NINJA JOINS THE CAST + ONLINE REWORK INFO

[p]after a few quick delays, ninja has joined the roster as our 4th playable character. with his unique ability to cancel tilts and aerials straight into specials, his combo game really opens up and allows for maximum creativity! we hope you enjoy him, and can't wait to add even more![/p][p] (there are a few visual and audio bugs with the character, and we've found some hurtboxes to be disjointed, but we are fixing these in a patch later today).[/p][p][/p][p]we really wanted to couple the online update with ninja, but it's just not quite ready yet. lobby systems are proving to be pretty tricky to get up and running. however, we've tested quickplay with multiple players who were previously unable to play the game at all online, and all of the issues seem to be resolved with our new servers. we plan on running a beta branch soon for those experiencing the issue, so even if lobbies aren't fully finished, you will be able to play quickplay on this branch until we complete it. plague is still hoping to finish the full update within one week[/p][p]i do want to say, we get a lot of comments and frustration around the fact that updates are being pushed but the online still isn't fixed for those who cannot connect, and it probably makes it feel like we aren't working on the issue. BUT as a team of 2, i am purely responsible for the gameplay side of the game, and plague is completely handling the network issues. our 2 tasks do not overlap and do not interfere with eachother, so i am free to work on ninja and balance the game / add stages / fix gameplay bugs, while plague reworks the servers. his job is extremely tough for one dev to tackle, but i have absolutely zero experience with networking and wouldn't be able to help speed up the process at all. i do plan on hiring more help once the first round of funds transfer to us, but until then, it's basically the two of us grinding out any work that needs done. i just wanted to clear up any confusion as to why it feels like the network issue isn't being taken seriously. it absolutely is, and we REALLY REALLY hope to be finished this week. at the very least, the beta branch for quickplay will be live.[/p][p][/p][p]thank you all for your patience for ninja, and even greater patience for the network update. i really love this game and want to do everything i can to make it as accessible as possible! if you have any specific concerns, feel free to email [email protected], or leave a feedback report in our discord, linked on our steam page