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BROK the InvestiGator News

Vote for BROK at the Steam awards!

Don't forget to nominate BROK for the Steam awards. The "Most Innovative Gameplay" category should be most fitting!



Voting ends TOMORROW!

UPDATE 1.2.2

1.2.2
--------------------
- Fixed: Throwing items in the pit in Chapter 6 crashes the game.
- Fixed: The crate in the bunker was sometimes not possible to jump over.
- Fixed: Incorrect 2 brain points loss at the start of Chapter 5 if we play Brok's part before Graff.
- Fixed: Incorrect order of color skins for characters (this change may affect the names of generic rats)
- Fixed: Guard cannot hit Brok with lasers when he's on the bed.
- Fixed sounds of lasers hitting targets (regression introduced in fight update)
- Fixed missing sound when jumping on various floors.
- Fixed lasers creation position & speed according to room scale and for the Guard.
- Added color skins for all common enemies (they have 8 skins possible)
- Improved color skins for rat HUD portraits.
(Rvs 17270)

UPDATE 1.2.1 - All Kickstarter characters are DONE!

1.2.1
--------------------
- All the Kickstarter characters (background viewers in VR arena) are now implemented!
- Fixed minor bug: We can hit walls in places where it shouldn't happen (eg right outside Trasher Hunter)
- Fixed: Guard should not appear in VR training if we didn't fight him before.
- Fixed: R.J. still appears outside of Hacker's place if we arrive on time for fair and use a disguise.
- Fixed: Cannot hit the entry code in Sector 56X with mouse controls.
- Fixed minor graphical issue with the light and clothes line in the back alley.
- Fixed: foreground elements in back alley were not displayed!
- Fixed: stink effect did not follow the player height.
- Fixed thumbnails of artbook DLC in-game

(Rvs 17248)

COMBAT UPDATE IS AVAILABLE! (1.2.0)

The major combat update which has been in the work for 2 months is finally available!!!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

It is 100% free and addresses the last major area of the game that got some criticism. Now this game is perfect, right? ^^'

I believe you'll love it :)

Like all major updates, there's a risk to break anything so if you encounter bugs, let me know:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/949480/discussions/0/3437956108939473993/

By the way, don't forget to nominate BROK for the Steam awards. The "Most Innovative Gameplay" category should be most fitting!



Full list of changes below:

1.2.0
--------------------
COMBAT UPDATE

MAJOR CHANGES:
- New difficulty setting "Mania!"
To unlock it, finish the game with the "hard" difficulty. This requires to achieve an ending without lowering the difficulty.
This makes enemies faster to move/attack and even more reactive.

- The gameplay is faster and more "nervous" overall, allowing for juggles, more reactive controls and more.

- Added more "oomph" to the sound effects, especially impact and falling sounds.

- Enemies now blink yellow when preparing a dangerous attack (a display option was added to deactivate this.)

- Visual effects overhaul.

- Player can now perform a combo finisher attack by pressing "guard button" during a combo.

- New enemy moves:
- Dart "upper smack" attack.
- Dart grab attack.
- R.J. grab and suplex attacks.
- Military grab and throw attack.
- Pound bot grab.
- Tribot "push" attack.

- Bosses we've already met can now appear in virtual arena training (and in quick fights after finishing the game)

- Lighter CPU usage (better performance overall)

- Traditional Chinese subtitles support!

AND MORE:
- Allow to hit opponents from a 30% larger depth range during battle (for both player and enemies)
- All non-robot enemies now have multiple faces on health bar HUD.
- Player can now dodge even when performing most attacks.
- Dodge input is memorized when performing the other attacks so it's performed ASAP.
- End fight no longer interrupts the player animation immediately.
- When thrown, enemies now get stun for a bit after each hit and get closer to the player
so it's easier to keep hitting them (thus juggling enemies is now much easier.)
- We can keep hitting dead enemies up until they start recovering.
- Enemies no longer stop their attack immediately after killing the player.
- Increased timer stun and added an effect when player or an enemy are defeated.
- Revised a lot of frame timings for attacks and collision masks.
- Increased reaction time when enemies are preparing an attack.
- Made player dodges even more reactive (after touching ground).
- Sound of enemy attacks is no longer interrupted when changing animation.
- Throwing bats is now faster and they have more gravity.
- Jumping with a weapon now keeps the jumpkick instead of throwing the weapon.
- Weapon now appears in hand during jumpkick and hit/KO poses.
- Each item now makes its own sound when falling & bouncing.
- New/improved animation for Brok jump down attack.
- New/improved animation for Brok crouch / grab items.
- New/improved animation for Graff jump.
- Sped up the player combo.
- Fixed generic rats don't grab their own weapons anymore.
- Special attack charge faster to fill and requires less health.
- Quick special attack no longer removes health if no enemy was reached and requires less health.
- Palm drop now has more impact and make enemies fall.
- Increased VFX hit size.
- Fixed animation changing immediately to idle when an enemy is hurt above the ground.
- Added timer before Tidy performs his arm attacks.
- Added slow down effect when a boss is defeated.
- Generic rat and Kins can now grab and throw any item from the floor.
- Thrown items can now hit from a wider depth range.
- Pressing guard button while attacking now performs the back attack.
- Dodging is now allowed during an attack (as long as player is on the ground) and interrupts it.
- New smoke effect when characters fall
- New smoke effect for Brok's powerful punch
- Blocking attacks now has more impact (enemy freeze and stun effect) and blocks from both sides.
- Added stun for Brok's special quick attack.
- Quick special attack (and some others) now display an impact on all the enemies hit.
- Quick special attack (and some others) now throw the enemies around the player, not all on the same side.
- Quick special attack can now be performed during an attack or a dodge.
- Revamped which impact sounds should be used according to each case (opponent type, weapon in hand etc)
- Grabbing items from the floor is now more lenient relative to player position.
- Rat chief uppercut should make us throw faster (moreg ravity until reaching ground)
- Graff's special attack now does a little damage to enemies and throws them away + improved SFX/VFX.
- Graff's movements are now much faster and with more gravity.
- Moves list is now viewable from the options menu in fight mode.
- Fixed VFX, timers and more things that didn't quite work as expected with hard difficulty.
- Big changes to gravity. Player and enemies now fall faster, but jump gravity is now separate from thrown/fall gravity.
- Tidy's special attack now gives more time to react when he bounces off walls and is slower overall.
- Fixed bug with player changing side while dodging.
- Graff now has his own movelist.
- Player hurt/thrown/KO/recover sprites now display the weapon/item in hand (also for generic rat.)
- Graff's movement can now be controlled when performing crushing jump and falling after stomping on enemies.
- Graff's slide is more dynamic and we can change side or not when animation finishes according to controls.
- Graff's weapons attacks are faster.
- Added inbetween frame for Graff's crouch.
- An icon is now displayed on top of player when the special attack is ready.
- Improved lasers creation (they used to not appear during a few frames until fully visible)
- Enemies now bounce off walls and room edges when thrown.
- Dodge is now improved in tights spaces with lots of collisions.
- R.J.'s and military bot charge attacks no longer stop when encountering different floor levels.
- Walking on different floor levels no longer stops the animation.
- Player jump button presses are no longer ignored when falling from low heights.
- Player jumping from lower floor to a higher one now makes the expected floor sound.
- Improved enemies jumping over obstacles.
- Characters shadows sizes and positions adjusted.
- Military bot made harder to hit from front.
- On the other hand, powerful punch now breaks all guards.
- Jumping while runnning is now faster
- Fixed a bug that made enemies less active than they should have been.
- The food items are now described underneath in fight mode menu.
- Fixed bug: we can no longer move NPCs around by using powerful punches in adventure mode.
- Fixed bug: Squealers Chief name did not fit into its health bar HUD.
- Fixed bug: spike balls can no longer be placed at the same position as another.
- Similarly, load and options get the corresponding bottom message.
- Moving close to an item that can be grabbed now displays a button prompt.
- When player hits several enemies at once (eg: jumpkicks) during the same attack, all enemies hit stay stun for the duration.
- Improved pound bot to feel better to hit (a bit less slippery, more often on our height level)
- Pound bot "danger" shadow is now always displayed on top of everything else (including other enemies).
- Pound bot ground pound attack now makes sound & effect.
- Added effect while dodging.
- After first playthrough, difficulty modes are unlocked for VR arena.
- New "Mania" training in VR arena in chapter 6 and after finishing the game (whether or not the actual mania difficulty is unlocked)
- Brok's special attack now attempts to go towards the enemy (drones) and do an uppercut when it's too high to reach
- Fixed shadow of crates barely visible and reduced gravity.
- Lasers shots sprites are now animated.
- The flag is now animated.
- Fixed bug with lasers placed being destroyed but still displayed on screen.
- Fixed enemies jumping all over the place when there's an obstacle.
- Cooldown for remote control on bots now varies according to difficulty.
- Trainings difficulties have been renamed to numbers to avoid confusion with difficulty setting
- Added a fourth training accessible from Chapter 6 and in future playthroughs.
- Items tab removed for Virtual arena fights (basically useless because all weapons are temporary) so the first tab is now the food tab.

NON COMBAT UPDATES:

- Upgraded GameMaker version to 2022 LTS.
- BIG cleaning of memory leaks! This should lead to improved CPU performance as well.
- New animation for Ott in police office.
- Glass panel in the intro now has a break animation.
- Improved labels on the world map so they fit better in all languages.
- Added instrumental version of the song for the Fall ending credits.
- Fixed bug: it shouldn't be possible to move cursor with DPAD while viewing concept art / fanarts.
- Fixed bug: line jumps after end parenthesis in the text wouldn't be displayed. (issue with Japanese)
- Fixed bug: can't leave the pharmacy if we cross the barrier at the last line of dialogue when too many articles.
- Fixed bug: killing Bolt left a second where we could click somewhere else and get softlocked.
- Fixed bug: mail crates were not properly saved and climbed automatically when using gamepad.
- Fixed bug: it shouldn't be possible to take the broken mine after chapter 1.
- Fixed: merchant no longer mentions a gift if we already took the statuette.
- Fixed some voice acting lines without effect.
- Fixed one character appearing alive in summary at the end if we go for another ending at the very last moment.
- Fixed elevator getting reopen when switching character from inside the museum.
- Fixed bug: pages number in jail were displayed above the menu.
- Fixed bug: incorrect music played if we refuse to leave after losing in front of the boss in VR arena.
- Fixed bug: rolling spikes couldn't hurt Brok when running.
- Fixed bug: charging "Hush killed himself" then restarting from chapter 1 would leave those clues intact.
- Fixed bug: in Trasher Hunter room, destroying stuff then switching back & forth to summary no longer created the idle bots.
- Fixed bug: impact effect would not display / have the correct scale for some inanimate objects.
- Fixed bug: wrong scene displayed after credits at the lab if we chose to "jump on..."
- Fixed bug: chapter 4, softlock if we enter from a certain position and try to talk to Ott.
- Fixed bug: "overload" text during chase had no vertical alignment so could change position.
- Fixed bug: loading save in chapter 5 does not reset the timer to the correct value.
- Fixed bug: Museum sign didn't display the letter right after screwing (it required to leave/come back the room)
- Fixed bug: Throwing cat fur at R.J. in front of hacker during fight should not trigger dialogue.
- Fixed: chocolate effect no longer disables after exiting pharmacy.
- Fixed: Bod normalizer no longer applies to Graff.
- Fixed: Klay's shoes no longer disappear when he goes in bed in the bunker.
- Added effect for glass window broken in Trasher Hunt.
- Increased speed to skip pages in jail.
- Chinese translation fully proofreaded.
- Chinese and Japanese versions now have a localized game logo on title screen.
- Chinese end screen now has a Weibo link instead of Discord.
- The artbook can now be viewed from the menu in-game into "extras" (if you own the DLC)
- It's now possible to zoom in/out and move the picture for all the extras art display.
- Added an option to exit to main menu (in addition to exit the game)
- Moved "text message speed" and "subtitles" to display options.
- Changes to prepare for console releases (optional asynchronous save handler)
- 38 new fanarts.

(Rvs 17230)

20% off this week

While I'm working on future content / improvements (including an upcoming "Combat update"), you can grab the game at a first 20% discount!

BROK is currently part of the Indie X event, so I'll run some pre-recorded streams for a while. Don't hesitate to ask questions there, or on the official Discord:

https://discord.gg/brok

By the way, I've set up a Treelink recently so be sure to follow the game everywhere so you don't miss any news or cool fanart!
https://linktr.ee/cowcatgames