Road to Ballhalla News

I've teased this update for a long time, but now it's finally time to reroll the balls. Two years after the initial release, aligned with the game's release on PS4, Xbox One and Switch, here comes Ballhalla's biggest free content update to Steam! It contains new levels, styles, achievements, settings and tons of improvements and fixes.

For existing players, the only downside is that your existing savegames won't work with the new game build. There are too many changes, both content-wise as well as in the engine, to keep them compatible. When starting the game, you can choose between the new and the old version, so no progress is lost!

I recommend starting fresh to experience all the new content and improvements since the game's original release, but if you just want to check out the new levels and get the new achievements, you can also use the save file I prepared: https://torchedhill.com/roadtoballhalla/BallhallaRerolled.sav
Just put this file into %userprofile%\AppData\Local\RoadToBallhallaUE4\Saved\SaveGames to unlock the first 3 worlds.

Read the (probably incomplete) changelog below.

• added 4 bonus levels with all-new gameplay mechanics, to be accessed from world 2 & 3
  
• reworked the Hub area by adding lots of small new things to discover (won't spoil them here)
  
• added new achievements (for the bonus levels as well as the new Do Not Enter hole you STILL should not enter)
  
• added new ball styles (white ball color, "Circles of Life" trail effect, and a secret bonus style you get by doing one of the new activities in the Hub)
  
• added some new bugs (hopefully not)
  

• Rush Respawning: if you want to perfect you time score, you can now decide to always restart the trial when you explode, instead of respawning at the last checkpoint
  
• Supersampling: make the game look even better by setting this to 200%, or get more FPS on slower devices by going below 100% resolution scale
  
• Easy Mode: you literally can't turn this one on
  
• Language: you can now switch the language from within the game
  

• adjusted the amount of Tokens needed per chapter
  
• increased blue key orb pull range, which is especially helpful in 2-1
  
• decreased collision size of blue barrier tiles, so you don't get "unfairly" destroyed by them
  
• improved super-secret background resyncing of music to the gameplay, but if you haven't noticed it before, you now still won't, and that's the whole point, so why am I even listing this
  
• improved projectile turret performance - this should increase FPS in levels with lots of turrets (like 2-3) on slower devices
  
• improved the grid puzzle in 3-1 by making it a bit more straightforward
  
• now displaying your best time in Rush trials while playing offline (for whatever reason)
  
• added a new clue for the rainbow to the game; if you recognize it, you'll know you're on the right track
  

• fixed 2-4 secret teleporter disappearing when dying before the first checkpoint
  
• fixed some bugs with holes in the Hub area triggering twice sometimes, because physics
  
• fixed a bug that allowed the main menu to be opened while rolling into a Hub hole - though it was so difficult to reproduce, I probably should rather have unlocked an achievement for those that managed to do it
  
• fixed a bug I have described as "workshop page 0 bug" in my Git log, but I can't remember what it was, so whatever, but I guess it has something to do with browsing your downloaded Workshop levels
  
• ported the game engine from 4.7 to 4.17, which was a nightmare to do, but may or may not fix some not-game-related issues some of you were having (e.g. green screen flickering in fullscreen mode)
  

So, I'm sure the big question that you just can't get out of your head is: "How much did the last update affect/improve Ballhalla's balance?". Do not despair! The game tracks the average amount of respawns players need to finish each trial. Note that it's only tracking the first time players finish a trial and not their best run, as I wanted to compare the initial difficulty of each trial.

Here we go:



The difficulty curve is now much smoother than before and has less spikes. Especially 1-2, 3-3 and 4-5 had way more respawns than other trials in their chapter and therefore saw the biggest change. 3-3 (teleporters suck) is still a bit high (as it's the only trial that focuses more on precision than rhythm) and 4-3 (time travel) is surprisingly low (maybe I should change that :>), but besides that I'm happy with the results.

As far as I can tell, you're having more fun with the game now (and this was the whole point of it): all of the over 40 Steam reviews since the update were positive and some of the negative ones even have been changed to positive!

Just for fun, here are the stats from the beta test a year ago (though keep in mind this data is only from about 100 players and not several thousands like in the stats above):



Yeah, right?
(The high amount of respawns in 2-2 actually came from players trying to bruteforce the hidden pathways because they didn't understand the hints.)

Happy rollin'!

So, I'm sure the big question that you just can't get out of your head is: "How much did the last update affect/improve Ballhalla's balance?". Do not despair! The game tracks the average amount of respawns players need to finish each trial. Note that it's only tracking the first time players finish a trial and not their best run, as I wanted to compare the initial difficulty of each trial.

Here we go:



The difficulty curve is now much smoother than before and has less spikes. Especially 1-2, 3-3 and 4-5 had way more respawns than other trials in their chapter and therefore saw the biggest change. 3-3 (teleporters suck) is still a bit high (as it's the only trial that focuses more on precision than rhythm) and 4-3 (time travel) is surprisingly low (maybe I should change that :>), but besides that I'm happy with the results.

As far as I can tell, you're having more fun with the game now (and this was the whole point of it): all of the over 40 Steam reviews since the update were positive and some of the negative ones even have been changed to positive!

Just for fun, here are the stats from the beta test a year ago (though keep in mind this data is only from about 100 players and not several thousands like in the stats above):



Yeah, right?
(The high amount of respawns in 2-2 actually came from players trying to bruteforce the hidden pathways because they didn't understand the hints.)

Happy rollin'!

Surprise - I've decided to split the big 2017 update in two parts, so you guys don't have to wait as long! The first (smaller) part is out now and contains a major balance pass.

I went through all 28 trials + the scavenger hunt secrets and updated them based on feedback I got from you. Notable changes include (MINOR SPOILER WARNING):

• 1-2: vertical laser hallway (this one often lead to frustration as it's only the second level and the section is quite difficult)
  
• 3-1: increased button countdowns, reworked the button/teleporter puzzle (it was quite easy already, but many players just didn't find the right button order and thought it was impossible to solve in time, so I made it a bit more straightforward), captcha is now a bit easier to read
  
• 3-3: requires less precision overall (players had about twice as many respawns as in other chapter 3 trials), especially the jumping between barriers (it's hard to see from the 3D perspective if the ball would land on a barrier or not, and especially hard to control when using a gamepad)
  
• 4-1: reworked the final two sections to be less mind-melting (this coupled with insta-death lasers lead to some frustration)
  
• 4-5: made it more obvious what to do in general, reworked the final section (it required too much precision and perfect boost timing before)
  
• Secrets 9 & 10: not telling you what changed, it's a secret
  
• so much more
  

I also increased some of the rush time limits, as well as the max. amount of respawns you can have to get all tokens (now 5, previously 2). This way the game gets a bit more forgiving on your hunt for the completion & rush achievements.

---

While this update is targeted more to new players, later this year will see the actual NEW CONTENT part of the 2017 update. That one will include new trials, gameplay elements, music, ball styles, unnecessary level hub holes, a quest for perfection, an easy mode that can't be activated (literally!), performance tweaks and more!

Have fun!

Surprise - I've decided to split the big 2017 update in two parts, so you guys don't have to wait as long! The first (smaller) part is out now and contains a major balance pass.

I went through all 28 trials + the scavenger hunt secrets and updated them based on feedback I got from you. Notable changes include (MINOR SPOILER WARNING):

• 1-2: vertical laser hallway (this one often lead to frustration as it's only the second level and the section is quite difficult)
  
• 3-1: increased button countdowns, reworked the button/teleporter puzzle (it was quite easy already, but many players just didn't find the right button order and thought it was impossible to solve in time, so I made it a bit more straightforward), captcha is now a bit easier to read
  
• 3-3: requires less precision overall (players had about twice as many respawns as in other chapter 3 trials), especially the jumping between barriers (it's hard to see from the 3D perspective if the ball would land on a barrier or not, and especially hard to control when using a gamepad)
  
• 4-1: reworked the final two sections to be less mind-melting (this coupled with insta-death lasers lead to some frustration)
  
• 4-5: made it more obvious what to do in general, reworked the final section (it required too much precision and perfect boost timing before)
  
• Secrets 9 & 10: not telling you what changed, it's a secret
  
• so much more
  

I also increased some of the rush time limits, as well as the max. amount of respawns you can have to get all tokens (now 5, previously 2). This way the game gets a bit more forgiving on your hunt for the completion & rush achievements.

---

While this update is targeted more to new players, later this year will see the actual NEW CONTENT part of the 2017 update. That one will include new trials, gameplay elements, music, ball styles, unnecessary level hub holes, a quest for perfection, an easy mode that can't be activated (literally!), performance tweaks and more!

Have fun!