Hey everyone,

Been a while since the last update. Reworked most of the pathfinding system. Works a lot better now and is a lot more efficient. It's been moved onto another thread so there's no performance drop when lots of enemies are trying to find their way to you.

We also hope to have the trading cards out at some point over the summer.

Lots of other fixes, tweaks and changes in the release notes below :)

Thanks,
bitSmith

Added

• new pathfinding system, works better and much more efficient
  
• mortar / rocket projectile added, model rotation follows the velocity of the projectile

Changes

lots of tweaks and changes
• tweaks to trap spawning, more traps in garden but sprinkler spawns less often
  
• secret appearance changed
  
• flamegoat doesn't spawn in packs anymore
  
• camera zoom in/out a bit more snappy
  
• camera rotate more snappy too
  
• less of a chance for 2 healths to spawn at once
  
• reduced brightness in the furnace
  
• increased turtle/under pressure skullcaps recharge kill count
  
• serpent sting skullcap puddle damage reduced

Fixes

• fnj eye position get reset after each level load as they were drifting for some reason
  
• sprinkler puddle resetting properly
  
• zombie tombstone getting cleared after death properly
  
• going through drop room when camera zoomed out doesn't make the camera freak out anymore
  
• fixed, fnj spinning loading screen wasn't spinning
  
• enemies weren't spawning in proper numbers on later levels

Hey,

Just a small update to get things moving again and let you all know we're still here. Work has started on the next area so there won't be any big updates until then. Will still try to push out updates each Thursday no matter how small they are though.

As always release notes below,

Thanks,
bitSmith

Added

• added new upgrade that increases the chance of a better pill being spawned
  
• added new furnace room with a moveable platform, just a test to see how it goes

Changes

• Smoother transition when zooming in on fnj at level start
  
• if you can't afford an upgrade surgical table says "N/A" in the ooze left after upgrade text field
  
• pathFinding changes for the moveable platform
  
• widened a small platform in garden a bit
  
• bossified enemies always see player
  
• tweaks to pill spawning
  
• same skullcap doesn't spawn twice in a row anymore

Fixes

• fixed bug where surgical animation wouldn't work if spamming upgrade purchaes
  
• flying nest fly fixes
  
• chickbit attack fixes

Hey all :)

Not a big update really, not too spicy either, but important for those who need/want custom keyboard controls. Not alot else in the update, few little tweaks and changes. Details as always below.

There'll be no update next week but hopefully the following week we can get something nice out.

Till then, thanks for playing,

bitSmith.

Added
• custom keyboard controls
  
• vignetting narrow on death

Changes
• flame goat / flame goat elite when hit wait until cooldown is down before attacking now
  
• mortar bro has longer attack pause
  
• flame goats projectiles don't go as far
  
• fnj falls to ground before keeling over on death (instead of floating in air)
  
• tweaks to death screen timings

Fixes
• health resets on resurrect ( need to add in effect)

Hey everyone,

Didn't have a lot of development time this week, sorry. But been working on custom keyboard controls, there's still a few niggles left in it at the moment. So would rather wait until they're properly done to push it out. So it'll be next Thursday until the next update comes out.

Until next week,
bitSmithers

Hello everyone,

A new pickup has been added to the game this week. Pills! They temporarily increase your stats. For example, one of them will increase your damage. They also stack on top of each other. So with the damage pill, the more you find the more damage you do. The thing is though, is that they only last for one run, so if you die they get reset. They were added in to make each run a little different. They add a bit more randomness to each run. Also in the update is more bug fixes and tweaks to the game.

See you all next week for another update,

bitSmith

Added
• pill pickups added to game (7 different pills added)
  
• added text in surgical table to say how much ooze you would have left if you purchased an upgrade (help with planning purchases)
  
• added percentage sign if upgrade is % based on the upgrade UI

Changes
• flying nest fly don't drop anything anymore (could farm them for ooze :P )
  
• piston bro slight reduction of slam hold length
  
• enemy and player bombs are now differentiated by colour
  
• flying nest fly aoe damage radius increased
  
• tweaks to what ooze amount spawns (only 10s were dropping most of the time)
  
• made it so one can't press quit / play again immediately after dying, takes half a second. So don't accidentally press to continue/quit.
  
• Teddy / Tesla skullcap damage reduced
  
• Teddy Skullcap range reduced
  
• tweaks to skullcap drop rate upgrade
  
• repositioned camera / fnj / maryanne after coming into Hub from tutorial

Fixes
• fixed a bug causing a crash
  
• fixed bug where popup enemy would stop working on pause
  
• fixed issue where some cogs weren't moving in furnace
  
• pistons now pause as they weren't pausing
  
• collider added to furnace door in Hub
  
• fixed surgical table displaying the wrong information (to do with upgrade values being changed between updates)
  
• mortar aim aura rotation should adjust to ramps
  
• fixed bug when timeslow was happening after last enemy killed nearby and also picking up a new skullcap caused time to stay slow
  
• fixed fade out flickering just before loading next area
  
• turned off mary annes outline in the Tutorial as it was accidentally on

Hey FranknJohners,

New exciting update this Thursday. Have added a new mini-game to the game, well the only mini-game. Plus some fixes and tweaks to the main game. Details of which are in the release notes below.

The new minigame is called FranknBall, a 2 to 4 player competitive football (or soccer depending where you are) mini-game. I think it plays a bit more like air hockey than anything. Just a bit of fun really. Made it over a week last summer and thought it'd be fun to put up and see what people think. Can be accessed through the main menu. Give it a go and let us know what you think.

Anyway, till next week.

The Smithers of Bits

Added
• FranknBall minigame added
  
• Integrated FranknBall back into game
  
• Franknball option in main menu

Fixes
• Furnace enemies health bars weren't set properly
  
• Small room placement fix
  
• Area /level number moved down to bottom corner
  
• Outline fixes for player (set red instead of blue)
  
• MaryAnne didn't have Outline on her
  
• Added respawn point to Garden Boss room
  
• Fixed bug where Hedgehogs and Tombstone Zombies weren't charging up ramps

Changes
• Default camera angle tilted up a bit (little easier to hit enemies)
  
• Little bit more control over ball in franknball
  
• Garden bosses do a little less damage
  
• Nuclear blast does more damage
  
• No traps in tutorial
  
• Few tweaks to enemy spawning
  
• Difficulty starts a bit easier and goes up after a few deaths (so players can get used to game without dying)
  
• Steamworks updated
  
• Tweaks to Garden bosses
  
• Small tweak to shield bro elite
  
• Tweaked upgrade damage

Hey All,

Another Thursday another update, these Thursday updates seem to be going well. Anyway, 5 new Skullcaps have been added into the game this week. Can you find them all :) Hope you have fun with them.

Have finally added in Linux support, been wanting to get a working version out for a while. I have only tested it on Ubuntu 14.04 so far, but I am sure it will work on others too. Let me know in the forums of any success on other distros or any problems encountered, thanks.

Plus, lots of fixes, tweaks and changes. Details in the release notes below.

See you next Thursday for another exciting update,

the bitSmithers

Added

• Now playable in Linux
  
• 5 new skullcaps added
  
  • Fat Cat Skullcap: increase chance of getting ooze
    
  • Flyboy skullcap: jump really high and no fall damage
    
  • Hyperspace Skullcap: Special aboity is a chance to jump to next level
    
  • Nuclear Explosion Skullcap: big explosion, takes half your health though
    
  • Cloak Skullcap: Cloak yourself, enemies can't see you and do more critical damage
• camera zooms in on doorways when going through to the next level

Fixes

• camera arcing up continuously fixed (Linux)
  
• cursor issue fixed (Linux)
  
• Sound playing (Linux)
  
• can use all controller sticks / arrow keys and what not for UI input now
  
• Skullcap typo fixes
  
• fixes to skullcaps
  
• small fix for chance rolls
  
• flying nest fly fixed
  
• fixed some problems with lava
  
• pathFinding fix enemies don't go through lava anymore
  
• bug fixed where FlameGoat kept attacking outside of attack range fixed
  
• bug fixed where flying nest flies weren't being cleared between levels
  
• Hedgehog sets player colour back to normal after invunerable skullcap ability

Changes

• Skullcap description changes
  
• little bit higher chance for rare skullcaps
  
• tweaks to skullcaps
  
• Health, damage, health drop rate, crit damage, and crit chance upgrade stats increased slightly per tier
  
• HedgehogSkullCap flashes white on special ability to indicate invulnerability
  
• Delete Profile button pops out on highlight now
  
• furnace make death clouds when they die (temporary until ragdolls are in)
  
• flying next fly speed increased
  
• flying next aoe blast range set to 2
  
• PopUp bomb blast range increase to 2.5 from 1.5
  
• PopUp bombs roll a little bit further
  
• RocketBro rocket blast range increase to 2 from 1.5
  
• spawn points put into furnace ramps and platforms
  
• Garden rocks colliders change from Mesh Colliders to Box Colliders
  
• Some Descriptions for upgrades changed a bit
  
• Piston Bro Boss version damage reduced to 100
  
• Boss do not Flee
  
• Text now displayed in End Room in Furnace
  
• Ooze containment upgrade rounds ooze to nearest 10
  
• swipe attack does half damage to enemies as it can hit multiple enemies at once
  
• health spawning changed to the same chance per level as upgrades can increase the players chance and amount given per health pickup

Hello everyone,

Just a small update here with some bug fixes and gameplay tweaks. We are gonna try and get more frequent updates out. For the time being, the plan is to release the updates every week on a Thursday.

Till next Thursday

The bitSmith Team


Bug Fixes
- fixed problem of snake skullcap poison puddle hurting player
- Fixed a type with Cutesy Bear (was Cutsey Bear)
- Stuff shouldn't get stuck on tops of trees anymore
- some descriptions that still mentioned marbles changed to ooze
- if no more tiers a message is displayed saying no tiers left
- error fixed by pressing back on the initial profile screen
- bug fixed when interacting with surgical table while entering hub
- health bonus upgrade was adding on correctly
- under pressure skullcap bug fixed
- no zooming and rotating camera in the HUb
- fixed issue with some traps not pausing on Pause
- 0 damage doesn't play hurt effect / sound
- fixed issue of hitboxes being left behind after an enemy death for a couple seconds
- zombie tombstones weren't hurting players
- fixed UI problem where buying skullcaps from headotron didn't change the ooze amount
- trap spawning fixes

Changes
- Nibbler does 5 less damage
- Zombie Axe does 5 less damage
- increased the marble spawning rate a tiny bit
- trap spawning tweaked
- skullcap drill stays out a little bit longer and attack length is a little bit shorter
- health spawning tweaked
- flame goat attacks player when Hit
- bosses drop more stuff
- upgrade costs decreased a little bit

Happy New Year FranknPeeps!

We’ve got a little (late) festive present for you all, the Furnace of Anger has finally opened its gates to let FranknJohn and Mary Anne continue their journey into the depths of Dr Harmin’s lair. What horrors await? Who knows, but you can be sure that they’re tougher than those sissy little garden twerps!

We’ve made a few little tweaks to the game also, adding a quick tutorial (still a work in progress!), and combining the skill trees into one single one.

We’re getting there – it’s been slower than we’d hoped, and we hope you can forgive us for that, but sometimes life (and emigration!) get in the way. We’re one step closer to exiting Early Access – for those of you that are on board with that we would love to hear your opinion on the things you like in the game, as well as the things you don’t. For those of you that would rather wait until the final release (it’s OK, we understand!) we look forward to seeing you on the other side.

Let’s all have a fantastic 2016!

The bitSmiths

Edit.
Patch Notes Version 0.5

Added
- added the furnace area ( with new enemies, traps, props, audio etc)
- added save version number to profile
- added a temporary boss room for furnace
- added a little ooze number pop in UI on collection
- added Ooze Containment upgrade (saves some ooze when leaving Hub)
- added game brightness slider
- randomised piston animation (speed and start time)
- added secrets in garden
- added basic tutorial with story/lore
- added water plane below garden room
- New garden rooms with secrets in them
- created a new boss room for the garden for the bossified furnace enemies
- enemies can be bossified
- added some text in TutorialManager stating that the tutorial is isn't finished
- alternate attacks (slam and swipe)
- Furnace area entrance unlocked after getting to end of furnace (temporary)

Bug fixes
- fixed loads of bugs in enemy spawning
- bug fix in level gen script when creating branches (level generation would never finish)
- bug fix where fnj is still red from hurt in surgical table fixed
- fixes to furnace and garden enemies
- fix where enemy hurt pause gets stuck
- small bug fix for traps when enemies die in trap
- Turtle skullcap bug fix kept decreasing players defences
- fix for the damage particles playing at the wrong position
- crash where enemy dying in rake trap fixed
- Boss Room bug fix (end not triggered)
- fix for not all skullcaps spawning
- implemented a workaround for a weird Unity bug with triggers
- rare level generation bug fixed
- fix bug where upgrades lead to player gaining health when Hit
- fix for camera after fall
- fixed a mimic bug
- fixes to props
- animator transition fixes for furnace enemies
- idle anims playing on doors in levels
- Fixed no audio on head after load bug
- Enemy line of sight bug fixed
- various bug fixes

Changes
- games is a little easier on first playthrough
- rake resetting better
- gave rocks "health" so they get destroyed quicker when damage upgraded
- garden sprinkler spurts 6 rounds of projectiles then pauses for a bit
- marbles changes to ooze
- upgrade tree trimmed and merged into one tree
- tweaks to slam and swipe attack
- reworked area loading
- tweaked level generation
- tweaks to furnace and garden enemies
- tweak to projectile shoot follow script
- tweaked enemy spawning
- tweaked some of the platforms in garden as they were interfering with pathfinding
- removed/moved some enemy spawners that were inside geometry in furnace rooms
- tweaked the boss room to pick two of the next levels enemies and bossify them
- demon horns fire ability does a little more damage
- if picking up two health pickups and only one is needed. One of them doesn't get used, just falls back down
- enemies aggro others when they get aggroed themselves (used to be just on hurt)
- little less health spawned per level
- few tweaks to some skullcaps
- Optimization for the outline shader
- made crit damage red
- enemies don't pause when being attack (thought this was already in...)
- made the colliders on the treerock group smaller because they were making the rocks hard to Hit
- point light shadows get turned off at distances greater than 20 to improve performance
- re worked the projectiles, same functionality but more modular
- changes to how passable objects animation are played
- pathfinding optimisations
- various tweaks/optimisations
- performance tweaks