Remember a couple weeks ago when I said I was still working on Night Shift? Well here's the big update! There's a fair amount that's been added and changed, so I'll break that down for you:
-Multiple puzzles/levels have been added.
-The ending has been added.
-Achievements have been added.
-Game pad controls have been changed.
-Various bugs and annoyances have been fixed.
Mostly self explanatory, I think, but I'll elaborate on some of these points.
The additional levels and ending means that the game is done. You can play it front to back and have a satisfying experience. I'm not planning on adding any more content and will be moving forward with release next week assuming nothing completely disastrous happens.
Achievements are in the game now. The technical reason they weren't in already was because I needed to switch compilers to add the Steam API, and this caused framerate issues. The framerate issue has been solved so achievements are in. However, you will notice the Steam Overlay is not present. This is because my rendering method was not conducive to allowing the Overlay to hook in properly. Admittedly, this was an oversight on my part and can't easily be fixed at this stage of development.
I've also fiddled with the game pad controls. The layout wasn't quite what people were hoping for last go around, so here's what I've changed it to:
Left Stick: Steering
A Button: Accelerate
B Button: Reverse
X or Y: Toggle Headlights
LB, RB, LT or RT: Flash Highbeams
Start Button: Pause
Previously it was mostly just move around with the left stick, which was cumbersome. I've tested and designed these controls for 360 game pads. They should work with a variety of controllers, but I haven't tested them.
In regards to a Mac port, not anytime soon. For much the same reason there's no Overlay, I cannot easily port this to OSX. Core functions of the graphics library I'm using have been deprecated on OSX which means I need to upgrade Libraries to get around the problem. This unfortunately also means I would have to revise large amounts of code. For those wondering, this is the main reason there isn't a non-flash OSX version of 1000 Amps (my other game). The plan on this front is to do my next project in a compatible graphics library and use that knowledge and codebase to upgrade/port Night Shift and 1000 Amps.
The last thing I will be doing with Night Shift, barring any unforeseen circumstances, is adding Trading Cards. After I've done that I will be flipping the release switch.
At some point in the future I'll elaborate on the process of making the ending, but that's a little spoilery so I'll wait until you've all had a chance to absorb it before I go around telling everyone why it took as long as it did. For now I'll just say that the bulk of my early access period was spend working on it.
I hope everyone enjoys what I've done with Night Shift. I'm immensely appreciative of the interest and support shown thus far and look forward to hearing what everyone thinks of the finished product.
Thanks, Brandon Brizzi
@OutManOdd
[email protected]