Early Access 3.0 - The Pre-release Update

With over 350 balls sold, we're entering the final phase for Early Access.

Thank you again to everyone who has participated. It's been a fun journey and I'm glad I was able to make a game and have been amazed by the interest some of you have taken in it.

Buster will officially break out on August 17th! Just in time for Steam's Pins and Pegs event, which will feature pinball games, Peggles, and Buster : )

Until next time.

• NoseCo

New Features

• Added three new upgrades:

  • Blizzard Ball

  • Spark Ball

  • Thunder Ball

• Added Wire Ball contraband

• Added new hazard: Eye Blocks

• Revamped three upgrades with a new Mark mechanic:

  • Angel Ball marks blocks that generate points over time.

  • Butcher Ball marks groups and strikes all marked blocks together.

  • Scribe Ball marks blocks on paddle hits and builds score multiplier from marked hits.

• Added security-based hazard tiers that scale hazard block counts, spotlights, bumpers, penalties, and boss debuffs.

• Added a new Modifiers panel in the pause menu, which allows players to adjust default ball speed, paddle width, and other gameplay settings for accessibility / extra challenge.

• Boss victories now award the base cash reward plus $1 for every remaining life.

Balance

• Buster’s Low Security ball speed: [c]1.00x -> 0.90x[/c].

• John McBall’s goal modifiers:

  • [c][0.20, 0.35, 0.50, 0.60, 0.80] -> [0.10, 0.25, 0.45, 0.55, 0.75][/c].

• John McBall’s Low Security speed: [c]1.15x -> 1.10x[/c].

• Combo Ball’s initial hit requirement: [c]5 -> 6[/c].

• Spit Ball’s firing interval: [c]1.3s -> 1.2s[/c].

• Star Ball:

  • Base firing interval: [c]1.0s -> 0.9s[/c].

  • Per-level interval reduction: [c]0.10s -> 0.08s[/c].

  • Now fires four bullets instead of two, alternating between orthogonal and diagonal patterns.

• Bouncy Ball’s level-two paddle-hit requirement: [c]15 -> 10[/c].

• Strike Ball now rearms after 9 wall hits.

• Speed Ball now stores increasingly larger wall-hit bonuses before paying them out on a block hit.

• Spice Ball now buffs the nearest eligible blocks instead of random blocks.

• Echo Ball now targets the mirrored board position instead of random blocks.

• Rarity changes:

  • Angel Ball: Uncommon → Common.

  • Spit Ball: Common → Uncommon.

  • Star Ball: Uncommon → Rare.

• Cinder Block now targets all hazard blocks.

• Bombs now destroy locked blocks.

• Loner Ball's score bonus base reduced: [c]4x -> 3x[/c].

• Increased the distance that the paddle can go into the side walls.

Gameplay

• Gravity Ball now charges separately for each ball and displays a persistent charged effect until consumed.

• Mason Ball and Snow Ball now use the ball’s incoming direction when transforming blocks.

• Firecrackers now choose bomb positions based on the highest available blocks.

• Boss death sequences now clear remaining boss blocks.

• Block-hit effects now consistently ignore blocks that should not trigger upgrade interactions.

• Seeded and resumed runs now preserve gameplay randomness more consistently.

UI/UX

• Added a new startup splash.

• Character difficulty descriptions updated to be more clear.

• Locked challenge tiles now hide descriptions and rules.

• Ballpedia cards now show when the ball was added.

• Added range indicators for Buster Ball and Nuclear Ball.

• The game-over screen now highlights the upgrade that contributed the most points.

• Expanded the game-over progress chart with:

  • Animated score bars.

  • Upgrade-purchase markers and tooltips.

• Added persistent per-ball progress displays for several charged and timed upgrades.

• Added reflective block visual effect.

• Updated Nuclear Ball, snow, Strike Ball, card, and CRT visual effects.

• Game now sets language automatically based on Steam settings.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed frozen block overlays and reflective materials displaying incorrectly.

• Fixed Monitors not processing reflections in some states.

• Fixed fire and frozen visuals failing to refresh after block transformations.

• Fixed spawned balls being added at unsafe points in scene processing.

• Fixed boss destruction sequences potentially waiting indefinitely for animations.

• Fixed black-hole effects persisting through game restarts.

• Fixed upgrades in unlocked slots not showing a tooltip when hovered while the shop is open.

• Fixed dumbbell not being usable when relaunching the ball.

• Fixed an issue where Steam services could cause the menu to hang when loading a game.

• Fixed Hive Ball spawning balls too quickly.

Hey you. Yeah, you. Want to get a preview of a sneakret game mode? Then type rkd in the main menu. But you didn't hear it from me.