Dudelings: 2nd Base is now live!

Dudelings: Arcade Sportsball just received its first major update, codenamed "2nd Base," featuring a massive collection of features, fixes, and improvements to help you get your sport on! So what's new?

Where do we even start?

Presentation

The first thing you might've noticed is the brand new CRT filter! When designing the art for the game, we had always imagined it as a Super Nintendo title. This filter lends a bit more authenticity to the design (in that kind of simulacra way). But if a CRT Filter isn't your style, you can turn it off in Settings → CRT Filter.

Then, we've added a whole bunch of new jerseys designs to the game. Jerseys have always been purely cosmetic (meaning they have no impact on the gameplay), so we decided to move them to the Settings menu. Your jersey selection will persist across game sessions and you can even change them mid-match!

Announcers

2nd Base features the voice talent of some familiar voices. YouTube sensations "FanTheDeck" and "NerdNest" have stepped up to fill the Announcer role! Select either announcer pack in Settings → Announcer Voice and enjoy the dulcet narration of some of your favorite YouTubers.

Thanks again to FanTheDeck and NerdNest for joining the Dudelings cast!

New Game Mode

2nd Base introduces a new (and exceptionally fun) game mode that we're calling "Pins." The play field is littered with a symmetrical series of pins: six for each team. Hit the ball into your opponent's pins to knock 'em down. Once all six of their pins are down, you earn a point and their pins are reset. But watch out, because yours won't reset until they score a point on you!

New Rules

Dudelings has always had the option to customize your match rules. But 2nd Base introduces a brand new and exciting victory condition: Timed Matches. Don't worry, the traditional way to play Dudelings—with a fixed Match Point—is still available. However, Timed Matches bring a whole new frenzy to the game.

And if there's a tie when the time's up, the game will head into Overtime where the rules change to SUDDEN DEATH! The next player to score wins!

Now, Match Points haven't gone anywhere. In fact, they're still the default rule for most game types. However, an interesting change we've made is to how rules are applied.

With this update, each Game Mode (Classic, Hoop, etc.) has its own default ruleset! For example, Pin games default to 5 match points, rather than the default 10. Volley now defaults to a 3 minute Timed Match. And Hoop now uses the Bowling Ball by default!

Of course, you can change any of these yourself. Meaning Volley can be a Match Point game, Classic can be a Timed Match, etc. And you can tweak the other rules (like which pickups are allowed to spawn) just as before.

Speaking of which...

New Pickups

There are two new Pickups that come with 2nd Base. The first is Switchup. When your ball touches a Switchup coin, it will flip to the other team's possession!

Then, there's the Black Hole which works just like a portal to another dimension! When a ball touches this pickup, it will disappear for a moment before being teleported to a random position on the map! And stay frosty as the ball will maintain its momentum as it exits the Black Hole!

Steam Integration

For our Steam players, we've added new Steam integrations into this update! 2nd Base now supports Steam Rich Presence. There's also a button prompt to start an Online match using Remote Play Together. And we've even added Steam Achievements!

In order to add Steam Achievements, though, we also needed a way to track your stats. And that's why 2nd Base now incorporates a Stats panel on the Main Menu. (Note that this is available to all players, not just our Steam customers!)

This is all stored local to your device for maximum privacy. However, we have enabled Steam Cloud Saves which will back up your settings and your stats across devices!

Balancing & More

We've also taken the opportunity to balance the game, refine the controls, update the physics of the balls, and improve the player experience. (We've fixed a longstanding bug with popover menus closing their parent modal window.) And whole lot more!

You can check out the absolutely MASSIVE changelog for the game here. And make sure you subscribe to our email newsletter where we do giveaways, show off behind the scenes stuff, and drop previews of our in-development work!

If you already own the game on Steam, you can just start playing. If you have the game on Itch you'll need to download the latest update. And if don't own the game yet, get it here on Steam!

VERSION 1.2.0 CHANGELOG

Gameplay Features

• Added new game mode: Pins

  • Use the ball to knock down your opponent's pins. Once all their pins are knocked down, you earn a point and their pins reset!

• Added a new arena: Destination

  • Includes new stage music

• Added new match option: Victory Condition

  • Match Point: The first player to reach the "match point" wins

  • Timed Match: The player with the highest score at the end of the time limit wins

  • Overtime: if, at the end of the time limit, the teams are tied, the next player to score wins!

• Added two new pickups:

  • Switch Posession - when the ball touches this pickup, it will change to the opposing team's possession

  • Black Hole - when the ball touches this pickup, it will warp across the map!

• Added a "What's New" system

  • Added a "What's New" sub menu that displays all the new, cool stuff in Dudelings

  • Added a "seen_whats_new_version_x_x_x" setting

  • Added a button to the "Main Menu" that players can use to see the new stuff

• Added a full screen "CRT Filter" effect that's on by default. Use the Settings menu to disable the effect.

Steam Integration

• Added button prompt ("E" for keyboard, "Select" for gamepad) during team selection to start an online game through Remote Play Together

• Added player statistics for Steam Achievements (only the first human player has their stats counted)

  • Added the "Stats" menu

  • Player stats were not collected previous to version 1.1 so all stats start at 0

• Added Steam Achievements

• Added Steam "Rich Presence"

Balance

• Reduced chance the HARD and IMPOSSIBLE AIs will skip taking an action per AI think tick

• Reduced bowling ball's weight

• Refactored balloon's stats

  • Lowered the balloon's weight

  • Increased friction

• Reduced all ball's mass scale when in the LARGE state

Presentation

• Added Announcer Packs:

  • Bill from NerdNest

  • Rich from FanTheDeck & NerdNest

• Added new jerseys:

  • Rugby

  • Water Polo

  • Tennis

  • Hockey

  • Bowling

• Made jerseys a persistent "Display" option rather than a gameplay option

  • These can even be changed while in game from the Settings menu!

• Added a bird

• Made the mini dudelings on Stadium and Infield feel more organic in their reactions

• Reorganized the settings menu, added category headers

• Improved the match rules menu

• Enhanced sprite rendering and full screen support

• New since beta 1.1.2-gds

  • Updated pin goal sound effect to play chromatic scale

  • Added Emily's missing 'two min warning,' 'thirty second warning,' and 'overtime' announcer messages

  • Updated the game ball to add pitch shifting for collision sound playback

Improvements & Fixes

• Updated controller detection

• Moved Steam Notifications to the top right corner

• Added HTTP notifications to Dudelings to facilitate easier communication with our customers

• Made the ball in Hop mode explode when player scores

• Improved the music playback in game

• Improved match setup workflow

  • First, choose your team

  • Select the game type

  • Select the map

    • On this screen you may press "SELECT" (or "E" on your keyboard) to customize the match rules

• Made the stars in the night sky twinkle

• Fixed background animations on Beach

• Added shader effect to Beach

• Reduced chance that the sunset variant of Beach will be chosen

• Updated benefactor's ad branding per their request

• Fixed issue where the button context bar was empty when first entering the Player Setup menu from the Main Menu

• Improved Pause Menu styling. Added toggle to show/hide Match Info using the "SELECT" (or "E" on your keyboard)

• Improved controller navigation in menus including focus change wrapping in the following menus:

  • Main Menu

  • Settings Menu

  • Volume Menu

  • Pause Menu

• Improved asset import settings, all pixelart is now sharp and crisp

• Added pitch shifting for common sound effects to give a little more variety during gameplay

• Fixed issue with canceling option popups also closing their parent submenu

• Improved sound playback and audio bus settings