This update is pretty much the result of me trying to sit down for a good long gameplay session in Residual, and just writing down a long list of things that are just a bit “off” and need a tiny change, or need to be more user-friendly, give a better first-experience to players, etc.   Of course my whole idea in such a gameplay session is to just sit down and enjoy the game, try to figure out how long an average gameplay session takes, but I rarely make it into the game further than 20-30 minutes and my list of things that need fixing has grown.

Soooo, this weeks update comes with another long list of tweaks,changes and fixes that’s mostly focussed towards the player-experience. Dialogs that need to wait for other dialogs, or in some cases should replace older dialogs.. pop-up notifications that vanish too quickly, too much information coming at the player at once, trying to delay all that or have it wait for other things to complete their visibility cycle, but then it still needs to work in all cases and with all types of notifications.. it’s a lot of tweaking and trying!

I also got to mix all that stuff with implementing some new things, I’m also happy to announce that the Hyper Gates now have a purpose! And I got some new room-templates in there with interesting obstacles and little puzzle effects (one of them is up there in the GIF).

Really a very nice update this week! I think there is just one more bigger feature I need to implement, and then it’s really just a matter of wrapping up all the loose-ends (features that need a bit of tweaking and improving here and there) and adding some extra content in the shape of puzzles/obstacles

Speaking of extra content, this weeks video I show and talk about the first 10 tilesets that got submitted for the Residual tileset contest – some cool stuff here:

Full changes list:

• added: new game now prefers “unvisited” planets above other planets
• added: picking up broken-fidgets now add a sub-mission
• added: broken-cpu now added as sub-mission
• added: analyzing events are reset on new games for all objects+tools (not for food)
• added: deuterium-eaters now stop floating when deuterium is picked up
• added: activated Photomode (press F1)
• added: temperature min/max for the Proxima galaxy
• added: freeplay mode (need to be unlocked per planet)
• added: Make portal-fixable, and then unlock freeplay mode on that planet
• added: Echonium-transmitters (used for clearing and keeping an area free of ooze)
• added: new character-select background (makes more sense to start in the Meganoid docking bay)
• added: Cold-planet music
• changed: dialogs won’t vanish faster because player is moving (was bad design)
• changed: improved elevator/switch mechanics and elevator/push-stone interactions
• changed: improved swinging from vine to vine
• changed: creature-modifiers for tails and temperatures
• fixed: datacard-text, when closed, shows PDB repeating the text
• fixed: first-boot/install will check for best resolution setting (fixes issue on resolutions smaller than 1920×1080)
• fixed: new mission triggers not always showing up when needed – improve user-friendlyness
• fixed: climate description for creatures
• fixed: double “analyze X” mission would trigger a complete of that sub-mission
• fixed: switch with broken fidget doesn’t give analyze
• fixed: fire-pillars still don’t spawn analyze
• fixed: dpad-down button shows as #12 in on-screen instructions
• fixed: techdrones don’t init the “look at us” trigger
• fixed: datacube doesn’t show “hey lets go to the printer”
• fixed: double-spawning of treasure and datacube devices
• fixed: crash caused by Arachnid placement during world-generator
• fixed: character select arrow rendered on top of spaceship
• fixed: can’t place burning torch on the floor
• fixed: various issues with galaxy-render interface
• fixed: Echonium-transmitter now placeable on the floor
• fixed: picking up a forcefield-generator gave wrong item
• fixed: picking up echonium-transmitter gave wrong item
• fixed: tweaked planet temperatures
• fixed: limited spit-plants to only spawn in “warmer” areas
• fixed: remove ooze from doors opening up
• fixed: removed creature spawners on door-location during world-generator cleanup pass
• fixed: aggressiveness of creatures – now also follow and “bite” player
• fixed: eating mushrooms now close inventory to show you the effect
• fixed: eating mushrooms will give extra PDB dialog explaining side-effects only last short time; and cooking them is better