HAPPY HALLOWEEN
And oh boy do we have treats for you! Let's get right to it:
TRADING CARDS
You asked and we delivered: Trading Cards are now live!
To give them something truly special and personal, they are largely made up of never-before-seen concept art. Our characters have gone through a lot of iterations through the design phase so you might even find some inconsistencies. All part of the charm (we hope!).
EMOTICONS
We couldn't give you Trading Cards and not include emoticons.
No literally, that's how the system is set up!
We went through a few drafts and hope we ended up with a variety of emoticons that are both fun, and give you loads of opportunity to use them in conversations. And YES there is a clown, but that's all we're gonna say! Happy hunting!
25% OFF
This is the biggest discount we've had so far, but we felt like it's autumn, and with the year we've all been having you deserve it! You might wanna pick it up now if you're thinking of gifting it to a friend for the holidays cause we're not sure we can match this one so quickly again!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1146310/Beyond_a_Steel_Sky/
And now, for our shortest Patch Notes ever (yes this is a lowkey brag! Please be happy for us!).
SEE YOU LATER, ELEVATOR
This one was devious because it was one of those bugs that occurred when you saved and reloaded the Aspiration Gala [spoiler] after the technician had gone up in the elevator. [/spoiler]
The elevator then reloaded being on the bottom of the level, wide open and really inviting.. but entering it would do absolutely nothing. It really felt like a blocker, but surprisingly it was even more misleading..
Let's backtrack:
The game essentially relies on hint states, kind of like a stage setting in a theatre!
Hint Stage 6 for example means "elevator down".
But the Elevator itself didn't understand it was supposed to be down. While it was set to be downstairs it did not know what script to reference, because it was literally off-script.
Like a time traveller, or a really bad play with that one kid who never knows what's going on so they made them a tree and they still somehow managed to bomb? That.
The elevator now remembers what part of the game we're all on, and will no longer try and distract you prematurely!
FALLOUT BOY
Someone, not naming ANY names, kept pushing the boundaries - quite literally..
A little secret about gamedev is that if the player can't reach it, it's probably not real.
It takes a LOT of memory to load in objects, and they are not actually necessary to display things! We talked about NavMesh in previous patch notes, which to briefly recap is exactly what it sounds like: a mesh to navigate on. This is used for railroading NPCs, making things have physical boundaries, etc.
Now, when we make these boundaries to keep you OUT of parts of the game, it's because we don't want you to see!!! Cause there is very little we actually waste physical memory on. It's all a sham! Beyond where you can walk is nothing but illusions!!!
But some of you keep finding ways through and we keep patching them up. Probably till forever!
So for now we again, improved meshes, which is fancy for “You can now bump into stuff better” - Enjoy!
WENDELL'S MOUSTACHE
Wendell is a simple guy, but he does take pride in his moustache.
I lied. Wendell has been nothing but trouble. First he walked around blocking everyone. Then he wouldn't stay in his chair, and now he's fully derailing the camera to zoom into his moustache.
God damnit Wendell.
Actually to be fair this time it wasn't quite him, it was his umbrella. When you, the player, would approach Wendell from a specific angle, the umbrella would block the camera, putting it into a tight spot. The camera was using Foster's and Wendell's location to try and find the best angle and tried to make an executive call. Boom: A fullscreened moustache closeup.
We found a super elegant solution to this though: A scripted approach!
So now when you, the player, try to start a conversation from an angle like this, Foster will take a few steps to align himself in front of Wendell. Don't worry it's still his good side.
BIRDEMIC
City Walls now has more bird. We will not elaborate. But you’re still welcome.
REGINALD CONSPIRACY
When Reginald comes out of his little room you were able to examine him, and the game would be talking about him like he was a MINOS terminal. For no reason at all. It now refers to him as a person again. Which he is. Yup.
4YR U SO QUIET
When 4YR gets..... too far for you to reach in a cutscene, it was impossible to understand what he was saying! He even got the little speech bubbles with the dots in them for when you’re too far away to hear an NPCs dialogue. Not very accessible.
You can now hear relevant lines loudly enough, but don't worry - the game will still allow you to walk away if you get tired of his moaning.
CUTSCENES IMPROVED
You transition into them better. Whenever you get to a point to trigger a cutscene it will now slow you down ahead of that, almost stepping into it if you will (and you will).
It looks so smooth and we're all geeking out over it!
MENU REVAMP
We tried something new and exciting.
It's more segmented, cleaner, and features different cards.
We’re super happy with it and hope you are too!
There are some more tiny adjustments and fixes, but what’s a puzzle game without a little mystery..
This patch really showed us how far we've come in a short time, thanks to all of you.
So many of you are in steady communication with us, and it's honestly heartwarming how positive and supportive this community has been.
Let's not sugar-coat it. This year has been a lot, but you all make us wanna finish strong.
For those of you who want to, feel invited to join our Discord: discord.gg/revolutionsoftware
We are on there all the time, and on Fridays we even play games together with our Community.
We'd love to see more of you there!
All the best from the whole team at Revolution
