Super (re)Sized!

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Happy Sunday!

This week sees quite a few fixes to issues plaguing the alpha demo! Let's talk about a couple of the biggest and most obnoxious ones:

Alt+Tabbing

This... this has been the bane of my existence for quite a while -- BUT, there's finally a fix for it!

Once upon a time, the game, when minimized, or not in focus, still accepted input. Gamepad buttons would still register, as well as keyboard key presses. So if, say, you were alt+tabbed out and Googling something, any keys that performed an action in the game would register.

I tried to fix this by locking out controls when the game registered an "OS pause event". The problem with this, was that locking out controls if you were in a menu screen, title screen, fade in/out -- ANYWHERE but the actual game-y bits, you could not regain control when maximizing your window or trying to get back into the game again.

Now, you can alt+tab like a monkey on too much caffeine and the game (maybe) won't break! YAY!

Display Size

Currently, the game only draws to an aspect ratio of 16:9, and this caused issues when in full screen on some displays.

Now, the game will respect the size of ANY crazy aspect ratio, while still maintaining it's visuals and aspect ratio.

I even got some use out of this older monitor for size testin!

Different aspect ratios will be supported down the road, but at least now you can play the demo without having vital information cropped from the screen (like the player character's life bar).

Anomalies and Weird Stuff

Here are some (hopefully) extreme edge case issues someone reported to me:

My first response to this would have been to take the cartridge out and blow into it.

Super weird (and very unsettling from a technical standpoint)! Though, I did get some silly enjoyment from seeing those screens. I have no idea what's going on here, but hopefully no one else is experiencing this madness. Let me know if you are!

Steam Keys

This week, I sent every backer a Steam key that gives you access to the current build uploaded through the Steam pipeline, regardless of the game's release state (i.e. it's not out yet, but you can play the in-development build RIGHT NOW).

Make sure to check your email associated with your Kickstarter profile -- if you DID NOT get your key, let me know and I will send it to you again via Kickstarter's messaging system!

It's worth noting, as well, that if you redeem your key and download the game, it will auto-update to whatever build is currently live, too! 

Once I get to a place with the live demo that I feel is all tidied up, I will cease updating the demo. The game on Steam, however, will get updated frequently and you can play all the latest builds if you want to see how things are going before launch.

If you redeem your key on Steam, feel free to post any issues you have with the game here:  http://steamcommunity.com/app/408060/discussions/1/

Latest Build and Fixes

The latest build for the alpha demo, if you don't get it through Steam, is here:

 http://gamejolt.com/games/savage-the-shard-of-gosen-alpha/16310

Patch notes for alpha 5.1.2:

  • Alt tabbing no longer causes certain screens to become unresponsive  
  • When application loses focus (alt+tabbing or clicking outside of game window), added click prompt to unfreeze game  
  • Fixed a bug that caused playtime to reset once you exit a procedural encounter on worldmap  
  • Fixed the game crashing if you navigate to the 'skills' or 'quest' menus  
  • Fixed mining prison elevator wait time  
  • Pickups are now drawn in front of everything to make them more visible
  • Improved game scaling based on display size  
  • Tidied up a couple door, tile, object and enemy placements in mining prison
  • Fixed save/load system and ironed out a ton of bugs (more probably remain)
  • Deleted save files will clear their display data when deleting a save slot from the load game menu  
  • Game would crash when backing out of Sound menu if a "yes/no" prompt was up Smith hammer drops off of a certain boss

It's a somewhat short list, but a big chunk of last week was spent making sure all of the Kickstarter backers Steam keys were sent out. Again - if you DID NOT get your key, make sure to check your email. If you didn't get an email, send me a message here and I will get you your key ASAP!

Thanks again everyone, and I hope you all had a great weekend!

-Matt