Waves 2: Notorious News

2020 just sucked, didn't it? Good riddance I say.

It's no secret that Squid In A Box Ltd is in fact just one person. It isn't a studio with a half dozen full-time employees it's just Li'l ol' me trying to get as much done as I can.

2020 was just awful for that. Between starting a new job so we could pay the bills, moving cities, and everything else it left me going from working full-time on Waves 2 to working at weekends. I've been averaging maybe 6-8 hours a week this year where before I would be working 40-50.

The Winter 2020 season in-game has lasted all year rather than the 3 months a season normally lasts and it will continue until the next major update sometime in Jan of this year.

So if there haven't been any major game updates in 2020 what have there been?

[h2]A Growing Community[/h2]

There are plenty of loyal fans playing the game every single day, especially on the last day of each month for those last-minute leaderboard grabs! We've been at around 200 monthly active users all year which is actually an increase over 2019 so the community has been growing which is amazing!

Plenty of bugs have been reported both on the forums and in the discord and I am addressing all of them as best I can.

[h2]Console Ports[/h2]

A Nintendo Switch version of the game is in the works! It's currently playable but needs lots of UI changes and optimizations and won't be released until after PC reaches 1.0 but it is definitely going to happen!

[h2]Achievements[/h2]

Steam Achievements are coming soon! Most of my 2020 has been spent working on these and I have 36 achievements* implemented that are currently undergoing testing and balancing. Some of them require changes to Items in the game so it's taken longer than expected but they will be part of the next big update.

[h2]Boring Project Management Stuff![/h2]

Finalizing the design of the game and getting all of the work needed into a task tracker (Jira for those that are curious). Not all of it is required to ship but it's good to have a definitive list of everything left to do.

2021 will hopefully be different. I'm working on the next major update and while I originally planned for it to be released in December that didn't happen due to a small case of catching Covid and being put out of action for almost 3 weeks.

There are almost 800 hours of work left to do in my backlog for the game. Was I working full-time this would be around 6 months of work (including contingency) but at my current rate of around 8 hours a week that shakes out to over 2 years.

Unless I can secure funding to allow me to work full-time again then either big features have to be cut (such as all of Dive mode and Multiplayer) or everyone is going to have to keep on waiting.

It's not the news you all wanted to hear and it's not the news I want to deliver but it's the way things are.



I will continue with development until my last breath if I have to. I love this game and I love our community and I want to do my very best for all of us!

I hope you have a good 2021 and with any luck maybe I can get back to full-time development again.

Please follow me on Twitter for more frequent updates and don't forget to tell your friends about this great little twin-stick shooter called Waves 2.

* I also need 36 achievement icons, so if you are an artist and interested in developing a visual style for them then get in touch at rob [at] squidinabox [dot] com

I will be streaming Waves 2: Notorious until 23:00 GMT tonight!

Come and hang out and ask any questions you want about the game and how early access is going!

I know it's been a long time but all I can say is it's 2020!

As a solo developer sometimes you have to just bite the bullet and get a "real" job (aka one that pays a living wage) which is what I did.

Development continues but I'm not able to work full-time on the game anymore.



There has been a "Prototype" boss fight in the Campaign mode for a while now and the feedback has been good! So good that I've spent some time polishing it up, making 2 more and adding all 3 of them to the Dive game mode.

Every 5th level in Dive will be a Boss Fight and they get tougher the deeper you go. Each Boss is designed to test a specific set of skills core to the game and I have another 3 I'm working on right now.



In addition to getting Boss Fights Dive Mode has undergone some other changes (actually almost all of this Patch is about Dive mode).

• Timers no longer restart when entering a new level. You take whatever time you had left with you to the next level.
  
• XP from kills has been nerfed but completing Objectives and Downloading Files now rewards XP and the amount increases as you get deeper.
  
• There are more Files to download in all Dive Levels.
  
• Dive now only has 1 Arena Type but the Maze levels have been added to the standard map rotation.
  
• Entering a Level gives you some extra time depending on the type of level.
  
• Completing a Level no longer stops enemies from spawning or the timer from counting down.
  
• Completing a Level no longer despawns any Subsystems you haven't destroyed yet so you can go back for those Files you missed.
  
• When the Exit spawns it no longer kills everything in the level.
  

The Tutorial has been completely re-designed! It still needs some extra work but it should now be much better at walking new players through the game without bombarding them with walls of text.

The Tutorial will also go straight into a game of Dive on Easy when it completes.



There are several bug fixes and quality of life changes in this patch too most of which were requested by members of the community!

• Enemies killed by spawning under the player no longer stay visible.
  
• Using the Glitch Item doesn't crash the game anymore.
  
• Fixed a crash in the Loadout editor.
  
• Fixed Rotation of the Quakes effects.
  
• Beam weapons no longer lose damage output at low framerates.
  
• Added Floating Text when the player gains Experience.
  
• Added Option to disable Floating Text.
  
• Added Option to disable the Status Ring.
  

Things are looking bright! While I may have gotten a full-time job to pay the bills this at least means I'm no longer stressed about paying the bills and can focus entirely on making the game better rather than worrying about sales.

I now have everything I can think of in my own Jira backlog and am doing month-long Sprints with a specific goal that should result in a new patch every month (the next one is focussing on Steam Achievements).

Based on my current backlog and the rate I'm completing work It looks like I'll be finished in about another year at the earliest however unlike previous attempts to finish the game this time I have a solid goal to work towards and it's just a case of ticking things off the list until I'm done.

Thank you for being patient! I have the best community I could ask for and I'm really grateful for all your support!

Rob

The crash when starting a campaign game should be fixed in the most recent version.

The fix for this requires using the 64bit version of the game and as such the 32bit version is no longer supported.

Also fixed in this patch is the Tutorial not progressing past the first stage.

This patch brings a few quality of life and UI improvements primarily for the Campaign mode as well as replacing the old Campaign "Shoot the Core" boss encounter with a new prototype Boss Fight.

Due to changes in how Objective Data is stored your existing Campaign saves may not work correctly. It is advised that you start a new game. This does not affect Arcade mode at all.



Replacing the old confusing and fairly dull "Shoot the Core" boss fight in the Campaign is a new breed of Bullet-Hell style Boss.



This current version is just a prototype with only a few attacks in order to create the framework for better Bosses in the future.

Instead of bullets Bosses spawn enemies which can be destroyed and count towards your combo allowing you to earn adrenaline during a Boss encounter however some of their attacks will just have to be avoided.

As part of the development and testing process a new game mode will be added to Arcade in March that features Endless Boss Fights.

Bosses will eventually be added to the Arcade Dive mode (Which will be renamed to "Rogue" in a future patch) and will appear at set milestones throughout the game.



The game is now using Unreal 4.24.1. This marks the end of support for Shader Model 4. Please let me know any issues you may be having as a result of this patch with regard to crashes on startup or graphical or sound glitches. Most people should be unaffected by this change but you never know!



The rest of this patch is predominantly UI changes/fixes.

• Pause Menu now has useful information on it including your current game mode, Objectives, Stats and more.
  
• Objectives Display on the HUD and Campaign Menus has been updated to include more useful information.
  
• Longpresses are now only required for gamepad users when interacting with the Campaign Maps. Mouse users can now Double Click on things.
  
• Network Map no longer lets you replay a level you have completed.
  
• Network Map shows which levels you have completed with a Checkmark.
  
• Network Map no longer lets you select Locked Levels.
  
• Network Map highlights available levels more clearly.
  
• Campaign progress is saved when returning to the Network Map instead of only on Logout.
  
• Secondary Objective Progress is now saved and restored correctly in Campaigns.
  
• Reputation for completing Objectives is now being awarded correctly after completing a Server.
  

This isn't the end of the Campaign changes. There is some low-hanging fruit I intend to get done possibly in smaller patches over the next couple of weeks so keep an eye on the patch notes.

Most of these will be the replacement of the overly complicated elements with much easier to use versions (such as rewarding Reputation when a file finishes downloading rather than needing it to be sold).