Developer Notes
Yesterday we released a patch which was aimed at smoothing out the progression curve as well as making the boss upgrades more interesting. You can read about those changes here.
Goal for This Patch
Today we're releasing a patch which is aimed at further smoothing out the frustrating parts of the mid/end game. We did this primarily by reworking almost all of the level layouts and by adding in some upgrades to make collecting loot far less tedious as the game goes on so you can focus on duck, dodge, dip, dive, oh and dodging the enemy bullets.
What We're Working On
We are going to continue to monitor feedback about this patch and keep an eye out for any pesky bugs or exploits. If needed we will do more balance passes at the various enemies and upgrade tree values and costs. Boss Rush Mode?
This morning I had a shower though.. "What would a boss rush mode look like?". So this next week I'd also like to start exploring adding a Boss Rush mode where you see how fast you can complete each level. Our idea for this mode is that you would spawn in at level 1 with all the upgrades for that level and then once you beat the boss you go right to level 2 with all the level 2 upgrades. Dying to a boss would simply reset you to that level again. I could see this being a fun mode to try and speed run so perhaps we also look at adding in a leaderboard. Let us know if you'd like this mode or have ideas for additional game modes we could explore!
Feedback and Ideas:
Please let us know if you still feel any pain points, while Orb Breaker is inherently a skill based game we also want to make sure you are properly challenged.
How to reach us?
Make a post over in the Steam Discussions. We read all the posts and especially during launch week, we're a 2 person team and can usually fix a bug within minutes (unless it's a tricky one!)
Join our Discord and make a post in one of the Orb Breaker roles
As always thank you for playing our game (or games if you've played our other games) making video games is truly a dream come true for both Cory and myself and we can't thank you enough for playing our game.
Cheers, Andy (Aarimous)
Patch Notes 1.1
Boss & Enemy Changes
Final Boss (Level 9)
When you defeat an arm on the final boss it will now explode in currency
The goal here is to allow you to farm up money while also fighting the boss, and I think it looks pretty cool!
We call this the hydra boss since the idea was inspired by hydra where when you kill a head two pop out.. well we tried that during the development and it got out of hand quickly so instead it's the 3 heads for phase 1 and 6 heads for phase 2
Level 4 Boss
Boss 4 adjusted the shield so it spins a bit slower and has slightly larger gaps and about 5% less health.
We also adjusted the collision shape here to better match the bosses art
The goal with this boss is to test your aiming while moving and these slight nerf should still keep that challenge while being just a bit easier on those edge cases where you felt your orb should have gotten to the boss.
Adjusted the shotgun enemies (level 7) so their bullets are smaller and a bit slower to allow a bit more wiggle room when trying to dodge their attacks
Update the Mortar boss to fix an issue where the health of the boss wasn’t showing until you had done about 10% of damage. Also update the art to a less blurry version. :)
Removed the slight vignette effect from when the boss enrages
When the boss enrages their shield will now match the brighter red color (if the boss has a shield)
The boss health bar in the bottom of the screen will now also match the brighter red of the enraged boss.
Level Layout
Level 3 layout has been adjusted to provide a more initial open space as well as easier access to the caches of high loot tiles
Adjusted the level layouts for levels 4,5,6,7,8, and 9 to all have more high value tiles to farm.
The goal here it make less of a grind and to try and explore the farming tiles vs spawning the boss by fighting enemies push/pull gameplay that we are aiming for
New Upgrades
Added "Chance to spawn golden tiles" upgrade. Will first appear in level 4 upgrades as well as again in level 7, 8, and 9.
Golden tiles will increase the loot dropped for the given tier of tiles. There are also some upgrades on the tree to increase the scale of these tile
Added in "increase suck up range" to level 4 and 6 for a total of 100% large area.
The goal here is to make picking up the loot less of challenge in the mid game to allow you to focus more on dodging, dipping, diving, oh and dodging enemy bullet
Added in "chance to auto pickup loot" to the upgrades in the level 7,8, and 9 areas.
The goal here is to allow the challenging final act enemies and bosses to become your focus and the passively each run you will be picking up the loot for tiles you destroy either by choice or from accident.
By the end of the game you’ll get 100% pickup which I think feels pretty good especially now with the final boss changes