Roboquest Devblog #6 - About the Winter Update
Howdy hey!
With December just kicking in, it’s time for another developer news!
We’ll be talking about a few of the incoming changes as well as other more long-term objectives we have. Let’s dive right in!
[h2]Localization[/h2]
It’s becoming a habit, we can’t do our developer news without talking about localization, which is still being worked on.
Almost all languages are still incomplete, so we decided to mark them as “unavailable” on the Steam page for the time being. We’ll turn them back on once they are complete. We apologize to all players who purchased the game thinking their language would be available. We didn’t think it would take that much time.
That being said, if you wish to help us localize the game in your language, we’d be really happy to welcome you aboard the localization crew. If you happen to be interested in helping us, please join the Discord server and tell us.
The current languages needing help include: German, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish and Portuguese-Brazilian.
[h2]Corrupted Items[/h2]
We hear your feedback and we agree about Corrupted items: they aren’t the most compelling part of the player progression system. More infuriating, they are kinda hindering your runs by competing with regular items in loot chests.
So right now, they’re kind of a failed experiment. Though they provided us tons of information through our data and your feedback.
And this is definitely something we’re working on. Here are our goals for corrupted items:
In the meantime, we tried to ‘hotfix’ some of the issues by reducing the stat debuffs they give. We know it’s not the most ideal solution but it’s the best we can do right now without reworking the system.
[h2]Data-Logs[/h2]
Data-Logs are ingame loot you’ll be able to find in the levels in 0.8.0.
They are (relatively) hidden in different spots of the levels and they provide Wrenches. Once found, they can’t be picked up again (and won’t appear anymore).
Right now, Data-Logs do nothing else than providing Wrenches. In the future, they’ll contain story bits which you’ll be able to read and review. Placing them in the levels and making them useful to the basecamp progression is the first step we’re taking towards their full integration in the game. This makes us able to collect data and analyze players’ behavior with them as well as see if they’re in the right spots or if we need to think of a different approach.
There is a fixed amount of Data-Logs in each level and you can see how many you already found over the maximum you can find in each level.
[h2]Gameplay Readability[/h2]
We’re currently reworking FXs and other visual effects to improve gameplay readability by clearly differentiating the colors and shapes of the different game elements (like enemy and player projectiles, perk effects and other looting pick-ups such as powercells and repair-o-cells).
In the 0.8.0 you will already be able to have a glimpse of that through the powercells, the sparks and the elemental effects. Though most of it is still a work-in-progress and we’ll continue to work to improve those.
[h2]Sir Catercoaster[/h2]
The mighty, the great, the famous… Sir Catercoaster is making its comeback.
For those of you who don’t know him, he was a boss we decided to remove in the earlier updates of Roboquest. He wasn’t working as well as intended and was creating a bit of frustration for the players.
We made another attempt at bringing him back and you’ll be able to try it out in 0.8.0. Like usual with bosses and like we said in the previous developer news, he might not be in a perfect spot (in terms of balance, fairness and frustration). But we had a blast trying him out internally and we hope you’ll like it as well. If not... well... we’ll be iterating again on this rollercoaster of a boss.
[h2]Playtest[/h2]
The playtest 0.8.0 is just around the corner. It will be a public test branch like usual and anyone will be able to tune in to try out the new update. We expect the playtest to release in less than one week and the 0.8.0 in about two weeks. You can head over to the bottom of the previous developer update (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/692890/view/3079894017737054099) for a more detailed breakdown of the incoming changes. We’ll also publish the full patch-note when the playtest lands.
That concludes our developer news and we’ll soon be back with the playtest...
In the meantime, happy robot smashing!
With December just kicking in, it’s time for another developer news!
We’ll be talking about a few of the incoming changes as well as other more long-term objectives we have. Let’s dive right in!
[h2]Localization[/h2]
It’s becoming a habit, we can’t do our developer news without talking about localization, which is still being worked on.
Almost all languages are still incomplete, so we decided to mark them as “unavailable” on the Steam page for the time being. We’ll turn them back on once they are complete. We apologize to all players who purchased the game thinking their language would be available. We didn’t think it would take that much time.
That being said, if you wish to help us localize the game in your language, we’d be really happy to welcome you aboard the localization crew. If you happen to be interested in helping us, please join the Discord server and tell us.
The current languages needing help include: German, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish and Portuguese-Brazilian.
[h2]Corrupted Items[/h2]
We hear your feedback and we agree about Corrupted items: they aren’t the most compelling part of the player progression system. More infuriating, they are kinda hindering your runs by competing with regular items in loot chests.
So right now, they’re kind of a failed experiment. Though they provided us tons of information through our data and your feedback.
And this is definitely something we’re working on. Here are our goals for corrupted items:
- Make them funnier
- Make them not compete with other regular items in term of loot position
- Make them more diverse
- Make them viable
- Make them build-inducing (in both ways: picking up one can open up a build possibility or picking up one can complement your build)
In the meantime, we tried to ‘hotfix’ some of the issues by reducing the stat debuffs they give. We know it’s not the most ideal solution but it’s the best we can do right now without reworking the system.
[h2]Data-Logs[/h2]
Data-Logs are ingame loot you’ll be able to find in the levels in 0.8.0.
They are (relatively) hidden in different spots of the levels and they provide Wrenches. Once found, they can’t be picked up again (and won’t appear anymore).
Right now, Data-Logs do nothing else than providing Wrenches. In the future, they’ll contain story bits which you’ll be able to read and review. Placing them in the levels and making them useful to the basecamp progression is the first step we’re taking towards their full integration in the game. This makes us able to collect data and analyze players’ behavior with them as well as see if they’re in the right spots or if we need to think of a different approach.
There is a fixed amount of Data-Logs in each level and you can see how many you already found over the maximum you can find in each level.
[h2]Gameplay Readability[/h2]
We’re currently reworking FXs and other visual effects to improve gameplay readability by clearly differentiating the colors and shapes of the different game elements (like enemy and player projectiles, perk effects and other looting pick-ups such as powercells and repair-o-cells).
In the 0.8.0 you will already be able to have a glimpse of that through the powercells, the sparks and the elemental effects. Though most of it is still a work-in-progress and we’ll continue to work to improve those.
[h2]Sir Catercoaster[/h2]
The mighty, the great, the famous… Sir Catercoaster is making its comeback.
For those of you who don’t know him, he was a boss we decided to remove in the earlier updates of Roboquest. He wasn’t working as well as intended and was creating a bit of frustration for the players.
We made another attempt at bringing him back and you’ll be able to try it out in 0.8.0. Like usual with bosses and like we said in the previous developer news, he might not be in a perfect spot (in terms of balance, fairness and frustration). But we had a blast trying him out internally and we hope you’ll like it as well. If not... well... we’ll be iterating again on this rollercoaster of a boss.
[h2]Playtest[/h2]
The playtest 0.8.0 is just around the corner. It will be a public test branch like usual and anyone will be able to tune in to try out the new update. We expect the playtest to release in less than one week and the 0.8.0 in about two weeks. You can head over to the bottom of the previous developer update (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/692890/view/3079894017737054099) for a more detailed breakdown of the incoming changes. We’ll also publish the full patch-note when the playtest lands.
That concludes our developer news and we’ll soon be back with the playtest...
In the meantime, happy robot smashing!