Utopia Must Fall News

Hello all,

We're about to drop the first major content update for Utopia Must Fall. Check it out on the BETA branch (Version 0.666) if you want a sneak peek before we make it live. We've been testing extensively with a smaller group of people, and it's now ready to run the Steam Community gauntlet. Here are the major changes, but a full changelog will be available soon:

Enemies:
- Nullifiers now absorb a limited amount of nuke fireball energy before collapsing into a temporary wormhole releasing a swarm of Anemones
- Anemones congregate above the city leeching shield energy. If the shield is offline, life force is drained directly from citizens
- Falling enemy gibs are now non-lethal to an unshielded city
- All unshielded enemies (except Nullifiers) can now be killed with nukes, those previously fully immune are now between 80% and 98% resistant
- Enemy shields are now destructible with bullets, lasers or flail strikes

Upgrades:
- Cobalt Coil Gun deals 2x damage to enemy shields
- Cobalt Coil Gun more likely to appear for Hermits
- New upgrade: Graphene Tipped Rods, cobalt projectiles are slowed and become superheated on contact with nuke fireballs, passing through enemies and dealing damage multiple times (hot bullets)
- New upgrade: Full Graphene Coating (hermit only), hot cobalt bullets melt through 50% more enemies
- Institute of Automation more likely to appear in the first week (Bookworm reward achievable again)
- Adaptive Beam Focusing removed, range vs damage outpost setting is now always available
- Shield capacity upgrades (hermit only) now give an instant recharge, are more generous, and display percentage values relative to initial maximum (numbers go above 100%)

Rewards / Achievements:
- Hard Boiled - break an enemy shield using superheated projectiles
- Seafood Platter - destroy an entire swarm of inter-dimensional anemones
- Blissful Ignorance - survive 14 days without taking any shield damage
- Pretty Decent Innit? - suffer 3 shield breaks in one day
- Bookworm & Bohemian rewards / achievements brought back

Other Improvements:
- Many nerfs and buffs, everywhere (we'll get more specific in final changelog)
- V-Sync timing mode now uses variable timesteps and allows framerates anywhere between 60-200hz (needs further testing, Delta timing is still the default for Windows installs)
- In-game FPS counter available via [c] key
- Fixed rare crash during shift-zoom transitions

Let us know what you think in the feedback channels on the forums, or in comments here.

-Miles @ Pixeljam

Hello all,

We recently found out that Utopia Must Fall has been nominated for "Excellence in Audio" for the upcoming Independent Games Festival, which is... kind of awesome!

Last time Rich and I went to the IGF was when Dino Run got nominated for Best Web Game back in 2008 or something.

Rich will be attending GDC this year, and we're flying John (Datassette) from London to San Francisco for the award ceremony and expo where we will be showcasing the game.

There is also an audience award that anyone can vote for, but voting ends on January 31st! Go check it out if you feel like giving a nod to Utopia: https://informa-tech.formstack.com/forms/27th_annual_independent_games_festival_audience_award

We're also *this* close to launching a major update to the game, more info on that in about a week...

Thanks again for the support,

-Miles @ Pixeljam

Hello UMFers,

We hope everyone has been enjoying the QoL update to the game, and now that we have that out of the way, it's time to focus on the good stuff - new content!

We're approaching 2025 with the perspective that more frequent but smaller updates is preferred over larger but less frequent ones. So we're aiming to get the first one out next month... it has a few new features, and here is a peek at one that you may appreciate - Cobalt Coil Gun is now armor-piercing:



We should start testing this (and some other new content) sometime in January, also aiming to release it in the same month if possible. There is so much we want to add, but we're a small team (1 person on all aspects of development and 1 other on promo) so you know... it takes time to get it right.

One thing that really helps is leaving a review for the game. So if you haven't done that, please do! It does more good than you might realize :)

Have a great holiday break, and don't feel bad about letting Chicago 2.0 burn to the ground - they had it coming apparently.

-Miles @ Pixeljam

Hello all,

We're happy to announce that the first significant update to Utopia Must Fall is now live!

Mac Users: if the update doesn't launch properly, do a full uninstall and re-install.

[h3]Version 0.656 - The QoL Update[/h3]

• Controller support, offering customisable options for any combination of mouse, keyboard and gamepad, or fully gamepad controlled
  
• Full keyboard / d-pad access to all in-game interfaces
  
• Major performance improvements in line rendering (up to 60% faster)
  
• High frame rate support, up to 120fps
  
• Visual improvements: overhauled shaders,
• Sharpie Mode*, extended display options including gamma adjustment
  
• Advanced BIOS options for fine tuning GPU settings - Press SHIFT on boot-up to activate (including skipping studio logos on boot, if you must)
  
• Multiple fixes for minor visual glitches and logic bugs
  
• Pause menu now available in upgrade / reward screens
  
• Wider aspect ratio and playfield
  
• Major internal engine refactor (groundwork for more updates!)
  
• Minimal nerfs / buffs to account for difficulty change associated with wider playfield
  

Read the full patch notes here.



Now, on to content updates! Thanks again for the patience and support,

- Miles @ Pixeljam

Hello Utopians,

Thanks for the patience while we got this together. We're happy to report that the first significant update to Utopia Must Fall (version 0.639) is ready to preview in the BETA branch on Steam.

Read the full changelog here.

Summary for those that don't want to read the changelog:

• V99 Engine improvements - better/smoother framerates
  
• Full controller support! And expanded keyboard/mouse options too
  
• Game is now 5:4 instead of square
  
• New display mode: SHARPIE
  
• Various buffs
  

Please check it out (once again, in the BETA branch) and leave us feedback in the new BETA FEEDBACK thread or on Discord in the umf-feedback channel

Looking forward to buttoning this up and getting it out to everyone! After this is wrapped up we'll start on the first major content update :)

- Miles @ Pixeljam