Bug Off News

Not much time has passed since the last patch, right?

This patch was planned to be released a week after the previous one, but while working on it I found a critical bug. If you hit pause during gameplay and then canceled it, the game became unresponsive to input, completely unplayable until a full reload.


I’m not sure when or how this bug crept in, but the fix ended up being a single line of code. Because it was such a serious issue, I decided to stop development on the rest of the patch and release everything that was already done with the fix.



The list is shorter than I originally intended, but even so, what did make it in are solid updates.

[h2]The Egg Destroyed Effect[/h2]

In the last update, I added that cinematic camera roll on the egg after a game over, but… there was no visual or sound effect showing the egg was actually lost. Not a great experience, right? That wasn’t because I didn’t want to do it, I just didn’t yet know how it should look.

Now I do.


The egg now shatters when you fail to protect it. I chose this approach to show how fragile and vulnerable the egg is. When it breaks, it doesn’t feel destroyed... it feels lost, like it slipped through your fingers. I hope you like the effect as much as I do.

[h2]Cooldowns HUD[/h2]

Feet have a cooldown period after stomping or jumping. They already changed color when unavailable and flashed red if you tried to use them too early. But those visual cues weren’t clear enough, you had to play a while to figure out what the flashing and color shifts actually meant.


Now cooldowns are shown on the HUD. Much easier to read, and they really help you time your stomps and jumps better. I also reworked the cooldown color changes to match the HUD theme, so it's more readable and makes more sense.

[h2]Controls Hint[/h2]

There was already a controls hint for gamepads, but nothing for keyboard + mouse users. That’s… not great. A game really should tell you how to play it.


So that’s fixed now. Keyboard + mouse controls are shown at the start, just like they should be.

[h2]The Infamous[/h2]

The pause input bug is fixed, you can now use the pause menu without breaking the game.
Sorry if you ran into it, I should’ve caught that during testing.

I hope you understand. Making and testing everything on my own is tough. I wish I could instantly switch my brain between creating and testing modes, but I can’t. I’m doing my best.



There’s still a list of features that were supposed to be in this patch, but got pushed back because of the urgent bug fix.

Combo points are one of them. I feel how much they’re needed, when you crush a bunch of bugs at once and don’t get a reward? That’s just sad. It needs to change.

And hey, I still haven’t heard from you about the leaderboard. Do you actually want one? Let me know in the Discord Server.

And don’t forget to wishlist the game. That simple click really helps me get the game out sooner.
It’s like fuel for me. Wishlists and coffee make the game, not me :)

When I was planning the demo release, I had a specific list of tasks to complete by the release date. Unfortunately, not everything went smoothly and not all tasks were completed, but I had no intention of postponing the release. So I focused on the most important ones and was able to finish at least those in time.

The next step was to prioritize the rest and complete them ASAP. Today, I’m happy to say that the first batch of fixes is live with Patch 0.1.2 released.



The purpose of the demo is to show off the game, find people who might like it, and collect feedback to shape the game accordingly.

[h2]Fixing the Feel.[/h2]

Most of the development process was focused on gameplay itself, the core mechanics: moving, stomping, jumping, squashing. But everything around it was kind of neglected. Take the game start/end cycle, for example, it's still far from perfect, but in the previous version, there wasn’t even a music change when you won or lost.

These kinds of mistakes don’t let you feel the game as intended. So in this patch, I focused on fixing the most critical issues breaking that feeling. Here's the list:

• Enabled anti-aliasing: the easiest one, but the impact on visual quality is huge
  
• Improved stomp when another foot is active: without this, some stomps were too short and missed bugs right in front of you
  
• Added time bonus points: important for rating goals that have no “wrong” bugs in them
  
• All non-goal bugs are eliminated on goal failure, only goal bugs escape: in goals where you need to kill just a few specific bugs, failing the goal used to trigger all bugs to attack the egg. Now only the bugs you were supposed to kill escape and attack
  
• Music changes when the game starts and ends: separate tracks now for menu and gameplay; the track changes when you start the game, fades out when you win or lose, and the menu track resumes when you return. No more funny menu music playing after a loss
  
• Added failure sounds on game failure: now there’s a scary bug-buzzing sound when you lose
  
• Added results screen value animations: values now appear one-by-one with nice animation, screen shake, and sound effects
  
• Better game success end animation: when you complete the last goal, the camera moves to show a cinematic shot of the egg, and only then the success screen appears
  
• Enabled player camera collisions: before, the player camera was hard-mounted relative to the feet, and could clip through walls. Now it adjusts itself to keep obstacles out of the way between the feet and the camera
  

All these fixes are aimed at improving the game feel and resolving the most critical issues that were breaking it.

[h2]Feedback.[/h2]

Another important role of the demo is to collect player feedback, but guess what? There was no way to provide any. Like, at all. So one of the top priority tasks was to create a Discord server and add a button in the main menu linking to it. Not the hardest task, but definitely an important one.

Now the game has an official Discord server: Siar Games, where you can leave your feedback, report bugs, share thoughts, screenshots, or just chat with other players.

As you can see from the server name, it’s not exclusively for Bug Off, it’s for all the games I’m making. I chose this route because I simply don’t have the time or resources to manage multiple servers. Hope you don’t mind.

You’re also welcome to suggest other ways to leave feedback or report bugs, I’ll gladly look into any option that makes it easier.

[h2]Bugfixes.[/h2]

The rest of the tasks weren’t directly related to game feel or feedback, but they were still little annoyances that made the game feel off, or made feedback harder to give. Here they are:

• Controller hint sizing: small adjustment to the UI element that shows controller hints
  
• Result screen rating calculation: yep, the final rating wasn't calculated at all until now
  
• Escaped bugs cost -1 point to kill: you shouldn’t lose points for killing bugs that attack the egg
  
• Reset camera on game start: previously, the player camera rotation carried over between games... ew
  

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And that’s about it, aside from a few more tasks that aren’t worth mentioning here. Not bad for just 3 days of development, right?



These were the most critical tasks I needed to complete ASAP. That doesn’t mean everything’s done for the demo, not even close. There’s still a big list of tasks just for the demo alone, and an even bigger one for the full game. So yeah, a long road ahead.

More game feel improvements are coming: visual and sound effects, UI polish. Also gameplay tweaks, like combo points. And did I mention a leaderboard? I’m planning to add one to the demo. Do you even want that? Should it be global, or a daily leaderboard?

If you think the game isn’t as good as it could be, and you have ideas for improvement, don’t hesitate. Leave your thoughts in the comments or on the Discord server. The meta-progression of the game isn’t set in stone yet. You could have a huge impact just by sharing your feedback.

And don’t forget to Wishlist the game, that simple click really helps me release it sooner. It’s like fuel for me. Wishlists and coffee make the game, not me :)

The demo was released on 2 May 2025. So yes, the news is 3 days late.

But I have an excuse:
I was working on some urgent bug fixes and improvements. To deliver them ASAP, I decided not to waste any time on posting news and announcements so I could focus on the most important tasks. And today I’ve completed the list and can breathe a little.



The main goal for the demo is to collect feedback from you, not to participate in the Next Fest. So I needed to get it up and running ASAP to not miss the chance to get any, even the tiniest bit of feedback.

The demo will be participating in the Next Fest (if Steam allows) and will NOT be taken down after the Next Fest.

I plan to deactivate the demo right before the full game release, and until then, the demo will be available and will be constantly updated along with the full game development.



The demo is a slice of the full game, with some features not available because, you know, it’s a demo.

A single level is available to you: The Museum, and a single item to protect: The Golden Egg.
Your progress in the demo will not be saved (at least for now), so you can’t unlock the unlockables or achieve the achievements. But the rest of the game should look and feel like the full game (at least in its current state).



Not all the planned polish is complete yet, so you can expect more improvements to the demo in the future, like combo points, better visuals and sound effects, and an improved user interface.

• Install the game
• Find it in your Steam client, launch it
  
• And play
  

There is a Discord server: Siar Games. Join it and follow the instructions there on how to give feedback or report a bug.

There’s also a link to the server in the game’s main menu so you can find it easily.

You can also leave your feedback right here, in the comments. I will do my best to read all the feedback sources.

And don’t hesitate to leave a review of the game.


As I already mentioned, I was working on some bug fixes and improvements, so you can expect the first patch to go live soon. There will also be a separate post about it, so stay tuned.

And don't forget to Wishlist the full game, so you don’t miss the release.