Catacomb Kids (now at Early Access v0.1.4) $

[getter77]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/315840 $15.99 Win/Mac/Linux

Why Early Access?
“After being in development for a few years now, Catacomb Kids has now reached a point where the core of game is fun and playable. From here on out, I want to continue development in an open fashion that allows players to keep up with the game's progress in a way that lets them experience it firsthand.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“The game will be in Early Access until it's complete. Until that time comes, Early Access supporters will receive a regular, continuous stream of updates with a new build at least once every month or so. There will also be a website through which everyone can track the game's latest development, and I livestream development regularly at http://twitch.tv/fourbitfriday.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“The full version will have four primary environments, two major bosses, at least eight mini-bosses, dozens more skills and abilities, and a metric f-ton of secrets.
The finished game will also include various game modes including The Gauntlet, Co-op Mode, and Infinite Mode.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“Currently the game is fully playable, with much of the first environment completed and two mini-bosses implemented. Most of the game's systems are in place and functional with the remainder of the work largely consisting of fleshing out and expanding the world with new enemies, traps, environments, etc. Due to the procedural nature of levels, however, there is currently enough game present to keep players well occupied until the new areas become available.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“It will be the same price upon release.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“I host regular, weekly livestreams where players can watch as I work on the latest features and talk with me about the game. In addition, every build release will be followed by an 'open house' Google Hangout where players can come to talk to me directly about the latest build and the game in general. I'll be active on the forums and irc, where players can reach me easily.”

The Origin Of Dungeons
500 Years ago the demon sorceress Abys was sealed away beneath her fortress by 4 legendary heroes and a 5th forgotten one. Over time, no longer held stable by Abys' magic, the fortress sank into the earth, becoming a haven for foul creatures, dark magicks, and the refuse of the Over-World. The fortress, now deep beneath the earth, became known as The Catacombs, and kids from all over found themselves drawn into its shadows - seeking riches, power, knowledge, and escape. Now, coming-of-age ceremonies and criminal sentences alike all revolve around plumbing the depths of The Catacombs, and the legend of Abys has been all but forgotten. Some say she yet sleeps in the dark below, the seals that keep her contained growing ever-weaker.

What Lies Beneath
Catacomb Kids is a procedurally generated platformer, with an equal emphasis on quick reactions, tactical engagement, and strategic character growth. Wield swords, spears, axes, and daggers -- unleash powerful magicks to burn, freeze and poison foes with -- overcome traps and beasts both deadly and unrelenting.

The game is streamlined but not "simple", featuring a system where basic elements interact to create complex outcomes and stories. Lure monsters into combat with one another or take advantage of environmental hazards to trick your foes into their own bloody demise. The world is your crafting space, allowing you to create new items and tools from within the game-space itself, never needing to farm materials or navigate a menu to demonstrate your cleverness.

High expectations for this one going forward!   

[akeley]

“Want to make some stew? Find a pool of water, a way to boil it, and throw some ingredients in to cook. Need to repair your sword? Perhaps that lava over there would make a good forge, and the nearby crushing trap a good hammer. No grinding for resources to collect 10 more beetle snouts. Just be attentive and maybe a little crazy, and the possibilities will reveal themselves from within the game’s mechanics.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWDZd8OcblI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPeKSgt13ak#t=25

Not just empty words - this game has enormous potential. I was sold after playing it for just few minutes - it`s very seldom I join Kickstarters or Early Accesses, but this really is something special. Most exciting non-RL since Rimworld.
A must have for Spelunky fans - and those disappointed with ultimate emptiness of Terraria-likes.
 
Also available DRM Free from Humble as an alpha insta-download, link to buy on the game`s site - worth it because it`s fun even in this very early form.

http://www.ckgame.net/

[getter77]

v0.0.8

HEY.

So, I just put out the first full month update for CK! It’s a lotta bugs addressed, gasses re-gassed, trances trancified, and goo balls ga-boinked.

Also, the game’s now up over on itch.io!  http://fourbitfriday.itch.io/catacombkids

Itch.io, if ya don’t know, is a rad site for distributing games (or something else!) - very easy to use, don’t cost nothin’, and made+run by a cool dude who’s always adding new features. Getting the game via itch.io will also provide a Steam key.

If you don’t have the game on Steam, The Humble Widget / Kickstarter builds should be updated to 0.0.8 on Monday.

So, on to the build itself!

Hope you’re not too disappointed if you were lookin’ for a new class and daily run mode, cause they ain’t there. Between GDC, getting ready to move, and addressing bugs, I figured it’d be better to focus in this build on several less involved things so as to put out something substantial rather than half-assin’ two major features without first addressing the existing issues.

As I was working on those other tasks and thinking about classes, however, I hit upon a bit of a problem. My plan has always been to completely finish the Poet and Bully Before moving on to the next classes - so that they can serve as sort of a template and guideline for the others in terms of scope and ability. However, as I tried briefly to tackle finishing the Poet this past month I found the UI unable to accommodate the vision I have in mind for the class.

So now, fixing up the UI has become a much larger priority if I am to finish the Poet and move on to the other classes quickly as planned, so that’s going to be the first order of business going into April.

I had always planned on redoing the UI once co-op was implemented, and to change the game to a 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s just gonna happen now rather than later. This is also good news because the new UI will be made specifically with multiple players in mind, meaning I’ll be able to jump into work on Co-op much sooner than the ‘later’ I had planned.

So that’s what’s coming in the future, but let’s check out the now: You can find the full patch notes for alpha 0.0.8 below!

Fixes

Fixed some issues with level connectivity
Orb of leveling spawns in walls
Non-humanoid enemies try to drop weapons when parried with Disarm
Grumbuls will attack mushrooms even when they’re held by an invisible player
ACTUALLY fixed infinite byat flapping
…For real this time
Removed debug shortcut for activating ‘tome’ ability
Fixed crash when dying while talking to the ghost
Trampling enemies with Stampede now makes them target you
Raise Dead spirit followers now properly follow you through doors
Chain lightning cost unaffected by energy overcharge
Spells equipped to slot 3 offset text alinment for alt spell charge count
"Your lantern goes out" text stays for as long as you hold a spent lantern
Rats don’t bleed
Moving portals into boulders gets them stuck
Lifting boulders sometimes drops them on your head
Can’t walk backwards while charging hammer focus strike
Crush trap chain sound continues even after breaking
Spaz out when dragging boulders
Crash when throwing certain enemies with trajectory
Potions caught in explosions boil infinitely
Performance improvements (Ever-in-Progress)
Item bottles played no sound when broken
Whirlwind doesn’t cause items to hit enemies
Some Trances cast the Overload versions of spells
'Acrobatic' overrides taunt combo input
Ladders interfere with Sword Skill 1 and Axe Skill 3 (Downwards Thrust, Earth Splitter)
Reduced number draw calls for Temporal Step. Hopefully this fixes a crash?
”+” symbol offset when learning 1x1 spells
Balls of goo stay suspended in air if the wall they’re stuck to is removed
Rerolling transitional levels doesn’t bring you back to the same level type
Trances don’t follow from floor to floor
-of Escape doesn’t escape
Simple enemies die when they touch immobile boulders

New Stuff

More Spell Trances
Charge Stars
Overhauled Gasses

Changes

Globally reduced enemy damage on the first few floors
Enemy damage ramps up more gradually
Shadow Cloak wears off much faster
Statuses from armors “Of The Ghost” and “Of Power” wear off faster
Portal has fewer charges
Infernus has fewer charges
Balls of Goo have increased knockback
Balls of Goo bounce off of the environment and creatures
Being jumped on no longer immediately removes invisibility
Leveling up weapon skills no longer rounds them down
Being struck while speaking with the ghost will exit the menu
Fishahnas can no longer crit
Byats only crit on their charged attack
Moved “show info” to ‘F1’, instead of ‘1’
Looking around with lanterns shifts the view
Refueling lanterns gives a bit more fuel
Reduced size of camera influence area during reaper summon
Changes to lava and water appearance
Made spirit followers more accurate
Slime-blinded enemies are more blind
Mushrooms now only grow with each poison burst
Some level generator changes
Added option to control config menu to use class abilities
Changed collision shape of broken crush traps
Casting portal on top of a door breaks the door
Wet status shown in pause menu
Bottles and other items continue to make noise after first impact
Bottles of Lava
Potions slightly more fragile
Potions won’t identify if the target is immune to their effects
Swarm Form is now the Trance of plague, rather than its Overload
Things thrown with Trajectory can pass thru portals
Can’t go through level exits while attacking
Can’t go through level exits while looking around with lantern
Purple Slimes ignore wooden bridges
The Twins’ door locks behind you when the fight begins
The Grumbul Tank entrance door stays locked after the fight
Minor changes to Level Generation
Minor changes to enemy AI
The Cursor Keys, Enter, and Escape always work on the main menu
Press Delete to unassign individual keyboard controls and backspace to reset to default
Some Changes to Potions
New Potion “Colors”

Next Build TO-DO

Overhaul UI
Make game 16:9
Finish Poet?
Add Daily Run mode

[getter77]

v0.0.9

It’s that time again!

A not insignificant number of changes in this build, such as the game now being ~ w i d e s c r e e n ~, with an accompanying UI overhaul, and Wordsmiths not being entirely useless! Also, there’s a Daily Run mode! I’m still working out some kinks though, so everyone’s levels and kids might not be as-exactly-the-same as I’d like for them to be eventually – especially between different OSes. There’s also a lack of proper Leaderboards and such, which will also be coming in the future. But hey, the foundation is laid, just needs to be built upon, now!

For the next month I’ll be focusing on finishing up the Poet (finally), adding the long-awaited new class, and working a bit more on the Daily Runs – in addition to some Secret Things that I’ll not speak of here. I also anticipate touching up the level generator a bit, with new rooms and some funky new transitional stages, as well as more fundamental changes that’ll become necessary as I progress on to the Anticropolis.

Full changelog below:

Fixes
Crash when gorhound corpses are destroyed
Pressure plates aren’t properly held down by the player
Class abilities don’t appear when equipped to the third spell slot
Controllers rumble when not in use
Can’t walk on lava with boots of gossamer
Corrected text descriptions for certain Boons
“Stuck!” text and noise spamming when in contact with purple slime
Aiming boulders downward with Trajectory kills you
Grumbuls spaz out in water
Armless enemies still punch
Legless enemies are mad whack
Flame Wave direction doesn’t change through portals
Can take damage when going through the exit door
Can unstow and hold items without arms
Entering a level with one leg causes kids to fly upwards
The Reaper can strand player in the reaper room if distracted by another enemy
Black Chests can spawn Growth
Spells from the Black Chest twitch oddly
Spells from the Black Chest can be stown
Reaper’s diving spin attack is basically instant-kill (oops)
Some bugs with properly choosing keyboard and gamepad inputs
Twins exit door can spawn on top of entrance door
Reaper gets drawn behind the environment after doing its super
Skeletal Mages leave no corpses
Black Chest missing noise when opened
Boulders don’t release properly when grabbed for rolling
Crash when throwing a bottle of goo or slime through a torch
Flame Wave doesn’t change direction through portals properly
Dragon’s Breath doesn’t ignite explosive gas
Overloaded Frost Bolt (Glacial Grinder) doesn’t cost a charge star
Overloaded Slow (Pause) doesn’t cost a charge star
Crash when sprinting up walls with glacial footwear
Pouncing on frozen enemies is mad whack

New Stuff
UI overhaul
Daily Run Mode (WIP)
Wordsmith Charged Tome abilities

Changes
Duelist now slows all enemies on screen, not just the ones targeting you
Added targeting reticle to duelist
Overwhelming made more visually obvious
Max HP caps out at 25
Spellbooks are destroyed after one use
Crush/Spike traps no longer trigger at all with boots of gossamer
Spellbooks can only be used once
Tome abilities come out much faster
Failing to identify a potion now results in a message
Might is now called Might instead of Strength sometimes
Disarm and Extra Tough switched places in the boon order
Byat holes now spawn a maximum of 5 Byats
Fire and Ice Tome attack burns for a shorter duration
“Pickpocket” changed to “Pilfer”
“Pilfer” steals shoes, hats, and weapons from enemies if you are shoeless, hatless, or unarmed
Portal no longer illuminates the darkness
Can no longer move portal outside of the view when aiming it
Poisoned slime poisons enemies when used to blind them
Can now aim Tome spells
Headless skeletons are blind
Tier 3 taunt no longer grants might
Tier 2 taunt weakness wears off faster
Shopkeeper gets mad a little more easily
Spirit followers have slightly more hp
Spirit followers shoot faster
Spirit followers don’t return to you between shots
Ogo now ignore wooden platforms like oog do
Enemies become more aggressive when taunted
Alterations to Reaper
-of Stopping procs less frequently and for a shorter duration
Striking paused foes always unpauses them
Shadow Cloak lasts slightly longer
Tomes attacks cost the same amount, regardless of entities affected
Tomes start with more charges
Temporal Tricks’ Tome attack deals damage now
Enemies have a brief warning before casting spells or executing any nonstandard moves
Most trances last longer
Charge stars restore energy when used
Charge stars auto-collect (like coins) if any trances or overloads are empty [experimental]
Spellwright’s aimed spells are no longer offset in front of you
Tomes don’t consume book charges if they fail

Next Build TO-DO
Finish Poet (For Realsies)!
New Class (FOR REALSIES)!
Daily Run Leaderboard / General Stat-Tracking

[getter77]

v0.0.10   

SO.

It's been a minute, eh? A minute and a half, even. That's fine though, because I'm still alive, and this is still happening. That's right! As a beaten, bleeding, heart-still-beating Kid once said; "I'm not dead yet!"

So what have I been up to, you may be asking yourself. Maybe you aren't. How would I know? I'm not your brain. I'll tell you anyway though:

Wandering is what I've been up to -- as in, making the new Wanderer class. They're speedy and have senses sharp as knives, they do. I hope you enjoy them. As well I've laid the groundwork for unique weapons and added a few, and made some not insignificant changes to the level generator, not least of which are locked doors and new premade rooms. It may have taken a while but I can say at last that the generator is ready to be iced over and flipped upside down for the coming Anticropolis.

I've also added Alchemy and Dipper, the two second-tier INT boons, which marks at last the implementation of all the first two tiers of stat boons. Some of the other boons, spells and skills have also been updated and improved.

For the next update (IN A MONTH I SWEAR) I'll be working on finishing the things I didn't manage to for this update: Daily run leaderboards, more and better transitional stages, and certain talked-about changes to magic that those who watch the dev streams might be aware of.

Full changelog below:

Fixes
   Casting Flame Wave burns your own shield
   Several crashes
   Kept gaining overheal even after hitting max hp limit
   Max mp doesn't increase with the proper meal
   Poets' tome is unwielded after going through a level door
   Class Input method doesn't save for gamepads
   Class ability icons appear incorrectly in the spell slots
   Third spell slot miscolored when low on spell charges
   Issues with using tome as a 'Skill' class input
   Food queue doesn't show up in pause menus
   Eating twins results gives a grumbul food instead of undead
   Heavy Lifting doesn't properly override normal object pickups when grabbing enemies
   Certain spells show a charge star when they shouldn't
   Tome attacks hurt your own followers
   Footwear with stats don't apply their stats

New Stuff
   New Class! -- Wanderer
   New INT Stat Boons
      Dipper
      Alchemy
   Waterfalls
   Couple new weapons
   Locked doors and keys
   Wooden barricades
   Stairs
   Intra-floor doors
   New premade rooms
   Many changes to level gen

Changes
   Sticks burn
   Fire spreads more from enemies to you
      Being struck physically by burning enemies has a high chance to burn you
   Limited foes' ability to spam kick
   Infernus flames start blue, but turn orange quickly
   Infernus now burns the caster once orange
   Sword Skill 3 (Hack 'n' Slash) is easier to use:
      Strikes at least 3 times in succession upon hitting an enemy
      Additional enemies caught in the flurry add more strikes
      Stun upon missing or ending the flurry is longer
   Gorhounds have more hp, more DEF, and are more evasive
   Crush trap chains behave more predictably when struck
   "Poised" now reflects knockback from attacks back upon the enemy
   A few new things
   Changed the way levers spawn and are placed
   Changed the way ladders/elevators spawn and are placed
   Improved Air Dash
      Now chains from enemy to enemy
   Added trances to Blink and Frost Bolt
   Left joystick now triggers class abilities on gamepad
   Class ability trigger now defaults to "Button" rather than "Combo"
   Poet's Tome behaves differently
      Activating Tome uses the books' ability rather than wielding/unwielding
      [except on 'combo' input]
      Charged Tomes follow behind the player charged until used again
   Grumbuls will stow items that spawn near them
      Relatedly, added two new grumbul types (based on what they grab)
   Grumbuls no longer wield bardiches
   Normal Grumbuls sometimes occasionally wield hammers
   Grumbul assassins slightly more common
   Blue slime balls (now "mucus") have their own properties
   Reaper no longer immune to invisibility
   Grumbul Turrets can now spawn on main floors
   Shop doors lock behind you
   Stat loss from severed limbs is now repairable
   Stat loss from severed limbs doesn't stack through repeated dismemberments
   Regeneration only restores one limb at a time
   Losing an arm penalizes both STR and DEF
   Learning points now appear next to the orb of leveling icon in the hud
   Haste is slightly slower
   Haste grants the auto-dodge from Freerun
   Haste auto-dodges jump attacks
   Removed auto-dodge from Freerun
   Extra Tough protects from death as long as your hp is over 75%
   Regenerate heals more slowly
   Overload Break deals more damage to equipment
   Jumping will cancel trajectory throws
   Stampede no longer runs through cornered enemies
   Stampede tramples multiple enemies at once
   Poison Blob bounces off of walls
   Temporal Tricks tome time bubble bigger by bunches
   Increased range of Slow
   Lucky footwear is luckier
   Byats are more evasive

Next Build TO-DO

   Changes to Magic
   Daily Run Leaderboard / General Stat-Tracking (for realsies!)

[getter77]

v0.0.11 ARRP

So this past month I added a couple new transitional stages, made some changes to magic, improved certain boons, and implemented end-of-run Reputations. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get online leaderboards done, but I’m hoping the reputations will help tide folks over in the meantime.

Magic has changed in that all spells are now of a certain type, noted in the bottom-right corner of the spell learning screen (and to be made more clear in more places with further updates). Regaining spell charges (for the most part) is now limited to only recharging one type of spell at a time, though there are certainly exceptions to this.

Charge Stars, previously only used to replenish Trances and Overloads, have also become a much more interesting item. They’re not quite finished yet, but I’ve got some fun plans for them in the future.

And as always, there have been a number of bugfixes.

Next month I’ll be focusing on a long-coming AI update, as well as improving performance issues.

Here’s the full changelog!

Fixes
Pressing “O” gives all grumbuls berzerk
“Delete” crash when opening doors next to boulders
Ice from ice bolt/cold burst/glacial shoes sometimes drawn behind tiles
Game crashes if you pilfer a hated weapon
Heavy bat and Hunter’s Thrust don’t work with sprint bound to a button
Grumbul Tank pilot is immortal
Still can burn your own shield
Game sometimes freezes after level generation
Byats can die by touching still boulders
Hitting boulders on the back-swing will knock them into you

New Stuff
2 New Transitional stages!
End-of-Run Reputations (WIP)
Status effect icons

Changes
Improved Tier 3 Axe skill
Travels further, curves both up and down walls.
Improved Mighty Stomp
Range based on height of fall
Reduced time after stomp before you can attack again
Improved Tier 1 Sword skill
Reduced time after landing before you can attack again
Improved Disarm
Weapons are flung further away, damaging other foes along the way
Shield parrys disarm
Improved Plague
Infects corpses; infected corpses explode after time
Effect of explosion depends on the type of corpse
Hard Helms offer more protection
Stone footwear offers more protection
Haste increases attack speed
Updated some spell sprites
Fancier/improved event text
Reverted ‘Sprint button’ to previous functionality; release to stop sprinting
Can no longer roll with heavy lifted objects above your head
Environmental green slime bounces items
Changed Charge Stars (WIP)
Stars are hidden in walls and no longer drop from enemies
They begin as uncharged 'Hollow Stars’ and must be charged before use
Spikes can be broken
Rewrote food eating and meal code (behavior is mostly unchanged)
Byat meal doesn’t stack
Disease occasionally causes weakness
Crouch-attacking on top of a boulder will strike the boulder
Player no longer immune to [       ]’s destruction
Placeholder sfx for swinging blade traps (WIP)

Next Build TO-DO
Better AI!

[getter77]

v0.0.12

Build 0.0.12 time! Woo!

Golly this one took a while, and then a while again. In case you ever needed confirmation, implementing pathfinding for very mobile platformer characters through procedurally generated levels is tough. But I did it! Mostly! There are still some quirks and hiccups here and there, but I think this new AI, much like the level generation itself, will be the sort of thing that's constantly getting tweaked and improved as development continues.

However, this AI update now marks the last "Large Feature" I needed to get done before the Anticropolis + Co-op build. Does that mean the big chunky Anticroppy update is gonna be next? Well, unfortunately not. As I'm sure you've noticed this last one took way longer than I was anticipating and so I'm a fair bit behind schedule. As such, the next few updates will probably be -- if more timely -- a bit lighter on new features, as I'll be focusing almost entirely on Anticropolis and Co-op stuff. Stevie and I have also been making progress on the leaderboards, so expect those before long as well.

The 'smaller features' that I'll be working on in the meantime will be things like; more meals and food items, further additions and improvements to the new AI, more transitional stages, changes to the way traits are obtained and improved, and, as always, fixing crashes and improving performance.

Lastly, I'll be streaming some gameplay today on twitch.tv/fourbitfriday in about an hour (4pm PST), so if you wanna come by and talk about things feel free.

Without further ado, changelog below:

Fixes

   Can interrupt Execute with Kick

   Crash when bottling a charge star

   Crash when throwing pure cracked force star

   Can learn spells without the space for them

   Crash in VS mode upon round end if one player's stick has burned away

   Fishahna are unaffected by slow, pause, and haste

   Horizontally held enemies sometimes push the carrier backwards

   Byats grabbed with Heavy Lifting sometimes get stuck in walls

   Crash upon casting overloaded Wizard Throw

New Stuff

   New Humanoid AI

      Enemies will now pathfind to their goals

      [to the player, to allies, to water when on fire, etc]

      Other tweaks to minimize their dying in idiotic ways

      It's not perfect!

   New STR Boon -- Grapple

   Headgear now shows in character portraits!

Changes

   Floor spikes are more forgiving when landing at low speeds; can be safely stepped on from corpses

   Revised STR Boons:

      Removed Overwhelming and Duelist

      Pounce is a tier 1 STR boon rather than part of the default moveset

      Focus Strike is a tier 2 STR boon, and more attacks can be focused

   Can no longer shield-bash 0-hp enemies

   Fixes and modifications to Heavy Lifting

      Can climb while heavy lifting enemies

      Much more maneuverable when holding small enemies

      Descend while holding byats by holding down

   Creatures hastened by taunt no longer gain Haste's evasion bonus

   F1-F3 now toggle different information

      If weird non-crash stuff happens you can turn on these layers to provide more info to help me fix things!

      But don't be a cheater

   'Overcharge' renamed to 'Energized' to be more different from Overload

Next Build TO-DO

   More Traits and Meals

[getter77]

v0.0.14

Fellow humans,

Behold, 0.0.14! Numerous changes in this one. If you missed the status update and are wondering where 0.1.0 is with The Anticropolis and Co-op, please check out the post I made on that subject right here. Long story short; they’re a-comin’! Just need some more love and carressin’, ya know?

In the meantime, peep this healthy changelog!

Fixes

Regeneration doesn’t restore limbs if you have Overheal
Teleport always takes spell charges, even when Energized
Can’t back away from ledges while shielding
Can’t descend ledges while backing up with a shield
Slow fall while casting empty spell
Wrong coloration for some corpse’s heads
Twins flee fights (legit fixed this time)
Grumbul Orb-Bearers can flee the floor
Having Incantation and Overload causes Vampirism and Haste to rapidly cast multiple times
Frozen food doesn’t thaw over fire
Spiked equipment descriptions are wrong
Wanderers only hate hammers
Ghost spawns underwater
Bug drawing helms in ui when picking them up
Can’t break fallen ceiling blocks in collapsing tunnels with weapons
Gamepad stops working on main menu sometimes (fixed??)
Hidden spikes often appear under gas traps
Grumbul Tank sometimes gets stuck behind the intro wall
Enemies can escape through barred exits
New Stuff

New Trait: Hungry
New Trait: Unstable Caster
New Trap: ████████████
New shopkeeper menu
New ghost menu
New class select menu
Changes

Improved stats of Claymores
Heavy Bat input changed to sprint+attack (same as Dagger Storm)
Ghost dialog box redone
Shopkeeper dialog box redone
Spinning attacks deal less damage per hit
Numerous changes to Weapon Skills:
Backswipe is now Flourish – moved to tier 2 Axe Primary
Parry is a tier 4 weapon skill for Hammers and Swords; removed from Hack ‘n Slash
Spin Cleave removed from axes
Increased hitbox on Downward Thrust and The Drop
Numerous changes to Traits
Traits no longer occupy Skill Grid space
Positive and negative traits no longer paired
Loud is louder and increases the range of other noises
Hunger no longer universal: Moved to new trait
Hated weapons now behave like normal carried objects
Weapon hatred cannot be unlearned
Lucky Boots no longer a starting item
Significantly reduced range of Teleport
Leveling up INT increases efficacy of class abilities:
Bully gains more Power Orbs from taunt
Wanderer’s Vision ability reaches further
Poet Tomes have more charges
Teleporting into walls will now kill you
Collapsing tunnels will destroy fallen crush traps and boulders
-of Removal weapons blink enemies further away, respecting knockback direction
Using items interrupts blocking with shields
Dropping through platforms requires less horizontal pixel precision
Added telefragging
Began adding Unstable spell effects:
Heal, Raise Dead, Blink, Magic Blast, Teleport, Infernus, Chain Lightning
Boulders and Crush Traps break spikes
Potions of Extra Regeneration last longer
Frozen potion shards have grace period before becoming dangerous
Reduced potency of “–of Light"
Added descriptions for footwear
Can sell items to shopkeepers
Killing a shopkeeper will return spent money
Humanoid AI dodges slightly less aggressively
Decreased LUC requirement for spiked armor to appear, and increased its frequency in general
Break made slightly more effective
Wanderer’s "Vision” ability improved
Newest tracked object carries between levels
Can target items to be tracked
Pathfinder improved
Changes to Grumbul Tank
No longer jumps when player is in combat with summoned grumbuls (excepting the rider)
Tank Legs are no longer impervious to physical damage
Added more visual and audio cues for attacks
Removed time limit from chasing escaped enemies
Added indicator to exits when enemies escape

Fixes
Fullscreen is black
Crash when drinking soups
Byat meal bonus doesn’t always wear off
Spicy foods aren’t indicated as such in food queue
Twins can flee from the fight
Crashes with AI in reaper fight
Shopkeepers are listed as “Other Things” in the end-of-run kill list

Changes
Added indicator beneath hunger queue to indicate currently active meal effects
Spicy meals made more effective
Added new soup type
Improved mechanics of hot potatoes
Can use grapple on Reaper
Completing a meal shows its final components

Fixes
Humanoid enemies no longer use potions or eat potatoes
Crash upon throwing bottled charge stars
Crash upon throwing charge stars dropped by grumbul tank guards
Grumbul Tank guards causing repeated non-fatal crashes
Undead followers sometimes appear at the wrong position when going to the next floor
Loudness of byat wings unaffected by sound volume setting
Loudness of boulders rolling unaffected by sound volume setting
Bottled mushrooms still burn and give off gas
Several pathfinding-related crashes

New Stuff
Make Soup!
Spices! (WIP)
Two new status effects
New music in ceiling trap transitional stage

Changes
Made a couple reputations slightly easier to achieve
Byat meals wear off after 2 floors, rather than lasting forever
Food queue gradually empties after a period of not eating anything
Removed COMBO input mode for class abilities
Wizard throw better aligns enemies to the tiles when grabbed

[getter77]

v0.0.15

H'okay!

Unfortunately still no Anticropolis yet, but it’s getting close. Co-op is very nearly done, so regardless of whether or not The Anticropolis comes out with the next update, co-op will likely be in for sure.

In the meantime, this build introduces many balance changes, including some alterations to the damage calculation formula to make both enemies and players: less likely to deal 0s and less likely to wham for 8-10+ damage in a single hit. I’ve also consolidated the Heal and regenerate spells into a single, less healing-oriented (but hopefully more interesting to use) Cure spell, with Heal and Regenerate being made its Overload and Trance, respectively. Overall, the result should be that being struck is less of an immediate death sentence but bears more of a long-term cost, with damage numbers being more consistent and healing being rarer.

Additionally, where before your maximum spell charges would increase by simply leveling up MAG, they now only increase once at MAG level 3, and apply to all spells both known and yet-unknown. Some changes to the way charge stars work for Overload and Trance should hopefully make those abilities a bit more fun to use as well.

In any case, there’s a bunch of other changes, and some bug fixes that should make this build a bit less volatile. Guess you’ll just have to read the changelog or play to find them out!

Fixes
Changing window focus while looting doesn’t pause the game
Fixed(?) crash from humanoids attacking with missing weapons
Roll sound plays continuously when looking down with lanterns
Unarmed kick (dagger skill 1) doesn’t work properly
Soul- weapons’ dark bolt strikes miss frequently
First attack after Taunt doesn’t always activate the power strike
Salting food doesn’t actually do anything
Sticks continue to burn even in water
Fixed(?) Impossible trap rooms
Fixed several memory leaks
Some optimizations
Fixed wall-grumbuls
Bottles filled with water while held are drawn incorrectly
Voices of humanoid enemies wrongly positioned upon death

New Stuff
New Wizard Throw overload
Added unstable effects for:
Wizard Throw
Haste
Slow
Frost Bolt
Vampirism
Poison Blob
New Spell:
Cure
Removed Heal and Regenerate as individual spells

Changes
Changed how Charge Stars work for Overload and Trance
Stars are now shared among all overloads/trances, rather than being spent per-spell
Changed how damage and defense are calculated
Fewer 0s and fewer unexpectedly high hits
Changed ladder sprites
Added focus strike abilities to Pounce, Downward Thrust, and Rolling Blade
+1 MIN STR instead of +1 STR at level 3
Max spell charges are now gained only at MAG level 3
Max spell charge increase applies to all spells, known and unknown
Unstable teleport is more consistently unstable
Taunt and Focus strike attacks win weapon clashes
Added different effects when pouncing with different slime balls
Changed rules of Soul-weapons
Increased range of unstable shadow cloak
Made Health and Regeneration potions rarer
Enemies use potions sooner in fights
Boiling Potions can be carried for longer before boiling away
Critical strikes made visible with a green streak
Poison damage now stacks when applied multiple times
Changed the Grumbul meal effect
Changed input of Flourish to match Heavy Bat and Dagger Storm
Improved range, knockback, and stun of Heavy Bat
Changed input for tier 3 Axe / Hammer neutral air to double-tap attack
Increased knockback on focus strike uppersmash
Removed Flourish from spears
Made byat spawn holes more visible
Soups now heal for 1 by default
Added two more ways to cook food
Smoldering foods char much faster
Shopkeepers now have classes and are smarter about catching thieves
Reduced default charge amount for several spells
Increased delay on enemies using weapon skills
Pursuing foes lose you slightly more easily

[getter77]

v0.1.0 The Anticropolis   

I mean wow guys, for real.

Welcome to your new snowy wonderland: The Anticropolis. Once the underside of Abys' floating fortress before it fell to become The Catacombs, the Anticropolis is now locked in an everlasting, magical cold. Within, you will find undead that roam freely, and grumbul hunters whose excursions have brought them far from their comforts in the Upper Dungeon. Many fun new deaths await in the frigid depths, including but not limited to: being swallowed whole, crushed by giant icicles, spat upon by ghosts, and torn apart by winged beasts while caught in a bear trap and desperately fumbling for a potion. With it being so cold in the Anticropolis, you'll also have to keep an eye on your temperature to make sure you don't suffer from frostbite: Keep dry, dress warmly, and seek fire.

Wayward Kids

But it's not all bad in the snowy deep; with new enemies also come new allies in the form of other wayward Kids that you can find and form alliances with (after doing them a favor, of course). These Kids are a very early version of what they'll become, with the hope being that you'll eventually be able to to forge relationships with them over the course of a run and encounter individuals multiple times as you both descend and grow stronger. But that's something for later.

For now, they just want stuff (and are very formidable opponents, should you incur their wrath).

Bows and Arrows

You'll also find bows, a new type of weapon, and the first that exists apart from the five weapon archetypes. Bows are great ranged weapons that allow you to strike from afar, but their ammo is limited and precious, requiring you to retrieve your arrows after each fight. Once your arrows are exhausted, you may find yourself ill-equipped to handle the trials of more close-quarters combat.

Bows don’t have any weapon skills of their own like the other weapon types, but they do synergize with both the Focus Strike and Trajectory boons.

What's Next?
Now for a disclaimer: This might be obvious, but this release doesn't mean the Anticropolis is done. Far from it: this is the first version of the AC, with much, much more to come. With feedback from players, it will evolve into something even better. Notably missing in this build are transition stages unique to the Anticropolis. I've already started work on them but they were proving problematic and would delay this release even further had I pursued them to completion, so I've simply excluded them for now. There are also several more enemies and environmental features I have plans to implement, as well as a new boss creature (or two?). Anyway my point is: This is just the beginning.

I've learned a lot of things over the past several months of working on the Anticropolis -- things that I hope to employ going forward to help make the game progress faster, so that another months-long absence of updates doesn't happen again.

The first of these is: Hiring people helps LOADS. I have previously mentioned that I brought on one (1) John Sandoval to help lighten the animation workload on me, and subsequently he did most of the animation on many of the new enemies you'll be seeing in the Anticropolis. And gosh, as much as I love doing animation and pixel art that was a huge load off my shoulders. So this is the part where I implore you to spread the word about Catacomb Kids, since my hiring of people is still contingent upon paying them. I would love to bring on another coder and continue to employ the skills of John.

Another thing I've learned is: If I want to work on ~Secret Stuff~, I have to be economical about it. The Anticropolis' delays were ultimately caused by my failure to spread the work out evenly across prior updates, leaving an utterly massive amount of work to be done with little groundwork laid. When I look at how long it took to get the Upper Dungeon to where it is, and realize I expected to make another 60-70% of that amount of content again for the Anticropolis release, it's no wonder my projected timeline for the area was overly optimistic.

To help mitigate that from happening again, I'm going to be starting work on the Deep Dark immediately, even though I don't anticipate it to be released for at least as long as it took for the AC to come together (the better part of this past year). Even if the going on the Deep Dark is slow, the hope is that by the time I'm wrapping up the AC and ready to dive into the DD, work on the area will already be well underway.

For now though, while I continue work on The Anticropolis my next major goals will be implementing meta progression -- that is, the game progression outside of individual runs -- and the next class, which will be focused around Intelligence.

Thank you all for your immense patience, and I hope you stick around for even more fun in the future!

Fixes
Balls of Goo, Slime, and Mucus become charred instead of properly melting away or exploding
Undead Followers don't work properly in co-op when the screen splits
Spell loss/gain upon being resurrected in co-op
Daily Run menu marked as "Daily Failed" after backing out of the character select menu
Rare crash if the player dies with a whirlwind still active
Passageways on floors display the wrong graphic
Boiling pools of water never cool
Humanoid enemies with legs missing get stuck in a weird hovering state
Crash upon entering a level with previously escaped grumbuls
Escaped enemies in shops appear behind the locked door
Turrets immune to Glacial Grinder overload
Humanoid enemies freeze and spam "!" when attacking beneath them
Roll sound effect is spammed when pressing down+sideways while using a lantern
Potion identification is spammed in co-op if both players have the same potion
Regenerate (Trance Cure) uses two charges
Extra Regenerate (From Potions of Extra Regeneration or Trance Cure) doesn't actually restore hp
Certain overloads/trances caused spell charges to become negative ("X")
Ogo's weapons don't spin when they attack any more
Severed heads are not destroyed when intersecting with physics objects, causing lag
Overload Cold burst doesn't reduce "energized" charges
Environmental slime emits light
Sometimes 'Hates Weapon' is all jacked up (fixed?)
Messages sometimes overlap one another when they are more than a single line
Giant arrows and swinging blades can sever both of the player's arms
Shields differ in different instances of the same Daily Run
Peppered non-humanoid corpses behave as though they are both savory and peppered: savory does nothing to them
Entering the tutorial from the "Extras" menu messes up the music
Reflected dragon's breath is visually buggy

New Stuff
Bows and arrows!
Wayward wids!
The Anticropolis! (And all that it entails)
New Upper Dungeon trap!
Another, different new weapon!
The beginnings of an encyclopedia! (Extremely early version)

Changes
Changed the behaviour of barrels to make them less annoying/reduce instances of surprise damage
Humanoids can no longer stomp when tumbled or frozen
Chain Lightning no longer travels through every single tile of water
Boiling pools of water have their heat distributed through them
Larger pools will cool more quickly, and smaller ones will stay boiling for much longer
The position of the heatsource within the pool also matters
Homing bolts no longer target invisible creatures
Escaped enemies heal over time until you leave the level
Improved spellwright's spell aiming capabilities
Added minor squash/stretch upon hitting enemies
Can Pounce with weapons now
Arrows stick in non-humanoid enemies
Trance Cure grants a longer-lasting immunity
Overload Cure heals for more and grants overheal
Added unstable Undo effect
Overloads/Trances no longer require 2 charges to use
Changed color of overheal to match INT and added indication for maximum overheal
Flame Form lasts for longer, and becomes inactive when motionless
Messages in the alerts area are now outlined
Acid deals damage to all equipment, rather than just armor
Creatures slain by acid leave no corpses behind
New barrel sfx
New sfx for arrows hitting walls and creatures
Class select menu now remembers your previously-chosen class
Once more removed conflicting starting traits
Performing a basic 3-attack combo while unarmed will alternate attacking arms
Holding a severed limb while regenerating attaches the limb without ending regeneration
Unstable Caster made rarer for poets
Added a new limb that grumbuls sometimes spawn with
Added a new grumbul modifier
Limited shields' block strength
Spears and large weapons no longer considered 'heavy' for the purposes of carrying them with hate
Swinging blades now interact with physics objects
Reduced the effect of MAG on casting speed without Incantation
Increased durability of Soul- weapons
Can now focus strike flourish
Moved tutorial text to the top of the screen
Tutorial grumbul no longer runs away
Reduced distance between floors for item-drop pipes
Reduced the number of grumbuls spawned during the tank fight
Can now directly attack the Grumbul Tank's legs

Near Future TO-DO
Leaderboards (for serious this time)
Anticropolis Transition Stages
Flesh out Encyclopedia

[jim]

Fantastic! I thought this project was dead.

[getter77]

Nah, just one of those where The Road Is Long....But Then Also Longer Still~   

[getter77]

v0.1.1

Have an update!

I've temporarily removed the Wayward kids from normal level generation since they were causing a lot of crashing issues. I'm gonna put some more work into them and hopefully they'll be back next update ready to rock 'n roll!

In the meantime, I'll be doing my usual dev-stream later today over at twitch.tv/fourbitfriday so feel free to come say what's up and talk about kids in 'combs and ask me why this game is taking so long to finish like I do every night as I fall asleep choking back tears.

MAC USERS: Please let me know if this update fixes the gamepad issues! If it does then I'll know what the problem was. If it doesn't then I'll rule out a possibility and know what the problem isn't.

Fixes
       Pose doesn't change when climbing up onto ledges
   Fixed a bug with giant arrow damage calculation
   Arrows catch fire if stuck in someone who runs past a campfire
   Player 2 Overheal UI is jank
   Casting Raise Dead with overcharges costs no overcharge and ignores blocked energy
   Negative status effects on allies may spread to you via Reciprocity
   The number displayed for current energy when paused is incorrect when mp is blocked
   Flames from Fire and Ice can also burn allies
   Reaper room often reconstructs incorrectly after the battle
   Goo meal can overheal for greater than ones INT
   Teamed-up Wayward kids spawn as though fleeing when traveling to the next floor
   Fire and Ice gave only Hot charges when picked up with Innate Power
   Dark Arts gave the incorrect charge types
   Eeol Labeled Eel in kixll list
   Melting/dangerous slimeballs are not labeled as such
   Crash when boiling an orb of leveling in a bottle of water
   Can get pushed into walls by boulders and barrels
   Cannot teleport out of a wall after surviving a teleport into one
   Making soup from a frozen corpse makes potato and [thing] soup
   Some kids don't drown
   Melting and dangerous slimes are not properly labeled as such
   Air Dash can be buggy at times
   "Down" on keyboard still rolls/bashes even when roll/bash is bound to a different key
   Extra Tough doesn't affect Bear Traps
   Fixed some typos
   Dark Phase has no spell description
   Shops in the Anticropolis have no doors

New
   New Anticropolis Transition Stages!
   Amulets!
   Added a few more Encyclopedia entries!

Changes
       Increased arrow damage
       Increased arrow accuracy
       Reduced chance of enemies dodging arrows
   Halved the rate at which bows degrade from use
   Taunt now affects crabs and turrets
   Increased frequency/severity of unstable undo's side-effect
   Barrels are empty more frequently
   of Health now heals to a minimum of 3hp, regardless of hp max
   Spellbooks restore more charges and charge types when picked up with Innate Power
   Added Teleport Overload
   Added additional contextual button prompts
      (Sorry, no way to disable them yet! But there will be!)
   Temporarily removed Wayward Kids in order to address an abundance of crashes
   Changed Frolix AI
   Helms and Coifs now reduce stomp damage by 1
      Non-"Hard Helms" and Coifs take a ton of durability damage when stomped
   Removed STR requirement for pilfering enemies' weapons
   Reduced frequency of barrel assassins
   Improved warhammers' stats
   Added "Farsight" to Wanderer's Instinct class ability
   Spellbooks can be Tomed by using class ability while holding a book
   Transition stages don't count against meal effect floor count
   Added button prompts for actions
   Encyclopedia entry requirements can be met over multiple runs
   Animated title drop
   Fat humanoids landing don't knock other fat humanoids into the air
   Made fat grumbuls much less common
   Added sound effects to crabs and eels
   Added sound effects to laser traps
   Skeletal mages now spawn in the Anticropolis
   Made standing torches rarer in the Anticroplis

Near Future TO-DO
   New Class!
   Flesh out Encyclopedia

[getter77]

v0.1.3 Tinkerer 

The Tinkerer!
First things first, this update adds a new player class to the game; The Tinkerer. Tinkerers are crafty item-users, planners, and mechanics, and as such they are associated with Intelligence. Their class ability isn't really an ability so much as a companion: All tinkerers have a flying robot buddy that can carry items and fight alongside them.

The Tinker-Bot has four different modes that the player can switch between at will:
In Defensive mode, the tinker-bot will only attack enemies that you're already in combat with, but won't fly off and start fights on its own.
In Offensive mode, it'll attack any nearby creature regardless of whether they're aware of you or not.
In Manual mode, you control the robot directly, letting you move, attack, and pick up items with it, but you lose control of your Kid while doing so.
In Idle mode, the tinker-bot enters an inactive standby state: You can use this mode to tell the bot to wait somewhere out of the way while you go do something dangerous. You can also interact with the tinkerbot in this mode to manage its held item or modify its behaviour.

Of course, nothing lives forever, and the tinker-bot will be destroyed if it takes too much damage. When this happens it breaks into three pieces that are scattered around the level, and in order to restore it you'll need to reassemble the parts and then take a moment to power it up again. When you repair your bot this way, you'll become mentally exhausted for a couple floors, during which time if it breaks again, repairing it might result in some...lower quality results - or else come at a high cost.

In addition to their tinker-bot companions, Tinkerers also have a chance to start with items unique to their class, called "Contraptions." There are only two kinds of contraptions so far - Grenades and Wind-up Turtles - but more are planned for future updates.

Those are the essentials of the new Tinkerer class, but there's much more to them that you'll have to discover for yourself. I'm excited to finally have the fourth class implemented and I think they'll find their place alongside the bully, wanderer, and poet as a valued addition to the game.

Catacoins
The next major addition to this update is the introduction of Catacoins. These coins are a kind of currency that you gain over the course of multiple runs by getting far and gaining reputations. Different reputations are worth different amounts of Catacoins based on how difficult they are to get, but even if you don't get any reputations at all, you'll still slowly gain Catacoins over the course of your runs to spend.

As for what you do with these coins, there's only one thing to spend them on so far, but I think it's pretty neat: You can spend coins to customize the otherwise randomly-rolled Kids, tweaking certain starting traits and equipment to create a kid that suits the way you play, but keep in mind that the more specific you are, the pricier the kid becomes. I've also removed the ability to continually re-roll new random kids at no cost: backing out to the menu and going forward again a million times won't get you what you want!

You can choose to spend just a few coins for a simple quality of life improvement, or save them up to roll an expensive all-star suited to your tastes -- but play well, to make sure they survive and make the investment worthwhile.

Shops
I've also made some changes to shopkeepers: They're no longer generic sellers-of-all things, but are instead divided into four different shop types: blacksmiths, magic dealers, potion brewers, and clothiers. In addition to each shop type offering different kinds of items, shopkeepers themselves now offers a service unique to their profession.
Blacksmiths can improve your weapon's stats and repair damaged equipment.
Magic dealers will sell you a single spell that doesn't require learning points to acquire.
Potion brewers will identify any potion type, for a price.
Clothiers offer enchantments for your armor and shoes.

What's Next?
So, now that this new class is out and the groundwork has been laid for meta progression in the form of Catacoins, my next major goals are the implementation of the third environment, the Deep Dark and the addition of Tier 3 boons, and transitioning development to Game Maker Studio 2. But like, in the reverse order from what I just said. Of course this all will be aalongside the continued fleshing-out of existing systems - adding more meals and meal effects, more things to purchase with catacoins, more spell overloads and trances, etc.

I'm Still Not Dead
Lastly, as I've mentioned before but will continue to mention for as long as it remains true: If you ever think I'm dead or have dropped off the face of the earth (like I know sometimes happens) Check out my http://twitch.tv/fourbitfriday on Mondays or Fridays - unless I'm out of town I'll always be dev-streaming from 3-6PM PST. We've also got a relatively active discord channel[discord.gg] that y'all're all welcome to party in. But like, not a rowdy party. A really chill low-key one because honestly we're all tired but it's only Monday and we still have to be up tomorrow morning, and it's not even like we don't see each other often anyway, so there's no need to get all wound up when we all know we're just going to be back here again in a couple weeks.

So anyway, sorry this build took such a long time getting out - there were a lot of irritating and common bugs in the last version, and going so long without at least addressing them was pretty unacceptable of me. My bad. I'll try to do better forever. After all, what can we do but strive evermore for betterment - of ourselves, of the world around us - or else be crushed by the sameness and the worseness of all prior existence; softly smothered by the enticing and outstretched arms of the grand beast named Contentment with Mediocrity.

So you strive, stumbling at times, sure, but resisting that beastly embrace. And so shall I strive too - until I am Better. Until I am Best. And even further, until the infinite endeavors which lie beyond.


New
   New Class! The TINKERER!
      New Items - Grenades
      Robot Follower
   Catacoins!
   Custom Kids!
   Battle music!
   AC Forts!

Changes
   Oog now have energy for the void amulet to drain
   Changed some reputation requirements
   Large mushrooms are now heavier and bounce away creatures when not upright or when struck
   Mushrooms are know knocked away by attacks
   Improved Magic 101's charged tome attack
   Improved Magical Combat's charged tome attack
   As a Spellwright, projectiles from tome attacks will auto-aim
   Undo is now removed from your skill grid when its max charges reach 0
   Arrow types can be swapped by holding "Stow", even when having held/stown items
   Made Anticropolis background details better and more unique
   Added splash visual effect for entering water
   Added bubble effect to lava surface
   Changed explosion visual effect
   Changed flame wave visual effect
   Made icy slopes much more slippery
   Added a V-Sync option in Graphics options for Windows users
       Setting V-Sync to "ALT" should help WIN 10 users
       with their black fullscreen issue but may introduce other issues
       !!-This is only a temporary fix. A true solution is coming soon-!!
   Added option to disable contextual prompts in Graphics options
   Some changes to lighting in the Anticropolis
   Orb of Leveling light now cycles through colors
   Classing up as a wanderer more dramatically increases farsight distance
   Improved camera point of interest functionality
   Doubled charged duration of Soul weapons and added a damage penalty for losing charge
   Changed behavior of shadow strikers for Soul weapons
   Stronger enemies generate more shadow strikers when killed with soul weapons
   Changed the behavior of lanterns to make them more useful
   Lanterns now
   Wearing sandals, going barefoot, or being naked in the AC increase heat loss
   Sandals have less durability...
       Sandals/bare feet kick faster and increase freerun wall-run speed
   Boots have higher durability...
       Boots kick slower, and decrease freerun wall-run speed
   Heavy weapons and equipment increase freerun startup time
   Boots reduce damage from ground spikes 1 at the cost of durability
   Helms and Coifs reduce damage from ceiling spikes by 1 at the cost of durability
   Slightly reduced input window for heavy lifting creatures
   Added learned percentage of weapon skill to "Likes [Weapon]" description
   
   Shops now come in different types
   Shopkeepers offer different services based on their store type
   Added living space to shops
   Added background details to shops
   Merchants will buy your items for closer to their actual value with higher LUC
   Mixed potions now identify if their components are identified after being made
   Weapons clashing gains the attention of nearby creatures
   Disarming enemies while you have  now
   Using Grapple on enemies now  if you have
   Made gamepad input for mighty stomp harder to do accidentally
   Refined Air Dash behaviour
   Improved input responsiveness for quickly throwing things
       after taking Trajectory or Deft Throw
   Changed appearance of Trajectory throws
   Trajectory now briefly slows time when initiated
   Deft throw now has a slight auto-aim
   Weapons thrown with trajectory only bounce once
   Realized Amulet of  now only activates upon
   Reduced Amulet of the  range
   Increased INT requirement for enemy amulet use
   Can now ride boulders
   Can now initiate trajectory bow shots downward
   Crush trap chain reeling sound is now emitted from the crushing head
   Corpses are no longer valued by name length
   Humanoid corpses' worth now take into account their equipped items
   Added ruin structures to Anticropolis

Fixes
   Fixed pools of water spawning incorrectly
   Fixed amulets de-identifying when INT drops
   Energy with Void Amulet drains one from max
   Input icon for class ability doesn't display when using controller
   Arrows behave a bit better in tight corridors
   Crash when drinking Potion of Cleansing Flame
   Icicles are fine in lava
   Flame pipes add excessive "Charred"s to corpses
   Teleport traps can spawn on the ghost and other "up-to-interact" features
   Boulder traps don't trigger over too-short distances
   Flame Wave, Infernus, and burning enemies don't properly produce light
   Fixed a bug with disabling out-of-view instances
   Interactable object title text is drawn in the wrong color
   Burrah-boi meal doesn't work at all
   Strange transparency artifacts with alphas while in fullscreen
   Solidified Lava in reaper room is rendered incorrectly
   Still climb up and down ladders while tracking/aiming lantern
   Can heavy lift creatures while already holding an item
   Heavy lifted creatures can be picked up by humanoids
       other than the one who initiated the heavy lift
   Ghost sometimes provides too many, too few, or incorrect trait options
   All the music was in mono BECAUSE I'M AN IDIOT
   Crash when ogo slime on feet explodes in a gas trap
   Crash when losing one's weapon-arm mid-attack while using a bow
   Potions are overly resource-intensive
   Firing a bow homes in on switches even when they're behind you
   Missing particle effect upon level up
   Breathing Masks don't work
   NB becomes unresponsive after being blocked or shield parried
   Using raise dead on a player in co-op doesn't restore their charge stars
   Dead things gain value as they degrade

Near Future TO-DO
   The Deep Dark
   Tier 3 Boons
   More Minibosses

Changes
   Disarm now disarms upon critical hit
   
Fixes
   Some particles are drawing incorrectly
   Fixed 2-tile water flickering bug
   Tracking off-hand items as Wanderer doesn't properly show items equipped by enemies

New
   New Reaper Spell!
   New Amulet!

Changes
   Can now aim Chain Lightning's trance downward
   Reaper spells are now considered "Dark" for charge types
   Fully realized Amulets now have a (Realized) tag
   Push and Push trance now affect crush traps and falling icicles
   Amulet of [Void] no longer drains energy
   Absorbing magic with the Amulet of [Void] now restores energy to the bearer
   Amulet of [Void] no longer disables the Orb of Leveling
   Amulet of [Hunger] now has a fully realized version
   Enemy amulet abilities now tied to enemy INT
   Enemy amulet effects are now invisible unless you already know said amulet
   Can skip logo intro on main menu
   Blink trance now protects from projectiles and being crushed by the Grumbul Tank
   
Fixes
   Pouncing with Chain Lightning's trance expends all minibolts at once
   Crash when trying to display context button prompts for nonexistent objects
   Tomed spellbooks sometimes the visual of being used when using another object
   Spellwright shopkeepers crash when casting an aimable spell
   Looting menu shows stats for last selected item when selecting Amulets
   Sometimes the same amulet type will appear and identify as two separate ones
   Sometimes two different amulet types will have the same appearance
   Plague poisons allies
   Plagued flame bodies are excessively explosive
   INT requirement for identifying amulets was wrong
   Another crash related to Reaper arena blocks spawning in
   Get stuck in ceiling while standing on grumbul tank with extra tough while it jumps
   The bottom row of tiles in a level is often cut off or misgenerated
   Running Water Anticropolis transition freezes during generation
   Thermal indicator shows during level generation

[getter77]

v0.1.4

Yo! It's update time!

This one might not seem too big at first but there are quite a few changes of note beyond just bug fixes:

Firstly, I've finally moved development fully over to Game Maker Studio 2. This is a much more friendly development environment from my end, and in addition to a number of improvements to the IDE that will make the game much easier to work on it also addresses issues that were a result of using GMS1.4, such as the black fullscreen on windows 10.

Secondly, I've started implementing shaders! I'm still learning about them so don't expect anything too fancy just yet, but with the first couple effects implemented -- heatwaves over lava, distortion to things under water, and a much improved "loud noise" effect -- the way is being paved for implementing much cooler visuals and replacing old ones with more computationally economical effects, which should ultimately help with the game's performance.

However! I am! Aware! That this build does have a few visual oddities as a result of both of the above facts! For instance, the shaders will occasionally render on top of UI elements, and the scrolling text that shows up when you level up or learn a spell might come with some strange side effects. These are all things that I'll be working through in the coming builds, but they tend to be relatively minor (as far as I know!) and don't impact the game too much aside from very occasionally looking pretty silly.

And of course, if you don't like or have technical issues with the shaders, you can disable them in the Options menu to go back to the way it was before!

Lastly! After much ado we've finally got Windows and Mac versions building in the new dev environment, but unfortunately Linux users will have to wait a wee bit longer! We literally (literally literally, not figuratively literally) only just got the Mac build working late last night after hours of trying, and, fingers crossed, the linux version will be coming sometime later this week.

New
   Game is now being developed in Game Maker Studio 2!
   Added 3 new meals and meal effects
   Added new environmental hazard to upper dungeon
   Added shaders!

Changes
   Can now track entrance/exit doors, boulders, and teleport traps
   Tracked objects now have arrows pointing to off-screen instances of them
   Increased Catacoin value for depth
   Invisible byats' eyes are no longer visible unless they're attacking
   Removed hold-to-aim for spellwright to avoid conflict with trance and overload
   Can now see the exact health of undead followers
   Changed the behavior of teleport:
      It now can either warp immediately or leave a waypoint
      After leaving a waypoint, casting teleport again will bring you to it
   Can now cancel teleport aim by jumping or attacking
   Mushrooms now lose their poison regardless of how they're cooked
   Cooked mushrooms no longer poison water forever; only when they're first cooked
   Improved Anticropolis ruins

Fixes
   Black fullscreen in Windows 10
   Crash when tinker-bot picks up chests
   Unable to cast spells when stuck in a wall
   Teleporting into a wall with your last charge of teleport doesn't kill you
   Incorrect description text for clothiers enchanting headgear with +Light
   Fishanha meal does't work
   Tracking light-emitting objects as a pathfinder lights all such objects
   Owl-men corpse and zombie heads don't change color to match the rest of them
   Potions of might, regeneration, and haste last for 660 ticks with resourceful
   Tank door spawns on floor 10 in anticropolis
   Tank still spawns in place of the twins
   Amulets are equipped to missing arms when looted from corpses
   Looting corpses behaves strangely with hates/likes weapons
   Weapons near explosions and fire sometimes burn forever (behaving infernally)
   Weapons thrown with deft throw and trajectory don't deal any damage
   Shops sometimes don't upgrade your equipment (fixed?)
   Arrow ammo draws incorrectly in co-op
   Crash when attempting to loot the other player in VS mode
   Cold burst has no name when casting
   
Near Future TO-DO
   Leaderboards (for serious this time)
   Flesh out Encyclopedia