The Everything Update

General

Hello SlingerZ, it’s been a while! The last few months have been a bit busy for us. This project started out as our capstone project for our Masters Degrees, and as such we were entrenched in the tombs of documentation work for a while before taking a short break from development post-graduation. We’re finally ready to share what we’ve been working on over the past few months, so let’s get into it! As always, scroll down to the patch notes for the tl;dr version, although they are anything but short this time.

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Online Multiplayer

We are happy to say that online multiplier is now fully supported for up to 4 players! To enter an online lobby, simply follow the “fight arrow” in the middle of the lobby and select “online” from the gamemode select menu. The steam friends list overlay will then pop up where you can invite friends to join you! Online matchmaking is not currently available. Please let us know if you encounter any bugs or desyncs when playing online!

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Transitions

To help smoothen the experience and lessen the awkwardness of transitioning between different gameplay states, proper transition animations have been implemented. This helps elevate the overall game feel more towards a polished and final experience. Tool tips will be following soon to give players tips and tricks for interacting with the game.

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Options

The options menu, which can be found as the 4th option on the pause menu, has new toggles to play with! In it you can adjust:

• Sound Effect Volume

• Music Volume

• Dynamic Gameplay Camera On/Off

• Screen Shake On/Off

Inside the options menu is also a controls menu. Button remapping is in the works and will be found here once implemented, but for now the following toggles are available:

• Tap To Jump: Allows players to simply press “up” on the joystick/d-pad to jump instead of using the jump button.

• Toggle Code Input: Allows players to press the “Spellcode Button” to enter/exit Spellweave state instead of having to hold it to maintain the state.

• Down input for Slide: Allows players to simply input "down" with jump instead of a diagonal input to perform a slide action. The default setting prevents down inputs from sliding to prevent frustrating instances regarding attempting to drop through platforms leading to arial slides.

• Relative Input: Changes a player’s Spellcode inputs from absolute positioning to relative positioning to the direction the player is facing (“right, up” instead becomes “forward, up”)

• Vibe Coding: The first 4 Spellcodes in a player’s Spellcode List can be cast by simply inputting “up” for slot 1, “right” for slot 2, “down” for slot 3, and “left” for slot 4, instead of inputting their assigned code. Spellcode storing does not work for vibe coded Spellcodes.

  • Dev Note: This is a very work in progress option that has plans to be expanded into a more robust and user friendly control mode. Any and all feedback on this feature is greatly appreciated.

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Gamemode Select

By default, the game will open in local mode. However, if only 1 player enters the game and that player drops down into the center of the lobby, they can access 3 other solo modes. The current available modes are as follows:

Local

The default game mode. Upon loading up the game players are automatically placed into a local game instance where up to 3 other players can join the lobby.

Online

The first option in the game modes menu. Selecting “Online” will open up the player’s Steam friends list, where they can then invite others to join their lobby, thus making them the host player. Online matchmaking is not currently available, so players can only play with invited players. Currently to invite more than 1 player, the host must press F6 after the first player joins to invite others. This is only a temporary measure and will be changed very soon.

Tutorial

The second option in the game modes menu. Selecting “Tutorial” will transport players into a linear onboarding level that teaches all of the game's controls and mechanics before depositing them back into the lobby.

Training Room

The third option in the game modes menu. Selecting “Training Room” will put the player in a training room where they can mess around with all of the Spellcodes. The Training Room contains the following features:

• Clear Machine: Red machine that will clear a player's Spellcode List when hit.

• AddedSpellcode MachineRegular Spellcode Machine that will spawn and cycle through all available Spellcodes by Developer Collective.

• Training Dummy: Practice target for players to use their Spellcodes on

• Exit Door: Allows players to return back to the lobby.

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Linear Tutorial

It has been a long time in the making, but a linear tutorial has been added to the game. Our previous style of diegetic onboarding in the lobby (which is staying, this is just being added on top) only taught players the basic mechanics of the game: moving, jumping, attacking, and using Spellcodes. Over a few months of testing and iteration, we found that it just wasn’t cutting it to teach new players the game.

The new tutorial level teaches players every mechanic that is available to them, ensuring that nothing is left out so that they can get the most out of their experience playing. First time players will be prompted to play through the tutorial upon loading up the game, but it can be accessed via the solo gamemode select menu at any time. Please check it out and let us know what you think!

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Audio

2 new music tracks are now available and unique sound effects have been added for all current Spellcodes. Please check them out and let us know what you think!

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VFX

Some visual effects have been added or altered to better convey the states in which different parts of the game are in, see them all here:

Altered VFX

​Floppy Disk Spawn VFX Steam post imageA trail is now drawn from the machine to where the floppy disks spawn to better draw the player's eyes towards them. This also brings our visuals in line with our original design goals for this system.

Armor VFX

The BigStox Stock Stability VFX has also changed. Instead of always appears on the player, it will only spawn when a critical projectile hits a target. The particle effect previously always being on a player as long as they had at least one BigStox Spellcode wasn't helpful as it was meant to denote critical hits, which it now does. Here's the difference between a regular hit and a critical hit with Coin Toss:

Coin Toss Regular

​ ​Coin Toss Crit

​​

New VFX

​ ​Super Armor VFX (Pink Armor, only relevant for Abaddon Uppercut & Get A Job)

​Armor Break VFX ​

​Player Spawn VFX

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Spellcode Glossary

A Spellcode Glossary has officially been added to the pause menu under the 3rd option labeled “Spells.” Opening it will reveal several tabs that players can sort Spellcodes by including:

• Current Players Spellcode List

• Resources

• Demon-X Spellcodes

• BigStox Spellcode

• Killeez Spellcode

• VWave Spellcodes

Each tab contains all of the relevant Spellcode information to its title, with “Resources” containing information on each Developer Collective’s resource (Demon Aura, Stock Stability, Reps, and Flow State), how to acquire it, and what it’s used for. This will hopefully reduce confusion towards resources as well as allow players to look up what any given Spellcode does at their convenience.

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Spellcode Floppy Disks

Floppy disks received a massive visual overhaul, transforming from this:

To this:

The driving force behind this change was a need to better communicate what each Spellcode does to players while not overwhelming them with a wall of text. The amount of text in each description has been significantly decreased, and gifs of each Spellcode in use have been added to the new pop-up windows for Spellcodes. The way in which floppy disks are interacted with is also slightly different. Tapping the attack button will now select the Spellcode you are standing over, while holding it will minimize the gif and display the description. This change has come about after observing a lot of confusion from new players trying to interact with the floppy disks.

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Arenas

New Duel Arenas (2 Players)

• Two Dots

• The Room

• Glasses

• Tabletop

• Fall (looping)

• Hallway (looping)

New General Arenas (3-4 Players)

• Broken Mirror (looping) (definitely not Shattered)

• Double Shoot (looping)

• Loony (looping)

• Loopfield (looping) (it's like Battlefield but looping!)

• Parallels (looping)

New Party Arenas (4 Players)

• Big Anthill

• Big Connected Rooms

• Big Quadruple Duel (it’s like double Dual Duel!)

• Big Raining SlingerZ (from out of the sky! SlingerZ, don’t need to ask why)

• Snake (looping)

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Patch Notes

General

• Many minor improvements

• Full online multiplayer support up to 4 players

• Spellcodes with multiple projectiles of the same name only register the first projectile hit.

• Spellcode inventory limit based on input

  • 4-input Spellcodes get 1 copy.

  • 3-input Spellcodes get 2 copies.

  • 2-input Spellcodes get 3 copies.

• AdjustedDev NoteThis new system will act as a balancing lever for Spellcode strength, and as such various existing Spellcodes may see their inputs changed in the future.

Universal Passives

• Each Developer collective now has an inherent passive associated with its resource:

  • Demon-X: Deal damage with Demon-X Spellcodes in quick succession to increase Demon Aura - deal more damage based on how much Demon Aura you have.

  • BigStox: Gain Stock Stability based on how many BigStox Spellcodes you have in your inventory. Random chance to crit spells based on your Stock Stability.

  • Killeez: Gain 1 Rep every time you hit a Killeez Spellcode. Deal 1 extra damage per Rep you have.

  • VWave: Hitting the sweetspot of a VWave Spellcode (denoted by red) puts you in Flow state for 10 seconds. Deal more damage with spellcodes while in flow state.

    • AddedDev Notethis new system is made to provide an explicit through-line for new players learning how to interact with a given resource, and to allow for more unique builds between games, as every spell can benefit from any passive, helping to counteract the stale meta of only selecting spells of a singular Collective. Players can now "Cook" some devious builds and make use of previously cool yet unviable spell interactions.

• For some Spellcodes that had passive abilities which overlapped with the new passives (.configs) (notably the starter Spellcodes), they have now been either reworked or simplified to prevent such overlap.

• "Melee" spellcodes now apply hitstop to the attacker as well as the defender

  • Dev note: Originally, hitstop only applied to the defender as all Spellcodes are considered projectiles; this led to inconsistency in combos and left said Spellcodes feeling like they lacked impact (and hitstop feeling without impact at large).

• More explicit use of armor and super armor for clarity's sake

RAM Acquisition

• Starting RAM required to win increased: 300 –> 400.

• Kill bonus RAM is now awarded after kill participation RAM, and as such players need, on average, one less kill to end a round.

  • AddedDev NoteOriginally due to kills granting kill participation RAM after kill bonus RAM (and kill participation ram is capped so you can't win a round based on KP), it often required an entire extra kill to end the game. This created the need for the "match point" on the RAM bar, but created confusion and obfuscation for players. Now that kill bonus RAM is awarded after kill participation RAM, we've added 100 required RAM to keep game lengths somewhat consistent with their previous length.

Resources

Demon Aura:

• All damage now resets the Demon Aura timer.

• Now fades after 3 seconds of not dealing damage to an opponent, down from 6 seconds.

  • Dev Note: This change was made to help differentiate the power curve and play pattern of Demon-X Spellcodes to be more built around quickly changing high and low points of damage based on how well you can keep up your Demon Aura. This change also helps balance the fact that now every Spellcode benefits from the Demon Aura's damage.

.Exe Spellcodes

Sun of Apollo (Old Gift of Prometheus):

• Resprited and renamed old Gift of Prometheus

• Now only grants 1 Rep on hit as per the Killeez universal passive.

• Passive damage changed from 5 damage per Rep to 4 damage per Rep (this, plus the 1 damage per Rep on the Killeez universal passive, equates to the original 5 damage per Rep).

Gift of Prometheus - Killeez (New Spellcode!):

• Input: [ v v ]

• Cooldown: 5 seconds

• Description: “Spawn flames at your feet. This Spellcode deals damage over time to those in it. This Spellcode’s duration increases with Reps.”

Rip and Tear - Demon-X (New Spellcode!):

• Input: [ > v < ^ ]

• Cooldown: 8 seconds

• Description: “Encircling blade wheel. Travel along surfaces, traveling farther based on Demon Aura.”

Use The Card - BigStox (New Spellcode!):

• Replaced Quarter Report as the BigStox starter Spellcode.

• Input: [ > v ]

• Cooldown: 2 sec

• Description: “Short-range credit swipe. Hits twice on crit.”

Shot Reflector - VWave (New Spellcode!):

• Input: [ v > v > ]

• Cooldown: 6 sec

• Description: “Stationary Shield. Absorbs opponent projectiles, launching a counter-projectile and partially refunding this spell's cooldown.”

Amon-Slash:

• Passive Effect Changed:

  • AdjustedFrom“Your next basic attack consumes all Demon Aura and deals increased damage based on how much is consumed.”

  • To: “This Spellcode has armor.”

• Dev Note: Given the intended gameplay fantasy of Demon-X being a combo-focused Developer Collective, having the starter Spellcode force you to dance around using your basic attack so as to not consume your Demon Aura was particularly unintuitive and somewhat counterproductive as a starter Spellcode for people wanting to use Demon-X Spellcodes (in some instances it was optimal to select a different starter Spellcode then opt into Demon-X Spellcodes later to avoid that passive).

Bifrons Blade:

• Passive Effect Changed:

  • From: “Your next basic attack then slashes downwards, dealing damage based on your “Demon Aura.”

  • To: “Your next basic attack is enhanced, breaking armor and consuming all Demon Aura for extra damage.”

• Dev Note: We have moved the old Amon Slash passive to the second slash of Bifrons Blade, as it is an optional spellcode for Demon-X users (not a starter spellcode), and having the second slash cash out your Demon Aura for massive damage better fulfills the fantasy of an "execute" style Spellcode.

Cashout:

• Input changed from [> v] to [> v <]

• Non-crit version no longer breaks armor

• Crit version is now considered a Spellcode hit instead of a basic attack hit

  • Dev note: This change is to make the Spellcode less abusable in concert with Blue Chip Trader, as now a given player cannot chain guaranteed un-armorable crits. There is still synergy with Blue Chip Trader, as now that stored Stock Stability is consumed on Spellcode hit instead of Spellcode cast, you can store a guaranteed crit Cashout, use the stored Stock Stability to hit a different Spellcode crit, then use the stored Cashout crit.

Blade of Ares:

• Slightly reduced forward hitbox.

• Passive Effect Changed

  • AdjustedFrom“Deals increased damage based on your Reps.”

  • To: “This Spellcode has Armor.”

• AdjustedDev NoteWhile previously this spell dealt 2 damage per Rep, when moving the passive to be universal, damage per Rep has been reduced to 1 as now all Spellcodes benefit from it.

Might of Zeus:

• Input changed from [v v] to [^ v v v]

• Passive Effect Changed:

  • From: “If you have 8 or more Reps, this Spellcode stuns.”

  • To: “This Spellcode gains stun based on Reps.”

• Distance between each lightning projectile has been increased, allowing the Spellcode to cover more distance.

  • AdjustedDev NoteThis change to Might of Zeus was made to better reflect the gameplay fantasy of Killeez spells, as previously, after reaching the "stun" threshold, using this Spellcode was just as powerful with 8 Reps as it was with 90. To help prevent this Spellcode from becoming too centralizing/abusable, it has been changed from a 2-input Spellcode to a 4-input Spellcode, meaning a given player can only have 1 copy of this Spellcode at a given point.

Trident of Poseidon:

• Wave projectiles no longer grant reps on hit

• Cooldown increased from 3 sec to 4 sec

  • Dev Note: With the Killeez passive granting extra damage on both the trident and wave hitboxes, allowing a short-cooldown, easy-to-hit Spellcode to grant 2 reps on hit consistently was far over power budget for what also functions as this Collective's "zoning" Spellcode at higher rep values.

Skillshot Slash:

• Passive Effect Changed

  • AdjustedFrom“Deals increased damage while in Flow State.”

  • To: “Partially refunds cooldown when in Flow State.”

• Dev Note: Skillshot Slash was particularly difficult to use in the early rounds due to its relatively long cooldown for a starter Spellcode, combined with its startup. This change allows players to make more use of this Spellcode, provided they are skilled enough to consistently hit the sweet spot.

Pong Shot:

• Startup before the hitbox becomes active has been reduced.

• Passive Effect Changed:

  • From: “This Spellcode speeds up while in Flow State.”

  • To: “While in Flow State this Spellcode has a longer lifespan.”

• Dev Note: The change to the startup of this Spellcode is mostly to reduce the confusion and frustration when attempting to break the apartment glass. The change from speed to lifespan allows for more reaction time from opponents for dealing with Pong Shot when in Flow State.

Trickshot Alley:

• Passive Effect Changed:

  • AdjustedRemoved“Deals increased damage while in Flow State.”

  • From: “Hit the grenade with a spell to launch it.”

  • To: “Hit the grenade to launch it, partially refunding this Spellcode’s cooldown.”

• The launch angle of this spellcode after hitting it now is based on the knockback of the spellcode that hit it, instead of being set.

• The duration of this Spellcode after being hit is increased.

  • AddedDev NoteThe use of this Spellcode was particularly limited previously to a very specific angle and a difficult execution requirement for relatively little reward. Now, with Flow State becoming more powerful due to the added VWave universal passive, in combination with the added flexibility of this Spellcode's trajectory control, this Spellcode should be more equivalently enticing compared to the other VWave Spellcodes.

• Certain spellcode knockbacks have been slightly adjusted to better react with the new trajectory system of Trickshot Alley.

.Config Spellcodes

Demonic Descent:

• Passive Effect Changed:

  • AdjustedFrom“While at 100% Demon Aura, you gain mobility and your Spellcodes deal increased damage.”

  • To: “While at 100% Demon Aura, you gain mobility and a damaging aura.”

• AddedDev NoteThis change was made as Demonic Descent was rather unexciting despite its theoretical power, which, combined with its difficult conditions, made for a very unpopular Spellcode. This new passive creates a damage-over-time area (the game's first D.O.T.!) around the user, which provides the added benefit of keeping the user at max Demon Aura while near people. This evens out the difficult-to-achieve condition of entering max Demon Aura, as once you reach the condition, it becomes easy to retain.

Boots of Hermes:

• Passive Effect Added: Extra Jumps granted by Boots of Hermes now create an explosion at the user's feet (1 sec cooldown).

  • AddedDev noteThe combination of our game's closed map design and the addition of a universal double jump left the draw of Boots of Hermes as a Spellcode to be rather low for players. This newly added effect should make the Spellcode more enticing for players who can rack up Reps in their game.

Blue Chip Trader:

• Stock Stability gained per basic attack hit: 100% > 30%.

• Stock Stability is now consumed on spellcode hit instead of spellcode cast.

  • Dev Note: These changes were made with the introduction of the BigStox universal passive, as now every spellcode benefits from Stock Stability.

Let It Ride:

• Stock Stability is now cut in half (capped at 50%) instead of being capped at 10%.

  • AddedDev NotePreviously, while the thrill of getting an instant kill with a crit BigStox spellcode was fun, it was starkly impractical, and giving up the consistency of crits also meant losing access to other added properties of the crit BigStox Spellcodes, such as the extended range of Quarter Report or the Super Armor of Get A Job. This left Let It Ride in a particularly unsatisfying and unpopular state. This change, in combination with Stock Stability now affecting all Spellcodes, should allow players to crit reasonably often still, allowing for the benefits of this Spellcode to shine through.

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Email List

For those who are interested in following this project and receiving updates on it, we now have an email list that can be signed up for here. Please fill out the form with your email address if you wish to receive these updates and help support our project!

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Socials

Please follow our socials!

Community Discord: https://discord.gg/SyrwwshYfB

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bitforwardgames/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bitforwardgames

YouTube: View store page

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End

That’s everything we’ve got for now! More frequent updates will be starting again, so stay tuned to see what new and exciting things we’re up to!