Polychoron 0.0.5 alpha update
A new alpha update is here. This is mostly a maintenance update with no radical changes but there are a lot of important fixes and minor improvements here and there.
One of the more noticeable additions is this new power-up that increases the fire rate of the main weapon:
While writing this post, I noticed that I had missed one quite visible change from the "official" change log completely: New model for the laser beam equipped sentry gun variant. That can been seen in action here:
Here's the full change log since alpha 0.0.4:
- Added anti-aliasing option in menu.
- Added optional aim fine-tuning using gyroscope on mobile.
- Added fire rate increasing power-up.
- Do not bake data for global illumination when it's not used.
- Added support for HTML5 version.
- Fixes to issues when using GLES2 renderer.
- Tweaked lighting with GLES2 renderer to compensate for lack of HDR and GI.
- Adjusted HUD for better visibility on mobile.
- Toggle HUD visibility with F5.
- Show performance statistics with F3.
- Require a name for high scores.
- Fixed dimming HUD inside passive teleports.
- Preload more materials to prevent stutter later on.
- Show game score and time on level competion page.
- Made mines detonate faster and cause more damage on higher levels.
- Adjusted laser equipped sentry gun timing for much easier first encounter.
The new version has been uploaded here on Itch.io as well as Google Play. The web version available on my website has also been updated.
Comments
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It’s nice that you’re still working on the game! Can’t wait to see what will be in the full release.
I like the fire rate power-up, I wish you could keep it between the levels. I think the game needs some persistent ship upgrades, otherwise it doesn’t feel like you are progressing.
Sometimes I encounter strange black boxes in the levels, I don’t think they are supposed to be there. What could they be?
May I also suggest that you package the Linux version in a directory?
tararchives are usually created like this, and most people are already used to it. It can be annoying when your working directory unexpectedly gets cluttered by archive contents.You are doing really well, keep improving the game. :-)
I initially wanted to make all the upgrades and power-ups persistent but then the difficulty would have to go up much faster too and it would make it even less predictable due to the random/procedural nature of the game. This could easily lead to unexpected situations where a really good player could keep on playing indefinitely or a the player would face an "unfair" difficulty.
I have some power-ups planned that have limited usage and those will probably stay between levels.
That black box is likely an unused cube mesh instance.. I though I fixed that bug a long time ago but apparently it has returned. Thanks for pointing that out.
I used to have all game files in a sub-directory but I had to change that for the Itch.io app. I'm not sure if that is needed anymore, though.
Thank you for the feedback again!
Oh, I didn’t think itch.io app requires to package games in such way. I actually use
butlerfor all my games and it does exactly that. But it packages everything in aziparchive, and those commonly store everything at the top, so it won’t surprise anyone.In that case you could use
zipfor the Linux version as well. Or givebutlera try, it’s actually a very nice way to manage itch.io releases. ;-)I don't use zip for Linux release because it doesn't preserve file permissions on executables.. at least I thought it didn't.
I actually already added an item to my to do -list for finally checking out Butler :)
It actually does for me. I prefer
tarmyself, but seeing that itch favorszipI think it’s okay to use it. It’s kind of universal.Hi again, I'm trying to reproduce that random black box issue but I can't see any. Do you remember if they were there already at start of level or after playing a while and destroying things?
What OS are you using and on what kind of hardware?
Hi! I think these boxes appear at the start but I can’t say for sure. And… I actually can’t reproduce it anymore either. I don’t know what happened. It’s just gone now!
I’m playing on Arch Linux on i3wm using GTX 1650 SUPER (with the latest proprietary drivers).
But I’ve found another fun bug while testing. When you scroll the mouse wheel your ship moves vertically very fast. So fast that you can get yourself out of the map!
I'll put that issue on hold then and get back to it if I can later reproduce it myself.
The mouse wheel control problems have been "fixed" by removing it completely. I didn't know it can warp through walls but the huge acceleration spikes from it caused all sorts of other problems.
Thanks for the help again! By the way, I have a big update almost ready with some of your suggestions implemented :)
That’s awesome! Can’t wait to play it!