tied to the frame rate.
  
• Fixed the exit sign in the pit stop not billboarding.
  

Hello everyone! Baldi's Basics Plus version 0.6.1 is available now! This update fixes several bugs that were in the game. Thanks to everyone who reported bugs as many of these would have been missed by myself! Here's the full changelog:

• Propagated sounds are no longer audible if they are coming from silenced cells (For example, when WD-NoSquee is used). Note that non-propagated sounds, such as the sound that plays when entering a locker or Chalkles' laugh, will still be audible for now.
  
• The Library now silences all cells inside so they behave the same as an area covered by WD-NoSquee.
  
• Merry-go-rounds now fluctuate in direction and speed. This should prevent NPCs from getting stuck on them.
  
• If a save file is corrupted or lost, the game will now search the save folder for existing files and recreate the NameList file based on its findings. This check will help prevent files from being excluded from the name list due to errors.
  
• The save & quit poster in The Pitstop now clarifies that save and quit is for Hide & Seek only. Entering the save & quit room in explorer mode will just quit the game without saving.
  
• Updated the contents of the crazy vending machine to include more items.
  
• Shader variants are now used to control whether or not sprites billboard.
  
• Tile materials now do not use alpha clipping shaders unless one of the tile textures has transparent pixels.
  

• Fixed Diet BSODAs not saving in the inventory or storage locker when saving and quitting a game.
  
• Fixed the HUD not returning to full brightness when exiting a hidden state.
  
• Fixed NPCs getting stuck in the ground due to whirlpools... Probably.
  
• Fixed an error which could occur when trying to load a corrupted NameList.lst file, which would cause the file select screen to cease functioning and essentially lock players out of the game until the file was manually deleted. The game should now be able to recognize when the NameList file is corrupted and replace it with an uncorrupted file.
  
• Fixed whirlpools pulling on entities through one way colliders that the entity cannot pass through.
  
• Fixed some main menu sounds not playing after completing a challenge map.
  
• Fixed the grappling hook motor audio volume not being affected by volume settings.
  
• Fixed a bug where the world wouldn't render if the player unpaused the game on the same frame the pause screen transition finished playing.
  
• Fixed a visual issue that would occur when opening the advanced map while viewing the quick map.
  
• Fixed the hand icon sometimes not disappearing when finishing/losing a level with it active.
  
• Fixed the inventory saying "Nothing" when first spawning after loading a saved game even if an item is highlighted.
  
• Fixed some playground variants not having any chance to get apple or banana trees.
  
• Fixed a potted plant that was clipping through the wall in one faculty room.
  
• Fixed the pickup that appears for the party event disappearing when the event is over if it has been collected and swapped with another item.
  
• Several characters now override caption colors to make sure they are consistent.
  
• Fixed the "*SNAP*" caption for the grappling hook being green.
  
• Fixed the open save folder button not working on MacOS. NOTE: Since logs and save files are stored in two different locations on MacOS, this button will open two folders, the save folder and the log folder.
  
• Fixed Mrs. Pomp's stomping sound playing rapidly for a few moments when she is teleported.
  
• Fixed Baldi's sprite not immediately changing to his slap sprite as soon as he becomes dangerous again after being in a safe state.
  
• Fixed fog rendering onto some UI elements.
  

I have read all the bug reports posted on the Steam forums for version 0.6! If you reported a bug that wasn't fixed and don't see it on the known issues list, I have probably noted it internally but have not listed it here due to it being low priority. That, or it's working as intended.

Note that many of the issues listed here have been reported by players, but I have yet to reproduce them myself, so the accuracy of them might vary.

• Balloons occasionally clip into objects.
  
• NPCs will often not try to flip themselves when they are oriented opposite the player during Gravity Chaos. This can lead to strange NPC behavior.
  
• NPCs will occasionally appear to turn-around when entering open areas where a hallway bridges between two different parts of that open area.
  
• Lockdown doors near spawn can be seen snapping into the open position at game start.
  
• Dr. Reflex can squish NPCs even when they do not match his orientation during Gravity Chaos.
  
• Captions are more likely to stack on top of each other and become hard to read due to the new sound propagation system. I plan on finding a way to prevent captions from rendering on top of each other.
  
• There is no indication for when entities are about to become unsquished.
  
• It is possible to see out of bounds while being rotated by a gravity flipper while squished.
  
• On some screen resolutions, it is possible to see a gap through some elements on the elevator screen.
  
• Some NPCs are very annoying when they are squished.
  
• Wind and conveyor belt audio is not propagated.
  
• NPCs will occasionally end up wandering into an area they should be fleeing from.
  
• Dr. Reflex can sometimes get his hammer early while being pushed around by outside forces or when he is not able to find a path to his clinic.
  
• NPCs can collide with other entities through walls, triggering their effects.
  
• Math Machine balloons can rarely get stuck behind the diagonal math machine.
  
• Principal, under some circumstances, can maintain his fast speed after using the principal whistle.
  
• Arts and Crafters' echoes while attacking don't always match his orientation during the gravity event.
  
• A seed is displayed when playing pre-made maps.
  
• Held sprite objects, such as the math machine balloons, can be held into other areas such that their lighting noticeably changes.
  
• Mrs. Pomp doesn't wander around class rooms in pre-made maps. She just stands in a corner.
  
• Certain sound effects are delayed while the environment is frozen (Such as when Mrs. Pomp is asking the player to come to her class).
  
• Maps from saved games of Hide & Seek from older versions of the game will fill out the areas found from the previous play session, even if it doesn't match new level generation.
  
• Principal doesn't open office doors during detention while fleeing from a tape.
  
• During the flood, hall swinging doors do not open, while swinging doors that lead into rooms do open.
  
• The speed at which items slide in and out of the inventory can be inconsistent. This does not affect the responsiveness of using items.
  
• AudioManagers playing multiple sounds in different mixer groups at once causes volume conflicts.
  
• NPCs occasionally getting stuck in rooms.
  
• One-way swinging doors can generate on top of standard swinging doors.
  
• Cloudy Copter's wind can pass through solid objects like lockdown doors.
  
• Placing an alarm clock in a doorway prevents the door from being clicked.
  
• Gotta Sweep can navigate through locked standard doors but will not open them.
  
• The Test can spawn close to the player.
  
• Some users have reported getting regular BSODAs from Diet BSODA machines. I have not been able to reproduce this. If someone finds a way to reproduce this or can record it happening, please let me know.
  

I'm happy to announce that Baldi's Basics Plus version 0.6 is available now! This is a few days earlier than expected, but I'm going to be pretty busy with some IRL stuff for the much of next week so I figured it would be best to release this update now.

The biggest change in this update is the introduction of the tentatively named Pitstop. This is a small area that loads between levels/attempts where you can buy items, manage your items in the new storage locker and, in version 0.7, go on field trips! Johnny's store, which is now a 3D room, can also be visited in endless mode, where you'll be able to spend the YTPs you earn on items. The store will restock every so often so make sure you check in when you're in a pinch!

Unfortunately, as development of a third (And final) version of field trips is underway, I had to strip the game of the previously available camping field trip. My apologies for the inconvenience. My plan is to finish up this new version of the field trips in time for 0.7. Hopefully, the third time will be the charm and the changes I'm making will be a lot more fun and please everyone!

This update also includes a new item, the Diet BSODA! Diet BSODA is mostly the same as regular BSODA, except it only lasts three seconds. Since normal BSODA is a pretty overpowered item I wanted to find a way to balance it without ruining it, so I decided a good solution would be to introduce a weaker version of the item and make the original much rarer. Now you will find Diet BSODA about as often as regular BSODA showed up, while normal BSODA is harder to find, but more precious as a result. I'm hoping this change will make the game a bit more challenging without totally undermining existing strategies!

Aside from those changes I've also made several improvements to the interface and HUD. In particular, I've added several sound effects to certain interactions that were previously silent and polished out a few small quirks that I'd never been fully satisfied with. The game now offers players more feedback when they interact with it!

With all that said, here's the full changelog:

• Added the (Tentatively named) Pitstop. This is a small rest area which loads between levels or before a level reloads after losing a life. In the Pitstop you can:
  
  • Visit Johnny's store and buy items with YTPs inside a new 3D store.
    
  • Manage items in the storage locker.
    
  • Save & Quit
    
  • In the near future, go on field trips.
    
  • And in the further future, even more cool stuff!
    
• Johnny's Store can now occasionally have items on sale at a randomized discount.
  
• Johnny can, once per-game, lend a hand by letting you by an item if you are 100 YTPs or less short of being able to afford it.
  
• Johnny's Store now appears in endless maps, and you can buy items with the YTPs you've earned. It starts out closed but will open once five notebooks have been collected, and will restock every five after that.
  
  • All YTP values are multiplied by three in endless order to easily afford items.
    
  • Johnny can now be robbed.
    
• Added several new sound effects where previously there were none. These sounds are:
  
  • Notebook pickup
    
  • Item pickup
    
  • Clicking menu items
    
  • Using the dirty chalk eraser
    
  • Inserting a tape in the tape player
    
  • Using the swinging door lock
    
  • Earning YTPs
    
  • Unique sounds for picking up 25, 50, and 100 YTP items
    
• Added the Baldi TV to the HUD to replace the event announcement text that would appear at the bottom of the screen. Now, when an announcement needs to be made, a TV screen will lower from the upper left corner of the screen and display relevant information. Usually, it shows Baldi speaking as he announces an event or tells the player that all the notebooks have been collected.
  
• Added a tooltip box to the HUD which can appear to show item descriptions while in Johnny's store.
  
• Added the storage locker.
  
  • Appears in a random location in the halls of every level as well as the Pitstop.
    
  • This locker can be opened and you can place up to three items inside, which will carry over from level to level. The contents are saved every time you finish a level or leave the pitstop, but will reset to how they were previously when you lose a round, just like the inventory does. You can use this to save more valuable items you've found early in the game for later without using up inventory slots.
    
  • When it closes, it makes a loud noise Baldi hears.
    
  • If you walk away from it while it is open, it will close on its own.
    
  • Using it will get you in trouble with Principal of the Thing for looking in other people's lockers. The player will remain guilty until the door is shut, even if they are seemingly away from the locker (For example, if a wall is between the player and locker but the player hasn't moved far away enough for it to close itself).
    
• Added the Diet BSODA. This behaves similar to BSODA, but the spray only lasts three seconds.
  
• Added Diet BSODA vending machines.
  
• Added a skip button to the elevator which will skip the pitstop and load the next level if the player so desires.
  

• Made several improvements to the HUD.
  
  • The staminometer needle no longer snaps to it's correct position when the stamina value makes a big jump. Instead, it quickly, but smoothly, slides to the intended position.
    
  • When items are collected or lost, the item can be seen quickly sliding in and out of the inventory.
    
  • The notebook counter in the top left has been simplified to just the notebook count and an icon, rather than displaying the text "#/# Notebooks. The icon plays a small animation when notebooks are collected.
    
  • Improved the YTP information display when gaining or losing YTPs. Now, a display rises from the bottom of the screen and the amount of YTPs being earned will fall into the display. The display will then add up the earned YTPs before lowering off screen again. This display also lifts up while in Johnny's store so you can see how many YTPs you have.
    
  • Many HUD elements will darken to indicate when you are in an "invisible" state. When invisible, NPCs cannot see you.
    
• Field Trips no longer load in levels. When they return, they will be accessible in the Pitstop.
  
• Updated the textures for red and blue lockers.
  
• The fan favorite "nothing" item, which now appears in empty storage locker slots, now has a question mark sprite assigned as its large icon.
  
• Made big optimizations to light generation allowing light data to be recalculated at runtime with no noticeable performance impact. With this improvement, light will now respond to changes in the environment. For example, when placing a portal poster, light will now propagate through it.
  
• The Dirty Chalk Eraser cloud now sets the player as invisible in addition to preventing NPCs from seeing past it.
  
• WD-NoSquee has been overhauled such that it now creates a quiet zone when used and can be used anywhere, rather than needing to be used on specific objects. This quiet zone spreads about five cells out from the cell it is used on and all sounds made within it will not be heard by Baldi or any other characters. The quiet zone is signified by sparkles that appear and lasts for five minutes.
  
• The order and timing of random events is now independent of the seed, and will be different on every attempt of a level. The selection of random events to be used is still dependent on the seed, however.
  
• Changed the event start notification sound.
  
• Changed the Math Machine correct and incorrect sounds.
  
• Changed the countdown voice for the Test Procedure event.
  
• The payphone now plays a coin drop sound when using a quarter on it.
  
• Tweaked some event timing parameters.
  
• Added to and tweaked some info in the credits.
  
• Reduced flood ambient volume.
  
• The vending machines found in faculty rooms can now be randomized to other types of vending machines.
  
• Regular BSODA is now much rarer, with Diet BSODA being about as common as regular BSODA used to be.
  

• Fixed a typo in one of Johnny's captions.
  
• Corrected a typo in licenses.txt.
  
• Actually fixed the flood ambient sound playing at normal volume for the first frame. It now fades in properly.
  
• Fixed being able to buy the map again for a floor it has already been purchased for.
  
• Fixed several objects in the playground rooms not being culled properly.
  
• Fixed the inventory saying "Nothing" when spawning even if an item is highlighted.
  
• Fixed an oversight that made it impossible to get in trouble for using BSODA.
  
• Fixed gum floating in place when the object it collided with is moved or disabled. It will now disappear if this occurs.
  
• Fixed Chalkles' audio cutting out when flying outside the room the player is in.
  

• Fixed a bug where, if a level ended while the Baldi TV static sound was playing, it would continue to play indefinitely.
  
• Added a poster to the Pitstop signifying where to Save & Quit.
  

Note that many of the issues listed here have been reported by players, but I have yet to reproduce them myself, so the accuracy of them might vary.

• Balloons occasionally clip into objects.
  
• NPCs will often not try to flip themselves when they are oriented opposite the player during Gravity Chaos. This can lead to strange NPC behavior.
  
• NPCs will occasionally appear to turn-around when entering open areas where a hallway bridges between two different parts of that open area.
  
• Lockdown doors near spawn can be seen snapping into the open position at game start.
  
• Dr. Reflex can squish NPCs even when they do not match his orientation during Gravity Chaos.
  
• Captions are more likely to stack on top of each other and become hard to read due to the new sound propagation system. I plan on finding a way to prevent captions from rendering on top of each other.
  
• There is no indication for when entities are about to become unsquished.
  
• It is possible to see out of bounds while being rotated by a gravity flipper while squished.
  
• On some screen resolutions, it is possible to see a gap through some elements on the elevator screen.
  
• Some NPCs are very annoying when they are squished.
  
• Wind and conveyor belt audio is not propagated.
  
• NPCs will occasionally end up wandering into an area they should be fleeing from.
  
• Dr. Reflex can sometimes get his hammer early while being pushed around by outside forces.
  
• NPCs will occasionally get stuck on the merry-go-round.
  
• NPCs can collide with other entities through walls, triggering their effects.
  
• Math Machine balloons can rarely get stuck behind the diagonal math machine.
  
• Principal, under some circumstances, can maintain his fast speed after using the principal whistle.
  
• Whirlpools that spawn behind a closed elevator gate still pull on the player, and this can cause the player to get stuck if there are multiple whirlpools.
  
• Dr. Reflex's sprite rarely getting tilted when pushed by multiple outside forces at once.
  
• Holding the quick map open while opening the advanced map causes a small visual issue.
  
• Arts and Crafters' echoes while attacking don't always match his orientation during the gravity event.
  
• A seed is displayed when playing pre-made maps.
  
• Held sprite objects, such as the math machine balloons, can be held into other areas such that their lighting noticeably changes.
  
• Mrs. Pomp doesn't wander around class rooms in pre-made maps. She just stands in a corner.
  
• Certain sound effects are delayed while the environment is frozen (Such as when Mrs. Pomp is asking the player to come to her class).
  
• Maps from saved games of Hide & Seek from older versions of the game will fill out the areas found from the previous play session, even if it doesn't match new level generation.
  
• Principal doesn't open office doors during detention while fleeing from a tape.
  
• During the flood, hall swinging doors do not open, while swinging doors that lead into rooms do open.
  
• NPCs can rarely end up stuck in the ground after the flood event. (A potential fix for this is lined up for a future update).
  
• The speed at which items slide in and out of the inventory can be inconsistent. This does not affect the responsiveness of using items.
  

Hello all!

Today I'm posting a small status update to share some of the stuff I expect to make its way into version 0.6!

Since releasing version 0.5, most of my time has been spent working on one really big change/new feature instead of several smaller new features. Because of this I may have to delay the update a week or two just to make sure I get it wrapped up and ready to ship first (I normally aim for the first Monday of every other month for major update releases). Normally I wouldn't delay an update like this under my new release schedule, and would just release it with whatever is ready, however if I do that for 0.6 before finishing this stuff, it will be a pretty small update.

So what is the big change I've been working on? The (tentatively named) Pit Stop!



Now, between levels/attempts, you can visit The Pit Stop to shop, go on field trips when they are available and manage items with the new storage locker (More on that below). I have future plans for another big, brand new feature here as well, but until I've tested it and determined that it's actually a good idea it will remain top secret!



Johnny's store is now a room that maintains the style and functionality of the shop you're familiar with. Since it's an actual room now, it will also be able to appear in levels! I mainly intend to spawn it in endless mode so that you'll have somewhere to spend YTPs, however I'm also going to experiment with having the store appear in Hide & Seek levels.



Field trips will take place here now as well! After considering the changes I already had planned for field trips alongside feedback regarding how they currently work, I came to the conclusion that they would work better in The Pit Stop than in the middle of levels, since they break the pacing of Hide & Seek too much.



Unfortunately I don't think the new field trips will be ready in time for 0.6, so it will not have any. I removed the current camping minigame to clear the way for the new field trip system, so if you want to keep a version of the game that has that minigame now's the time to make a backup copy of the current version! My plan is to have field trips return in 0.7. Here's a teaser for that!



Then there's the storage locker! This big green locker appears in The Pit Stop and is also guaranteed to appear somewhere in every level. You can place items inside to store them for later, and the contents will carry over from level to level so you can stow away the best items for when you need them most. As with your inventory, the contents of the locker are saved every time you start a level, and will revert to the saved state whenever a life is lost.



Lastly, there's an exit which you can use to save and quit, replacing the save and quit button in the elevator.

Aside from the pit stop and related changes, I've worked on a handful of smaller things, like some improvements to the HUD and optimizations to the lighting system which will finally allow lighting to respond to changes in the level layout (Meaning light will now pass through portal posters for example). There's also a new structure I'd like to work on soon! If I have time I'll try squeezing it in, but it's one of those things that could take a few hours to several days to finish.

I think that's all I want to share right now! I'll let you all know when I've pinned down a solid release date for 0.6 and its pre-release. Until then I'll be busy getting this update ready to go!