Action 69 Update - 11.0 - Buruwasu Vehicle Update

Hi all,

its been a while since the last update, this update is mainly focused on Buruwasu Murder Mystery.

In this release we focus on parity features, which are features removed from the game in previous iterations. This is because the game was originally developed in 2D.

Anecdote

After much thought I decided to re-create the game in 3D, whilst developing my own 3D engine to use it with. The end result was a weird in a good way hybrid between 3D and 2D with a top-down view, which is something I'm quite happy with due to the look I'm going with for the game.

However, the transition to 3D ended up breaking features including vehicle physics and a few other things. With those foundations somewhat  built again from the recent updates, we're now going full swing with content updates for the entirety of Update 11.0 For starters we've got vehicle physics working again as well as adding in 5 new vehicles to try out! They can be found at the Parking Lot temporarily.

The next update will debut with the major card based attribute system coming to Super Bandonio Bros, (Major planned update) with additional content for our games. Though there may be some delay as I am working on other projects, including Ninkyo Dantai and Crime Syndicate.

Action 69 Update 11.0 

Patch Notes:

Minigames Wheel

• Added First Time Startup Menu: you can now choose Menu Scale Factor and Mute Sounds.

Super Bandonio Bros

• Fixed a issue where name tag option changes weren't being detected.
• Work has begun on Level 5. Rising Waters

Buruwasu Murder Mystery

Additions

• Added new location: Outdoor Parking Lot. All new vehicles can be found here.
• Added new location: Shopping Mall (currently unable to enter).
• Added Mini-map (Hold Tab to display). You can move the map using the keypad on keyboard. You can adjust the zoom using + and -.
• Re-added Main Menu title with its subtitle. It now fades out to the main menu. Parity addition.
• Re-added Vehicle (Block Challenger) Parity addition.
• Re-added Vehicle (Scooter) Parity addition.
• Re-added Speedometer. Parity addition.
• Added 8 new vehicles: Police Car, Ambulance, Truck, Block Stingray, Olympics Lemane, Opera Windsor, Taxi and the Titan Gresely.
• Added Shinji character portraits to be used for dialogue boxes.
• Added new road texture: T Junction North.

Fixes & Changes

• Fixed collision issues with the gun shop marker while in a vehicle.
• Fixed collision issues with taxi marker while in a vehicle.
• Fixed a possible soft-lock issue when quitting from Buruwasu Murder Mystery. At this time, the game quits to the desktop. (Engine quark, where 3D rendering is not turning off fully).
• Fixed an issue when opening Options Menu, it automatically toggles the window mode setting.
• Fixed an issue where the player can move while their inside a pop-up window (Options Menu, Gun Store Menu and Taxi Menu)
• Changed a font to now use a commercial font, this will also be used for future Japanese localization. Nipponika
• Changed how to close dialogue boxes. You now you use the letter Z from Enter.
• Changes have been made on assets that have failed to load/don't have a texture applied.

Optimisations

• Code refactoring to improve performance.
  
• Changes have been made to the back-end with alpha channel handling (Engine quark).
• Now uses GameMaker's create texture on demand feature, and now uses the GPU for graphic overheads. (Substantial fps gain).

Added new debug commands:

F1 - Access debug commands
/mute true - mutes all playing audio
/mute false - resumes all previously muted audio
/list - lists all available commands

Wally's Wacky Adventures

• Fixed an issue causing the game to crash when attempting to load a renamed font.
  
• Fixed a possible soft-lock during a screen transition.
• Optimized Objectives HUD. This has been changed to a sprite from an object, where the alpha value is changed via code.

Conclusion

▶ In Action 69 - Update 12.0, we will focus on Super Bandonio Bros, which may take a significant portion of time, to further iron out issues with the game, and adding in the card system.

▶ In Action 69 - Update 13.0 we will focus on fixing bugs and adding the first few chapters in Wally's Wacky Adventures and adding new building types to Buruwasu Murder Mystery. If I have time, I'll also be implementing interactable vending machines. In addition fixing any outstanding bugs.

▶ In Action 69 - Update 14.0 will be a behemoth of an Update, which will add in Levels 6 through to 10 thus, completing the first world.

You can view the Trello page for this game here to detail the progress of Buruwasu Murder Mystery.

Thanks for reading, stay safe in these difficult times.

- TeamCS1