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B-12 is an arcade style, single player, third/first-person action-platformer with roguelike elements and robots with plasma cannons for hands.

Report RSS B-12 finally hit 1.0!

After a looooong time in part-time development, B-12 is finally at 1.0 and out of Early Access.

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Well, here goes! It's not quite everything I wanted to do before my self-imposed deadline (the 12th of course!), but this release is truer to my original vision for B-12 than anything else would have been. Twelve robots. Twelve levels. A somewhat minimalist, often frantic action game for short sessions with decent replay value. I never thought it would take 6.5 years, but I started with little knowledge of game development and was working *very* part-time (due to ye ol' day-job). Anyway, I still intend to keep adding to the game as time allows. Version 1.0 doesn't mean I'm finished!

B-12 is available now on Steam and Itch!


Here's the entire change-log since the first public release. Oooo-weee!

-----1.0---------------------------
-Added some new level-gen content and increased the number of enemies and hazards in most levels. (More to come in the future. Level feedback is so very very welcome! ... Maybe at some point I should just add an editor mode and let you have at it. That'd be fun.)
-A few more tweaks and small bug-fixes
-Scrapped the Brantisky Robotics Catalog idea for now since that was never originally intended for 1.0... I think I'll wait for more inspiration and add it in a feature update down the road.

-----0.5.2---------------------------
-Added descriptions for upgrades and weapons at the Maintenance Pad
-Added HUD text to inform of upgrade installs from random drops (yellow crates) "Got Jetpack" etc.
-Slightly buffed jump and wall-jump (mostly vert)
-Projectiles are no longer stopped/destroyed by colliding with small debris
-Projectiles will now blast through up to two crates/enemies/destructibles if that object has been destroyed, rather than being destroyed upon any collision. However, since all projectiles are under control of the physics system, there is also some deflection and loss of inertia.
-B-12's high-power charged shot now does a bit of 'splash' damage when it collides with something
-Fixed issue where level 4-1 kept generating layouts with too few possible switch positions, often taking over 10 attempts to generate a valid level

---0.5.1---------------------------
-Rearranged the switches and instruction pictograph at the hub a little bit
-Added B-2 gun and an initial upgrade to the hub to teach these mechanics a bit faster
-Some changes to level 1-1, trying to bring up the action and difficulty at the start of the game
-Secondary attack button no longer does melee attack when you have no secondary weapon. Input is ignored instead.
-Fixed bug where you could take damage after finishing a level
-Fixed bug where level summary screen would display 'new record' at values of zero
-Fixed bug where there could be multiple instances of the music playing

---0.4.2---------------------
-Added intro text and Brantisky Robotics logo to set up the game's context/background
-Added menu items for 'Brantisky Catalog' and 'Order Robots'
-Added text/placeholder for 'Order Robots' (the game's ending sequence)
-Added Brantisky Catalog interface and some initial pages
-Some additions and a bit of polish to a few of the levels (more to come before -and after- leaving Early Access)
-New skyboxes for worlds 2 and 4
-Added fog effect to cold areas
-Improved light component of explosions
-Tweaked a number of other effects

---0.3.1-------------------
-Weapons touch-up: Various improvements and tweaks.
-In third-person view, B-12 will now keep facing forward while player is actively engaged in combat. Added backward dash/jetpack and run animations to make movement look more natural with this change, also helps with first-person player animations.
-Made a default control-layout graphic and added it to control options menu
-Some changes to main menu scene
-Improved enemy/secondary weapon charging sounds
-Added sound effect for when projectiles hit forcefields
-Added slight pitch randomization to most sound effects
-Added 'new record' notices to level-complete screen
-Prices at Maintenance Pad show in red when player has insufficient funds
-Added melee sounds to enemy robots
-Improved some enemy animations
-Fixed bug where random Upgrade crates would only give the Shield when it's the only upgrade you don't have
-Fixed bug where coin-bank wasn't synchronizing correctly with Steam
-Fixed bug where enemy rigidbodies would get stuck 'isKinematic' and they'd cease movement
-Fixed bug where igloo in level 3-2 could get blocked and player is unable to exit the level
-Probably other stuff I forgot to log

---0.2.0-------------------
-Replaced default Unity Arial font for stats and helpscreen
-Increased shadow resolution
-Added appropriately colored accent lights to teleporters, maintenance pads, switches, etc.
-Improved desctructive crytals (They used to just sit there, exploded when shot. Now act more like proximity mines.)
-Some changes & additions to HUD
-New and improved crosshair (moves to aim-assist target), enabled by default
-Fixed broken resolution option which will now provide 16x9 resolutions since that's what the game is designed for. Any other res/aspect can be acheived by toggling fullscreen and resizing the window as desired, then back to fullscreen.
-Made separate audio sources for upgrade, weapon, and powerup sound effects
-New sound for upgrades
-New sound for when your B-12 is destroyed
-Added a subtle sound to further indicate when you have damaged an enemy

-----0.1.0-------------------------------
-Removed automatic ledge-hop and replaced it with wall-cling and a more versatile wall-jump (a la Mega Man X, Meatboy etc.) Feels much better!
-Added the final robots: B-10, B-11 with corresponding weapons (plasma-sabre still WIP), along with AI/boss version of B-12
-Added the final levels (4-1, 4-2, 4-3, and 4-4 (final boss arena))
-Added dash and wall-jump to AI for B-10, B-11, and B-12 (final boss)
-Many other improvements and new features added to AI code.
-All weapons are now 'unlocked' in the kiosk/store. Normal prices instead of them being 999 until you defeat that enemy-type. (More fun this way.)
-Crates will now drop weapons sometimes. (Again, more fun this way.)
-Made it so that weapon/etc energy is always recharging when not in use, rather than having to hold down primary attack all the time. I think I like it better this way.
-Udpdated engine to Unity 2017.4 (LTS)
-Replaced SSAO and old camera effects with new Unity Post Processing Stack.
-Nerfed wall-cling when touching ice.
-Increased jetpack energy depletion rate. (It was way OP before...)
-Aim-assist no longer targets crates.
-Changed camera-fade and level-gen screen colors.
-Fixed camera-fade not finishing before the next scene/level loads.
-Removed option for vsync and implemented adaptive vsync. This is to remove some headache from the user experience on very high end or low end systems.
-Minor changes throughout many of the levels.
-Fixed help screen getting cut off at non-16x9 aspect ratios.
-Adjustments to volume of a few sound effects. Still working on the final audio mix.
-New combat and boss music, some tweaks to dynamic music code (still tuning)

-----0.0.52-------------------------------
-Added physics forces to melee combat and made hit-checks more consistent (still tuning)
-"Swap Weapon" button/key will now drop the current weapon if you hold it for 1 second.
-A few AI tweaks and improvements (Added some simple strafing to most enemies. Also they're now a little better at finding their way around confusing corners and not falling over ledges ... most of the time.)
-Added stats for level 3-3 to menu. Forgot to do it on the previous update.

-----0.0.51-------------------------------
-Added a new boss robot (B-9) with corresponding weapon (Ice-gun!) and achievement
-Added a new level (3-3)
-Added achievement for completing World 3
-Added 'Recommended' to aim-assist in the Options menu since the only other note of this recommendation was tucked away in the Help menu
-Made some changes and improvements to code for dynamic music, still tweaking.
-Various other small fixes and things I can't remember

-----0.0.5-------------------------------
-Added a new enemy robot (B-8) with corresponding weapon and achievement
-Added a new level (3-2)
-Added some more info to the help menu
-Various other small fixes and tweaks
-Started working on Mac and SteamOS/Linux support, but ran into too many unforeseen issues to get it ready in time for this build. Hopefully I can get things smoothed out and get those platforms supported soon.

-----0.0.44------------------------------
-Finished 3-1 level-gen setup with the initial set of modules and removed 'preview version' text.
-Made some tweaks and fixes to a few of the exising level-gen modules.
-Made destructibles more melee-friendly and easier to destroy in general.
-Decreased charge-time (between colors) on primary plasma-cannon. (Was: 1 second between each, Now: green at 06.s, violet at 1.4s) This is to speed up pacing when activating the green and violet switches, and it also helps you get to the high-damage attacks with B-12's primary cannon more quickly.
-Reworked primary charging sounds to synchronize with power-level. Will need to polish and repeat this for all weapons when I get to the sound-effects overhaul later in development.
-Increased plasma-switch size and added bars to indicate power-level (to make them more color-blind friendly).
-Fixed a couple of stats bugs (bots destroyed in current level & total number of b-12 units lost).
-Fixed bug where enemy firing rates were set incorrectly depending on difficulty setting.
-Made some slight size & position adjustments to the HUD.
-Made a couple of other small AI code tweaks.
-Added code so that damaging explosions (crystals, B-6 plasma-'grenades') actually check for obstructions before doing damage.

-----0.0.43------------------------------
-Added help menu with a legend and some tips & hints.

-----0.0.42------------------------------
-Fixed bug where achievement for using the Maintenance Pad was given without actually making a purchase. (Thank you, @FPS_DB for the bug-report!)
-Added FOV slider to graphics options (derp! I really should've done this right away)
-Tightened movement controls to where momentum doesn't keep you moving when there is no movement-input. This doesn't apply when you're standing on slippery ice, of course. ;]
-Removed fish-eye camera effect. I'd had several reports of players just not being fans in general, then I realized it was messing with the position of mouse-clicks in the UI so it had to go. Stuff like that annoys me wayyy too much.

-----0.0.41------------------------------
-Added 3 second attack-buffer at level start for B-1 turrets (I'd already done this for all other enemies. B-1 is the only bot that doesn't use the main AI script.)
-Made it so that enemies don't spawn within a certain range of the player at level gen. This helps to keep from getting overrun right at the start of a level.
-Fixed bug with auto-aim where it would permanently stay locked if you disabled auto-aim while a target was locked.

-----0.0.4---------------------
-Added levels 2-1, 2-2, 2-3 with a basic set of level-gen modules, as well as a small preview version (static) of level 3-1.
-Made it so that the jetpack will not work in extremely low temperatures (almost zero thrust, spews black smoke). That means, essentially, no jetpack in world 3.
-Added enemy robots B-5, B-6, and B-7.
-Added flight ability to AI script (for B-7).
-AI may now inform other nearby enemies when the player is spotted.
-Various other AI code improvements. Still needs work, for sure.
-Added weapons that drop from B-5 and B-6.
-Fixed major bug in level generator that was incorrectly and prematurely causing a level-gen failure.
-Changed white cell geometry from a sphere to something more coin-like since that is its function.
-Made upgrade drops from crates more rare since they will be available to purchase at the Maintenance Pad.
-Scrapped a lot of 1-2 level-gen content and reworked it for better flow, more chance of loops/cycles. Less variety for now, but more fun to play, I think. Will continue to add/improve with development, as with all levels.
-Improved explosions: Added smoke trails to debris. Fire-balls now fade out instead of just disappearing suddenly. Fire-balls grow at decreasing rate, rather than the opposite.
-Improved explosive antigravity crystals.
-Added destructible entrances to pyramids in world 2.
-Removed all laser and red forcefield traps for now. I may wait and have those not show up until world 4, AKA where bad robots go when they die.
-Made it so that the plasma-stomp cannot be performed if there is no ground below you. This should help avoid a lot of untimely, accidental falls to your death.
-Added mini-boss placement to level-gen code (encounter boss robots in a later level as a normal enemy).
-Coins/Credits now save to bank on level completion (funds are then available at any maintenance pad).
-Added the Maintenance Pad to purchase upgrades, weapons, and health. One available in each level, though it may be difficult to find sometimes.
-Re-tuned random drops (crates and enemies) due to implementation of Maintenance Pad.
-Changed default difficulty back to intermediate (AKA normal/medium/whatever).
-Made new sounds for menu select & activate.
-Added screen space ambient obscurance (SSAO). Took forever to find settings I was happy with. Still not perfect, but it improves the lighting and overall depth of the image a lot.
-Added menu option to toggle SSAO.
-Removed follow/auto-center camera option. It was fun to code, but it just didn't make sense in a game with nearly constant aiming/shooting.
-Added in-game option to change video resolution.
-Implemented Rewired (input plugin) so you can now re-map controls within the game.
-Removed Unity luancher window.
-Removed Unity splash screen.
-Made a custom cursor and cleaned up mouse interaction with menus.
-Moved crosshair option from Graphics menu to Controls menu (needed room, and it made more sense).
-Added 'Display Framerate' to graphics options.
-Tweaked melee code a bit. Bugfix: Melee weapons that did not require secondary power would become unresponsive when secondary power was low. Now fixed. Also, made it so that when your secondary weapon requires power, but power is too low, you will perform a normal melee attack instead.
-Added basic stats recording and displaying (level summary and within the menu at any time)
-Added Steam features (stats, achievements, cloud save)
-Implemented basic dynamic music system along with music by delogated (combat) and myself (idle/ambient). A lot of it will be replaced and/or changed as development progresses.
-Lots of polish and tweaks getting ready for EA release.
-Probably a bunch of other things I forgot to add to this list.

-----0.0.3b Alpha-----------------------
-Fixed potential game-breaking bug for anyone who has played an older version of B-12.
-Moved initial switch tutorial to hub
-Added big conduits to hub

-----0.0.3 Alpha-----------------------
-Re-implemented optional first-person perspective (Not sure why I removed it in the first place...)
-Secondary weapons now carry over from level to level
-Secondary weapons now use secondary/special power rather than having their own finite ammo supply
-Primary (right-hand) plasma launcher now uses secondary power (... now primary power, I suppose, since all powered weapons will use it.)
-Secondary power is now called primary power... er.. just power? (Blue bar = structural integrity, Violet bar = weapons power)
-Weapons power recharge is now immediate and a bit faster
-Re-tuned depletion-rate of all powered attacks
-Buffed melee attack damage and range ~20%
-Added separate input to swap out your secondary weapon (used to be same input as secondary attack)
-Changed default control config to better suit secondary weapons (Left trigger for left arm, right trigger for right arm)
-Made initial primary weapon shot (blue) fire upon input, rather than when released (as with the charged shots)
-Changed default crouch/dash button on gamepad to left-stick (press/button)
-Added ledge-hop/jump to aid movement throughout levels and to help avoid falling
-Re-tuned difficulty curve and changed difficulty names. Made "Novice" the default difficulty.
-Made the shield and plasma-stomp into upgrades, rather than being basic abilities. This replaces the supdershield upgrade (where shield did damage) with just the normal shield, and makes it so the melee upgrade is required to use the plasma-stomp. This gives much more meaning to those two upgrades.
-Improvements and additions to level-gen content for levels 1-1 through 1-3
-Various other tweaks, fixes, and optimizations

*-Added new enemy robot, B-5 (cratebug)
*-Started on level-gen content for world 2
*-Added jump-attack to enemy AI code

* = Tasks that were completed but not included in this release

-----0.0.2 Alpha-----------------------
-Increased ambient lighting and changed some textures to make colors more vibrant.
-Added jump input buffering to make jump timing less strict when landing and falling off of ledges. This gives a much better feel to platforming.
-Added secondary weapons (dropped by enemy robots)
-Added projectile accuracy/spread to enemy AI script
-Added difficulty setting and re-tuned 'normal' difficulty
-Added effects to make active teleporters more visible/emphasized
-Minor changes to sounds for melee attacks and the jetpack
-Other various tweaks/fixes

-----0.0.1 Alpha Rev. 2----------------
-Fixed a bug where the game gets stuck in the pause menu

-----0.0.1 Alpha-----------------------
-First public alpha release

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