Hello again fellow gamers and devs! Sorry for being a week late this time on my updates. Finally got my computer fixed well enough for the time being (still having some minor performance issues) but work and health issues also got in the way of completing the update/demo but the wait is over. The (hopefully final) Probe update is now live on steam! AND to top it off the 10 level demo is done as well and should be live as soon as tomorrow 11/24/2020 @1:00pm (US Pacific) (is live now) provided steam finishes approving it by then. I will post the announcements for the update and demo on steam once the demo is live.
*Edit Note* - Originally the Demo was only 5 levels but I have now upped it to 10 to get a better feel for the difficulty progression of the game and so new players can encounter enemies as well.
To celebrate this milestone I have also made some desktop wallpapers from the backgrounds in Probe you can go download for free on the official Probe website page: https://www.n8bitgames.com/probe
The Update:
Hotkeys - I added hotkeys for both keyboard & gamepad to the in level menu selections to help improve the flow of the gameplay. "N" (RB) for Next - "H" (Y) for Home - "R" (B) for Retry
Music - no longer skips songs when retrying a level, the soundtrack keeps playing as intended and loops back to first song when it's over.
Leaderboard and Score improvements - No matter what computer you are playing on your high scores will be downloaded and compared in game so you know the previous score you have to beat to move up on the leaderboards for each level. Even if you achieve a new high score offline and go back online the leaderboard will update now. Level progression does not carry over computer to computer however nor do stats unfortunately. People who already beat the game or were in the process of doing so would have lost all their progress if I changed it to allow that because of the way I set up the encrypted save files at launch.
Load Screen - Unfortunately downloading 51 leaderboards of data can take a few seconds sometimes so had to add a load screen to the main menu. So far my longest wait time was around 7 or 8 seconds. Levels still have no load time. If you want to bypass the load screen you can go offline and then go back online later in game when you want to update the leaderboards with your scores.
Local Saved Data Updates - Local data of level progression is shared with anyone on the same computer but stats and scores are not. They are saved based on the user. Previously it was shared with any alt users on one computer and was an oversight on my part. Luckily no one figured it out and abused it before the update...to my knowledge.
No more false positive malware flags - Some users had reported a false positive for malware from the game upon download a while back. This was due to a feature in the game engine I made Probe with (Clickteam Fusion 2.5) that has now been removed from the engine so there are no more false positive malware flags. Also had the executable file for Probe whitelisted by Avast.com just in case and none of my antivirus software is flagging it anymore as well.
Unfortunately, was unable add the ability for users to switch between fullscreen and windowed modes due to engine issues but once/if the engine bug gets fixed I will update that as well. The leaderboards also were a pain to figure out as there was no documentation on how to implement it into the specific engine I used so took longer than usual to figure out via trial and error...all the more reason I'll be moving to Unity for future projects. As for now this will probably be my last update for Probe unless other fixable bugs are reported or easy to implement features are suggested. Once I hit 500 units sold I will add 10 new levels to the game to celebrate. Currently I am sitting at 189 so tell your friends to check out the demo. Speaking of....
The Demo:
First 10 Levels Available
15 Achievements
DEMO Leaderboards & Save Data/Scores Carry Over to Full Game on Purchase- Added leaderboards for in the DEMO for all 5 levels and an Overall High Score. These are separate leaderboards from the full game BUT all your saved data, scores and saved level progression from the demo will be carried over into the full game if you decide to purchase it upon beating the demo.
Link to Probe Steam Page In Game (Steam Icon) - Added a quick access button to the main menu and end credits that will take you to the Probe full game steam page if you decide you want to buy it after trying it.
You can download the demo from the Steam store page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1275980/Probe/
Just a little reminder of how the scoring system works for anyone trying out the demo that wants to dominate on the leaderboards:
With this most likely being the last update for now I can finally get started on the Probe Post Mortem review going over everything from pre-release to current date of what all could have been done better and has been improved, what was successful about it and what wasn't, as well as sales performance and player statistic graphs. Should be able to get that out very soon. Also don't forget to leave Probe an honest review if you own the game so I can include that in my data as well. Hope everyone is well and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the states! I know it's been a difficult year for many, including myself, but I still have so much to be thankful for this year despite all the challenges and even those challenges I am thankful for as they helped me grow and adapt as a person and developer. I am so thankful for my very supportive family & friends, especially my fiancé Cristina. I'm thankful I had the chance to focus on the release my first solo developed title, learn the process of how to properly release a game on steam in the future and all the code in between, and most importantly I am extremely thankful for everyone who beta tested or bought and played Probe and helped give me the feedback I needed to grow as a developer and make the game even better. I hope everyone enjoyed/enjoys playing it as much as I enjoyed making it.
Nathan Hicks
Nate Bit Games
Probe on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1275980/Probe/
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