Code Avarice

Paranautical Activity is OUT! (of early access/beta)

by Mike

Paranautical Activity has now officially released out of early access/beta! It’s “done” and here’s what that means:

Post release support?

We’re calling PA done because we’ve put everything into the game that we can think of. We’ve got almost 20 really varied weapons, like 40 enemies, and over 100 items. There’s only so much you can do and still have the different things actually feel different.

So we’re calling it done. If we get enough cool ideas to come back to the game and do a big cool post-release patch, that will happen. I got a little inspiration in our steam forums the other day that might lead to a cool festive patch, but no promises just yet.

Necessary bug fixes will of course happen as needed.

What’s next?

Next up for us is Spinal Destination. Another old school (ish) FPS, this time leaning more towards Timesplitters than Quake. This one will have a neat low poly art style, and a little more focus on story. The story is gonna be silly. Something campy and stupid like a cheesy 80s horror movie. That’s about all I can say because that’s about all I know for sure. We’re still fleshing it out and of course there will be updates on that project right here on the CA devblog.

Trailers?

Gameplay trailer:

Release trailer:

Little Mermaid trailer:

Progressionautical Activity V1.9.1 Achievement/Progression patch!

by Mike

That title might be stretching a bit for the pun, but the fact remains that the long awaited achievement patch is here! The game now has a proper unlock system, so doing stuff in game will unlock awesome stuff. Everything from bonus modes, to items and powerups, to a cool secret bonus character.

I tested the achievements pretty thoroughly, but there’s SO many of them and a lot of them are super time consuming to obtain, so I couldn’t double check everything. It’s possible that some things might be broken so if you find anything definitely let me know! I’m supposed to send builds out to press in the next few days for reviews and such, so I’m hoping to catch all the nasty bugs ASAP.

I did end up adding a teeny bit of content to this patch, and loads of tweaks and fixes. The full changelog is below:

• added elevator ding

• added classic mode (no ghost. cant get to 8th floor)

• added hardcore mode (ghost. can get to 8th floor)

• added infinite mode (ghost. repeat ghost secret to loop back to first floor)

• added randomized mystery man character

• added 40 new room variations

• added new texture set for the 8th floor

• added more fanart and sound credit to credits

• added oculus support

• added basic gamepad/controller support

• added adaru to final boss waves

• added notification in controls menu that controls have to be rebound in the game’s launcher

• fixed items intersecting pedastal in poseidon boss room

• fixed omni death particle not scaling with him

• fixed Adaru humping

• fixed ghost showing up during the credits

• fixed dhalia’s mom superboss being completely broken on some machines

• fixed oar acting as a jetpack

• fixed being able to escape elevators after activating them

• fixed N on compass sticking through the back

• fixed battle snail not damaging you if you sit inside him

• fixed starfish not properly reviving you with kamikaze

• fixed evil eye causing lots of tridents to spawn

• fixed trident vanishing when swapping to superweapon

• fixed shops and some other rooms having cracks in the corners

• fixed flipper making the world end with laser shotgun

• tweaked doorframes to make them glow

• tweaked beard+sickle combo (nerf)

• tweaked screen shake

• tweaked audio balance

• tweaked some boss rooms

• tweaked hanz pistol

• tweaked ghost (buff)

• tweaked credits so they return you to the main menu instead of the character select screen

The build should be live on steam now and everywhere else in the coming hours.

Paranautical Activity modes and ahcievements

by Mike

The next patch should be dropping pretty soon, so I figure I should give you guys a heads up on what’s coming. What follows contains spoilers for secrets and unlocks in the game, so stop reading here if you don’t want to be spoiled. 

The big feature of the next patch is the unlock system. You earn achievements by doing things in-game, and they unlock things in the game. Achievements unlock things like items, weapons, special bosses, and modes.

Speaking of modes, I’m adding 3 unique modes. Regular mode is just the regular game, but with no ghost. Hardcore mode is unlocked after beating regular mode, and has the ghost (meaning you can only get to the 8th floor with the ghost). Infinite Hardcore mode is the same as hardcore mode, but if you kill the ghost again on the 8th floor, and take his key to the spawn elevator again, the game loops.

Looping the game sends you back to floor one. Everything does double damage and only drops half as much loot. The ghost comes twice as fast. You can loop infinitely compounding these effects. So after looping twice everything would do 4x damage, have 25% drop chances, and a ghost would come every 1.25 minutes instead of 5. You will retain your ability to kill the ghost, so it’s not so much of a threat once you loop.

What’s wrong with Paranautical Activity?

by Mike

With release approaching, it’s becoming really important to us that we find and fix all the bugs, weird stuff, and broken/unfun things in Paranautical Activity.

Respond below with absolutely anything you think should be changed about the game, and we’ll take it into consideration. If for some reason you don’t want to/can’t use the build in comments, tweet us or send us an email at admin@codeavarice.com.

Help us make Paranautical Activity the best game it can be!

Paranautical Activity Oculus Rift Support!

by Mike

A friend loaned me his Oculus Rift so we could implement the promised Oculus support. I’m only able to test on the DK1, and it’s a little wonky, but it works! We’ll update the game to work with the final version of the Oculus once that becomes available. 

Check out a short stream I did showing off the game running on Oculus.

PA V1.9 SPOOKPATCH IS LIVE!

by Mike

The final content patch is upon us! Huge amount of content added. I say this every time, but it really does feel like a whole new game! A ghost that shows up if you take too long on a floor, gambling machines, and of course more weapons, items, characters, bosses, and more!

Check this trailer for a small taste of the goodies:

And as always full list of changes is as follows:

• added 3 new bosses

• added bouncer character

• added 15 new items

• added 3 new weapons

• added superbosses

• added casino special room

• added a ghost that shows up and wrecks your shit if you stay on a level too long

• added secret 8th floor

• added new final boss fight for the 8th floor

• added impact sounds for bullets

• added ambient sounds for bullets

• added fuse sound to bombs

• added indicators in the elevators for what floor you’re on to replace the dumb HUD indicator

• added random character button to character select

• added vsync option to graphics menu

• fixed text popup being colored wrong for powerups

• fixed some superweapons not being centered on item pedastals

• fixed new powerups not being able to spawn from power of the gods item

• fixed explosive barrel fire going through platforms

• fixed map going outside HUD bounds

• fixed weapons not hitting enemies at point blank range

• fixed being able to get into rooms without activating them when you have the mushroom powerup

• fixed the rocket launcher not reloading properly when switching to superweapon

• fixed being able to overcharge the sickle and crossbow

• fixed bomb bros leaving behind fantom bombs

• fixed item descriptions not being sized right after taking mushroom.

• fixed random exploding sound triggering when entering some floors

• fixed spawn room retaining early game textures in the late game

• fixed tenchi and namenlos shooting through objects

• fixed dynomite having the wrong health stat in character select

• fixed not being able to pause when you have 0 health with the shell

• fixed harp item’s strings not matching up to the harp itself.

• fixed some spinning items not stopping when the game is paused

• fixed menus being cut off at non-16:9 resolutions

• fixed stuttering when looking at items for the first time

• fixed options menus not returning to the root menu when unpausing then pausing again

• fixed launcher image not being sized correctly

• fixed scissors item being too low on pedastal and intersecting it

• fixed coin sound getting ridiculously loud when grabbing lots of coins

• tweaked plasma balls to make them spawn blood particles when hitting enemies

• tweaked drop rates

• tweaked character select to start on different character every time the game is run.

• tweaked map to center it on player

• tweaked final boss fight to make it harder

• tweaked boss health bar to make transitions smoother

• tweaked special room frequency

• tweaked special floor frequency

• tweaked left hand to cause it to stop superweapon ammo from dropping

• tweaked gileads gun (buff)

• tweaked mermaid boss (buff)

• tweaked banshee boss (buff)

• tweaked can o beans to do poison damage (buff)

• tweaked hanz pistol (nerf)

• tweaked bullet physics

• tweaked HUD to show collected items

• also a bunch of stuff I probably forgot.

Some PA V1.9 GIFs

by Mike

http://giant.gfycat.com/ImaginaryPlasticAddax.gif

http://i.minus.com/iQ09vxKjnWU2h.gif

http://i.minus.com/i7DNF7nMCByGH.gif

http://i.minus.com/ix9q1iVx3ZeeZ.gif

http://i.minus.com/ibdAOKv4dw28Bu.gif

http://i.minus.com/ibejkxqWjbjJIt.gif

This will be the final content patch for PA. After that there’ll be the achievement/progression system patch, then one last bugfix/balance patch and it should be done!

Paranautical Achievements

by Mike

If you have any cool ideas for achievements in Paranautical Activity tell us about them!

Achievements in Paranautical Activity will be linked into the progression system. Allowing you to unlock new weapons, classes, items, etc.

Paranautical Activity will be releasing in it’s final form on October 17th.

Hype.

Paranautical Activity Slot Machine Showcase

by Mike

Just a little something we’ve been working on for 1.9.