ShapeVS News

Hey everyone,

It’s been a hot minute so I thought I would give a quick update on how ShapeVS development is going. Firstly, thank you for the incredible reception to update 0.2 and Shape Zone!

We have a few bugs (like audio issues and balancing) to iron out, but they will hopefully come with update 0.3. Speaking of 0.3, we are on schedule to release it hopefully before the end of the month pending Christmas and the rest of the holiday season.

So thank you for your patience and understanding, game dev can be hard, but we are hard toiling away hard and gearing up for an awesome 2023 ShapeVS season!

[h2][h3]ShapeVS 0.2v (PAX Notes)[/h3][/h2] (See because PAX sounds like patch)

It's been a little while, just over a month but we are here now! PAX Aus is done and now Shape Zone has been added to the game! Below are the patch notes, as always we will be monitoring how things go with the rollout and will make adjustments where necessary.

Additions

• Added Game Five, Shape Zone, to the pool of games!
  
• New win quotes added
  
• Added a crown indicator to show who is in the lead
  
• Arrows were added to the warning lines to help indicate when cogs are coming
  

Changes

• Added extra values for screen resolution in options and settings
  
• Changed details in splash screens
  
• Added names to credits
  
• Changed the jump boost power up to correctly identify what it does
  
• Made it so the death cogs only hit you with the time penalty (death) and not the loss of points, feedback from players feeling like they were punished twice
  
• Players can now destroy power-ups to stop other players from getting them
  
• Fixed cog and laser colours to better stand out
  
• Shape Fly
  
• Adjusted some height values for the “pipes” as they come through
  
• Adjusted the cog timer to last a bit longer (from 30s to 40s) to help with game length
  

Main Fixes + Game Specific Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the in-game FPS counter would soft lock on the main screen
  
• Fixed an issue where the win quotes were going to the wrong place
  
• Fixed an issue where the lasers would hit coins and power-ups
  
• Fixed an issue where the credits wouldn't scroll properly
  

Shape Battle

• Fixes an issue where it would only show player one had won the game
  

Shape Move

• Fixed an issue where players could spawn on top of each other and accidentally cause a player's death
  

Shape Fly

• Fixed an issue where the game would not end if players somehow score over the score limit
  
• Fixed an issue where the FINISHED screen was not always showing
  

Shape Rush

• Altered platform sizes to help with better collision detection, will look at player feedback before determining the next step
  

Thank you again for all your belief in the game and we look forward to seeing out an exciting 2022.

Hey testers, it’s the ShapeTECH team dropping in again with our latest breakdown of ShapeVS and the team at Smash Attack. Having recently conducted mass testing in Melbourne, Victoria at PAX Aus 2022, they have returned with praise, feedback and an overall sense of purpose. So let’s dive in!



For those unaware, PAX Aus is a yearly convention hosted by ReedPop in Melbourne. Usually a yearly event, due to the effects of COVID we saw it halted for the past two years, but it has made a triumphant return with an estimated 80,000 said to have attended.

Smash Attack this year teamed up with Trades Tas and Screen Tas to be part of the Tasmanian booth at PAX. A collaboration between Smash Attack and six other developers from around the state. It was genuinely great to see such a showing of Tassie devs and we can’t thank Alex and Claudia from Screen Tas and Tom from Trades Tas for all their hard work in getting everything set up.



It was fantastic to have ShapeVS out in the open with a large crowd for its first big test run and boy did it get it. From crashes to games not loading, it indeed was an experience with ShapeVS and one that we are grateful for. Having only had internal development and not truly been put to the test on different hardware it was good to see the game run but also where we can improve which is the whole purpose of early access.



Now that the team is back we are diligently working through the bug list and improvements list we got from everyone who played, so if you came by, we can't thank you enough for everything! We managed to sell a bunch of codes, and see some great designs with the coasters (thanks Morning for those!)



It was also great to catch up with old friends, and Gamescom pals and make new relationships that we are sure will have some fantastic outcomes in the months and years to come. We will have some larger studio news coming soon but for now thank you to those who jumped on and we are back in action and hope to share more Shape Zone and ShapeVS news very soon.

Hello, testers,

It is amazing to hear that society has welcomed so many of you into the fold and we can’t thank you enough. It’s been a wild ride since our launch, for those who know the dev team we always said that we would be happy with 10 copies for launch week, so to see over 60+ of you around playing ShapeVS has truly blown us away!



Thank you to all those who came out!

We had our launch party on Friday and it was fantastic to meet so many of you and see the joy ShapeVS is bringing. But the work doesn’t stop and we have begun our planning for the rest of the year. First up is PAX Australia this weekend (October 7th to 9th) in which we are a part of the Tasmanian stand.



We have lost the team to SF6

We will be showcasing Early Access build 0.2 at PAX, featuring some clean-ups from the launch and the debut of game 5, Shape Zone, to the public. Shape Zone is one of the original games we showcased in a very early concept build and we are delighted to see it remade in the newest build.



Things are looking a bit different now

Think 2D king of the hill style gameplay and boom, Shape Zone! We will be showcasing it alongside the launch games and some freebies you can collect at the booth, so we hope to see you there! It's gone through some big changes since the early days.

Speaking of new content, today we want to announce our post-launch roadmap and current plan to hit 1.0 full release in 2023. Please note, these are subject to change pending literally anything game developer related.



This is the current plan of action

Right now our main focus is cleaning up any launch issues around the first 4 games and preparing game 5 (Shape Zone) and game 6 (???) for release. Other quality of life fixes to come as well as expansion on existing mechanics and features.

For those new, we are still offering ShapeVS at a cheaper launch special price, so if you want to jump in and support the growth of the game now is a great time. But again we can’t thank you enough for showing us all the support and love over the past weekend. We are excited to make ShapeVS the best it can be!

To be kept up to date we are pretty active on our socials here:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smashattackaus
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SmashAttackAus

And if you are keen on joining the Smash Attack community, you can join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/6pS2EVv

We look forward to touching base again soon with more updates!

The launch of the ShapeVS early access is right around the corner and we want to take this time to cover a variety of things around the game so you can best be prepared for its launch this Friday (or Thursday).

If you are an early adopter of ShapeVS you can join Discord here (https://discord.gg/6pS2EVv) and post any issues you may have found but for now, let’s cover some of what the launch will bring… Q and A style!

Q. How many games will launch?

A. 4 games will launch with the 0.1 Early Access build of ShapeVS. These include Shape Battle (a top-down shooter), Shape Fly (a survival-based tapping game), Shape Move (a platformer focused on collecting and dodging) and Shape Rush (a capture-the-platform-style game).

Q. How many people can play?

A. 4, it's the big number here. Up to 4 can play locally, the game does require at least 2 players to continue you though so do be aware that if you purchase that you have someone to play with.

Q. Is there online play?

A. Not currently dedicated, but Steam play together is compatible. We are currently looking at online options but for now, understand this is a local multiplayer ONLY game right now.

Q. How can I engage with the community?

A. Standard Discord stuff (see link above), our socials and of course, our Steam community!

Q. What should I expect from the future?

A. More games, expansions on current games and more features. We are a small team but are working hard to make a game that will bring you as much joy to play at home as it does for us as.

So hopefully that answers a few questions, we are working on some things in the background and have already begun preparations around the first major update which will bring game 5 to you all.

Thank you again for your support and we look forward to sharing more with you soon!