Bug Off News

[p]I am happy to share some wonderful news: Bug Off is now global![/p][p]Patch 0.3.0 brings 12 more languages to the game, and the main menu has been completely redesigned.[/p][p][/p][h2]The languages[/h2][p][/p][p]You can select your preferred language from this list:[/p]

• [p]English[/p]
• [p]Russian[/p]
• [p]Polish[/p]
• [p]German[/p]
• [p]French[/p]
• [p]Italian[/p]
• [p]Spanish[/p]
• [p]Turkish[/p]
• [p]Brazilian Portuguese[/p]
• [p]Simplified Chinese[/p]
• [p]Traditional Chinese[/p]
• [p]Japanese[/p]
• [p]Korean[/p]

[p][/p][h2]The menu[/h2][p][/p][p]As you can see, the new main menu now has its own style. I hope you like it as much as I do.[/p][p][/p][h2]What is next[/h2][p]I am currently working on new levels for the game. The next update will introduce these new levels as launch options. Here is what you can expect from the update:[/p][p][/p][p]As you can see, these levels are drastically different in lighting and color compared to what the game has now. This brings new challenges to the game's design, as the bugs, the egg, and the slippers look very different from how they appear in the original level.[/p][p]It is possible that I will need to adjust how the bugs look so that you can more easily tell right from wrong no matter which level you choose.[/p][p][/p][p]That is all for now! I hope you like the update. Have a great day![/p]

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p]It's Steam Awards season, and we're aiming for Most Innovative Gameplay, because, let's be honest, controlling two slippers to squash bugs is pretty unusual.[/p][p]If you'd like to support the game, a nomination would mean a lot. Thanks for being here![/p]

[p]Yep, it finally happened - I’ve released the game!
Download it now and challenge me on the leaderboard… if you dare.[/p][p][/p][h2]Why Early Access?[/h2][p]The short answer: a small following.[/p][p]You see, there are certain criteria a game should meet to have a successful release, one that can actually cover its development costs.[/p][p]One such criterion is a high wishlist count.
If a game has no following at launch, it won’t be picked up by the algorithm, meaning almost no one will see it. To gain that much-needed visibility, the game itself has to be good and supported by some marketing efforts.[/p][p]Being a team of one, I just can’t do both development and marketing. So when the game was finished, it didn’t have a following large enough for a successful release.[/p][p]I had a choice: release now and start working on a new game, or postpone the release and focus on marketing this one. Putting all the effort into marketing doesn’t guarantee success, it only increases the chances. I decided to release the game now, and using the Early Access option, it has a chance for a stronger launch later.[/p][p]Early Access is also a great way to start collecting feedback from real players, not just friends and family. This allows me to see what people like, what they don’t, and better understand their expectations for the game. I’ll use this opportunity to guide the game in the right direction toward its final release.[/p][p][/p][h2]What’s Next?[/h2][p]Now I need to give the game some time to collect feedback. I’ll fix critical bugs, but I’ll hold off on other improvements until I have enough input to clearly understand what players want from the game.[/p][p]That doesn’t mean I’m going on vacation - no, I’ve already started development on my next game, Sole Duty. It reuses some mechanics from Bug Off, like independent slippers and bug squashing, but it’s a completely different genre: a cleaning simulator. Check it out, and don’t forget to wishlist it so I can release it when it’s ready![/p][p]Thanks to everyone who supports me, your feedback will shape the game’s final release![/p]

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 :)