tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2523869573668688782024-02-07T04:17:18.700+00:00Blackshift DevlogI'm making a game! Wanna read about it?RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-89881487221093376942020-09-22T16:11:00.000+01:002020-09-22T16:11:50.596+01:00Blackshift Released<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/741110/Blackshift/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="885" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8j-IKgOCDI3iMO6ugZ20mVo29wkpCdFoCJplu-haepzeh3QR0_xhZl8Gl5Yd2FCT9CSE4xRP216-VrBFyTFiNt61x2Su12hyphenhyphenpXKS8vtPNCa1tyar_LcjMTu7Y5Zte2ERiP4rAbGrOyDY/w640-h290/bs-out-now.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>I didn't want to set a release date in advance and inevitably miss it; much better to just spring the news on you without warning on release day. Well, release day is today.</p><p>Early Access customers — your copy of Blackshift should update itself to version 2.3.0, the first public version.</p><p>itch.io customers — a Steam key is available on your itch.io purchase page, if you want to switch to Steam. If not, no problem, your copy will still work.</p><p>Everyone else — get on over to <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/741110/Blackshift/" target="_blank">Steam</a> to buy your copy!<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Changes since RC7</h3><p style="text-align: left;">This kind of defeats the point of release candidates, but I snuck in a few low-risk changes:<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Some changes to levels, most notably 2/6 and 4/5<br /></li><li>Added some dots to the map for players who need some direction</li><li>Improved graphics of time bomb and shop computer</li><li>Fixed a bug where the left and right audio channels were reversed</li><li>Gave time bombs a charging sound before they explode<br /></li></ul>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-48514212520357427092020-09-21T15:32:00.000+01:002020-09-21T15:32:34.311+01:00Gamma 2.2.29 RC7 Released<h3 style="text-align: left;"> Release Candidate</h3><p>If no major bugs are found, this will likely become the final released version.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Changed the behaviour of nukes. Now, if you nuke a level:<br /></li><ul><li>You don't get any of the silicon crystals you collected in that level.<br /></li><li>You don't get the hardball, if you found one.</li><li>You don't unlock any editor items.</li></ul><li>You can now use save crystals on levels you've already won, if you want. It might make sense to do this if you're trying to get a difficult silicon crystal or hardball.<br /></li><li>Fixed a bug where, if you used several save crystals on the same level, only one would be removed from your inventory.</li><li>Fixed a bug where if you used a save crystal to win a level, then returned, saved, and used the "Clear Save" option, you'd get your original crystal back.</li><li>Minor sound effect changes</li><li>Made level 6 more interesting<br /></li></ul>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-83151641760365061422020-09-20T15:27:00.006+01:002020-09-20T18:42:17.833+01:00Gamma 2.2.28 RC6 Released<h3 style="text-align: left;"> Release Candidate</h3><p>If no major bugs are found, this will likely become the final released version.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The silicon detector now adds a sparkling effect to levels on the overworld which have silicon crystals in them.</li><li>Fixed a bug where particle effects from the overworld could briefly persist on-screen after starting a level.</li><li>Fixed a bug where the L-shaped orange "bullet door" would clip into the player model.</li><li>Added a sound effect when connecty blocks connect together.</li><li>Fixed a bug where the "Contrarian" achievement was awarded if you just touched a conveyor belt while facing the opposite way. You now have to actually move against the conveyor's direction, as originally intended.</li><li>The conveyor belt in the World 6 cave is only there to make sure you don't miss the exit to the dock. Once you've taken that exit, the conveyor belt now disappears.</li><li>Fixed a bug where, if you died while simultaneously completing a level, it would count a a win but the level would auto-restart. It now still counts as a win, as intended, but you go back out to the overworld, just like a normal win.<br /></li><li>Some changes to levels, mostly fixing design bugs. </li><li>Setting "Internet" to "Disabled" in the options now disables automatic updates in the non-Steam version.</li><li>Fixed a bug where, in the non-Steam version, automatic updates would fail on Windows machines for any user with spaces in the path to their home directory.<br /></li></ul>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-50714223366680572292020-09-19T23:25:00.004+01:002023-12-11T09:46:58.160+00:00Preparing for Release<p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Early Access has finished<br /></h3><div style="text-align: left;">Thanks to all of you who have been playing Blackshift Early Access. Your suggestions, bug reports, Pit levels, and thorough playtesting have been invaluable!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Blackshift Early Access is now no longer for sale, but if you already have it, your copy will continue to work.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Get your Steam keys!<br /></h3><p>I've given a Steam key to everyone who's already bought Blackshift Early Access on itch.io, which you can use to get the Steam version at no extra cost. To claim it, press the "Get Steam Key" button on your itch.io purchase page: <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjabBgbOtuzp1FVx78pkbrhQZ7sGqNacyaMIf4vl9EvRZik9PCFDNt5pkjoB0gMhQZ4yFeW1VhgZzYBLH3WkX4JevudpKUVNreTOFUTRBNvn3O9CPXTlPylPitT0MX_jVW0Z1p8Jgye_Fg/s1034/Screenshot+2020-09-19+at+22.32.17.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="1034" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjabBgbOtuzp1FVx78pkbrhQZ7sGqNacyaMIf4vl9EvRZik9PCFDNt5pkjoB0gMhQZ4yFeW1VhgZzYBLH3WkX4JevudpKUVNreTOFUTRBNvn3O9CPXTlPylPitT0MX_jVW0Z1p8Jgye_Fg/s320/Screenshot+2020-09-19+at+22.32.17.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>These aren't Early Access keys, they're for the final released version, so they won't work until Blackshift is released. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Switching to Steam<br /></h3><div style="text-align: left;">If you already have the non-Steam version, you don't have to switch, but I strongly recommend it. The benefits of the Steam version are:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>My auto-updater is extremely buggy and unreliable, and if you use the Steam version you'll be using Steam's auto-updater, which actually works.</li><li>There's no login step for the Level Pit, it just automatically uses your Steam account to log in.</li><li>It has achievements. </li></ul><h3 style="text-align: left;"> </h3><h3 style="text-align: left;">Linking your Level Pit account</h3><div style="text-align: left;">If you've been enjoying the Level Pit, and you're switching to the Steam version, please e-mail me your Steam User ID or post it in a comment and I'll link your Level Pit account to your Steam
account. That means that when you play the Steam version, you'll keep
your Level Pit account with all your levels and plays. Otherwise, the
Steam version will create a new Level Pit account for you automatically
with your Steam username.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Your Steam User ID is a <b>number</b>. It's not your username. If you can't find it you can try <a href="https://steamidfinder.com/">Steam ID Finder</a>. Type in your username and look for "SteamID64". </div></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-40967097224453193522020-09-19T11:07:00.000+01:002020-09-19T11:07:08.650+01:00Gamma 2.2.24 RC5 Released<h3 style="text-align: left;">Release Candidate</h3><p>If no major bugs are found, this will likely become the final released version.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Fixed a bug where one enemy had the wrong graphic.<br /></li></ul>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-3261811905929189642020-09-17T17:34:00.001+01:002020-09-17T17:54:38.717+01:00Gamma 2.2.23 RC4 Released<h3 style="text-align: left;">Release Candidate</h3><p>If no major bugs are found, this will likely become the final released version.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Fixed a bug where you were supposed to unlock an editor item for beating the secret levels, but it didn't work. <br /></li><li>Changed some of the hints the shops give you when they're sold out. There are now new hints that help you find some of the most sneakily hidden silicon crystals.<br /></li><li>Messed around with the levels again. Moved some levels and orbs around so that there are orbs on both of the prominent "optional" levels, 2/10 and 6/10.<br /></li></ul>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-37584439098597937162020-09-16T11:52:00.004+01:002020-09-18T08:47:54.424+01:00Gamma 2.2.21 RC3 Released<h3 style="text-align: left;">Release Candidate</h3><p>If no major bugs are found, this will likely become the final released version.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Swapped the last two secret levels</li><li>You can now delete your Level Pit levels</li><li>Minor changes to levels</li><li>Fixed bug where mystery items that never got unlocked would appear in your editor palette</li><li>Added ability to use the purple-dot enemy in the editor, unlocked when you beat the secret levels.</li><li>Added "100%" indicator to overworld pause screen when you've done everything in the game.</li><li>Fixed bug where the noise that plays when you get squashed by a box would sometimes play when you died to an enemy</li><li>Fixed bug where you would never get any of the achievements for collecting silicon crystals. After this update, complete any level and you should get your missing achievements.</li><li>Fixed gamepad support <br /></li></ul>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-92013791918977527632020-09-11T14:00:00.008+01:002023-12-11T09:47:47.260+00:00Gamma 2.2.20 RC2 Released<h3 style="text-align: left;">Release Candidate</h3><p>If no major bugs are found, this will likely become the final released version.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Fixed the last secret level.<br /></li></ul></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-13523486073201777372020-09-10T12:16:00.003+01:002023-12-11T09:48:12.654+00:00Gamma 2.2.19 RC1 Released<h3 style="text-align: left;">Release Candidate</h3>If no major bugs are found, this will likely become the final released version.<br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Fix bug where pressing Q in menus didn't always do the same thing as clicking Quit.</li><li>Some changes to music</li><li>Replaced the last secret level with something more fun</li><li>Changed layout of World 10 </li></ul></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-19737609214620885372020-08-27T15:05:00.005+01:002020-08-28T11:23:45.260+01:00Gamma 2.2.18 Released<p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgeL8FSXz57Vi97_V9Lj_nVIrxM8xiJGoEDNzEtUJSyhZNvq5fTnn9b7G8dcnZ4OFNDLkhltu2DYVU_Ld32iRfaWUc9oJGF6jnMaLwuTITS-x1CXC3-iHTSaRTtYL4ohEefnxh8UPe3bo/s1920/Screenshot+2020-08-28+at+11.21.17.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgeL8FSXz57Vi97_V9Lj_nVIrxM8xiJGoEDNzEtUJSyhZNvq5fTnn9b7G8dcnZ4OFNDLkhltu2DYVU_Ld32iRfaWUc9oJGF6jnMaLwuTITS-x1CXC3-iHTSaRTtYL4ohEefnxh8UPe3bo/s640/Screenshot+2020-08-28+at+11.21.17.png" width="640" /></a></div></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New<br /></h3><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Added a new item to buy: a Rocket Booster that makes you fly faster. Removed a save crystal to make room for it.<br /></li><li>Added info about your progress to the overworld pause screen. It now shows you:</li><ul><li>Where you are (as before) <br /></li><li>What items you've bought</li><li>How many levels you've done</li><li>How many secrets you've found</li></ul></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Improved the end credits sequence</li><li>Added some sound effects. I don't think there are any more missing SFX now. <br /></li><li>Added a subtle animation when you buy something <br /></li></ul></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-53417824425651310012020-08-20T17:28:00.000+01:002020-08-20T17:28:17.968+01:00Gamma 2.2.17 Released<h3 style="text-align: left;"> What's New<br /></h3><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Added a world map to the overworld pause screen</li><li>Added music to the title screen <br /></li><li>Small graphical improvements <br /></li><li>Couldn't resist changing some levels around</li></ul></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-19662601810987615442020-07-30T22:05:00.001+01:002020-07-30T22:19:26.083+01:00Gamma 2.2.16 Released<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYx3lFGla0Q6lLm049GoN3bA1ybSVoDnwTgpF-m1YE5RjyU5M6WQWanZszOAdy1xEL7RGJiAV30YF4C-KaZ6gi_5yHFohtK9HXvrKlFpQ6aGzISIHe2OPjb1CH1CO0ApaQKhPsGO2HSZ4/s2048/Screenshot+2020-07-28+at+12.43.44.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="2048" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYx3lFGla0Q6lLm049GoN3bA1ybSVoDnwTgpF-m1YE5RjyU5M6WQWanZszOAdy1xEL7RGJiAV30YF4C-KaZ6gi_5yHFohtK9HXvrKlFpQ6aGzISIHe2OPjb1CH1CO0ApaQKhPsGO2HSZ4/w640-h400/Screenshot+2020-07-28+at+12.43.44.png" width="640" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Gameplay Changes</li><ul><li>Fixed a bug where you could pick up and drop items while sliding on ice by executing a frame-perfect key press.<br /></li><ul><li>This
has been on the to-fix list for a long time! There are some levels in
the Pit where you have to execute this bug to win. They'll continue to
exhibit the old behaviour as usual, but if you can edit your levels to no longer require this bug, I encourage you to do so. If not, I might have to delete them
before release. Sorry, but it's really confusing. </li></ul><li>If you pick up a missile and shoot it through a customs door that you're standing right next to, it'll now go through.<br /></li></ul><li>Level Pit</li><ul><li>Fixed bug where you would sometimes be able to publish a level without completing it first</li></ul><li>Misc</li><ul><li>Lots of graphical improvements<br /></li><li>Doors no longer look like Christmas presents</li><li>You can now replay the secret levels if you want</li><li>The game now starts up in fullscreen by default</li><li>The game now remembers whether it was in fullscreen last time and starts up accordingly</li><li>Fixed bug where buying a save crystal sometimes wouldn't take any money off you</li><li>Fixed bug where the title screen background would change its appearance depending on what level you last played</li><li>Fixed
a bug where the Mac updater didn't work at all — it would update and
run as normal, but next time you ran the game you'd be back on the old
version.</li></ul></ul></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-79528762625664016252020-07-23T17:12:00.003+01:002020-07-27T14:39:10.329+01:00Gamma 2.2.15 Released<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHJ1mo7WlperED7l36cy7LzWX7wO_bQrW8i0EMgf4mCcNBjizhboyNbNHBj_dnzTX0Z4QRzgXvZZoCxRdAEOdbh3ICSLNNzen4OvoC7XUfLYx-YKceUaPJFwv_wiNo9WQGUPeZDqvfJnE/s2048/Screenshot+2020-07-23+at+17.09.27.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="2048" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHJ1mo7WlperED7l36cy7LzWX7wO_bQrW8i0EMgf4mCcNBjizhboyNbNHBj_dnzTX0Z4QRzgXvZZoCxRdAEOdbh3ICSLNNzen4OvoC7XUfLYx-YKceUaPJFwv_wiNo9WQGUPeZDqvfJnE/w640-h400/Screenshot+2020-07-23+at+17.09.27.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>This ended up being another fairly big update! It's mostly polish, bug fixes, graphics, and new Level Pit features.</div><div><br /></div><div>One thing I've tried to do with this update is improve the wall and floor graphics, and make them a bit more distinguished from each other (they're both grey, and they used to visually blend together a bit). I also added some more detail to both. What do you think?</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Bugs Fixed</li><ul><li>Fixed the wrong button sometimes getting activated in the UI if you dragged the mouse.</li><li>In the editor, fixed a bug where if you moved the start point and then pressed Undo, the game would crash.</li><li>Fix the silicon crystal counter sometimes popping up when it didn't need to</li><li>Fix bug where pressing Quit in the level pit didn't always quit.</li><li>Fix bug where the level pit would sometimes show pictures of the wrong levels.</li><li>Fixed some music not looping properly</li><li>Fixed bug where, if you "Quit" on the entrance to World 10, you could bypass the laser gate.</li><li>Fixed audio glitch at the start of levels.</li></ul><li>Editor improvements<br /></li><ul><li>Test-playing a level from the editor now no longer skips the "Get Ready" page.</li><li>Pressing Quit when test-playing a level now takes you back to the editor, instead of quitting out to the level pit.</li></ul><li>Level Pit improvements</li><ul><li>There's a new "Messages" tab which lets you know when people play your levels or beat your records.</li><li>There's a new "Played" tab (on your own user page only) where you can see levels you've recently played.<br /></li><li>Level Pit login now happens when you enter the level pit, not when you start the game.</li><li>If the Level Pit isn't reachable due to a network error, you can try again by clicking the "Go Online" in My Levels.<br /></li></ul><li>All levels now restart automatically if you die, instead of kicking you back out to the overworld or level pit.<br /></li><li>Nukes are always now shown in the pause menu if you have any, even if you can't use them.<br /></li><li>There are now exactly 150 silicon crystals in the game, and 150 crystals' worth of merchandise to spend them on.<br /></li><li>The game now remembers where you were on the overworld, even if you weren't standing on a level.</li><li>Various small changes to levels</li><li>Various small UI changes<br /></li><li>Graphical improvements throughout</li><li>Couple of new sound effects<br /></li><li>Performance improvements</li><li>Steam version now has a nice set of 30 achievements, and they all have icons.<br /></li></ul></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-21444794203884747752020-07-15T18:04:00.011+01:002020-07-24T17:38:55.775+01:00Gamma 2.2.13, 2.2.14 Released<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9_1atOHRKNjx4UktDwMJFzVuxa8ZbTOuERdBvwOSvpd_-XAKodZKH94VgsJiqkDTV2Rra0KF4UykTub5aNKY4RNYxEvYyNp1FWUFpVuIKuQlHpNKeKy6wd7WG4cXhhTHzgpFjXt-3eM4/s1824/Screenshot+2020-07-15+at+19.43.24.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1168" data-original-width="1824" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9_1atOHRKNjx4UktDwMJFzVuxa8ZbTOuERdBvwOSvpd_-XAKodZKH94VgsJiqkDTV2Rra0KF4UykTub5aNKY4RNYxEvYyNp1FWUFpVuIKuQlHpNKeKy6wd7WG4cXhhTHzgpFjXt-3eM4/w640-h410/Screenshot+2020-07-15+at+19.43.24.png" width="640" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;">Level Pit fans, this update's for you!<br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level Pit</li><ul><li>Added back the ability to "star" your favourite levels.</li><li>Changes to user pages<br /></li><ul><li>Added a tab to user pages showing that user's favourite levels.</li><li>Added a tab to user pages showing stats about that user.</li><li>Added user's country flag to their user page.</li></ul><li>Editor changes<br /></li><ul><li>When you create a level, you now go straight into the editor.</li><li>When drawing in the editor, you'll always now get solid lines of objects without gaps, no matter how fast you draw.<br /></li></ul><li>Changed the rules on acecptable map sizes<br /></li><ul><li>Maps whose width or height is greater than 512 cells are now rejected.</li><li>As before, maps whose area is over 16,384 are also rejected.<br /></li></ul><li>Better difficulty algorithm.</li><ul><li>It used to be (number of wins) / (number of plays). That wasn't great because people often play levels again to get a better time, and restart (which counts as a loss) if they mess up.</li><li>The new algorithm is (number of winners) / (number of players).</li><li>I also made it so the difficulty is calculated by the server, so if I want to use a better algorithm I can change it without everyone having to update.</li></ul></ul><li>Overworld</li><ul><li>Better dock graphic. Still a bit placeholdery.</li></ul></ul><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Performance Improvements</h3><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Scrolling through lists of levels in the Level Pit should now be a lot smoother, because I've moved most of the work into its own thread. Don't do heavy lifting on the UI thread, kids!</li><li>Rendering in the game itself should be a bit faster, too.</li><ul><li>It used to draw floors before objects, which is wrong because then a lot of pixels get drawn twice. Now it draws objects first, and then draws the floors around them.<br /></li></ul></ul></div></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Bugs Fixed<br /></h3></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level Pit<br /></li><ul><li>Fixed death wins not being recorded</li><li>Fixed bug where your save state for a level could sometimes be wiped if you watched a replay of that level.</li><li>Fixed bug where level preview images would sometimes stop rendering or become corrupted, especially after using the editor.</li><li>Fixed bug where long level names could overflow their boxes in the UI.</li><li>(2.2.14) Fixed a bug where dates and times could be displayed incorrectly in the Pit UI.<br /></li></ul><li>Overworld<br /></li><ul><li>Fixed the plasma detector again. I promise it works now.</li></ul><li>Misc</li><ul><li>(2.2.14) Fixed glass walls not appearing</li></ul></ul></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-22264922108397828242020-07-13T18:11:00.001+01:002020-07-17T21:29:26.158+01:00Gamma 2.2.12 Released<span><a name='more'></a></span><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Bugs Fixed</li><ul><li>Fixed bug causing levels to fail to load (black screen) after you'd been in certain caves.</li><li>Fixed lasers appearing to pass underneath damaged floor tiles.</li></ul><li>Levels</li><ul><li>Added a few more hardballs, and fixed some impossible ones.<br /></li><li>Removed the last few of the old "Warp Exit" tiles that were hidden on some levels. They didn't do anything interesting anymore.<br /></li><li>A few other minor changes to levels, mostly moving them around.<br /></li></ul></ul></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-2744884679940421202020-07-11T20:57:00.003+01:002020-07-17T21:29:56.840+01:00Gamma 2.2.11 Released<span><a name='more'></a></span><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h3><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Levels</li><ul><li>Fixed a couple of levels that were either broken or made too difficult by the recent bullet speed change.<br /></li></ul><li>Overworld</li><ul><li>Made docks a bit better, though they still aren't finished.</li><li>Optimized geometry. The world models for the overworld now take up only 2.5MB (down from 10MB), and have been made more detailed.</li><li>Many other small cosmetic and layout tweaks to the overworld. I like the layout of almost all the islands now. 2 and 9 are still a bit iffy.<br /></li><li>Fixed the plasma detector, which was showing indicators on the wrong levels.</li><li>Fixed engine sound glitching whenever you changed direction.<br /></li></ul><li>Level Pit and Editor<br /></li><ul><li>Better error message when connection fails.</li><li>Fixed bug preventing you from using the editor in offline mode.<br /></li><li>"Complete" or "Not Complete" no longer shown in offline mode.<br /></li></ul></ul><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Server Changes</h3><div>(You'll get these whether you update or not!)</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>There's now an upload limit. For now, it's set at 10 levels per day, which I feel is very generous! If you try to upload more than 10 levels on the same day, you'll be told to wait until tomorrow.<br /></li></ul></div></div></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-61107284150029088542020-07-07T15:19:00.003+01:002020-07-17T21:30:10.169+01:00Gamma 2.2.10 Released<p style="text-align: left;">The end is in sight, everyone. I'm actually going to finish this game.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><h4 style="text-align: left;">What's New</h4><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>More music, and the overworld has music too now. The only things that are missing music now are the title screen and end credits.<br /></li><li>Fixed some levels that got broken by the bullet speed change.</li><li>Overworld improvements. In particular, remodelled World 9 and added a thruster fire effect when you're flying.</li><li>Removed the red/blue flippy buttons that were in world 10. I found them to be a bit confusing, and not conducive to fun puzzles.<br /></li></ul><div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Also, I've made some decisions:</h4></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Blackshift will release <b>this year</b>.<br /></li><li>When it comes to objects that actually get put into levels, like bombs, enemies, etc., Blackshift is now <b>feature-frozen</b>. That means no more objects will be implemented. The list of objects in 2.2.10 will be the same as in the final release.</li></ul><div><h4 style="text-align: left;">So, what's still left to do?</h4></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Replace the remaining placeholder graphics</li><ul><li>White docks on the overworld</li><li>5-hit walls</li><li>Those green pegs you can shoot</li><li>Wall-follower enemies</li></ul><li>One or two more things to buy in the shops<br /></li><li>Music for the title screen, and enough level music that it doesn't feel too repetitive.</li><li>Finish the Level Pit</li><ul><li>Upload limits<br /></li><li>Play counts, win counts, make difficulty rating actually work</li><li>Make level pages look nice<br /></li><li>Thumbs up/down</li></ul><li>Polish, polish, polish</li><li>Think about marketing<br /></li></ul></div></div></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-6684700154323054972020-07-01T13:22:00.008+01:002020-07-17T21:31:02.375+01:00Gamma 2.2.9 Released<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsu62Fd4vV-YOrOHkB5Qx7zXN3nM0JnK6l1l7AHcCFEyDAKgan6mr6K8hYin2Ygpi-i1FEuxAbunOrlPcb-v6-hY59AWhDKoZf4YZ52JeaIo4Dw4AszXohKJ-0jAYU9sXVwma6g1ieNu4/s1586/Screenshot+2020-07-02+at+10.58.40.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="888" data-original-width="1586" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsu62Fd4vV-YOrOHkB5Qx7zXN3nM0JnK6l1l7AHcCFEyDAKgan6mr6K8hYin2Ygpi-i1FEuxAbunOrlPcb-v6-hY59AWhDKoZf4YZ52JeaIo4Dw4AszXohKJ-0jAYU9sXVwma6g1ieNu4/w500-h280/Screenshot+2020-07-02+at+10.58.40.png" width="500" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><h2>What's New</h2></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Lots of graphical improvements. There are very few placeholder graphics left now.</li><li>New items<br /></li><ul><li>Added some white arrow floor tiles.</li><li>Added green bombs. These aren't proximity-sensitive, and explode after a delay when shot or a nearby bomb explodes.</li></ul><li>Gameplay changes</li><ul><li>Made bullets faster.</li><li>Colour door locks can now be triggered by explosions.<br /></li></ul><li>Overworld and level changes</li><ul><li>Lots of changes to levels 1-100. I now like almost all of the levels.</li><li>Some changes to the overworld layout, to make the earlier islands more linear. Nonlinearity is great but I think it should be introduced after the player gets the hang of things. This lets the earlier “teaching” levels build on each other.<br /></li><li>Added shops to the overworld, where you can spend your silicon crystals.</li><ul><li>Added nukes, which are available in shops. If you get one, you can use it from the pause menu to blow up the level you're on.</li><li>Added a save crystal, available in a shop. Use it from the pause menu to create a temporary save point.</li><li>Added a hardball detector, available in a shop. As long as you have it, you can see from the overworld which levels have remaining hardballs hidden on them.<br /></li></ul><li>Hardballs no longer respawn if you've already collected them. If you collect one and die before finishing the level, there's now an animation of you dropping it, to make it clear it didn't count.</li><li>Once you've put all the hardballs on the pedestals, the game remembers and you don't have to do it again.<br /></li></ul><li>Bugs fixed</li><ul><li>Fixed bug where, if you restarted from the pause menu, the level wouldn't end when you won.<br /></li><li>Scrolling with a mouse wheel (not trackpad) on Mac is no longer very slow.</li><li>Game no longer fails to register picking up silicon crystals in caves.</li></ul></ul><div><b>Update</b>: Found a couple of bugs in this release. These have already been found and fixed for the next release:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span>Graphical glitch when orange pegs and some other kinds of doors are lowered</span></li><li><span>Pedestal shadows sometimes render as big black squares</span></li><li><span>Level 5/7 has been made impossible by the bullet speed change. Find a nuke and nuke it until the next release comes out.<br /></span></li></ul></div></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-1459325489076420912020-06-24T10:40:00.006+01:002020-07-17T21:38:30.226+01:00Shops, and Other News<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHYDTLJO6L6mo9DYoPOwliGcFo4YxtLwUQG34znsNGi2Mx0OxbkGtiq0_nqTyQX_uns5Uqcum3OcwdkAXuCF8tKuRzDpWgc6MDZ8BeTaopsmjWdwfl6AZMhfR6kIsRPzQQNjsKF556ko/s1824/Screenshot+2020-06-22+at+15.04.41.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1168" data-original-width="1824" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTHYDTLJO6L6mo9DYoPOwliGcFo4YxtLwUQG34znsNGi2Mx0OxbkGtiq0_nqTyQX_uns5Uqcum3OcwdkAXuCF8tKuRzDpWgc6MDZ8BeTaopsmjWdwfl6AZMhfR6kIsRPzQQNjsKF556ko/w640-h410/Screenshot+2020-06-22+at+15.04.41.png" width="640" /></a></p><p></p><p>If you like Let's Plays, YouTuber <i>Peace of the Puzzle</i> is playing through Blackshift 1.24 (that's the old one, not this remake) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBE69RdSN8w" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>In other news, I've finally finished shops, which will be in the next update. In a shop, you can spend those little blue crystals you find everywhere to buy useful items. All the items are optional; they're just things that make life easier.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p>Things you can buy at the moment include:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Nukes</b>. Old Blackshift fans will remember these. Skip an entire level by blowing it up.</li><li><b>Save Crystals</b>. These let you save anywhere in a level by creating your own save point.</li></ul><div>Things I gotta do before Blackshift is ready for release:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Make sure the progression of levels makes sense and introduces new things at a reasonable pace. The world map layout is a bit random at the moment. The early islands in particular are too non-linear. And some useful items only get introduced right near the end of the game.</li><li>Get rid of the remaining placeholder graphics</li><li>Add missing music for menu, caves, space and end credits.</li><li>Finish the Level Pit</li><ul><li>Polish off the UI</li><li>Make the difficulty indicators actually work</li><li>Introduce some sort of upload limit. You guys are good, but I just know someone out there will want to spam 100 levels a day.</li></ul></ul><div>To tide you over, I've uploaded a Pit level called <i>Research Lab</i> with some new items I've been trying out. Dunno if these will be in the next update or not, but I kinda like them, so they'll probably show up at some point.<br /></div></div>RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-20541376097872039022020-05-21T18:42:00.001+01:002020-07-17T21:32:11.557+01:00Gamma 2.2.7 Released<div>A fairly boring update today, but bug-fixes are always good.</div><span><a name='more'></a></span>
<h3>
What's New</h3>
<h4>
2.2.6</h4>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Fixed a bug where entering a level from the overworld after saving on another level would take you to the wrong level.</li>
<li>Added back a missing sound effect when objects get teleported.</li>
<li>Minor UI fixes to the pause screen and get ready screen, which looked bad on big monitors.</li>
<li>Improved GPU vertex representation, which may improve performance, depending on your system.</li>
<li>Added some achievements to the Steam version.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<h4>
2.2.7</h4>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Fixed the game being totally broken on DirectX 11.</li>
<ul>
<li>Testing on 3 platforms (DX/Win, GL/Win, GL/Mac) for every update is too much work for me, which is why updates often break the game. As we enter the "home stretch", with not much more to add, this kind of thing should happen less.</li>
<li>The cause of this bug? It turns out that, on DirectX, if you use normalized int16 coords, you can use 4 of them (xyzw) or 2 (xy) but not 3 (xyz).</li>
<li>I'm learning a great deal about 3D graphics on this project. Still, I might use a pre-made engine if I do another 3D game after this.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</div>
RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-85126488736844299892020-03-09T10:18:00.003+00:002023-12-11T09:48:53.101+00:00Gamma 2.2.5 Released<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyyVcKqM3eecQI9Di9Eu0EL4xeCtRicXtJWobx4_lnwO7omiBwJs-7unvXmTUnywWoT46d2uPKn80HZfvoNNgyjPFQ3hbf2_ZcUcIQQfABEFchc3Oi8l6JnJr_SnDcfM5bUo7Nz47EIo/s1600/bs.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="797" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyyVcKqM3eecQI9Di9Eu0EL4xeCtRicXtJWobx4_lnwO7omiBwJs-7unvXmTUnywWoT46d2uPKn80HZfvoNNgyjPFQ3hbf2_ZcUcIQQfABEFchc3Oi8l6JnJr_SnDcfM5bUo7Nz47EIo/s400/bs.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Important!</b> The new updater is having some teething problems. If you aren't successfully getting updated to 2.2.5, please update manually using these links:<br />
<br />
<b>Windows</b>: Download and run the <a href="https://blackshift.foon.uk/download/2.2.5-windows-installer.exe">2.2.5 installer</a><br />
<b>Mac</b>: Delete Blackshift from your Applications, then download and extract the <a href="https://blackshift.foon.uk/download/2.2.5-mac-fullzip.zip">2.2.5 app bundle</a><br />
<br />
<b>Edit</b>: Does anyone want to help me test the <b>Steam</b> version? E-mail me or comment below with your Blackshift username and I'll send you a Steam key. If you want to keep your existing Level Pit account, then include your Steam User ID as well and I'll link your account.<br />
<br />
<b>Edit 2, </b>for you secret-hunters: it can be a bit of a slog, hunting them all down without knowing where to look. I'm planning a feature that'll make it more fun, but for now, I'll just tell you. The secrets are on these levels: 9 14 19 40 41 44 47 63 70 71 80 85 95 98 100.<br />
<br />
<h3>
What's New</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<h4>
2.2.0</h4>
<ul>
<li>New UI</li>
<ul>
<li>The UI used to use CEF. CEF works by embedding an entire web browser in the game, and having the UI written in HTML and Javascript. This decision was made by past-me, who has now been fired.</li>
<li>The new GUI is written in C++ like the rest of the game. It uses NanoVG. This should all now be way, way smaller, faster and smoother.</li>
</ul>
<li>Editor changes</li>
<ul>
<li>You can now use the level editor in offline mode.</li>
<li>You can now press Ctrl+E to quickly switch between edit and play mode. </li>
<li>Blue police robots are now available in the editor.</li>
<li>Windows users can now zoom with the mouse wheel. </li>
</ul>
<li>Level Pit changes</li>
<ul>
<li>You can now only publish a level once you've played it and won at least once. Once published, the level is made available on <i>What's New</i> automatically.</li>
<li>You can now see pictures of all Pit levels before playing them. </li>
<li>You can now see little flags next to usernames showing where the person is from.</li>
<li><i>What's New </i>now shows 120 levels, not 12, and the rule that limits how many levels from a single author can appear in the list has been relaxed.</li>
<li>The Level Pit now calculates the difficulty of each level using advanced machine learning*.</li>
<li>Fixed many bugs related to editing levels after publishing them. This whole feature was totally broken. Works now. </li>
</ul>
<li> Gameplay changes</li>
<ul>
<li>Replaced the level select menu with an overworld map. Have fun!</li>
</ul>
<li>Bug Fixes</li>
<ul>
<li>Fixed bug where, if you teleported and died straight away, the camera wouldn't move to where you died. </li>
<li>Fixed bug where you would sometimes be immune to bullets while pushing blocks. </li>
</ul>
<li>Removals</li>
<ul>
<li>Removed DirectX 9 support.</li>
<li>Removed the Awards page. It will return.</li>
<li>Removed the ability to "star" levels.</li>
</ul>
<li> Miscellaneous</li>
<ul>
<li>Rewrote the updater from scratch.</li>
<ul>
<li>Delta updates didn't make it in, so all updates will be quite large (about 40MB) until this gets done.</li>
</ul>
<li>One new music track.</li>
<li>As usual, many small graphical, sound & performance updates.</li>
<li>As usual, some changes to the campaign levels. </li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul><ul>
</ul>
</ul>
* Some SQL queries.<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
2.2.1</h4>
<ul>
<li>Fixed a bug that stopped sound playing on Mac.</li>
<li>Fixed some minor UI display bugs on Windows. </li>
</ul>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
2.2.2</h4>
<ul>
<li>Fixed a bug that could cause save-file corruption.</li>
<li>Fixed a bug that would cause some objects to be invisible. </li>
<li>Fixed a collision bug in the overworld.</li>
<li>Fixed a Windows display bug on the login page.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
2.2.3</h4>
<ul>
<li>Fixed an editor bug that would corrupt your levels if you put certain objects in them.</li>
<li>Fixed an editor bug where you could put objects in your levels that you shouldn't be able to. </li>
<li>Fixed an updater bug on Windows where it would pop up the "Failed to install update" error even if the update actually installed successfully. </li>
</ul>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
2.2.4</h4>
<ul>
<li>Fixed a collision bug that rendered some parts of the world map inaccessible. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<h4>
2.2.5</h4>
<ul>
<li>Fixed a bug where the credits would roll even if you failed the last level.</li>
<li>Fixed a bug where you couldn't drop items on bridges, making level 100 unwinnable.</li>
<li>Made bridges available in the level editor. </li>
</ul>
<ul></ul><ul>
</ul>
RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-27846349478127004272019-06-08T11:06:00.003+01:002020-07-17T22:02:54.689+01:00New Level Pit UI<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBLIXgblA1Y57vyQCVZfPqjwYVA-pwVHnGKBAd4PsrJGv6rjquDRXtMIc1IlVin7S3yE1gqkS-NZ1IhextJjBYBVp5S4FDd2WBuoLK29IjTPq3gBaYiUhHBnm24QaLlFDXyRGFAa90CJU/s1600/Screenshot+2019-06-08+at+10.47.08.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1025" data-original-width="1600" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBLIXgblA1Y57vyQCVZfPqjwYVA-pwVHnGKBAd4PsrJGv6rjquDRXtMIc1IlVin7S3yE1gqkS-NZ1IhextJjBYBVp5S4FDd2WBuoLK29IjTPq3gBaYiUhHBnm24QaLlFDXyRGFAa90CJU/s400/Screenshot+2019-06-08+at+10.47.08.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Here's what I'm working on at the moment. As previously mentioned, I'm dropping the CEF library for UI and moving to NanoVG, so this is also a good time to redesign the UI for the Pit.<br />
<br />
Goals for the new UI:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Show pictures of the levels!</li>
<ul>
<li>The level files are pretty small, so these are all rendered locally. It just downloads each file and renders out a screenshot.</li>
</ul>
<li>Pictures for users. I'm using GeoIP flags at the moment, because I don't really want to deal with custom avatars, and I like the international flavour it gives.</li>
<ul>
<li>I hope people are cool with the flags. If it said what city you connected from, that'd probably have to be opt-in for privacy's sake... but I feel like countries will be OK. I'm sure I'll hear about it if people disagree.</li>
</ul>
<li>Better discoverability of levels. The old UI only showed about 12 new levels, and you couldn't scroll or anything.</li>
<li>Full keyboard, mouse & gamepad support.</li>
<li>Full international text input support. CEF did this well. Might be harder without it, but I think it's important.</li>
</ul>
RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-38517813550429652252019-05-01T19:30:00.002+01:002020-07-17T21:57:06.240+01:00Steam Page is up<a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/741110/Blackshift/" target="_blank">https://store.steampowered.com/app/741110/Blackshift/</a><br />
<br />
Yes yes, I'm still alive and I'm still making Blackshift.<br />
<br />
The next update is shaping up to be an absolute monster. It's got some very large changes, including a secret feature that it wouldn't make sense to release in an unfinished state, hence the lack of updates.<br />
<br />
OK, the secret feature isn't <i>that</i> exciting. But I quite like it. It changes the structure of Blackshift quite a bit, and personally I think it's just what the game needed. And it was a lot of work 😅<br />
<br />
Unfortunately it doesn't look good in screenshots yet, and I <3 secrecy, so you'll have to wait a little bit before I show you anything.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLBfj4rmljU60s4U6kZ5wCuqyzqCLpDK9pQBnfI1Q4baVwqL2_SuQHntnXJC-KpyfzR3yOiZ_fhc152Y5nEGZYUPvz5jTDonyOATTIJzK6b7fpRX0Oy2aUUULXdgk0gOuWVRDsFHJgz8s/s1600/Screenshot+2019-05-01+at+15.20.40.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="996" data-original-width="1600" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLBfj4rmljU60s4U6kZ5wCuqyzqCLpDK9pQBnfI1Q4baVwqL2_SuQHntnXJC-KpyfzR3yOiZ_fhc152Y5nEGZYUPvz5jTDonyOATTIJzK6b7fpRX0Oy2aUUULXdgk0gOuWVRDsFHJgz8s/w640-h398/Screenshot+2019-05-01+at+15.20.40.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not the secret feature</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
But I can tell you a bit about some of the other changes that will be in the next version:<br />
<ul>
<li>Seriously considering deleting my installer and updater. It's buggy, it fails all the time, and I shouldn't be spending my time writing an updater, I should be spending it writing Blackshift. I'm thinking I should just use the app update system built into Itch.io (and later Steam).</li>
<li>I've redone the entire UI. The old UI was written in HTML and Javascript, like a web page, and Blackshift contained an entire web browser just do display the UI. In retrospect, that's nuts, and I've rewritten it in C++ like a proper game.</li>
<li>More music</li>
<li>Couple of new items and graphics, as usual. Not too many this time though.</li>
<li>Steam! I'll make sure you all get Steam keys if you already bought on Itch.</li>
</ul>
RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-10937628101732078092018-06-30T14:19:00.001+01:002020-07-17T22:03:14.604+01:00Beta 2.1.15 Released<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Just a small update this week.</span></h4>
<h4>
Changes</h4>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Bugs fixed</li>
<ul>
<li>The fix for copiers in the last update mistakenly applied to copiers in all old levels, not just new levels.</li>
<li>If you got the secret on level 41, the game wouldn't recognize it.</li>
</ul>
<li>Minor changes to some levels</li>
</ul>
</div>
RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com161tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252386957366868878.post-78322880248682685632018-06-17T17:31:00.001+01:002020-07-17T22:03:23.363+01:00Beta 2.1.13, 2.1.14 Released<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoANrRj-mN3fr1PtvWKRAr8M0bPDJUpGDYu0KE1IitJqAStu5o9TAoH1_Nyej0kia8H30uiI-6DNPaa15zvdjGTMF3AWcd6eDly7A7Nk4MD7BdZAEcCrnebJhRhCopuOIKlJy5VpwGdts/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-06-17+at+14.15.38.png"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoANrRj-mN3fr1PtvWKRAr8M0bPDJUpGDYu0KE1IitJqAStu5o9TAoH1_Nyej0kia8H30uiI-6DNPaa15zvdjGTMF3AWcd6eDly7A7Nk4MD7BdZAEcCrnebJhRhCopuOIKlJy5VpwGdts/w640-h400/Screen+Shot+2018-06-17+at+14.15.38.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Lots of bugfixes this time, but a couple of new goodies too. Windows users, you might have to download it manually. The updater is still a bit temperamental.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The Steam release draws ever closer — I've decided that I want the game to come out of beta before it goes onto Steam. Leaving beta doesn't mean I'll stop updating; it just means there can't be anything left that feels unfinished. It also means I need to do a trailer. I hate doing trailers. I hate it so much! I just want to write my game and have people magically know it exists.<br />
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
What's New</h3>
<h4>
2.1.13</h4>
<div>
<ul>
<li>New stuff!</li>
<ul>
<li>Gas clouds</li>
<ul>
<li>I originally wanted these to expand, and I perhaps they will in the future, but I implemented it and I didn't like how it played. So for now they just hang there.</li>
</ul>
<li>A couple of new enemies</li>
<li>The portable yin-yang protector item is now unlockable for use in the editor.</li>
</ul>
<li>Levels up to 100 ;)</li>
<li>Optimizations</li>
<ul>
<li>Improved texture compression — textures now 24% smaller on disk and in memory.</li>
<li>Reduced memory usage from 80 bytes per map cell to 64. Smaller data means smoother gaming!</li>
</ul>
<li>Bugs fixed</li>
<ul>
<li>Pressing weird keys on the keyboard could crash the game</li>
<li>Bullets would sometimes miss mirrors they were supposed to hit. This shouldn't happen anymore.</li>
<li>Cursor no longer disappears when pointing at the window titlebar or border on Windows.</li>
<li>The editor has a feature which draws walls around your map for you, but it didn't always work reliably. Should be better now.</li>
<ul>
<li>Putting walls around your map is a good idea because otherwise the terrain generator doesn't know what to do and you get a black background.</li>
<li>I'm thinking about adding “style points” for maps, where maps that are ugly in this way get a lower ranking.</li>
<ul>
<li>Maps that rely on bugs could also be detected.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<li>Re-wrote copiers</li>
<ul>
<li>These were really janky. You could use them to copy items onto things like conveyor belts, which led to general bugginess.</li>
<li>You could copy yourself, which is a neat idea, but it was extremely buggy. This has been removed for now. It'll probably come back in some form.</li>
</ul>
<li>Fix ramps getting stuck down if stuff died on them</li>
<li>Fix un-gettable secrets</li>
</ul>
<li>Lots of small audio and graphics fixes and improvements</li>
<li>Lots of tweaks to levels and a few bad levels totally replaced</li>
<li>Changed the maximum level size</li>
<ul>
<li>The old maximum was 1000x1000 cells. No levels came close to this.</li>
<li>The new maximum is 16384 cells total (any dimensions). Only 2 level pit levels exceeded this, and those had performance problems. Those levels will still work, but new levels have to be under the new limit.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<h4>
2.1.14</h4>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Fixed a couple of problems with 2.1.13</li>
<ul>
<li>Some items were missing from the editor on Windows</li>
<li>Some network requests would still be made in offline mode</li>
<li>Menu keyboard shortcuts were broken</li>
</ul>
<li>Improved a couple of levels</li>
</ul>
</div>
RGAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09146616585837840287noreply@blogger.com48