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[saimo]

Enemies start talking! Some growl when they sense you're close, some continuously utter ominous noises, some do even worse... and more is to come
Also, the first proper HUD makes its debut (although it is going to change)!





CHANGELOG
* Extended sound system.
* Started adding enemies sounds.
* Centered entrance area.
* Added HUD.
* Touched up / adapted tiles graphics.
* Added some information to the manual.
* Made many internal improvements/additions/bugfixes.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

Blastaway is stylistically a 16 bit game, so the temporary graphics have finally been replaced to give the appropriate 90s vibes!





CHANGELOG
* Reworked interface graphics (logo, fonts, background).
* Added transitions between screens.
* Made HUD digits slightly more regular.
* Improved logic of enemies noises.
* Made a few internal changes.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

Second update today! Lots of tweaks here and there that make the game more and more polished.


(click to zoom)

CHANGELOG
* Added bonus-specific sound effects.
* Implemented caching of stage data.
* Tweaked static screens, transitions, and some graphics.
* Updated icon.
* Made various other improvements/bugfixes.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

Let the music play!
Work on the musical side of Blastaway has started. Given the Amiga-inspired style of the game, music just had to be composed as 4 channel tracker modules! For the moment being, all the tunes feature just drums and bass, but they'll grow richer over time





CHANGELOG
* Added tunes.
* Made interface background scroll continuously.
* Made various other changes/improvements.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

This update brings lots of little things that make the game more polished... and way cooler!





CHANGELOG
* Added bouncing arrow that indicates the active soldier in the entrance area.
* Made "I'm ready" walkie-talkie-style speech sample play when a new soldier becomes active.
* Added soldier death effect (when a soldier is killed, it will remain lying dead on the ground, and his soul will fly to Heaven).
* Reworked Exxwor enemy sound samples.
* Added wide arch tile.
* Touched up arenas.
* Made other internal improvements/bugfixes.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

Beam me up! New gameplay feature: teleporters! Wizard of Wor had two connected gates at the sides of the screen that allowed the player to go from one to another, from the left side of the screen to the right one, and vice versa. Blastaway takes that concept one step further.
On top of that, this new version brings a number of other changes that make the game more enjoyable than ever.





CHANGELOG
* Added teleporters.
* Unified tiles and non-enemy sprites palettes.
* Touched up tiles graphics.
* Added alternative walls tiles for more graphical variety (more to come).
* Added soldier death sound.
* Replaced "I'm ready" sound with one without noise effect.
* Changed "I'm ready" sound policy: now it will play almost immediately at the very beginning of an arena, and, when a new soldier activates, after half a second; in both cases, provided that the player has not started moving him already.
* Increased minimum number of enemies from 5 to 8.
* Renamed "enemies" as "wors" (one more tribute to Wizard of Wor).
* Improved/extended manual.
* Made various internal improvements/bugfixes.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

Enter Baqwor! Blastaway, like Wizard of Wor, features 5 different types of enemies (called "wors"). And, again like Wizard of Wor, it assigns them some weird names: Arkwor, Baqwor, Czywor, Dmewor, Exxwor (from the least to the most dangerous). However, until now, they were all represented by the same set of sprites (just with different colors): those belonging to Arkwors. Finally, a new set of sprites has been added, and Baqwors have their own face!
Moreover, all the wors, except Dmewors, have been given appropriate "voices", which distinguish them even more.
Finally, this new build brings a few other nice touches





CHANGELOG
* Added laser beams "wall hit" effect.
* Remapped palette of wors sprites to the global one.
* Added graphics and voice of Baqwor.
* Improved logic of Akrwor voice (now it roars only when it has the soldier in sight).
* Swapped voices of Arkwor and Czywor.
* Increased channels for sound effects to 10.
* Changed pause handling (auto-pausing has been removed and only [PAUSE] is used for both pausing and unpausing - this avoids clashes with system shortcuts like [ALT]+[TAB]).
* Made various other internal changes/improvements.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[QOG]

Looks like a fun game, I'm enjoying the art style and pacing.

[saimo]

Thanks!
To be fair, the pace doesn't really show in these videos as it grows more and more as the player progresses through the arenas, and there are going to be 50 of them. The various parameters are set with that in mind, and are subject to change anyway

[saimo]

Let them spit fire! Enemies aren't that dangerous if they can't shoot, are they? Well, now Akrwor, Baqwor, and Czywor will happily shoot at the soldier - they do it in different ways, but the result is the same: deadly.





CHANGELOG
* Given Akrwor, Baqwor, and Czywor the capability of shooting.
* Touched up graphics of laser beams and explosions.
* Increased a bit pitch of Baqwor's roar.
* Replaced [PAUSE] with [F12] to pause/unpause (as they [PAUSE] key of one of my keybords does not send a release signal).
* Reworked video options: now the zoom factor is always set automatically (it gives a bit less freedom to the user, but at the same time it makes things easy for everybody).
* Updated manual.
* Made various internal improvements/bugfixes.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

Keys and doors! From now on, wandering around the Blastaway arenas requires the player to collect keys and open doors with them - a little puzzle element that spices up the gameplay further





CHANGELOG
* Added keys and doors.
* Touched up / adapted HUD graphics.
* Touched up tiles graphics.
* Added several arenas.
* Removed transparent walls.
* Updated/extended/improved manual.
* Made various internal improvements/bugfixes.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

Maintenance release - nothing spectacular, but this contains an important bugfix.



CHANGELOG
* Restored old input assignments for pause ([ESC] = pause/abort; any key/button = unpause).
* Touched up some graphics a little bit.
* Fixed a deadly bug (in some rare circumstances, when a soldier died, the soldier that was subsequently activated got killed immediately, too).

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

Czywor has an identity now! Finally, also that wor has its own voice and sprites.
(Dmewor and Exxwor are still waiting to undergo the same treatment, but it's likely that Baqwor will be completely redesigned, first.)





CHANGELOG
* Extended/modified palette.
* Touched up graphics.
* Added Czywor own sprite graphics.
* Given Czywor a new (and appropriate) voice.
* Fixed muting of wors voices at the very beginning of a game.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

Dmewor is done. If you hear a menaceful buzz, it's deadly close.





CHANGELOG
* Given Dmewor its own sprites and sound.
* Added an arena.
* Added a note to the manual.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

Enemies 99% done! Now also Exxwor (the equivalent of the Wizard in Wizard of Wor) has a face... oh, well, the appropriate black space inside the hood
(For the record, enemies will be 100% done when Baqwor is redesigned.)





CHANGELOG
* Added Exxwor sprites.
* Touched up / fixed Akrwor sprites.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[saimo]

Treats for eyes and ears!
One of Blastaway's key features is that sprites can be partially hidden behind walls and doors, so the player has to be careful when moving around. At times, though, now he can find help in the brand-new X-ray vision bonus! When he picks it up, in fact, walls and doors become partially transparent, revealing all that hides behind.
Moreover, music has been finished! (Future stages might have different in-game tunes, but that's little work.)





CHANGELOG
* Added X-ray vision bonus.
* Added indication of score to recap screens.
* Finished tunes.
* Added handling of [ALT]+[F4].
* Made various internal changes/fixes.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[Renold25]

Cool, But I am wondering if it will add any performance impact after recnet Windows update in July 2019.
They have added many Win32 changes for applications. Many apps are suffering to run smoothly.

Source: (removed link)

But the next patch should make it work again. Anybody tried this HUD mode on Windows 10 July update?

[saimo]

I have an updated Windows 10 (build 1903) system here, and I can't notice any slowdown or any change in smoothness. But I have to add that I disable/remove all the bloatware (apps, services, etc.), so I can't say whether it is the same on a standard system.

[saimo]

Blastaway lands on AmigaOS 4! This minor maintenance release comes with a big news item: Blastaway has been ported to AmigaOS 4!

CHANGELOG
* Improved "game completed" music.
* Assigned all the joypad buttons the "select" function.
* Changed screenshots path to %tmp%.
* Updated/fixed manual.
* Ported to AmigaOS 4.
* Made various internal improvements.

Latest build download: https://www.retream.com/Blastaway

[Schrompf]

Amiga? Nice. Now that you say it, I remember someone is still out there trying to port Splatter to Amiga OS4. Last thing I know is that the GPU drivers are still in a sad state.