Thursday, February 21, 2013

WazHack 1.1 is now in BETA!


WazHack 1.1 is now in BETA! Initially, only the Web version is available. You can play it at: http://beta.wazhack.com

This release adds a new dungeon branch, the Gnomish Mines. It's significantly larger and more complex than the Fort Ludios branch, and found at around 500 feet on the left side of the dungeon. I won't say more to spoil anything.

There are new dungeon features for you to discover - some people have said that the dungeon walls get a bit monotonous and while I completely agree, I didn't want to add purely decorative stuff to improve that. The new stuff is not purely decorative, so watch out!

There are quite a few more items, and a few new monsters, mainly specific to the new branch. Some monsters' strengths and weaknesses have been tweaked a little, but hopefully they will still be familiar for current players. Many items and spells have been tweaked too, so try new things (eg. apples now keep the doctor away).

There are a few more talents, but now each class has a specific subset of 8 available... no more Dweomery for Knights, sorry, have some Courage instead. This is partly to avoid feeling like you play every character the same way. There is also a pseudo-talent called "Nightmare Mode", in case you get bored.

People who would like to play "Big Picture" can enjoy the new controller support - you should be able to play the entire game pretty smoothly with an XBox360 controller or similar. This support will also be available on Android.

There are a lot of bug fixes too, and minor UI changes like faster healing (still uses as much food though, and now your stomach is smaller) and better keyboard navigation.

This version will also be officially supported on MacOSX, so feel free to send bug reports of problems with the Web version on that platform.

When the game is tested enough in the Web version, there will be a BETA period for the standalone Windows, MacOSX, and Android versions to iron out any platform- or device-specific issues. At release, there will also be an iOS version (this is only being tested privately, as public off-market testing is too hard on iOS).

The iOS port included a lot of optimization work behind the scenes. Part of this was developing a better delayed-loading and recycling system for assets, meaning I can add a lot more to the game later without blowing out memory usage on any platform.

This version is also the first to use the new Unity 4 engine, which will mean some pros and cons, but ultimately allow me to keep moving the game forward.

I'm only one person so, as always, there will be bugs. I'll try to fix them as fast as you can report them (that's the advantage of the web version - I can update in minutes instead of hours and days like the other publications). The best way to report bugs is via the in-game menu option (it sends a copy of your game for me to analyze). If the problem is more abstract or game-play related, by all means raise it for discussion here.

Thanks for helping, I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it!

http://beta.wazhack.com

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Waz