First: Megabyte Punch is now available for Mac! So there. Enjoy that.
So after being in use for a year I feel it’s time to move the development blog to our official site. I’ve moved over the update posts and intend to do some in-depth posts on there as well as the usual updates. So update your bookmarks to here! You can incidentally also check out all our other silly projects.
Another note, I’ve joined the Twatters to see what that is all about. You can follow me, @RPT_Dion, for remarks that make you laugh with a straight face. Just shout something and I’ll shout something back. Megabyte Punch Co-dev Tim long since joined that front and is found @RemmersTim. And of course @Reptilegames, for announcements (and the occasional free shit).
In this new update, we added a new collection interface and vastly improved the inventory interface. We also named and described every part and with that, every ability too.
There is a new control layout available on the keyboard that uses the arrow keys with ‘Z’ and ‘X’ to attack and ‘Enter’ for your inventory. If you want to play the game from the start, but keep all your parts, there is the Destructo-Cheat. In the main menu, hold CTRL, ENTER and DELETE, you should hear a conformation. If you want to wipe your save completely, use the Hyper-Destructo-Cheat (in the main menu, hold CTRL, BACKSPACE and DELETE).
The new control layout is optional, you can still use WASD, N and M to attack and E for inventory (which I personally prefer over the arrow keys). But the tutorial level at the start does assume the arrow keys.
The changes:
+ New collection GUI
+ Improved inventory
+ All Parts named and and described
+ All Abilities named and described
+ New keyboard controls (next to WASD)
+ New music for the Subprogram Deadlands
+ You can now also jump with ‘up’ or ‘w’
+ Destructo-Cheat (WARNING: deletes your progress, but keeps your parts)
(in the main menu, hold CTRL, ENTER and DELETE)
+ Hyper-Destructo-Cheat (WARNING: deletes progress and parts)
(in the main menu, hold CTRL, BACKSPACE and DELETE)
* Fixed colorizers acting funny
* Fixed break sound missing on various blocks
* Fixed death warning slomo not working to the left
~ Various parts switched ability
The demo is also updated. It includes an extra level now! You can download it from IndieDB or use this sweet button to play it right in your browser:
And of course for the full package, you can pre-order the game at half the final price (we actually high-five for every pre-order!).
A way to know what the ability of a part actually does was requested quite a lot and we couldn’t help but agree. So the last week I’ve been reworking the collection interface.
Next to a short explanation of the ability, I took the opportunity to show a lot more too. Such as part names and part description/flavor text. You can also see how many parts you’ve collected of the total by looking at the page number (we don’t have a hundred yet, but we’re getting pretty close!). You can rotate the part around and once you’ve made a choice you can add it right to your inventory.
Note that the part abilities are not final yet. Some are under or over powered and abilities might switch around. All in all, I like the new interface. It gives more fun and purpose to collecting. Its informative and it even gives us the opportunity to expand on the game’s universe with all its parts, factions and legends.
Oh boy, we’re at it again.
Updating that is.
In this update, we mainly added a new level: the Subprogram Deadlands. The new enemies are made of 14 new parts to collect with 3 new abilities. This level includes more hazards, like the virus clouds and pits. It can even be pretty unforgivable at times. Our music-man ran out of time to produce a new track for the level, so we’ll update that in later. It now plays one of the older tracks, but with the new ‘mute music’ option you can just turn it off if you like.
The changes:
+ Added the new level ‘Subprogram Deadlands’ with 3 stages and a boss fight
+ A new little proto-village
+ Added new enemies (the Subprograms) with a total of 14 new parts
+ Virus clouds
+ Virus cloud mine placing ability
+ Red (killing) virus clouds
+ Added blocks that break when you stand on them
+ Glide ability
+ Enemies now drop 4 bits when destroyed
+ Added mute sound and mute music buttons in the options and pause menu
+ Added sound for placing a block
+ ELECTRO TREES
~ Made the blaster do less knockback
~ Minor changes to level 1 and 3
~ Changed the teleport to not go through walls (sorry!)
Pre-order to play this and the rest!
Grab a cigar and slap your mothers’ ass, we’re on Desura!
As an alpha-fund game of course, since we’re still working on it. Buying it on Desura wields the same benefits as pre-ordering from the Megabyte Punch site (pay half, get latest updates). We also made this sweet boxart:
The character is General HB-02. In the game, he governs the proving grounds of the Grand Tournament. We chose him because, well, he looks cool, but he’s also pretty fun to fight against.
This is the second alpha update. To get this newest version plus all updates for half the final price, you can pre-order right here.
In this update, we’ve improved basic gameplay. The chests now contain bits, that you can collect to restore lost lives. The enemy Megacs now drop single parts, so you won’t be flooded as much. You can send any part to your collection from your inventory with ‘J’. Mine explosion now throw you outwards from their center (you can try launching yourself to places you couldn’t reach before). Some damage effects and two new abilities are added too.
Changes:
+ Random enemies!
+ Added mine placing ability
+ Added defensive wall place ability on the shield part
+ Added damage effects
+ Added bits in chests and crates
+ Get an extra life for every 100 bits you collect
+ Added hitlag and effects to the drill and launch ability
+ Added a ‘store part’ option in the inventory
+ Gave the wrench enemy type an uppercut animation
~ Changed mine explosions to knock things back from their center outwards
~ changed amount of parts dropped by creatures to a single one
~ Changed the inventory graphic (again)
~ Some small changes to the level 1 stages
~ Changed some parts to only fit on either legs or arms instead of both
~ Tweaked a lot of special ability hitboxes for more hitpower and a little less hitscaling
* Fixed dash type abilities going further diagonally
I decided to show this week’s progress, as I really like it. The enemies are now randomly put together based on their family. A family simply contains a pool of parts they can use and their rarity. So we still have the freedom to put, for example, a ranged Megac on a pillar, but they can have a variety of different parts with ranged abilities and will behave according to those.
Rare parts come with their own palette, so you will notice when a Megac has something special. This is the case in the screenshot below. The blue enemy is actually a ranged Megac (normally colored yellow), but has a different palette because it has the uncommon drill legs.
Also, all creatures now only drop a single part and the treasure chests don’t contain parts anymore (with a few exemptions). I’ve only just made this change and it already feels a lot more fun to collect parts. The chests are going to have bits in them, they’re a way to restore lost lives and will in later updates most likely be used to unlock things like fight levels and buy special parts.
These changes and a lot more are in the next update which should be here sometime next week. Including two new abilities, one of them explosive. Don’t forget that you can show your support by pre-ordering the game (and get tasty extra content too)!
Have a nice weekend!
Mines, now also in your browser. Only level 1 is playable in the demo, but a lot of issues were fixed.
Pre-order to play the rest!
The first update since the demo! We want to aim for one update every two weeks. This one was not quite as quick as planned, but it fixes a lot and adds some too.
These changes are for the pre-order version, if you haven’t pre-ordered the game already you can do so on MegabytePunch.com. You get the latest version now and the final game when it’s finished for half the final price. If you did, you should have gotten a notification email from us (in which case: hello again!). You can use the original download links you received to get the latest version. It might be a good idea to save those, but we’ll have a look at the possibility of resending them.
The changes:
+ All level stages redesigned (9 stages total)
+ Added run animation
+ Added player shadow
+ New home village graphics
+ Added explosive blocks
+ Inventory and the collection box show available actions
+ Added a second layer of blocks to all level stages
~ Changed controls from mouse-keyboard to just keyboard
~ Changed how the inventory works
~ Made most of the ranged attacks more powerful
~ Changed the tutorial to be more clear
* Fixed a lot of inventory bugs
No big play button this time (maybe I should make a big pre-order button…). The online demo will probably get an update these coming days with the fixes of the newest version, but with only the first level playable.
Enjoy and as always, feedback is welcome!
You may have noticed that every time you enter a level from the village, there’s a different level. In other words, levels are procedurally generated. This won’t be the case after the next update and I’ll tell you why.
I was really excited when I first got the game to generate (pretty much) infinitely large complex cave structures. I still think procedural content is a very powerful tool. But after the demo was released, I noticed what was wrong. Megabyte Punch is a game mainly about punching and collecting. It isn’t really game content if it isn’t something you interact with in the game. Thus, in this game, randomly generated levels aren’t procedural content. It doesn’t add to the game. You might say, ‘oh but, unlockable concept art in games is content and you don’t interact with that at all’. Well, it’s content, just not game content (more like picture book content). A procedural content game done right would have you directly interact with the generated content. If your world is generated, interact with the world (like Terraria or Minecraft) or vice versa.
So instead, back in Megabyte punch, I want to move the random from the levels to the creatures. Procedural enemies! Parts give abilities, abilities ask for strategies. Fights stay interesting because you hardly ever face the exact same opponent twice and the rewards are different too.
In the last two weeks we’ve broken and fixed the game and then designed all 9 stages by hand. I’ve also simplified the inventory a bit and fixed some known bugs with it. The procedural enemies are saved for a future update, but shouldn’t take too long. If all goes as planned, we’ll have the update out by Wednesday.
dionbyte 