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[jpnk]

i ran into this glitch a couple of times when i was checking out 0.07. i wanted to give the game a few more runs to figure out exactly how to reproduce it but since i don't have much time to play games these days i'll just put it here as is:
when you move the crosshair across a closed doorlock then normally it will beep every time you cross the screen and the screen will flash. a couple of times it worked just once and then the lock stopped reacting to my input and i could only open it with a shot. iirc i was moving the crosshair across the lower part of the lock. i'm guessing this one might be very hard to reproduce.

btw are you gonna implement something like bullet time? i'd really like to be able to pull some leeroy jenkins shit like running into a room full of enemies and killing them all before they have a chance to move. or getting my ass kicked because i ran out of time and some of them are still alive.

[terri]

thanks, I did some tests and turns out if you press E while hovering over the switch but release it while the crosshair is over something else, the door won't open and it will shut off. will fix
edit: bug also happens if you click and hold

bullet time should be focus, which needs some tweaking at the moment

[terri]

Development is back at full speed, doing tons of tweaks and bug fixes, but also new content.
Starting with a new enemy:

[benexclaimed]

Ah, looks great. Glad to hear this is still in development.

[jpnk]

that's really nice to know. my two cents on the overall goal of the game: you know how in Delver you first go to the bottom level to steal the orb and then fight you way back. so maybe in HB after the boss is killed it drops a golden key which gives access to the next room where a golden bullet is stored. and then you fight you way back. this bullet is an item that turns all your existing bullets into golden ones which have some special ability. e.g. in Madness interactive golden bullets would set enemies on fire.

btw does unity support something other than shadowmapping as a fallback option? i don't really care about shadows being dynamic since currently i don't see them at all:)

[terri]

I have an idea on how it could end but still haven't decided.

Hey do you mind sharing your specs? I've tested the game with shadows in a pretty shitty laptop and it ran fine, but I don't really have much of a reference.

[ｍａｓｏｎ]

I'm liking the progress so far. I still love the environments too. it's kind of hard to describe but they have an interesting feel to them from the colors, lighting, and proportions of them.

also probably a pretty broad question but I'm curious: what do you think of Unity? do you like its workflow? do you have annoying issues with it? I personally have a lot of issues with it (collision detection, code design, general workflow stuff) despite it having a lot of useful/nice features, but I feel like a minority, probably because I usually write my own engines.

[terri]

I'm into Unity, but I don't have much experience with other engines. Before using it I was failing at making games in flash and construct so I can't complain too much, as I don't think I'd be making this without it.

I do wish it had stuff like nested prefabs, I've had some problems with collisions and some weird bugs but I'm not sure how much of it is actually my fault.

[Jubjub]

I'm happy to hear that you're working on the game again, I played this game a lot when I first found it.

The new enemies look interesting, I'll be waiting for the next release!

[Juan Raigada]

I personally have a lot of issues with it (collision detection, code design, general workflow stuff) despite it having a lot of useful/nice features, but I feel like a minority, probably because I usually write my own engines.

I can see the workflow/code design complaints (unity does sort of force you down it's own path). But collision detection? If set-up properly I have found it to be rock solid (specially since when the continuos collision detection setting came to be). The documentation is not the clearest, but it's very reliable.

[hogge]

From a visual standpoint, this slightly reminds me of Killer 7.
Quite cool

[jpnk]

just to make it clear shadowmapping per se does work on my laptop. resulting shadows are very low quality but they still work. not in this game though. maybe it's a common feature of all unity-based 3d games, i don't know. i mostly play 2d games actually. and maybe that settings dialog that isn't displayed on linux has some options that i can tweak. anyway here are my specs:

CPU: Genuine Intel® CPU T1600 @ 1.66GHz × 2
RAM: 2Gb
graphics: Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset
os: Ubuntu 13.10 64-bit

glxinfo outputs this (among some other stuff):

OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 9.2.1
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20

[terri]

@jpnk

ohhh, yeah its the lack of startup dialog on linux, for sure. Its probably defaulting to the lowest quality settings which has no shadows. I'll have to implement a way to change that during runtime. I'm also doing keybindings

@Juan Raigada

I have some problems with shots from the turrets clipping through walls, but I can't say that its not fixable if I knew how to. I think its a problem of a collider going through another between frames. I did figure out how to make it not damage the player though, so at least it shouldn't be as frustrating

@hogge, @jubjub

thanks, yeah I kind of hit a wall at one point and almost abandoned it, but now things are rolling again!

[terri]

Hey everyone, V0.08 is up. It has numerous tweaks and changes, but its still the same 4 levels with a Boss at the end. Please let me know if you find any bugs, and how you feel about the changes.

jpnk, now you can change the quality in game, try it out!

As for the future, this could be the last alpha version. If there's another one it will probably be to fix any major bugs that come up.
Soon I will move on to Beta, and might be selling it for $5, or $10, not sure yet (let me know what you think). Beta should have 8 levels, new enemies, and a final boss.
Then, by my plans, I will tweak and balance it until I feel confident the game is done.

[jpnk]

- i need to play with it some more but i think i haven't noticed any change between the low and high quality modes.
- i quite like the fog - it makes it harder to see distant enemies.
- i liked it more when bombbugs were faster. killing one was like 'suck on that, game!' (i'm assuming they are not affected by the repellent, right?)
- the slowing turret is a nice addition. the boss dropping a bunch of coins also feels more natural.
- you should either do universal builds or publish 32- and 64-bit versions separately. prior to ubuntu 13.10 there was one package that installed a bunch of 32-bit libraries so you could run most 32-bit apps with no problems after installing it. starting with 13.10 you need to install the required libraries manually which can be a showstopper for newbies. i'm looking forward to unity, gamemaker and such generating actual .deb packages instead of plain zips. (just so we are on the same page - the game executable is a 32-bit one and i'm on a 64-bit system).
- i'm no expert in picking a price for a game like this but i think $10+ is for games like braid or teslagrad. so maybe something between $5 and $10.
- and yes, i'm DRM-phobic:) so if you put it on steam exclusively i won't be able to buy it although otherwise i would.

[terri]

oh. so still no shadows when you switch quality? hm... dammit

both bombbugs and snakes are affected by the repellent. they might take another second to come after you

Oh yeah, I forgot about the slow turret, I guess there is a new enemy in there after all. he'll become a regular in later levels. I predict a slow turret + bombug combo will be the cause of many deaths

I didn't even think about this but you're right, Unity lets me make universal builds. I updated all the files, if you want you can download it again and try it. I need to set up Linux myself so I can test this stuff, but thanks for helping out so much

on price, I am leaning towards $5, I agree that there are tons of $10 games out there with way more content. I am not really expecting to support myself with the game, but I'd like it to support itself, so if I can get back what I've spent on software, and maybe even get enough to get Unity Pro for future games that'd be great.
I'm not even sure it will make it to Steam at all, but I can promise it won't be the on it exclusively, don't worry! I'll probably get it up on IndieGameStand

[jpnk]

this is just so i don't forget: the screenshot on the homepage should have 'img' instead of 'IMG' in its url.

[Araneidae]

I've registered just to comment.  Have played the previous version, and though it might be worth reporting a number of bugs that I'm finding.  My system is Xubuntu 13.10 (64-bit).  I guess all the problems I'm seeing are to do with Unity.

1. The two executables (HEAVYBULLETS_008.x86 and .x86_64) don't have their executable bits set when the game is unzipped.  Maybe that's something to do with .zip files?  Anyhow, that's easy for me to fix.

2. If I move the mouse while starting a new game the screen freezes.  If I don't move the mouse then it works fine.  Previous versions of the game have this problem.

3. The mouse cursor is still visible in game.  This bug is new to version 008.

4. There is no sound after starting a game (guess playing is going to be a little tricky...)  This bug is also new to 008.  I have sound in the initial menu screen, but as soon as I start a game there is no sound, even in the Esc configuration menu.  Sound comes back when I quit the game to the initial menu screen.  Both 32 and 64 bit versions have this problem.

Whoops, think this might be completely my mistake.  I don't have any running or menu noises in game, but reloading and shooting bullets make sounds, so maybe I need to play a bit first!

I like the game, hope these bugs are fixable!

[terri]

Thanks Araneidae! Linux has been tricky, since I'm not a user myself. I need to take some time and set it up so I can see how everything works first hand. I am glad for having a Linux build though, you guys have been some of the best supporters of the game. I can't say I will be able to fix all these bugs but I sure hope so, and will do my best.

Unity generates the executable and then a folder with all the assets, which I then zip and distribute. I'm not sure if thats whats causing problems but if you guys have any idea of a better way to go about it, let me know.

And if you want to go back to the previous version you can use the link http://www.heavybullets.com/V007/HEAVYBULLETS_007_LNX.zip

Actually, you can download any of the precious versions by changing those 2 numbers on the URL.

[Jubjub]

Finally got around to trying it, I had forgotten how scary those exploding bastards were!

Love the new ambient sounds and vending machines.