Hey!
Its been another month and time for an update from the developer - aka me :)
As mentioned previously in Developer News I'm working on changing some fundamental things in the game, related directly or indirectly to multiplayer.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/3660917344836649708
Disclaimer: Keep in mind that I am here talking about things I am working on at the moment. You won't have access to these until the next open beta + they might have changed before we get to that.
Just want to make that clear, so you do not expect to see this in the game right now.
Server list
Originally it was my idea that Fireworks Mania in multiplayer would be a game you played only with friends and people you knew, why I started out with just having a JoinCode as you might remember from the public alpha.
However, I got a lot of feedback from the community on this topic. Many players wanted to play with friends of cause, but also play with other random people from the community.
Therefore I have this month started adding a "Server list" into the game.
It's still very work-in-progress but it works and I must admit it adds a lot more to the game than I was expecting as it feels more "alive" now that you can see and join others (if they decided to play public of cause. Making private games will be possible too, just haven't implemented that as of writing).
Continue on UI overhaul
Not a lot to say other than the work continues on improving the UI. UI isn't what I'm best at, so its trial and error to find what feels right. I'll let the gifs below show the current state.
Alternative tool selection
Not all I'm doing is directly related to multiplayer, like the new "Toolbar/Tool selection" feature I implemented during a live stream previously this week.
[previewyoutube=DmjYcxdegHc;full][/previewyoutube]
At the end of this live stream I show off some multiplayer gameplay too if you are interested.
Over the years I have gotten feedback that some would like to have a more "standard" way to switch the tools. With the number 1-5 on the keyboard, as it's done in many other games.
While developing this on the live stream there were already feedback that people liked the possibility to use the numbers to switch, however, not all wanted more UI on the screen. It is not implemented yet, but later on I plan to make some more settings so you have more control over what UI elements you actually want on the screen. Like permanently hiding Toolstips, the new toolbar in the bottom etc.
However, it will be a bit later.
Faster mod loading
A very common feedback I'm getting is that the game loads too slow.
In general that's not really the case as if you play the standard game with no mods, the game loads very fast.
However, players do have a point when it comes to having 200+ mods installed because that can be pretty slow with loading time of many minutes.
I think part of the reason players are "complaining" about the load times is because community mods is a official support and build-in feature that is super easy to use in Fireworks Mania - which is kind of a new'ish thing.
Not too many years back modding a game was something the community did without any help or support from the developers. The community thereby needed to "hack" their way to modding a game. This also mend that using mods in game were something that only more advanced players were doing and it was hard to get working, so when the game loaded slower due to the fact that it needed to load in a lot more stuff that is was part of the game, players understood why and were just happy when it finally worked.
In Fireworks Mania this is much simpler and easier to do. You go to the Workshop, subscribe to some stuff you find interesting and start a game. In general it just works, of cause as always with community generated stuff, not all works and I can't fix everything, but in general mods are of a very high quality in Fireworks Mania - because the mod creators are awesome :D
As a little example of their awesomeness, I can inform that the base game have around 70 pieces of fireworks. The modding community have added around 2000'ish! That's a ton of work from the modding community that the entire Fireworks Mania community benefits from - which is also why I'm trying all I can to make it as easy for both mod creators and players to create and use mods in the game.
The downside of this being so easy in Fireworks Mania is that players might forgot, or for good reason don't know, that they are adding extra external stuff to the game that needs to be downloaded, loaded into memory and progress by the game when it loads a map.
I'll see what I can do in the future to make this a bit more obvious.
Oh, and by the way, I cut the mod loading time in half in this new version of the game :)
Next public multiplayer beta announcement soon!
I hear you. Almost daily I see on the Discord, YouTube, DMs etc. you guys asking for when you can try out multiplayer.
I'll be posting an announcement about that sometimes over the next weeks - so keep an eye here on Steam!
And by the way, please appreciate the screenshot at the top - it was almost impossible to get people to lineup for a photoshoot!
YouTube | Twitter | Discord
- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/
