Mega Knockdown News

This update is intended to improve the experience of navigating menus, and should allow for more consistent controller support.

Menu Navigation, UI and Mousing Improvements

• Fixed issue where clicking outside of a button in the main menu would sometimes activate that button.
  
• Fixed recent bug where an object was blocking raycasts to menu options near the bottom of the screen.
  
• Fixed an issue where clicking stuff on the main menu would play the clicking sound twice.
  
• In the newer menus using Unity's event system (main menu and online menus) you will more easily be able to resume keyboard/gamepad navigation after clicking away from the buttons.
  
• If the game launches out of focus and you click the window, we've made it harder to accidentally click a menu option.
  
• If you highlight something with your mouse and navigate to some other option with the keyboard/gamepad and you select something, the game will prioritize whichever button was actually pressed.
  
• The Discord button is back, it is now navigable with a keyboard or gamepad.
  
• In the rebinding menu, P2 will no longer 'forget' that they are using a gamepad the second time you open the menu. P2 will now appropriately return to the 'done' button after they are done rebinding.
  

Controller Support Improvements

• The controller you're using in menus and online or single player modes should automatically become player 1. (This change was needed because depending on your user settings and hardware, sometimes Steam creates a virtual controller for player 1, and your actual controller would get assigned to player 2.)
  
• You can now press L3 in the main menu to bring up a hidden debug menu to assign specific plugged in controllers to Player 1 or Player 2. For now, the goal is that you shouldn't need to use it. Smart controller assignment should 'just work.'
  

Other

• Billy's stomp animation has improved line art. Later this month there will be more graphical/visual updates.

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Thanks to our community for reporting the various bugs that were fixed in this update. As always, if you have comments or encounter any issues, please press F8 in-game to notify the dev. You can also hop on the discord (https://discord.com/invite/bGVftKK) to find matches and discuss the new update.

This update continues our string of improvements to the game's graphics by introducing an all new HUD!



New HUD, graphics and audio

• Redesigned health bars, round timer, text, input display, status popups and round transition graphics.
  
• Greenville Forest (Mahogany Marv's stage) has been revamped!
  
• When characters take damage, the health bar's depletion is now animated.
  
• Character mini-portraits added to top of HUD.
  
• All-new announcer lines for round start/KO
  
• New round win markers.
  
• Input fades out when locked in, turns red when you're being punished.
  

General Updates

• Jerma Marv's throw now pushes back, same as normal Marv's throw.
  
• On Steam Deck, the default runtime is now Linux. This should help compatibility with our online lobby system.
  
• In Steam Deck and Big Picture Mode, fixed a bug where closing the onscreen keyboard without sending a Salty Chat message would cause the menu to get stuck.
  
• During the Tutorial, some text has been adjusted for Steam Deck players for improved compatibility.
  
• Steam Deck players will now see a unique version of the Controls guide popup.
  
• Fixed Noel's name display in multiplayer lobbies
  
• The current version # now displays on the Main menu.
  
• A new Demo version has been released, bringing it up to date with recent gameplay additions.
  

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As always, if you have comments or encounter any issues, please press F8 in-game to notify the dev. You can also hop on the discord (https://discord.com/invite/bGVftKK) to find matches and discuss the new update.

The graphical overhaul of Mega Knockdown continues with a set of hand-drawn sprites for Mahogany Marv, and the forest spirit Jayne! Now all six characters have a rough set of sprites which we will continue to update, improve and add to over time.

All new art for Marv!

• Marv and Jayne are now animated in-game with several dozen character sprites hand-illustrated by artist Alan McMillian.
  
• As before, players can choose between his new art style and the old ones ('Green Screen Jeremy' and 'Abstract') in character select.
  

Double KO Rules Change

• If a double KO or draw occurs during the first round, both players will get a round win.
  
• If a double KO or draw occurs during match point, sudden death will take place as usual.
  
• If a double KO or draw occurs and the round count is 0-1 or 1-0, nobody will get a round win.
  
• Hence is no longer possible to win a game outright on a double KO or draw, but otherwise the game will be pushed closer to a conclusion.
  

Gameplay and Balance

• If Billy gets a knockdown, he gets more frame advantage than usual (+20, up from +10).
  
• Previously Billy's knockdown was not that rewarding, since the opponent could use almost any attack to stop Billy from pressing the advantage. Now opponents might have to actually block him sometimes on wakeup, allowing Billy to keep the pressure going with meaty attacks or go in for a throw.
  
• Marv's throw now pushes opponent back. This was mostly implemented for visual reasons, but it helps achieve his gameplan of making space between himself and the opponent. Marv players using the Jerma sprites will still get the typical throw behavior, at least for now.
  
• Moves that side switch will no longer push the opponent back.
  

Graphics

• Adjusted the arc of Paul's j.B to look more natural.
  
• Fixed an issue where characters would flash their idle sprite for a single frame when recovering from a 'delayed' state.
  

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As always, if you have comments or encounter any issues, please press F8 in-game to notify the dev. You can also hop on the discord (https://discord.com/invite/bGVftKK) to find matches and discuss the new update.

Marv Update: Coming Next Week!
In the last update, we released a set of rough, hand-drawn character sprites for every character except Marv, which was the first phase of our ongoing art overhaul.



Why wasn't Marv in the last update? Well, our design for him is very ambitious and complex. In the placeholder graphics, his forest spirite Jayne appears during some of his special moves, but in the redesign, Jayne is always present, and, for story reasons, is doing basically all of the fighting. In a sense, Marv is a "reverse puppet character"!



We hope that you will enjoy this new addition, and we appreciate your patience as we continue to roll out updates to the game's visuals.

To access the public beta branch:

• Right-click Mega Knockdown in your library and click Properties
  
• Navigate to the Betas tab. Select the Marv Beta.
  
• Launch the game. You are now playing the beta!

If you have comments or encounter any issues, please press F8 to notify the dev. Your feedback will ensure that this feature will launch as smoothly as possible. You can also hop on the discord (https://discord.com/invite/bGVftKK) to find matches and discuss the new update.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Billy's jab not having the correct frame advantage on player 2 side.
  
• Fixed Billy's jab not making any sound when blocked.
  
• Fixed Lewis' new music track not playing on his stage.
  

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These bugs were found with the assistance of community members on the Mega Knockdown Discord. If you ever encounter a bug in-game, or you just have some feedback for the dev team, simply press F8 in-game to send us a message directly.