The Planetologists Game Development #09

The Planetologist - Update 0.2.0

Hello everyone!

First of all, we’d like to thank you all for all the support and feedback we got so far. Thanks a lot!! :D

We're excited to announce the release of the second update for the free demo of The Planetologist, now available on Newgrounds (web) and itch.io (web & Windows).

For this release we aimed to improve the current features of the game rather than adding new stuff (there is some though!). There are many bug fixes and quality-of-life additions, along with a fair bit of rebalancing to make it both less harsh for newbies and more interesting in the long run for seasoned planetologists. Your feedback was very useful, so you might find your suggestions realized in the changelog below ;)

Gameplay by Bassoid

TL;DR:

• Reworked enemy spawn phases.
• Added a weapon selection wheel (only when the player has 3 or more weapons).

• Added a roll cooldown indicator.

• New pickup: “XP puller”. Pulls all XP on the map towards the player.

• The chainsaw is now bigger.

• New “quick reload” mini-game. Press the reload key in the middle of reloading to reload faster.

• Now the player spawns next to a couple “bonus” hives which are guaranteed to drop ball tanks and/or mechas.
• Rebalanced skill bonuses per level.
• Rebalanced weapon stats.
• New enemy: Summoner.

• Default controls changed (reload with space and change weapons with shift). If you ran the game before, you’ll still have the old default controls or whatever you set up. Use the reset button in the control options to get the new default settings.
• Fixed issues with control settings in both web and Windows versions.

Detailed Changelog:

• Gameplay:
  • Reworked enemy spawn phases.
  • Changed default controls (reload with space and change weapon with shift).
  • Updated controls reference screen with new default controls and quick reload hint.
  • New “XP puller” pickup that pulls all XP on the map towards the player.
  • New - and bigger - chainsaw sprite.
  • New roll cooldown indicator.
  • New “quick reload” mini-game (press the reload button timely to reload faster).
  • Added selection wheel for weapons.
  • Added a couple “bonus” hives at the start of the level with a 100% chance of dropping a companion (Ball Tank or Mecha).
  • New enemy: Summoner.
• Weapons: Rebalanced all weapons.
• Skill bonus per level changes:
  • Damage: 7.5% -> 7%
  • Attack Speed: 3.5% -> 5%
  • Bullet Size: 7.5% -> 10%
  • Bullet Speed: 7.5% -> 10%
  • Move Speed: 7.5% -> 10%
  • HP: 12.5% -> 10%
  • Regeneration: 7.5% -> 10%
  • Load Capacity: 20% -> 10%
  • Reload Time: 3.5% -> 5%
  • Dodge: 50% -> 10%
  • Critical: 10% -> 5%
  • Luck: 20% -> 10%
  • Pull Range: 30% -> 15%
  • Difficulty: 10% -> 5%
  • XP Multiplier: 10% -> 5%
  • Greed: 10% -> 5%
• Sprites and UI:
  • Added new idle sprites for characters Trisaber, Shadow Storm, and Blaster (this characters are not released yet!).
  • New reload indicator with quick reload hint.
  • Implemented death animation for Mechas.
  • Added Ball Tank and Mecha 16-pixel portraits.
  • Capped health bars for a cleaner interface.
  • Menu fade-in/out transitions are now faster.
  • The pause screen can now be accessed using the "P" key.
  • Dialog unresponsiveness lowered from 1 second to 300 milliseconds.
• Miscellaneous:
  • Updated perk descriptions.
  • Perk descriptions are now visible during perk selection.
• Fixes:
  • Fixed crash when reaching 30 minutes of gameplay.
  • Perk and companion pickups are no longer scaled down to 0.5 but use a properly sized sprite instead.
  • Fixed a bug that could affect duration for some animations.
  • Reload progress is now properly paused when the game is paused.
  • Fixed weapon attack animation speeds.
  • Mechas now follow the player instead of standing there ground indefinitely.
  • Fixed bug in which Mechas would disappear from the HUD.
  • Fixed 16x16 Mecha portrait frame.
  • Fixed control settings not picking up keys correctly in the web version.
  • Fixed control settings not being saved after using the reset button.
  • Fixed issue in which only mouse buttons could be used for some actions and only keyboard keys could be used for others.
  • Fixed margins in some dialogs.
  • Fixed hive spawn animation.
  • Fixed many many bugs around the reload indicator.

We’d love to hear your feedback, so feel free to share your thoughts! And as always, thanks for your continued support.

Links:

• Play on Newgrounds
• Play on itch.io
• Patreon
• Discord