News Liste STARWHAL: Just the Tip

STARWHAL Beta 5 is Live!
STARWHAL: Just the Tip
05.08.14 21:41 Community Announcements
It's like poetry, it rhymes!

The new update has been a long time coming, but it's finally here, and there's a ton of new stuff!

New Stuff!


  • Challenge Mode! This is an early 8 level preview of the single player mode that tests your STARWHAL skills. In the final release of the game, we're aiming to have over 30 levels. There are two different types of challenges: [list]
  • Obstacle mode - 5 levels of racing to the finish line as fast as you can. Watch out for the hazards, as hitting them will give you a time penalty!
  • Levels:
  • [list]
  • EZ EZ
  • Full Throttle
  • Stream Sailor
  • Sludge Sewer
  • Centrifuge


  • Target mode - 3 levels of seeking and destroying the heart targets as fast as possible!
  • Levels:
    • Crossroads
    • Rebound
    • Factory


  • Hazards - Obviously, it's not so simple to just get to the end. Avoid the hazards to make to the finish in one piece!
    • Fireballs and Lava will give you a time penalty
    • Slime will kill you in one hit, so watch out!

    [/list]

    There are also a couple of other neat features!

  • Ghosts - Your runs in Challenge modes get recorded and uploaded so you can race against yourself, a Steam friend, as well as a Rival, who has a similar time to your own!

  • High Scores - Try to get faster times to unlock the coveted Platinum Medal!

  • Leaderboards (coming soon) - we're still working on this one, so it's not in this preview build. Upcoming versions will have Steam leaderboard information displayed in game so you can value your worth as a human being by comparing yourself to friends and total strangers!
  • Warning: We may need to clear some of the leaderboards while we're still in Early Access. Please be patient with us!

  • UI overhaul
    • Player Select: you now have to ready up before going to the next screen (This means less accidental clicks when setting up a match)
    • Mode select: now you have more freedom of the type of the type of game you want to play - create your own combinations of score/time
    • Options menu: options now save their state between different game sessions
    • Post FX: We've now implemented lots of cool post effects including Bloom Lighting and chromatic aberration which make heart hits even more intense!(These can be disabled in the options screen)
    • Controller support: Xbox One controller for the Windows version of the game

    [/list]
  • More new awesome music and sounds!
  • [/list]

    Balances/Fixes:


    • Narwhals have been tweaked - there's now a bit less friction on the players, especially on the "bell" area where the horn meets the head. In our testing, we've found that this has led to faster, more aggressive play since you don't get stuck on each other as often
    • Heart hits - heart hits in versus mode now have a shattering effect to emphasize hits, as well as to show how long the heart is invulnerable between taking hits
    • Ice blocks are now a bit easier to break in the Forsaken world
    • Fast Forward level has been reworked
    • Fixed the long standing and mysterious issue where sometimes a heart icon in the GUI won’t appear in Classic mode
    • Camera improvements now better frame the action
    • Curved blocks are now smoother so it's easier to slide on them
    • Key Bindings - adding/removing AI on the keyboard are now changed to the P and O keys respectively from the +/- keys.
    • Player Select - the confirm button for the WASD controls is the ‘Space’ key


    Costumes


    • Bacoooon, to dream of delicious bacon-wrapped narwhals
    • Long Scarf, for sci-fi fans
    • Female Assassin (we broke the bank trying to get this one in!)

    [/list]
    As always, sound off in the Community Hub to let us know what you think! Looking forward to racing (and beating, of course) all your ghosts in Challenge mode!