Posted November 13, 2019 by Deerbell
#updates #major-updates #2.0.0
hi fans of space!!!
We released BOMBARDMENT:hd|FW: CEASELESS ASSAULT OF ROCKS! on a self-imposed deadline - September 13, 2019. I think it was pretty good, and our goal was mostly to make a game jam-scope game sufficiently modernized and not as janky.
However, we might be exhibiting the game in the future, and we felt there were a few features that could be added fairly easily. We might also sort of be perfectionists. So the whole thing spiraled a bit out of control, as these things tend to do (I think Witchy Workshop is like two hours long?), and our 1.1 patch turned into more like a 2.0 patch. Oops!
First, we sort of made a whole new game.....??
Somehow we forgot about the first rule of video game asteroids, and also real life asteroids, which is when you shoot at them, they actually become even more dangerous as they break into a whole bunch of unpleasant little pieces. When you were younger, you were probably warned by a parent or teacher that if you see an asteroid in real life, you should leave it alone and not try to beat it up, as it's pretty unlikely to slam into you at twenty kilometers per second.
But as BOMBARDMENT:hd|FW: CEASELESS ASSAULT OF ROCKS! is above all a cautionary tale, we realized there's much more depth to the gameplay when the larger rocks break into smaller ones, as you have an incentive to wait until you've fractured a rock into smaller chunks with another weapon instead of just firing wildly at whatever looks most menacing. As a result, all the levels have been totally revamped to accommodate this new system, as it was basically impossible to progress past the first or second level otherwise.
Next, over here we said:
If people like it, perhaps it could get a full sequel with more weapons, more levels, and one of those demo modes that you'd see on arcade games that flash "INSERT COIN" and if you don't have any quarters you just sit there and pretend you're playing even though everyone knows you're not.
If you're familiar with our development, we also said we'd make Witchy Workshop if we received "millions of dollars". Neither wish came true, but we've added an "attract mode" with an oddly detailed cutscene that will answer all of your burning questions about why the rocks have started their assault on Earth. You can watch the AI play the game better than you can, after that's over.
Also new in this patch is full gamepad support. We've added checks for the tutorial to detect which input you're using and give you the right information, configured rumble, and generally tried to design the game around gamepad input as much as possible. I like playing much more on a gamepad, so I think we might have succeeded? You don't need to restart the game to play with a gamepad, just turn the controller on and it will automatically detect the new input.
Due to the fact you need to be able to reach three different buttons at once while scrolling, we couldn't use the shoulder triggers for firing and the right stick for scrolling. Instead, the shoulder triggers scroll up and down (holding Y will make them faster), the A button fires the middle weapon, and B/X (or the shoulder buttons) fire the side weapons.
Since sometimes people hate rumble, we've also added a settings menu where you can turn it off and change some other things.
There's also some "game over" functionality now, better-looking dialogue, better collisions, lots of visual bugs fixed, and so on. Here are the full patch notes.
Thanks for dutifully playing BOMBARDMENT:hd|FW: CEASELESS ASSAULT OF ROCKS! every single day since it was released. This patch adds some really big features for the best gaming experience.