The end is never the end: 1.1 update is now out !

Hi everyone, it’s been a… while isn’t it ?

We’ve been working hard in the last few months to make The Arcade Tower better; and also to get our computer degree (which is now done 🥳). We developed a lot of new things to provide you a great experience in the game, including a completely new game mode called “Endless mode”: this mode is a procedurally generated world where you can relax and try to reach the best possible score. Your game ends when you die, but you can restart over and over again ! There’s also a new guy: The Merchant. Maybe you should talk to him, he might have some useful items for you… Also, there’s a new design for the main character, so that it integrates better with the rest of the game. Annnd bug fixes. A lot of bug fixes and performance improvements, according to your feedbacks ^^ You’ll find the full changelog at the end of this devlog 😉

Last but not least, thanks to all the people who have contributed to the game by providing feedback, bug report, or just by downloading and playing The Arcade Tower since the beginning, we’re really happy to have you here ! We’re now near the 10k views, and 3500 downloads, that’s really incredible ! And if you do not already follow us on our Twitter (that’s not good), check this link to have the latest news and announcements before having them here.

To finish, here’s the full changelog with everything included in this big update. Have fun with The Arcade Tower, and please give us any feedback or just tell us what you think, what you would like to have in the game, or just to say us hello !

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What’s new in 1.1 update ?

Endless mode

• New game mode: Endless mode
  • The goal in Endless mode is to make the best possible score in the given time
  • It is possible to earn extra time by collecting Timestones, Hourglasses or gaining experience
  • In this mode, view control (with default V) is disabled
  • The map is randomly and procedurally generated as the player progresses
  • Player movements (dash, move, cooldown) are faster in Endless mode
  • The experience points earned are not saved between each game but are multiplied by 1.5
  • Advancements are disabled in this mode
  • Some enemy statistics (attack times, life points, damage inflicted…) can change depending on the player’s score
  • This mode has no real ending, and has no impact on the main campaign
  • There may be some slowdowns on slower machines, we’re doing everything we can to improve this in future updates !
• New item: Timestone
  • Appears only in Endless mode
  • Slows down time for a set amount of time when used
  • Cannot be used multiple times
• New item: Hourglass
  • Appears only in Endless mode
  • Adds 15 seconds to the remaining time
• New character: The Merchant
  • Appears only in Endless mode
  • Allows the player to choose one item from three random items: once chosen, the other two items are destroyed. This guy is not that funny, he’s just a merchant, but he can be a good friend, who knows ?

Gameplay

• The design of the main character has been updated, and the animations have been reworked
• Bonuses involving stones are no longer applied to the player if they are already under the effect of a stone
• Following your feedback, we felt that being able to knock enemies caused too many problems: this gameplay element has been removed for all enemies on the ground
• Fixed an issue that caused the first floor to be too dark compared to the others
• Fixed an issue that could give extra life as a bonus when the player was already at max health
• Fixed a brightness issue on the Speedstone in dark areas
• Fixed an issue causing some particles on the Firestone to become invisible after being used

UI and Menus

• Added a shortcut to the first launch of the game to set up the controls quickly before the first game
• Added the ability to change the selection keys in the menus (for keyboard and gamepad). We didn’t know why it wasn’t there before, but now it is!
• Improved HUD animation when player takes a lot of damage
• Fixed an issue that could allow particles to continue playing after the player dies
• Fixed an issue preventing some sounds from being stopped after player death or after pausing the game

Feedback system

• We have changed the service used to provide our feedback, this new system is much faster, more efficient and optimized
• You can now include up to 3 screenshots and above all… draw on them! That way, you can explain your concerns more easily :)
• Of course, feedbacks are always anonymous, unless you give us a way to contact you back (email, twitter, …)
• You can now send feedback directly in game, from the pause menu (Pause > Feedback)
• It is now possible to send a means of contact (email address / Twitter account) in your feedback to be able to answer you more easily (and thank you to all those who send feedback, it makes us very happy to read your feedback and improve the game according to what you think)

AI and enemies

• Fixed an issue preventing the Gargoyle’s red missiles from dealing damage to the player in some cases
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the Lizard Man from moving in certain situations
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Trident Man to get stuck in walls after an attack
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the Slime from locating the player
• Fixed an issue preventing a Worm body part from moving in certain situations

Performance

• Engine update to Unity 2021.3
  • Performance has been greatly improved, and that’s priceless
  • Animations should be smoother than before
  • Improved compression of assets and music, loading times have been reduced
• Improved performance on the new game cutscene
• Improved particles’ performance: the game should no longer lag if a lot of particles are on the screen
• Improved loading times in the main campaign
• Fixed an issue that could cause input lag on some controllers
• And lots and lots of small bugfixes here and there

Enjoy the game !