Zeepkist News

YES

YESSSS

After more than 5 months of development, the new Zeepkist update is finally here!!

And whooooooo boiii it's a big one.

We've basically ripped out a whole bunch of old code, and (over the course of 5 months) replaced it with all sorts of new (and way better) code!!

We've replaced the entire input system, we've added a complete settings menu, we've reworked the entire online multiplayer, managed to optimize a ton of systems (thank u Saty UwU), and we upgraded our engine from Unity 2018 to Unity 2021!!

We hadn't planned for it to take this long, but as they say where I'm from, good work takes time 🤠

We hope you enjoy the update as much as we enjoy launching it!!

Full changelog below!

Happy Zeepkisting!!!

[h3]To celebrate we've discounted Zeepkist 13% (spooOoooOoky), and the King's Day DLC 25% for the next two weeks![/h3]



[h3]Upgrading from Unity 2018 to Unity 2021[/h3]
- Improved collision physics
- Improved frame timing consistency, reducing micro-stutters
- Fixed bouncing (porpoising) on wallrides
- Reduced “edge bug” collisions
- Physics in general will be slightly different, old levels might not work exactly the same



[h3]Key Rebinding & Settings Menu[/h3]
- Zeepkist now has a proper settings menu
- Many new settings added
- Switched from InControl to Rewired for input management
- Many more controllers now supported
- Added input rebinding
- Steering wheels now supported
- Deadzone settings
- Raw Steering added (useful with steering wheel)



[h3]Online Multiplayer Update[/h3]
- Switched from Photon to custom server solution
- Went from 16 players to 48 players per room
- Secret chat emoji
- Improved online level loading backend
- Improved level timer logic



[h3]Massive Performance Upgrades[/h3]
- Improved game startup performance
- Improved level loading performance
- Improved LOD system performance



[h3]More Content[/h3]
- Triplanar shader upgrade
- Level baseplate can now be toggled
- Added icons to certain “special” blocks

- More cosmetics, added to existing adventure levels



- Many new blocks
- Primitive blocks
- More shipping containers
- v9 statue
- Invisible road block
- Two No-Collision blocks
- Road-type wallride transitions
- Big static traffic signs
- Big numbers
- New start block
- Loose start block parts
- Signs without poles



- About 200 new materials
- Transparent ice materials
- Grille texture materials
- Mud material
- Brick material
- Solid colors, matte and shiny
- Changed checkerboard texture offset



[h3]Various Bugfixes/Changes[/h3]
- Air control forces increased
- Slowster block has force property now
- Checkpoint delta improvement
- Improved pause menu logic
- Fixed FPS counter going infinite in pause menus
- Various menu improvements
- Input indicator display
- Split “Free Play” and “Splitscreen” into different things
- Magical controller billboard
- Baseplate texture glitch fixed
- Removed FAQ button from extras
- Added resource loading bar on startup
- Removed the zeeprooms





As we noted in our recent post, Steam Deck compatibility may not be perfect.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1440670/announcements/detail/3306229070215284146

A current workaround that we're aware of is not using any analog input methods while on Steam Deck, and instead making sure to only use digital inputs.

We don't have a Steam Deck ourselves to test so mileage may vary.

Steam Deck's Proton fork is also under active development so in the future these issues might revolve themselves, but all of that is uncertain.

Again, Zeepkist is not being developed for Linux compatibility, so we're entirely reliant on Steam's Windows emulator. Nevertheless, we'll keep you all posted on any known Steam Deck developments in the future.

- Yannic

The new Zeepkist update is getting really close so it's time to throw a new trailer into the world!!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Happy Zeepkisting!!!

Very quick news post here warning you all that with the upcoming v10 update, Steam Deck compatibility may break.

During testing of our new updated we've had multiple people inform us that some inputs on Steam Deck don't work.

The issue is that we've upgraded our input framework to use Rewired Input Manager, which allows us far greater flexibility when it comes to recognizing controllers than our previous solution.

However, it appears that Steam's Proton Wine fork, the software Steam uses to emulate Windows games on Linux/Steam Deck, has a critical input bug that causes Rewired to not work properly on Steam Deck.

A detailed overview of the issue can be find in this forum post, by the developer of Rewired:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/rewired-advanced-input-for-unity.270693/page-167#post-8420538

This situation is an unfortunate result of multiple systems not interacting perfectly, and Zeepkist being developed with only PC officially supported.

We're currently working with Steam to test and verify the new update, but until that process is complete we can't do anything about the "Steam Deck Verified" icon on our Store page.

So if you're looking to buy Zeepkist for exclusive use on Steam Deck, I would wait until the next update to see if Zeepkist is still compatible.

We're very sorry for any issues this may cause anyone, and we'd like to remind you that you have a right to apply for refund as long as you have under 2 hours of play time!

Thank you all for your understanding!

- Yannic

Hey all!

Zeepkist is part of the lovely Indie Racers Festival!!

From today til Monday there's a TON of cool indie games and promotions to check out, and Zeepkist is part of it!

https://indieracers.com/






For the occasion we're hosting a small Steam key Sweepwidget giveaway, which you can join via the link below:
https://sweepwidget.com/view/60966-zyrnt9ja

Edit 30 Aug, 2022: The winners have now been selected and the emails have been sent out! :D


Good luck to everyone involved!!
Check out cool games!!

Happy Zeepkisting!!

Hey everyone!!

It's time for another update post :)

A couple of months ago I took Saty aboard, you may have seen him around the Discord and such, to help out with complex programming tasks. Together we've been working super hard on getting the v10 update ship-shape and ready to launch.

We're not there *quite* yet, but we do have a progress update post ready for you guys! Written by none other than Saty themselves!

Enjoy!






As you all know, we are currently hard at work for the upcoming v10 update.
We already leaked a few things but we didn't really talk in detail yet about the new features.
So let's get you up to date!

First of all, we have reworked a lot of core systems of Zeepkist.
A lot of things you might not even notice, but that helps Zeepkist to be developed faster than ever before!
Most notable here are the UI changes, as all the UIs in the game now use one system and are way more responsive.
You can for example now pause anywhere, at any time! No more resetting before you can switch to photo mode :p

Up next are performance improvements.
You probably played levels with multiple thousands of building pieces, which slowed your game to a halt. Well... we found some issues that we’ve been able to fix, which should greatly speed up high detail levels!

We are also happy to show a sneak peak of the new settings menu!
The settings menu got a lot more fleshed out and now exposes most internal settings!
So you can finetune the graphic settings to your system, to enjoy Zeepkist as smooth as ever 🙂
Also, thanks to the before mentioned UI overhaul, you can access the new settings menu from anywhere! No more leaving an intense online match to change the volume.




We also mentioned Input Rebinding before.
It is finally coming with the v10 update! You will be able to change any key in the game to your preferred key.
This new system has a lot more functionality and should detect a lot more, if not all, controllers!
(Please someone finish X02 on a banana controller and send me a youtube video of it, thanks!)




But this is not all yet.
We also reworked the Networking. Actually... we completely replaced it.
Say bye bye Photon and hello custom networking!

This opens a lot of doors to us and lets us work on a lot of server-side features that up until now have been impossible for us to add. Stay tuned for more info on this in the future!

These will be things we might roll out with upcoming updates, so keep an eye out for announcements!

This is a lot already and this is probably the biggest update Zeepkist has ever seen, but on top of all these improvements and changes, we even went ahead and added a bunch of content!

Over 200 new materials for the level editor (Including bricks, solid colors, meshes etc) and primitive objects! Bringing the total count up to 345!!




You probably now wonder: `But when can I play all of this?`
Because it’s such a big update we’re still hard at work ironing out all the bugs to give you the best experience possible. Luckily we’re nearing the point where we can start doing public beta tests. We will ping you all for it when we are at that point.

That's it for today, we hope you are just as excited as we are! We can't wait to show you all of the new cool stuff!
Have a great time!

~ Saty