We are pleased to announce that version 2.0.9 of the Shoot 'Em Up Kit has been released. This new version contains lots of features requested on the forums; as well as bug fixes and improvements.
The release notes since our last announcement (version 2.0.5) are as follows:
Version 2.0.9
- Fixed some issues with the rotation of child items (Items that have a Parent Entity).
- Fixed some issues with the rotation of Effect particles.
- Player Entities set to reset '2 seconds ago' now spawn correctly when testing the game.
- Enemy Waves are correctly reset after a Player loses a life.
- Increased zoom in/out speed in Particle Editor. The keys will double the zoom speed while the keys will halve it.
- Fixed an issue with saving Front-End pages.
- Fixed an issue where selecting a Bullet Particle would set the Bullet Killed Particle instead.
- Automatic error reporting now occurs via Steam servers.
- Light direction settings are now saved correctly again.
- Fixed a problem with lighting from all levels being applied to each scene.
- Fixed a potential crash when lights are parented to items.
- Fixed an issue that could prevent Gravity and item parents from being set for the correct level in a multi-level game.
- Added some optimisations to the lighting system.
- Fixed a potential crash when switching between HUD Editor and testing the game.
- HUD sprites can now be scaled when using data values.
- Renamed some of the steps in the New Game Wizard.
- It is now possible to select the 'Thrust' control option in the New Game Wizard.
- Thrust and Shield effects now stop correctly when the Thrust/Shield button is released.
- Fixed an issue which could prevent Wave data from being transferred when copying levels.
- Added a fix which would read data if a level file became corrupt due to a failed level copy.
- Effects can be used to change the current Sprite.
- Added a new effect which is triggered when an Entity reaches the boundary of its Active Area.
- HUD, Front-End and Behaviour Editor data now works correctly with new Properties. We apologise for the Score and Lives properties appearing incorrectly in the HUD after update 2.0.5.
- Added an option to allow NPC's to check whether they will shoot a teammate if they fire. This has always been a hidden property which was set to 'On' but can now be turned off.
- Background sprites larger than the screen size can now be wrapped using the Level Editor's 'Movement' properties.
- Full-Screen games now use Vertical Sync (VSync).
- Sprites are scaled correctly in the Preview window.
- Fixed an issue with scrollbars not scrolling to the very bottom of a Window in specific circumstances.
- Fixed a potential crash when entering text in the Front-End Editor.
- Building a stand-alone package is now functional. There may still be some issues and these will be addressed in subsequent builds.
- The 'Hidden' property for Entities is now saved correctly.
We are currently improving the level editor by making it easier to replace Entities; Clone items; Select multiple-items; and build levels by dragging from a palette of objects. We will then be creating template games to make it faster and easier to get a fully-featured game up and running.
We are also continuing to improve the documentation and create more tutorial videos.
Thank you for all your support.