beta 0.9.4 Released
Posted on July 10, 2009 - benbritten
Had a great week of beta, found a few bugs and lots of good suggestions, keep them coming!
Login now to download the latest build of Snowferno (b0.9.4). We emailed you the login info -- let me know if you need it re-sent (or if you want to join the beta program).
b0.9.4 Changelog
- At the end of a level, the scores formatting has been fixed, ranking has been added, screen name has been added, as well as the name of the level. (so now you guys can tell us which leve it was that you hate, instead of ' that one level, with the spinny thing in the middle')
- Added the level name to the main interface, upper left corner. just plain text for now.
- Adjusted the way the snowball reacts with the terrain to make the walls less 'jittery'. and to make it harder to accidentally roll over raised edges.
- Adjusted the terrain model for level 05 so that you cant get stuck on the first block.
- Changed the throttle control and the clock to match the rest of the interface buttons.
- Modified the terrain model for level 10 Clock so that the narrow passage to the exit platform is not nearly as narrow.
- changed the way that fires and snowpiles work so that they are more performance friendly (ie only doing stuff when you are rolling on them)
b0.9.4 Known Issues
- On level 10 Clock, if you spin the middle ring enough times, it will get out of sync with the other platforms. This will be fixed in the next release. Also, the model modification for level 10 above should help to mitigate this.
- there appears to be an issue with the throttle getting 'stuck'. We think we have fixed this but could never replicate it consistently, so if you run into this let us know
- On level 12 Linking Rings, there is a bug in the button scripts. If you (or a box) triggers a switch over and over again before the moving platform comes to a stop, then the platform gets out of sync and can go all sorts of odd places. I have tracked the cause down and there will be a fix in the sunday release.
b0.9.2 Known Issues
- The number readout in the upper left is a Frames Per Second meter to gauge performance. This is for beta only.
- Settings > Control > "Post Score" toggle does not connect to the online API yet.
- Online account management stuff isn't ready yet. (Settings > Control > "My Leaderboard Settings" takes you to a placeholder page.)
- There are some text-overlay "story" elements and SFX still missing, but nothing that affects gameplay.
- If you make it all the way to the end, it will be obvious that something fancier will replace the final screen.
Please post your thoughts in the comments section below, or email me at support@benbritten.com.
Jul 10, 2009
Thanks to Dan, we know there is a problem with level 12. It is still do-able, but you can also short circuit the puzzle and the switches are not behaving as intended.
Jul 10, 2009
Found another one.. seems like 0.9.4 is not necessarily a better version than 092.. sigh.. that’s what I get for trying to make it go faster :-)
anyhow, the popups seem to just fly away right after popping instead of, say, sticking around long enough to read.
Jul 10, 2009
the firewheel does not appear to be turning for some reason…
Jul 10, 2009
Yet another issue, level 18 Infernal Machine: there is an issue with Unity not fully finishing animations when the frames rates are low, and this is causing the platforms to not spin far enough in some cases (making this level nigh impossible)
Jul 11, 2009
Hey Ben,
Just finished level 17 Firewheel. Now that was fun! Yep, can confirm wheel isn’t turning so I guess I got off easy.
Where bugs are concerned,
1) The acceleration slider seems to be sticking more than before but it only if you’re sliding up and down. Tapping directly on the desired level speed hasn’t produced a lock yet.
2) In level 17 Firewheel, I get a consistent crash when attempting to roll through the jet of steam/lava/hot stuff (I now know you’re not actually supposed to go that way). The sequence is, roll into hot stuff and you get booted back to the app screen you loaded from.
Perhaps a really fast melt down before the snowball gets into the hot stuff will end the level before people get that far?
Dan
Jul 11, 2009
Hey Dan,
I think I may have figured out the throttle sticking issue, and I think it may be related to the unity engine dropping things when the frame rate gets low. I think it is dropping some of the touch events.
As for the crash, I did find that earlier actually, it is looking for a sound effect that is not attached. That is fixed in the next build.
And yes, you did get off easy, that level is much harder when the wheel is turning :-)
Jul 11, 2009
I don’t know if this will help solve the unfinished animations issue or not but I got through level 18 Infernal Machine by doing a fast pan as I activated the buttons. When doing this the animations finished fully — or maybe I just got lucky.
Dan