Oh, no. It just means that'll be the first free update out of several. What we're considering, starting in update 2, is having tiny 1 buck paid-DLC upgrades. They'd be minor for the most part and optional, just something that people could get to support us if they wanted. I'm pretty committed to having major things, like levels, be done via free updates. More information about our current plans for paid-DLC available on request. I'd like to get fan's reactions on it before really committing to the idea, anyway.
Respectfully, Kepa, it seems like the Crown is already out of reach for all but the luckiest of the most dedicated. I understand that you might desire to keep it for attaining top scores as a motivator (and might even forgo any discussion of changing it to keep from impacting that motivator), but I would appreciate it if you, for the final free update, switched the criteria for unlocking it to a percentage off of the average of the top ten global times. As a bonus, reaching the "crown score" in all levels could become fodder for a high-level Openfeint achievement for the game. Thank you. I'll also be interested to see the extent to which Gunny is/is not a palette swap of the now-default character. The Skull levels seem so narrowly targeted to the limits of the current character's capabilities, for example, that I cannot help but think that Gunny, if intended for use on those levels, will need to be an obvious *improvement* on the current character's capabilities by virtue of having more shotgun ammo. I realize that it's probably too late to take any advice on content into account (and it's my own fault for waiting so long to post), but I'd suggest taking one Rocket Shoes ammo away from her, and perhaps turning off or severely limiting the Loot Vacuum and Husk Mask. Give her separate leaderboards,and make attaining higher scores with her, especially on the more difficult levels, a more difficult prospect by virtue of being an exercise in greater precision.
I'd be more than happy to support you guys via something like that. I've already mentioned that I almost feel bad for getting this game for only $0.99. Especially if it's something absolutely superfluous . Could be a unique set of hats for those looking to set themselves apart on the leader boards , maybe even a set of Hook Champ playground levels or something. No start or finish, just a place to mess around. I don't even know. You could always do the good ol' 'pay for the update if you want, if not you can still get it for free' thing. I'd definitely like to hear what you guys were thinking of.
In anticipation of the update, I finally beat the Gold Skull level last night. Bloody hell is that level rough.
The OpenFeint leaderboards will be our new "all-time" scoreboards. We'll also have some fun combined leaderboards with OpenFeint, such as ones that combine the scores of an entire level set or every single level in the game. The current scoreboards will be changed to "This Week" scoreboards, which will give people a chance to get crowns. If we didn't do this, eventually our 20-scores-only scoreboards would just be full of people that almost had the same score, except for split second differences. Gunny is pretty similar to Jake, except she can get two additional shotgun shots. In most levels, this does pretty much make her a better choice than Jake for speed run purposes. However, in lava soaked levels, Jake does get the Hot Pants, which can essentially give him an extra rocketjump over Gunny. One of the new levels keeps this in mind. Plus, there's nothing stopping us from giving Jake another item later on; in fact, we plan to do this as Gunny technically has a one item advantage over Jake. Jake and Gunny are similar enough that I don't feel the need to put any sort of penalty on Gunny. Like I said above, if Jake lags too far behind Gunny in popularity, we'll just buff Jake. New characters after Gunny could have disadvantages to balance out their advantages, though.
Starting in update 2, we're going to try paid-DLC where you'd purchase a new character. For a dollar, you'd get a unique character and a bunch of hats for that character. If the idea seemed popular, we'd probably keep making characters like that for both this game and our next game. I don't like the idea of charging for levels. I hate it when PC games pull that kind of thing. Purchasable new characters seem like a fun idea to us, though. I'd like to have each purchased character offer some unique twist, but they'd by no means be necessary for playing the game or competing on the scoreboards. Jake and Gunny hats and new items will always be free. Now that I'm talking about update 2, I may as well start leaking info about it: In update 2, we're thinking of introducing multiple-costumes for Jake and Gunny. Not only would you be able to customize their hats, you'd be able to swap out their costumes. I'm thinking some sort of winter themed single alternate costume, for starters.
Wow, i would buy a new character. The shop keeping should be one. I love that. I always wanted more than hats. Are the new levels only rat levels and is it only Gunny able to do the rat levels.
Personally, I think it'd be a shame if the crown was handed out for the best score each week. It's more interesting to have one hat that is only attainable with the absolute best score globally, so what if it means not everyone gets to have it? Are you planning on having different scoreboards for Jake and Gunny? And will Gunny get to wear the same hats as Jake? The update looks great anyway, hopefully Apple won't mess around approving it. As far as DLC goes I wouldn't mind paying a dollar or so for an extra sparkly hat or a rainbow colored rope if my support means the game is regularly updated with new levels and characters. In fact, I'd pay $1 just to NOT have that awful female vampire added to the game.
There's 4 new levels, and they're all Rat levels. We might do another 4 new levels for update 2, but to be honest, most of our concentration is going to an entirely new sort of level type in update 3. Without giving too much away, we've been listening when people say they want a randomly-generated, infinite survival mode. The rat levels are balanced around Jake being able to do them. Gunny will have an easier time for most of them, due to the extra speed of the chaser. I consider Jake the better character in Gold Rat, though. About a future Jake upgrade: Originally, Jake was slated to get a pickaxe-item to help him with the breakable-walls. However, we messed with the physics of those for this update, and now they're generally harder to get hung up on. Right now, I'm wondering what sort of additional item Jake should get as a boost.
It's funny. You didn't give much away about update 1, but today you given out all update one, most of update 2, and abit of update 3. Update 3 looks awesome. I bet a survival leaderboard will be hard to get first on.
Crown's going to be handed out for the best score on the weekly scoreboard, due to popular demand. We plan to add even more exclusive hats in a future update, though. Think St. Edward's Crown, with sparkle effects, for the greatest global score only. We also plan to shift the real competition towards the one-on-one Challenge races in update 2 via a gambling system. Jake and Gunny share a scoreboard. They don't share hats, Gunny gets a bunch of her own. They'll both receive more hats every update. We haven't decided on the look of the first DLC character yet. I do know exactly what the abilities of the character are going to be. In short, it's going to be an exploration-friendly character.
We wanted to do exclusives for update 1, being our first update and all. That's probably all the info I'm going to give out for update 3, too, since it's such a big feature. Update 2 is going to be completely open, though. I'll probably even post the DLC character concepts for public approval. You know, we actually want to do this at some point. Not sure when.
Yes please. I think characters in keeping with the theme of the game would be best. With that said, I want to play as a headless skeleton character who has to enter the caves to retrieve his skull that Jake switched the idol with. Not sure what he'd replace his own skull with though. I think releasing the level editor would be great, then maybe have a contest and pick 5 levels out to become a new Idol? Rather than letting users upload them and having to wade through hundreds of crappy, penis shaped levels.
That's pretty much what's preventing us from releasing a level editor until later. Making a level editor in itself wouldn't be too hard at all, especially if we did it the Wolfenstein way and just had an external program make a .map file you had to upload yourself somewhere. When you add level editor related requests like an official distribution method for the user created maps, content filters (to prevent people from making maps that are simply 1x1 tile rooms that you have to quit out of), some sort of rating or feature system (to make not-crap maps rise to the top)... it gets really complicated.
Two things. First, I think I should get a special crown for my weeks of hard work and dedication, finally getting above 9800 on Silver Bull. A scepter would be a nice addition too. Secondly, how about a "retry level" button in the pause menu? When we're speedrunning, any mistake basically means "start the level over and try again", so it would be highly convenient. Thanks again for this amazing game.
"Retry level" button in the pause menu is already in the first update. There's also a zoom-in button now, for taking nice screenshots of all your hats. Pretty much no one asked for the second feature, but I thought it was necessary for maximum hatting.
I noticed it looked like Hook Champ was wearing a cheesehead in the latest video? Is that true, can that be true!
