Black Ice News

Hi everyone! I'm super proud to finally launch the "Firepower" patch - with gun models, a lava zone, completely overhauled enemies, and the start of the mission system! My buddy Nonadecimal has been helping me out with the missions, corp names, and other cool stuff.




Check out these sweet gun models (created by Ethan Redd, and animated by yours truly, the weapon models represent a huge change in Black Ice. Not only do they look great, they actually change the functionality of the game. There are about a dozen new weapon models, each coming in several colors. You can only use one gun at a time, but I've rebalanced enemies to compensate.




Enemies are now even better at coming to kill you! Aimbots now fire Imp-style projectiles, Gitsfish charge at you, and Scorporations now snipe from long range, from behind a shield. Enemies gib or disintegrate depending on how hard you've just killed them. More than one enemy can climb the same wall, and all enemies are now much better at predicting where you'll be.




Behind Portcullis, there's a new lava zone. The floor is literally lava, so fight across the rooftops, and dash across the new moving platforms into the Aimbot Fab, a new indoor arena with dozens of aimbots to dodge. It feels like a bullet hell! Check back in later - we have big plans for the lava ;)




Take up Mako's quest to save a little girl the corporations don't think is profitable enough to keep alive. In over her head from the first keystroke, Mako has to learn fast to navigate the rapid cycle of corporate espionage and payback that divides ultra-rich executives from everyone else. Choose carefully who to trust as the story begins to unfold.

• Exploding Barrels!
  
• Tons of balancing changes - enemy speeds, attacks, hp, etc, weapon damage and RAM costs, and more!
  
• New weapon recoil system, affected by the new reduced recoil/spread affixes on items
  
• Sprint is faster, but you can no longer shoot while sprinting
  
• Depth of Field and Fog video options, plus I fixed 1990 mode!
  
• Too many optimizations and bug fixes to list!
  

Come hang out in the officially verified Black Ice Discord channel!



Enjoy! ːwebcrawlerː And please take a second to review the game and tell your friends. It really helps!

Hi everyone! I'm super proud to finally launch the "Firepower" patch - with gun models, a lava zone, completely overhauled enemies, and the start of the mission system! My buddy Nonadecimal has been helping me out with the missions, corp names, and other cool stuff.




Check out these sweet gun models (created by Ethan Redd, and animated by yours truly, the weapon models represent a huge change in Black Ice. Not only do they look great, they actually change the functionality of the game. There are about a dozen new weapon models, each coming in several colors. You can only use one gun at a time, but I've rebalanced enemies to compensate.




Enemies are now even better at coming to kill you! Aimbots now fire Imp-style projectiles, Gitsfish charge at you, and Scorporations now snipe from long range, from behind a shield. Enemies gib or disintegrate depending on how hard you've just killed them. More than one enemy can climb the same wall, and all enemies are now much better at predicting where you'll be.




Behind Portcullis, there's a new lava zone. The floor is literally lava, so fight across the rooftops, and dash across the new moving platforms into the Aimbot Fab, a new indoor arena with dozens of aimbots to dodge. It feels like a bullet hell! Check back in later - we have big plans for the lava ;)




Take up Mako's quest to save a little girl the corporations don't think is profitable enough to keep alive. In over her head from the first keystroke, Mako has to learn fast to navigate the rapid cycle of corporate espionage and payback that divides ultra-rich executives from everyone else. Choose carefully who to trust as the story begins to unfold.

• Exploding Barrels!
  
• Tons of balancing changes - enemy speeds, attacks, hp, etc, weapon damage and RAM costs, and more!
  
• New weapon recoil system, affected by the new reduced recoil/spread affixes on items
  
• Sprint is faster, but you can no longer shoot while sprinting
  
• Depth of Field and Fog video options, plus I fixed 1990 mode!
  
• Too many optimizations and bug fixes to list!
  

Come hang out in the officially verified Black Ice Discord channel!



Enjoy! :webcrawler: And please take a second to review the game and tell your friends. It really helps!

Welcome to the Black Ice "Disconnected" Patch! I've got a ton of great stuff in this one, aimed primarily at making the world feel more alive, game feel, and quality of life. Check out the features below!




The Supermesh just got a lot more dangerous! There are now enemy ice patrolling the map, trying to protect their territory. Ambush them as they patrol, or sneak past them - just make sure you're safe before starting a hack, or they might sneak up on you!

Fort Servers are a new type of server which spawn enemies continuously to protect themselves. You can take out the enemies and get by, but in a minute or two, they'll be back. If you hack a Fort server, however, it will spawn friendly ice to help you fight in the surrounding area! It's like having a few extra minions! Look for the crenelations!




Who likes headshots? Enemies now have weak points which take triple damage from any hit. Additionally, they now have proper hitboxes, which means you'll be able to hit them in their legs or tentacles or whatever other creepy thing they might be crawling around on.

Player projectile speeds have also doubled, and the projectiles now hit things matching their visuals. The end result is that it's much easier to hit things accurately at range, and you no longer feel like you missed something by a few nanometers.

To balance all that out, your weapons now have an accuracy spread over time. This means that the longer you shoot, the less accurate your weapon will be, recovering over time. Snipers, of course, are the most accurate, but also take longer to recover their accuracy. Additionally, enemies move faster and have more hitpoints.

The end result? It feels even more awesome to kill things now.


The Super Duper GITSfish now roams the world, and spawns from high level miniboss (light blue) servers. With massive stature and a frontal shield, he can be a beast to deal with. He's pretty slow to turn around, though, so you'd better hit him from behind!




The UI has been completely overhauled for the inventory and shop screens, with gorgeous new icons for all items by James Hostetler. The new Virtual Cursor for controller users is particularly useful, as it's easier to understand and use. There's also a new comparison system, which will show the difference in *actual* end-result DPS and health for any particular item swap.

On top of all the new UI goodness, there are custom sounds for both the game and the UI. They were made by excellent sound designer Jocelyn Reyes, who also worked on Overland and Looty Dungeon. And she's not even done yet - there will be more sounds in the next few patches.

• New Perk! Double Barrel, which doubles your shotgun's number of projectiles at a cost of attack speed and accuracy
  
• Map changes! There are new ramps and things all over the place, including in the arena server on the rim
  
• Aggro! Enemies now have a proper aggro system, and will prefer enemies that have damaged them or their allies. Minions will attack enemies that attack you!
  
• Minions now scale with player HP, damage, and attack speed (converted to damage)
  
• Loot Find Buff! More better items faster!
  
• Optimization! We converted the ENTIRE GAME from JavaScript to C#, added a bunch of multiplayer improvements, and enabled more enemy death particles to boot. Better framerate for everyone!
  
• Bug fixes like you wouldn't believe.
  

As a special treat for reading this far, I'll tell you what I'm working on next. I've got not one, not two, but SIX new enemies planned for the next few months. They're being created by the radical Ethan Redd, and will have different move patterns and methods of attack. Additionally, we will soon be working on quests and plot!



Enjoy! ːgitsfishː And please take a second to review the game and tell your friends. It really helps!

Welcome to the Black Ice "Disconnected" Patch! I've got a ton of great stuff in this one, aimed primarily at making the world feel more alive, game feel, and quality of life. Check out the features below!




The Supermesh just got a lot more dangerous! There are now enemy ice patrolling the map, trying to protect their territory. Ambush them as they patrol, or sneak past them - just make sure you're safe before starting a hack, or they might sneak up on you!

Fort Servers are a new type of server which spawn enemies continuously to protect themselves. You can take out the enemies and get by, but in a minute or two, they'll be back. If you hack a Fort server, however, it will spawn friendly ice to help you fight in the surrounding area! It's like having a few extra minions! Look for the crenelations!




Who likes headshots? Enemies now have weak points which take triple damage from any hit. Additionally, they now have proper hitboxes, which means you'll be able to hit them in their legs or tentacles or whatever other creepy thing they might be crawling around on.

Player projectile speeds have also doubled, and the projectiles now hit things matching their visuals. The end result is that it's much easier to hit things accurately at range, and you no longer feel like you missed something by a few nanometers.

To balance all that out, your weapons now have an accuracy spread over time. This means that the longer you shoot, the less accurate your weapon will be, recovering over time. Snipers, of course, are the most accurate, but also take longer to recover their accuracy. Additionally, enemies move faster and have more hitpoints.

The end result? It feels even more awesome to kill things now.


The Super Duper GITSfish now roams the world, and spawns from high level miniboss (light blue) servers. With massive stature and a frontal shield, he can be a beast to deal with. He's pretty slow to turn around, though, so you'd better hit him from behind!




The UI has been completely overhauled for the inventory and shop screens, with gorgeous new icons for all items by James Hostetler. The new Virtual Cursor for controller users is particularly useful, as it's easier to understand and use. There's also a new comparison system, which will show the difference in *actual* end-result DPS and health for any particular item swap.

On top of all the new UI goodness, there are custom sounds for both the game and the UI. They were made by excellent sound designer Jocelyn Reyes, who also worked on Overland and Looty Dungeon. And she's not even done yet - there will be more sounds in the next few patches.

• New Perk! Double Barrel, which doubles your shotgun's number of projectiles at a cost of attack speed and accuracy
  
• Map changes! There are new ramps and things all over the place, including in the arena server on the rim
  
• Aggro! Enemies now have a proper aggro system, and will prefer enemies that have damaged them or their allies. Minions will attack enemies that attack you!
  
• Minions now scale with player HP, damage, and attack speed (converted to damage)
  
• Loot Find Buff! More better items faster!
  
• Optimization! We converted the ENTIRE GAME from JavaScript to C#, added a bunch of multiplayer improvements, and enabled more enemy death particles to boot. Better framerate for everyone!
  
• Bug fixes like you wouldn't believe.
  

As a special treat for reading this far, I'll tell you what I'm working on next. I've got not one, not two, but SIX new enemies planned for the next few months. They're being created by the radical Ethan Redd, and will have different move patterns and methods of attack. Additionally, we will soon be working on quests and plot!



Enjoy! :gitsfish: And please take a second to review the game and tell your friends. It really helps!

Thanks for checking out Black Ice! I've got another big patch coming up soon, but I want to playtest it first at RTX (July 7-9) before I post it. I should be posting the patch around mid July, but you can already play it on the Indev beta branch right now if you'd like a sneak preview!

• A new enemy - the Super Duper GITSfish with a frontal shield and massive scale!
  
• Shooting Mechanics Upgrade - Headshots, Projectile Spread, and Proper Hitboxes, oh my!
  
• Wild Enemies roam the map, making it much more dangerous to run around
  
• Fort Servers - these crenulated servers keep a few enemies around to guard them. Hack it, and the guards will spawn as friendlies to help with nearby servers!
  
• Brand new UI, with a virtual cursor for controller making it a lot easier to use
  
• Brand new custom sounds from awesome sound designer Jocelyn Reyes, who also worked on Overland and Looty Dungeon
  
• We've started work on quests!
  

In addition to all that, there's multiplayer enhancements, new icons, tons of bug fixes, and the whole game runs on C# now. Even the tutorial is getting updates. We've been busy!

As always, I'd love to hear your suggestions, so please post on the forums, email me, or check out the Black Ice Twitter for the latest updates!



That's all, folks!