Friday, October 16, 2015

WazHack 1.3 is here!

New items! New monsters! New beliefs in gods and the lack of evidence for gods!

Today the new big free update to the game went live to all players* - thanks to all the help from players of the beta!

This release adds some major new game mechanics to spice up your next playthrough.

First are Beliefs: each class has a belief in some inner or higher power which they can call upon for help. Whether your a wizard bursting a blood vessel or a follower of Odin, when the going gets tough, the tough can call on the the even tougher to keep going. You'll want to experiment with each class and alignment to see what works best for your play style. Some classes have the same belief but note the difference alignments can make.

The second more minor mechanic is Eggs. You'll need to work out for yourself what uses these have... beyond a tasty cooked breakfast.

This version also includes many small new features, including new items and monsters, and slight tweaks to some of the game imbalances reported over the last year. The underlying engine has also been updated, which re-enables the Cloth physics last seen in version 1.0. Enjoy the Valkyrie's new hairstyle!

This release also adds support for Android TV, so if you have a supported TV or settop box, give it a go there too!

Get it here for your favourite platforms:


On a personal note, as the only developer involved in this strange game, I've been extremely humbled by the very positive attitudes of players and the community at large. Without this support, the last year of development and testing would have been a chore instead of the pure pleasure it has been. Thanks!

--
Waz

* except iOS - sorry, it's not fair to hold up other platforms while that build goes through Apple's approval process; I had hoped to pre-approve and release the previous beta build, but a last-minute critical bug fix was needed. Not to worry though - it usually takes less than a week.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

WazHack 1.3 beta now on Android

The process is the same as last time, but for those new to the Android beta:

You need to join this Google+ group (using the same google account as on your Android device):

https://plus.google.com/communities/103537989330064611533

Then you need to opt-in to the beta:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.wazhack.WazHack

It may take a few hours from this message before you get the update. You'll know you have the new version by the new title screen!

Reporting bugs in-game is best as it provides the whole game savefile and logs for me to look at.

I'm running out of time before my trip into the Australian outback in June, so there may be a delay in responding to bugs and posting fixes, but rest assured, I'll be looking at all of them once I return to civilization. Unfortunately, it's looking like the iOS beta will not start until I get back.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

WazHack 1.3 Open Beta is here!

The wait is over - the WazHack 1.3 Open Beta is now available on Steam!
Follow the action on the WazHack Steam forum.

I won't spoil things here by going into detail of all the stuff that's new - I'll leave you to explore, as there are lots of new features, new details, and a couple of entirely new game mechanics!

On the purely technical side of things, this version is ported to an updated graphics engine version (Unity 5). The big benefit from that on PC is that Cloth physics, last seen in version 1.0, has finally been brought back - hair and cloth effects are now active (can be turned off in Options/Graphics/Softbodies if they cause any problems).

To access the beta, right click on "WazHack" in your Steam games list, choose "Properties", then go to the "BETAS" tab and choose "1.3beta1". The game will update and you'll have it!

The beta is a good time to report any minor inconsistencies you stumble across - when you do X because you thought Y, but nothing happened. Some of these can be done fairly easily, whereas after the beta I tend to just fix actual bugs. At least one of the game mechanics still definitely needs some balancing, but feel free to comment on anything - positively or negatively.

Please report bugs and other issues here and/or via the menu option. I will be posting frequent updates to the build as bugs are fixed. If I need to break savefile compatibility and you load a character, you'll get a notice to switch to the previous beta (same process). You cannot load savefiles from version 1.2 (you'll need to go back to the Default release to finish those).

Betas for the web demo and other platforms will commence later in the process.
I hope you enjoy the free update, and thanks for your support over the last year of the Steam release!



Tuesday, March 31, 2015

WazHack on Steam

WazHack has now been on Steam for just over a year - and it's been a very interesting and exciting year; so exciting that I forgot to even mention the release on this quiet little blog!

The Steam platform has allowed me to greatly improve the reliability of the Multiplayer networking, and Steam's built-in Friends system makes it much easier to play with your existing friends (and make new ones). Of course, Multiplayer is mostly just a novelty - the real game is in single-player, and for that it also allowed for a better Leaderboard system, though that seems to also have brought out the cheaters (I delete the junk, but I've left the very top "scorer" in the leaderboard as I think that's more of an embarrassment than an achievement).

The audience size of Steam is massive - over 8 million players active every day, and about 150 million subscribers in total. This has meant that even a quietly promoted game like WazHack gets enough sales to keep it afloat.


And that's why I've spent the last year working on version 1.3, which includes a load of new features, new game mechanics, and fixes for some of the hairier bugs that couldn't be fixed in a patch for 1.2.

Stay tuned for more on version 1.3!

--
Waz