Splinter Zone News

Hi folks!

I did another small update today that changes some minor stuff and also fixes a handful of bugs that have been brought to my attention.

So here's the list

• Got rid of the Holiday decoration just in time before it started feeling weird
  
• Added a differen Explosion sprite
  
• Changed the way some sound effects are played, which should make the overall listening experience a bit less janky
  
• Fixed a crash that happened when you died at the Garbageboss
  
• Changed the layout of one stage a little bit to avoid people ending up with a bugged out camera
  
• Technically I did this during the secret holiday update, but some enemies now leave their heads behind after they exploded. There's no functionality behind it, I just found it funny and wondered why I haven't already done that before.
  

As always thank you for your support and the feedback. I may not work on this game as diligintly as I did a few months ago, but I'm still looking into small ways to improve it. So please, if you have any thought, don't hesitate to tell me.

Hi everyone!

Today's update is a big one. It adds a bunch of new content to Splinter Zone and also addresses some of the remaining issues I had. For example, it should now be much easier to actually be able to finish the game, than it was before.
Anyway, here are the notes:

• Added a whole new "Circus" Area with 6 new levels and four new enemy types.
  
• Added a secret double jump upgrade that gives you much more mobility
  
• Added a secret "Superlevel" upgrade that extends your Weapon level and adds a new powerup.
  
• Changed the slowdown that happens during large explosions to something that's hopefully a bit less confusing.
  
• Changed the jumping animation to something that doesn't look as awkward as the old one.
  
• Changed the way the game handles the players being stuck in a wall
  
• Tweaked the layout of a large amount of stages to make sure the double jump doesn't completely break them
  
• Probably a bunch of small stuff that I forgot in the time between me working on this update and me releasing it...
  

This update is probably going to be last content update for Splinter Zone in general. To be honest with you: I'm kind of done with this game. Don't get me wrong I still like it and all that. However working on it got more and more frustrating and (to be frank) boring over the last two months. Then add to this a bunch of personal problems and you get something that isn't really all that healthy.
There's also the simple fact that with the way the game has sold so far (not very well), it seems much smarter for me to just move on to the next thing.
Thank you very much again to all of you who have decided to buy this game or who supported my work in any other way. The numbers might not look all that great, but it's still amazing for me to know that are actually people out there who paid money for something that I have created almost completely on my own.
As I said, I'm going to move on to the next thing now. It's going to be a bit different than this game and I really hope that I'll be able to show some of it in the not so near future.

Hi everyone!

Today's update is a big one. It adds a bunch of new content to Splinter Zone and also addresses some of the remaining issues I had. For example, it should now be much easier to actually be able to finish the game, than it was before.
Anyway, here are the notes:

• Added a whole new "Circus" Area with 6 new levels and four new enemy types.
  
• Added a secret double jump upgrade that gives you much more mobility
  
• Added a secret "Superlevel" upgrade that extends your Weapon level and adds a new powerup.
  
• Changed the slowdown that happens during large explosions to something that's hopefully a bit less confusing.
  
• Changed the jumping animation to something that doesn't look as awkward as the old one.
  
• Changed the way the game handles the players being stuck in a wall
  
• Tweaked the layout of a large amount of stages to make sure the double jump doesn't completely break them
  
• Probably a bunch of small stuff that I forgot in the time between me working on this update and me releasing it...
  

This update is probably going to be last content update for Splinter Zone in general. To be honest with you: I'm kind of done with this game. Don't get me wrong I still like it and all that. However working on it got more and more frustrating and (to be frank) boring over the last two months. Then add to this a bunch of personal problems and you get something that isn't really all that healthy.
There's also the simple fact that with the way the game has sold so far (not very well), it seems much smarter for me to just move on to the next thing.
Thank you very much again to all of you who have decided to buy this game or who supported my work in any other way. The numbers might not look all that great, but it's still amazing for me to know that are actually people out there who paid money for something that I have created almost completely on my own.
As I said, I'm going to move on to the next thing now. It's going to be a bit different than this game and I really hope that I'll be able to show some of it in the not so near future.

Hi!

I had a chance to watch a lot of people play Splinter Zone during a festival last week and I saw a lot of stuff that I didn't like. This update adresses most of it and should make the game a bit less clunky to play.
I'm also working on a much larger update that is going to add more content to the game, but this one's still a few weeks away from being done.

Anyway, here are the notes:

• Arrows on conveyor belts now have different colours depending on their direction
  
• When you're below level 3, your XP only gets cut by 25% after getting hit. You still lose 50% of your XP, when you at level 3 or above
  
• Changed the placement and length of some ladders
  
• Adjusted the height of some platform, to make some jumps less awkward
  
• Made it less likely that the camera breaks in some places
  
• Delayed some enemy attacks, to give players a bit more time to attack them before getting hit
  
• Adjusted the placement of some enemies and also the way they spawn, should you approach them from the right side of the screen
  
  

The changes mostly adress cases where people were having trouble, where I did not want them to have them. The biggest adjustmen is probably the XP loss (again) and the reason for it is the same for when I made the first adjustment. First time players get hit a lot, because they're still learning how to deal with enemies. Getting hit often means they won't get enough XP to gain levels, which makes it less likely they start learning about how they work and how to use Hyper Mode. With this adjustment I hope that it's now possible to quickly gain at least one level without much trouble. The higher XP loss at level 3 and 4 is acceptable in my opinion, because the benefit from having these levels is so high. I don't want it to be trivial to reach the higher levels, because the game gets significantly easier once you reach them. At the same time I want people to catch onto the level system and hyper mode as quickly as possible.

Anyway, please let me know what you think. Balancing this whole stuff is tricky, because I need to make it accessible to new players, without trivializing the challenge for those of you who already know the intricacies of the game.

As always, thank you very much for your support and your interest in this game. There are not that many of you out there, but be sure that I appreciate every single one of you.

Hi!

I had a chance to watch a lot of people play Splinter Zone during a festival last week and I saw a lot of stuff that I didn't like. This update adresses most of it and should make the game a bit less clunky to play.
I'm also working on a much larger update that is going to add more content to the game, but this one's still a few weeks away from being done.

Anyway, here are the notes:

• Arrows on conveyor belts now have different colours depending on their direction
  
• When you're below level 3, your XP only gets cut by 25% after getting hit. You still lose 50% of your XP, when you at level 3 or above
  
• Changed the placement and length of some ladders
  
• Adjusted the height of some platform, to make some jumps less awkward
  
• Made it less likely that the camera breaks in some places
  
• Delayed some enemy attacks, to give players a bit more time to attack them before getting hit
  
• Adjusted the placement of some enemies and also the way they spawn, should you approach them from the right side of the screen
  
  

The changes mostly adress cases where people were having trouble, where I did not want them to have them. The biggest adjustmen is probably the XP loss (again) and the reason for it is the same for when I made the first adjustment. First time players get hit a lot, because they're still learning how to deal with enemies. Getting hit often means they won't get enough XP to gain levels, which makes it less likely they start learning about how they work and how to use Hyper Mode. With this adjustment I hope that it's now possible to quickly gain at least one level without much trouble. The higher XP loss at level 3 and 4 is acceptable in my opinion, because the benefit from having these levels is so high. I don't want it to be trivial to reach the higher levels, because the game gets significantly easier once you reach them. At the same time I want people to catch onto the level system and hyper mode as quickly as possible.

Anyway, please let me know what you think. Balancing this whole stuff is tricky, because I need to make it accessible to new players, without trivializing the challenge for those of you who already know the intricacies of the game.

As always, thank you very much for your support and your interest in this game. There are not that many of you out there, but be sure that I appreciate every single one of you.