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Hello Small soldiers,
You might have seen Hypercharge flooding the internet this past week. Everybody is currently talking about it, even calling it a
hidden gem. But before we dive into the patch notes, I would like to address what ignited the game to go so viral.
In a bad turn of events that I (Joe) experienced/have been going through turned into something incredibly positive; the good side of the internet came to my aid.
I made a statement on twitter about the abuse and toxicity that I have been receiving online regarding Hypercharge, and how toxic gamers can affect the mental health of developers. You can read that
here.
Overwhelmed by the positivity and support, I followed up with this
video. I also went into more detail about how it all has affected my mental and physical health.
Over the weekend, I had a breakdown. To be honest, I felt it coming for a long time, but didn’t talk about it to anyone. The reason for this post is that I hope it will make those who are suffering from mental health working in game dev, speak out.
If you receive constant abuse from toxic gamers about your game(s), please, please talk to your friends, family, partner, just someone about it. Do not hold it in.
For the past few years, I have suffered from panic attacks, sleepless nights, and just a lack of confidence. In fact, my anxiety got so bad that the doctor sent me to the local hospital to have a 48 hour ECG, blood tests, and I’m going for a visit to the cardiology centre to check things over soon. Stress is no joke.
My biggest regret is not talking to my team, friends, family, and partner about it. We as game devs receive so much abuse online that it’s basically the norm. Hell, I thought it was normal to feel like this!
And it’s not just toxic gamers demanding release dates, it goes way deeper than that. I’ve been threatened, made fun of how I look, the sound of my voice. It gets so personal… It wears you down.
So, the moral of this post? Game devs, community managers, marketers… You are awesome people. Keep working on what you love and try to stay positive. Focus on the positive fans. Do what makes you happy!
In response to that video, many developers from AAA's to indies reached out, and many true Hypercharge fans did too. I am incredibly grateful for all the kind and thoughtful messages.
After feeling much more positive, I felt encouraged to keep talking about Hypercharge and not let the negativity keep me down. I decided to submit
this video on twitter, which unintentionally went hugely viral. It surpassed over 14 million views, and even Cory Barlog
saw the video and played Hypercharge. Tons of media outlets published articles about it, talking about how Hypercharge went under the radar, and the mental health side of things. So yeah. I wanted to be honest with you all. Myself and we as a team, feel it's an incredibly important topic to be open and speak about. If you are suffering from mental health issues, you are not lone. You are loved. And please reach out to someone!
Right now onto the patch notes. As I’ve stated before, there are some
big changes coming to Hypercharge. We are constantly listening to your feedback and doing our best to implement your ideas and suggestions. We are so thankful for your support, truly! The most notable addition being a brand new lobby/play menu system. So much hard work has gone into this new system. We want to make navigating through each menu intuitive and clear. So, give the new system a go, and let us know your thoughts! It still needs some tweaks, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
New version
Old version
New verison
Old version
PATCH NOTES
[h3]ADDED[/h3]
- Added new Play Menu System - We’ve watched enough people struggle on Twitch to realise that a new design is in order to ensure that people are able to find their way to the right game mode and setting that they want to play. With a fancy new design and much more improvements to come in the future, this is a big update and change to how everyone will interact with the game and find the content they want to play.
- Added new Lobby Menu System - We’ve also overhauled the lobby to cleanup all the multiple options, moving some of them inside the Game Rules instead of cluttering the overall screen. More updates also to come to the lobby design in the near future.
- Added new Join Friend and Friend Code invite system to the lobby. More information is given when trying to join a friend or when hosting a lobby.
- Added Team Deatchmatch as separate game mode instead of a hidden game rule option.
- Added it so Collectibles are given to all players when one player picks them up.
- Added improved balanced aiming locations for bots in PvP.
- Added Player Team override option to force players on a specific Team vs. Bots in custom servers.
- Added Power Node Power icons in build mode to help with knowing when power nodes need power.
- Added new Main Menu icons that better represent what the function of the button does.
- Added Spinner enemies to the tutorial.
- Added 8 MORE voice-sets for different character heads! (including Horseman and Shark)
- Added ReturnToMenu button to play menu.
- Added it so Free Roam is unlocked by default until players have played a bit of the game first.
- Added bot difficulty option to game rules.
- Added new logo to main menu and other places in the UI.
- Added more FPS and FOV values to UI adjustments.
- Added it so Plague players are now experiments.
[h3]IMPROVED[/h3]
- Improved play menu functionality - will return to the last menu you used when returning to the menu from a session via disconnect, kick, leave or complete.
- Improved overall music system transitions and fades between sections to improve overall mix and playback behavior of new tracks & sections (less repetitive)
- Improved power node and core health display to better represent the current state of power on Cores and Nodes.
- Improved text size and scaling in multiple areas of the UI to help with readability and importance.
- Improved Primal footstep sounds based on community feedback.
- Improved design of some of the basic Turrets. More new improved designs coming soon.
[h3]FIXES[/h3]
- Fix for LAN servers - Testing a work in progress fix for LAN servers. LAN can now be enabled from the Options > Gameplay menu.
- Fix for networked pickup related crash issue.
- Fix for failing rare transparent shader crash issue.
- Fix for rare late-loading texture related crash issues.
- Fix for missing safety checked particle destruction crash issues.
- Fix for MANY other generic crash related issues in the engine taken from future UE4 versions.
- Fix for game log being spammed with unnecessary information, making it easier for everyone to debug issues.
- Fix for some achievements not being able to be referenced correctly in order in the lookup table.
- Fix for dedicated server sessions, not shutting down properly after running idle too long with no active server or session connection.
- Fix for dedicated servers not pinging the master server for very long running servers.
- Fix for damage flashing after respawn.
- Fix for death text being too small to read.
- Fixed PlayerStartBoxes in Airhockey being incorrect for one player or bot in the team.
- Fixed broken tutorial NPC spawnpoints.
- Fix for multiple error message dialogs of the same type appearing after certain networking errors.
- Fixed unlock ordering of new maps to ensure the order of levels is preserved when unlocking maps for the first time.
- Fixed focus issue with quiet dialog because of menu intro.
- Fixed dialog focus issues on play menu.
- Fixed radar ability text reference.
- Fixed broken nav connection in Garden pool
- Fixed MissileTruck decals diorama setup.
- Fixed strange wire collision issues in Kitchen causing instant respawn glitches.
- Fixed dialog box focus issues on various error dialogs.
- Fixed diorama and in-game weapon packaging spawn locations not using the right mesh attachments.
- Fixed packaging decal material showing through walls.
- Fixed packaging decal name text on in-game and dioramas.
- Fixed packaging plastic collisions getting stuck in walls.
- Fixed notices not being re-enabled when unlocking a head from the Credits menu.
- Fixed NameText decals showing on default hypercharge packages.
- Fixed wrong plastic meshes spawning with certain packaging in-game.
- Fixed dedicated server sessions generating a host code and setting themselves to be Public or not.
- Fixed incorrect check of which maps can have a charger and prize machine in the maplist or the dioramas map list.
- Fixed server laser particle crash.
- Fixed packaging widgets texture crash on dedicated servers.
- Fixed duplicated HUD in party modes.
- Fixed other gamemodes HUD and spectator classes not being overwritten properly in child classes.
- Fixed camera shake having infinite range for meanbots and other enemies.
- Fixes in core engine - AActor, GetVectorValue, ProxyCrash, DecalInitCrash, LightProxyCrash from Sentry.
- Removed footstep and other animation notify FX from dedicated server.
- Removed assets from dedicated server package.
- Removed DLSS from dedicated servers.
- Removed frozen meshes on dedicated servers as they are not replicated.
- Removedsound fx from bots joining and leaving a server.
- Restored old plague mode scoring system.
Well, that's it for now! Again, to our fans, thank you!
I hope you have a lovely weekend ahead! -
Joe- Digital Cybercherries
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