Hi, I’m Adam “Gahlammon” Dachtera, team leader and main designer of the Bullet Waste project, here to tell you about latest patches of our demo and to tease what will come next.

About the changes

The patched version of our last demo was just released and I’d like to share with you a little bit about the things we’ve changed. The patches we included are mostly based on the issues that were problematic for the players and quick to fix for us. We didn’t want to rewrite any systems or greatly change the geometry of the level in this update, we just wanted to make the current game more accessible. Don’t worry, bigger changes will arrive in the next demo. But now, let take a closer look at the details.

The enemies should now feel better to fight against, with some bugs removed and some changes introduced. For example, it should be now more predictable when the skullpion will jump on you, as it will stop its previous action and jump on you instantly when you approach it. We’ve also noticed that it was hard for some of you to hit the skullpion after you have dived on it, so we significantly increased the size of the protagonist’s melee attack hitbox. To make fight on the biggest arenas easier, the enemies will be now visible on your radar from a greater distance (well, we’re still not sure if anyone is even looking at it, but it won’t hurt to change it, right?). We’ve also rewritten the tips about how to kill the skullpions (mostly the one about dive) and we hope it will be a little more precise than before.

The level also got some upgrades. Remember the moment when you’ve been wondering which way to exit the arena? Yeah, we’ve spotted some particular places where it occurred the most and changed the level geometry so now you won’t miss the exit. Also, after you beat the arena, the entrance through which you got there will remain closed, so you won’t be wondering any longer if you’re going in the right direction.

Patchnotes

Gameplay:

• Make the skullpions stop their previous action and jump instantly whenever the player enters their jump range
• Change the skullpion’s bullet hell graphical effect to better indicate that it’s killable in this state
• Increase the melee attack range from 1.9m to 3.25m
• Increase the minimap range from 80m to 125m

UI:

• Remove the need of pressing space in the main menu loading screen
• Increase the loading screen tip display time from 4s to 7.5s
• Move the buttons on death screen lower to avoid accidentally pressing “restart checkpoint” at the moment of death

Level:

• Add a shelf for final jump in the Jump Pad Tutorial
• Expand the shelf for the Dive Advanced Tutorial exit
• Make the chasm in the end of the Dash Tutorial longer for better visibility
• Fix colliders around the climbable walls in the last Parkour Section
• After finishing an arena, the entrance remains closed
• Adjust the jump pad force in the Laser Cylinder Arena so it throws you into the gap between the lasers
• Set size of the projectile kill zones in the Dash Tutorial and the Advanced Dash Tutorial to 90% of its previous size
• Move the ability tip to make it more readable
• Rewrite the tips about usage of the dive to be more clear

Bugs:

• Fix some skullpions not spawning ragdolls
• Fix the skullpions getting stuck after landing on the platform edge
• Fix the barrier material disappearing at certain angles and change their color to red
• Fix the jump pads eyelids not opening after being closed
• Fix the bug that blocked healing by discarding ability after you’ve stabbed with a skullpion on your head

So what’s next?

We are currently preparing to test some of the new features and gameplay changes based on your feedback, and after that we plan to assemble another demo.

We want to make arenas more vertical, with more interesting geometry and enemies on various heights. And with less holes in the floor. While checking telemetry we noticed that 70% of our players’ deaths were caused by falling into a chasm (and that’s pretty bad, not only for those poor players but for us as well). Also, we want to use some new assets we’ve been working on recently, so you can expect the next demo to be a little more… urban.

We’re also working on creating more types of enemies, alongside with changes that will make these enemies easier to understand. Also, we noticed that the skullpion is wayyyy too complex for a basic enemy. It will receive a major rework, to make it explainable in less than nine arenas (Yep, currently skullpion tutorial is that long). Talking about new enemies, here’s a concept art of one of our new creatures. It’s a static, plant-like enemy, hanging above the arena on its three strong stems and firing at player from its eye, located in the middle of the flower.

We’ll surely share with you some more details about upcoming changes soon. Stay tuned for our next posts!

Gahlammon