Monsters Loot Swag News

This is Hollólány, she is the Final Boss of the Final Level - but this isn't even her Final Form.

With the completion of level 8, the gameplay and all assets are pretty much complete. All that remains to be finalized for FULL RELEASE, is some 2D artwork for the "Souvenir Collectables System", and an intro and outro explaining the PLOT. So much plot - and I'm not just talking cute catgirls.

Early Access is winding down to full release soon™ and so the introductory price will be rising next week,

Apart from level 8 and the completion of the gameplay itself, there have been numerous bug fixes, as outlined below in the changelog.

1. Update 35: update to version 1.9.9.5?
   
2. New: Level 8, the final level has arrived.
   
3. New: Level 8 final boss has arrived.
   
4. New: Added final boss final form event.
   
5. New: Gameplay now has choice of continuing in endless mode after level 8 is complete and the game has been beaten.
   
6. New: Multiplayer Co-Op defaults to endless mode once the game is beaten.
   
7. Fix: Added an extra check for monsters to prevent opportunity attacks when stunned.
   
8. Fix: Level 2 camera start node not facing correct direction of preload group.
   
9. Change: Level 2 preload group moved towards camera start node.
   
10. Change: Level 6 waterBlock wet depth reduced to 0.1.
    
11. Change: Level 7 waterBlock wet depth reduced to 0.1.
    
12. New: Added an extra test for detecting liquids when spawning player.
    
13. Change: Removed redundant DDS files from terrain moss textures.
    
14. Change: Orbiters no longer get slowed by water, which had been seperating them from the player.
    
15. Fix: Missing invisible "wobble" texture for player character STARSHIP now exists for use with GHOST RUN swag powerup.
    
16. Change: Player slowed down object has been removed in favour of displaying a temporary slowed down texture effect on the afflicted character.
    
17. Fix: Spawning enemies were attempting to check for nearest player to attack without seperating object and distance first, so the initial test always failed.
    
18. Change: Speed Bonus elite monsters who are not chargers are now always hunters.
    
19. Change: Level 3 Boss minigun attack has increased audio range as it sounded a bit too quiet.
    
20. Change: Green Radiation Bonus object for elite monsters has been replaced with a green glowing skin but remains for bosses.
    
21. Change: Blue Speed Bonus object for elite monsters has been replaced with a blue glowing skin but remains for bosses.
    
22. Change: Red Strength Bonus object for elite monsters has been replaced with a red glowing skin but remains for bosses.
    
23. Fix: Level 7 monsters were not playing the correct choice of emitter colours based on their skins.
    
24. Fix: Fixed issue with fallback special death effects would attempt to spawn an explosion when only particle effect was the default.
    
25. Fix: Added missing amberRingDecal5.
    
26. Change: Boss spawning decals now match the colour of their spawning particle effects.
    
27. Fix: Player melee weapon images had their item data pointing to the default weapon item and not their own.
    
28. Fix: Later level Bosses were being severley short changed with energy replenishment.
    
29. Change: Boss energy replenishment is now based on ascending level progress.
    
30. Fix: Monster opportunity attacks were not firing if the weapon FSM had a second ready state.
    
31. Fix: Level 2 Boss was missing cash multiplier for loot drop.
    

So that's Early Access Update 35 complete, and this leaves only 1 or 2 more updates before full release! ːhappychappyː

Introducing SCHIAVONA. She enjoys opening sparkling wine in a fancy manner, eating olives and skewering anything that moves with the overly large sword that she is named after.

SCHIAVONA is the fourthand final unlockable player character, and can be unlocked by gaining the achievement PHEIDIPPIDES, when the player has travelled more than a total of 225km / 139miles and 1423 yards in old money.



SCHIAVONA is a close range, melee based character with the highest damage rating of all playable characters. She has allround good statistics for speed, health, energy and strength, but nothing super special.

Her Standard Attack is SABRAGE, a neat way of taking the head off a bottle of fizz, and equally effective against monsters. With an excellent range for melee combat of 5 metres, it does have a slight pause whilst she poses to show off before delivering the coup de grace.

Her Special Attack is the SHISH KEBAB, were she dashes forwards to skewer all enemies to her front. Again there is a pause whilst she flamboyantly strikes a pose before dealing the highest damage of all cosplaying characters to all who stand in her way. She is invulnerable to taking damage during this attack, which makes the delay all about timing to land the best blow. See the gif below.



Her Special Evade is BACK DRAFT, were she stuns all nearby enemies and forcefully pushes them away before quickly retreating backwards, and hopefully out of harm's way. As with her Special Attack, she is again invulnerable to damage for the short duration of her Special Evade.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

1. Update 34: update to version 1.9.9.1
   
2. New: Playerable Catgirl Cosplay Character SCHIAVONA, 8th and final playerable character and 4th unlockable bonus character.
   
3. New: SCHIAVONA can be unlocked with the achievement PHEIDIPPIDES.
   
4. Change: Default Build has been upgraded to the same level as the BETA branch, and the BETA branch has been retired.
   
5. Fix: Some melee based audio assests were not specifically set to use the effects audio channel.
   

Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year, with Monsters Loot Swag expected to ship in Q1 2025! ːhappychappyː

This is STARSHIP, she enjoys floating in zero gravity, getting blown out of airlocks, reads cheesy 1950s pulp sci-fi stories, and spamming phaser fire at anything that moves!

STARSHIP is the third unlockable player character (out of 4), and can be unlocked by gaining the achievement ULTRA MARATHON, when the player has travelled more than a total of 100km / 62 miles and 241 yards in old money.



STARSHIP is a ranged based playable character, featuring high mobility, excellent energy recharge, but is physcially weak when pushing enemies out of the way, and has low health regeneration.

Her Standard Attack is PHASER SPAM, which makes her the only character capable of true run-and-gun, as she doesn't bother to aim and just spams shots whilst moving. This is also the only attack were the player can just hold down the fire button and it will keep firing.

Her Special Attack is PHASERS TO STUN, which unleashes a wide energy beam, immobilizing all enemies to her front.

Whilst physically weak with low strength making it difficult to push monsters out of the way, her Special Evade is ENERGIZE! Which teleports her away from danger, 18 metres in the direction she is moving, or forwards if she is static, whilst stunning any enemy close to her materialization point.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In other news, Steamworks SDK has been updated to version 1.61. This has a new feature were Steam Stats are preloaded on the Steam Client. Naturally this broke all my custom code and safety checks for whether Stats had been loaded, so that took some time to fix, but now all is well and my C++ has been updated to play nicely with the new method of retreiving player statistics from Steam's servers.

There have also been a number of changes and bug fixes, as detailed below in the changelog!

1. Update 33: update to v.1.8.8.4
   
2. New: Steamworks SDK updated to version 1.61.
   
3. Change: Local game files re-coded to receive user stats pre-game load.
   
4. New: Playerable Catgirl Cosplay Character STARSHIP, 7th (of 8) playerable character and 3rd (of 4) unlockable character.
   
5. New: STARSHIP can be unlocked with the achievement ULTRA MARATHON.
   
6. New: Playerable phaser weapon for new character STARSHIP.
   
7. New: Particle FX for phaser impacts and stunned enemies.
   
8. Fix: Fully populated uft font files are now included.
   
9. Fix: Playable cosplay character Southern Hospitality's directional speed now equalised.
   
10. Change: Projectiles now spawn at the end of their point-blank raycast hit test point (~2m), rather than weapon muzzlePoint origin, so they don't look like they're spawning behind weapon barrels if projectile has a long tail.
    
11. Fix: Removed interfering head/look animation from playable character PUMPKIN that kept making her look at the ground.
    
12. Fix: Added missing internal screenshot file functions.
    
13. New: Added demo recording file functions.
    
14. Change: Increase minimum distance of Deer Hunters (level 4 enemies) spawn and death audio for slightly louder sound.
    
15. Fix: Deer Hunters (level 4 enemy) spawn fx was missing due to change in previous naming conventions.
    
16. New: Created a rudimentary function to prevent the cursor escaping the rendering window when K&M are the selected control system (and the game is windowed or multiple monitors are in use).
    
17. New: Cursor window lock is disabled if the game window is not in focus. (eg: you TAB out)
    
18. New: SteamDeck disables window lock as it should not be required.
    
19. Fix: Total Orbiters was calling the wrong stat when dumping stats.
    
20. Fix: Best Attack stat was not being correctly set.
    
21. Change: Minor wording change to level 3 loading screen.
    
22. Change: Removed unneccessary placeholder portrait images.
    
23. Change: Startup loading screen now has it's own thinking catgirl portrait background image.
    

Happy Swagging it up!

Builds Builds Builds ...

Default build has been updated to the working Beta build, whilst the new Beta build has been updated to a newer engine build.

Build.

Error reporting had been broken under certain "circumstances" ... circumstances which briefly made my life as a developer a pain in bug tracking, and this is now fixed.

Update 32: update to v.1.8.6.8
New: Player now has 10 seconds spawn protection, useful if joining an already started multiplayer game.
Change: Enemy missile elites will now attempt to fire a missile when they spawn.
Fix: Leaderboard Top 3 bronze player name was not correctly resizing for display.
Fix: expanding fonts had a global on it's global.
Fix: error reporting once again names the error and error location.
Fix: previous Beta issue with broken animated textures not animating.
Fix: correct default build now pushed - derp ːsteamfacepalmː

And if you're in the UK, don't forget to turn your clocks back in 2 and a half hours! ːareusureaboutthatː

The DEMO has returned, after being fully upgraded to the new all singing, all dancing PBR engine, and it features the first level, the initial 4 starting catgirl cosplaying characters, and online Co-Op mode!

The DEMO is downloadable from the store page, if anyone fancies a try.



Early Access Update 31 also includes a few changes and fixes to both the Default Game Build and the Beta Build.

1. Update 31: update to v.1.8.6.3
   
2. Change: Default Release updated to engine version 1290.
   
3. Change: Beta Release updated to engine version 1304.
   
4. New: Return of the Demo, fully upgraded to the new PBR engine, featuring the first level and choice of the starting 4 cosplay characters, including 4 player online co-op mode. Previously it had been removed due to being built with the outdated, pre-PBR engine.
   
5. Fix: Custom keybinds were being saved in an outdated format.
   
6. Change: All 212 animated materials are now using the new animFlag typemask display format.
   
7. Fix: LightFlameLinesMagenta16_dds material asset file was in the wrong directory, now reunited with correct assets.
   
8. Fix: Removed duplicate setCosplay function for gameConnection to call serverConnection.
   

ːcorblimeyguvnorː