Beta 1.6 is here and it’s a big one.
You can download the build here and read the changelog here.
As we’ve discussed several times in the past, we’re planning Beta 1.6 to be the final demo build of Gerty before release. If we come across a game breaking bug, we’ll obviously have to release some sort of fix, but content wise, this is it.
STORY TIME
Gerty now has an intro cinematic. It’s simple, short and to-the-point. “There be aliens, go kick some ass” sorta thing.
Would you believe a minute long video could take roughly a month to make? Because that’s pretty much what happened with the intro. We had quite specific goals and hitting all of them took more work than we expected. The intro had to be short (minute to minute-and-a-half), it had to provide clear context for the gameplay, the dialogue had to flow and not feel like just an exposition dump and lastly, the visuals had to complement the script. If that all sounds easy, I can guarantee you it wasn’t. In total we spent several weeks working and reworking just the script, not to speak of finalizing all the effects and timings in the editing phase.
There will most likely be some minor improvements for the final release (like getting an actual voice actor to read the lines), but what you see in the build should practically be the finished product. Thankfully our plans for the ending are a lot less demanding, so that should be a lot faster to complete.
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
Beta 1.6 features some pretty massive, interconnected changes that affect the core experience of Gerty significantly. The game now has two worlds instead of four and to keep the game from being too short, we’ve doubled both world’s stage count to 8. To keep things from getting too monotonous, we’ve taken several steps to prevent it:
1. New enemies. Though you sadly won’t see too many of them in the build, we’ve got plenty already in working order. There were originally supposed to more of them in this build, but unfortunately our graphics pipeline got kicked in the head (again) and we didn’t want to use multiple, recolored versions of the same monster. We actually had to resort to using some older, unused graphics we had laying around. It’s starting to look like doing the monster graphics might fall on Risto and I in the end.
2. Randomized enemies in stages. Having to face the same enemies in the same stages on every playthrough is not necessarily a bad thing, but we decided that having some variance would help keep the stage-to-stage gameplay more engaging. Different enemy combinations will result in different scenarios.
3. New objectives. We figured not having to “Find the Teleporter” 16 times per playthrough would be a nice change. We’ve of course had Generators for some time now, but they haven’t really been considered a separate “objective”. Now they are and they’re joined by two others: Disruptors & Survival. Disruptors are pretty similar to the Generator. Find them, destroy them, find the Teleporter and move on. Survival on the other hand are quite different. You start next to the Teleporter, but you can’t use it before a set time. While you wait, you must fight waves of enemies.
4. Expanded stage generation. Instead of having the same basic stage to play in all the time, we’ve juiced up stage generation. Instead of having just larger and larger stages, we now have three basic layouts: horizontal/wide (how it’s always been), vertical/long (new & exciting) and a survival specific square-ish layout. To spice things up even more, you can now encounter pits & “indestructible” obsidian blocks, both of which will affect how you to navigate stages.
GRONGO NO MORE
As a part of all these changes, you can no longer fight Grongo in the demo. Grongo being the boss of World 1, you will face him after stage 8 and you can only play the first 4 stages in the demo. To make up for this tragic loss, we’ve introduced mini-bosses into the game. In this build you will only face the Mega Bomber (whose graphics are very much not final), but there will be more in the final release. Get ready to be blown up.
NEW REWARDS
Chests are back! With the massive reworking of our item system, they had to go away for a while, but now they’ve got a new lease on life. With Forges & Orbs already helping you to build your character, Chests have been designated into a purely supportive role. You can find some extra Juice, health and other goodies inside them, but you can safely ignore them if you so desire. On that note, Rune Chests rewards have also been toned down somewhat.
SUMMARY
There’s quite a bit of other smaller stuff in the build too (as always), but that’ll be it from me this time. We have a literal tons of work ahead of us and not a whole lot of time to do it all. In all honesty, if we can’t get a skilled 3D artist to help us out, we will seriously have to re-evaluate our release schedule. For the past year or so, we’ve been lagging way behind on character graphics and as talented as Sampo is, he just doesn’t have the time to time to animate a ton of characters in 2D with all the other work he has. Here’s to hoping for a miracle.
Till next time, folks!
