Monsters Loot Swag News

Live Stream of the dev playing the release build of Monsters Loot Swag.

BLAST MONSTERS

WIN LOOT

GET SWAG!

Monsters Loot Swag is officially released, after a 2 year stint in Early Access! Thanks to everyone who gave feedback!

Happy Catgirl Cosplay Carnage! ːcorblimeyguvnorː

Early Access finally ends, and the Release Candidate Build has been uploaded.

If all goes according to plan, the Final Release of Monsters Loot Swag will be pushed on the evening (UK time) of Thursday 8th of May, Space Year 2025.

The gameplay has been complete for some time, and now the all important intro sequence has been added, detailing the story and lots of PLOT!

Bonus points to anyone who can get the subtle references (including a 1970s anime I loved as a 5 year old kid ... yes, I am old).

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

And there have been a few other changes, so here is the updated changelog:

1. Final Update: Update to version Release v.1.0.0.0
   
2. New: Cutscene Intro is complete and the player now has a story and PLOT!
   
3. Change: Removed halo effect from level 7 monsters (Interdimensional Knights) and reduced LOD.
   
4. Fix: Heavy Axe Interdimensional Knight had wrong coloured lower LOD material.
   
5. Change: Some temporary objects will now be disabled instead of immediately deleting them, standard cleanup will do this at end of level.
   
6. Change: Added a better pickup effect for Souvenirs.
   

And after a MAJOR UPDATE, comes the hotfix for the bits that got missed!

1. Player manually ending the game before Victory or Death now defaults to Main Menu rather than Game Over screen,
   
2. Players could still spawn at the edge of shallow water, so now water/lava levels have predefined spawnPoints.
   
3. Updated levels 6-8 for water/lava spawn avoidance system.
   

Happy Swaggening!

Early Access comes to an end, and the full release of Monsters Loot Swag will be coming soon™!

In this, the last of the Early Access updates, I have finished off the gameplay and achievements. Souvenirs are now unlocked, and may be collected when an Boss Monster is killed. Note this is done via an ever increasing RNG and the likelihood of Souvenirs dropping increases with game difficulty and level progression. Collected Souvenirs are displayed on the "Souvenir Screen" within the "Swag And Stats" Menu.

With Souvenirs now available, the last of the Achievements are now unclocked and can be collected.

This update also sees the new rebranding of the game in ancipation of full release, with the store page art and in-game main menu renewed to more closely follow the rest of the artwork for the character selection screens.

The game has also been updated to take into account the recent Steamworks SDK 1.62 update released by Valve.

There have been a myriad of other changes and fixes, not least the retopology of the earliest created characters to reduce polycount and improve UV mapping. Previously I had relied on an automated plugin with Blender3D, but it turns out I could do a better job myself.

There are now dedicated GAME OVER and GAME VICTORY screens, with the latter unlocking the option to continue playing in "ENDLESS MODE" once the game has been beat.

1. Update 36: update to version 1.9.9.8
   
2. Change: Updated to Steamworks SDK v.1.62.
   
3. Fix: Fixed a memory leak with zip files.
   
4. Fix: Screen resolution detection for smaller than 16:9 aspect ratio was failing due to floating point maths not giving 4:3 a precise 1.33 ratio. Now everything under 1.4 is considered 4:3 aspect.
   
5. Fix: Startup screen now has it's own seperate 4:3 background image.
   
6. New: Souvenirs are now active and will drop by level incremental RNG increasing with game difficulty.
   
7. New: Level Souvenir stats are now active.
   
8. New: Souvenir collection achievements are now active.
   
9. New: Souvenir collection screen is now available in Swag and Stats menu.
   
10. New: Souvenir artwork completed in the Swag And Stats section, and will update as each level Souvenir is collected.
    
11. Fix: Fixed bad spelling of souvenirs, apparently it's not souveniers.
    
12. Change: Swag and Loot pickup audio is now done in 2D client sound space for the player who is doing the pickup to stop speaker twang when the player is moving fast.
    
13. Change: Swag and Node unlock audio is now done in 2D client sound space for the player who is doing the pickup to stop speaker twang if the player suddenly changes direction after triggering the unlock.
    
14. Change: Player datablocks have increasinly reduced velocity when moving vertically.
    
15. Change: Vertical player blockers for each level has reduced repulsion force to prevent ping-pong effects.
    
16. Fix: Level 8 swag and exit nodes are now set to the correct height.
    
17. New: Final Boss's Final Form now has it's own portrait.
    
18. New: Added monster relevant preload textured object for elite monsters to each level.
    
19. New: Added player relevant status effect texures preload object.
    
20. Fix: Avoiding liquid on player spawning was defaulting to node or swag object origin rather than nearby.
    
21. Change: Minor wording change on Final Level's introduction.
    
22. Fix: Missing test for achievement SUBSCRIBE FOR PICS after all cosplaying catgirls are unlocked.
    
23. Change: Achievement SUBSCRIBE FOR PICS will now unlock at the start/load game screen, so not to spam achievement unlocks when the final cosplay unlock achievement has occurred.
    
24. Fix: Stats numerical holders were losing their lower border on smaller screen resolutions.
    
25. Fix: Bad entries for some Elite Monster effect materials.
    
26. Change: Main Menu screen now uses new branding for release.
    
27. Change: Retopologized playable character WATER HAZARD, reducing poly count by ~60%.
    
28. Change: Re-exported playable character WATER HAZARD animations to remove redundant nodes.
    
29. Fix: Playable character SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY had mixed up wobble and slowed materials.
    
30. Change: Retopologized playable character SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY, reducing poly count by ~60%.
    
31. Change: Re-exported playable character SOUTHERN HOSPITALILTY animations to remove redundant nodes.
    
32. Change: Retopologized playable character PUMPKIN, reducing poly count by >60%.
    
33. Change: Re-exported playable character PUMPKIN animations to remove redundant nodes.
    
34. Change: Retopologized playable character BIKAVER, reducing poly count by >60%.
    
35. Change: Re-exported playable character BIKAVER animations to remove redundant nodes.
    
36. Change: Retopologized playable character SUNRISE, reducing poly count by ~60%.
    
37. Change: Brought playable character SUNRISE armature bone naming convention into line with all other playerable character skeletons.
    
38. Change: Re-exported playable character SUNRISE animations to remove redundant nodes and reference new bone naming convention.
    
39. Fix: Playerable character STARSHIP light attack animation was ending outside of range.
    
40. Fix: Final Boss weapon FSM was attempting to wait for trigger release but AI do not use that state.
    
41. Fix: Level 3 Boss animations renamed so as not to conflict with similarly named animations.
    
42. Fix: Level 6 Boss animations renamed so as not to conflict with similarly named animations.
    
43. Fix: AimerAid material original name was referencing another material.
    
44. Fix: Multiple shapes were failing to find a referenced material ID due to missing suffix, though they did still load the material.
    
45. New: Cutscene Outro for player death now as a Game Over screen.
    
46. New: Cutscene Outro for player victory over game.
    
47. New: Winning the game now gives the option to continue playing in "Endless Mode".
    

The only thing remaining to complete before FULL RELEASE is the cutscene intro, which will detail the all important PLOT. Catgirls need PLOT. ːhappychappyː