Hi folks,
Squatting Penguins Team here, signing in to announce the release of Beta 3.0 for The Mims Beginning, including the new Survival and Sandbox modes, along with 2 completely new levels, featuring cutscenes, new enemies and an assortment of new additions.
Our tiny team consisting of 3 people is celebrating the 4th anniversary of having started working on The Mims, which commenced all the way back in June 2012. It goes to show just how much effort it takes to create an indie title the size of The Mims Beginning.
Four long months have passed since the last update, during which we did our best to deliver a stable, bug-free and well-polished build of the game. The Mims is now fully supported in three languages, which caused a slight setback on the release, not to mention the day-to-day grind that would sometimes slow our progress down to halt.
With that out of the way, thank you for your kind understanding. The changelog might seem sparse at first, but the new additions involved numerous changes and weeks upon weeks of work.
Main elements that were added/improved:
- Survival/sandbox mode: We have implemented a survival/sandbox mode, tapping into the funds collected during our Indiegogo campaign. The mode features a fully customizable start screen that lets you adjust multiple gameplay elements, such as a floating island, number of characters, trees, gems, predator increase, speed of wind, random events frequency, enemy waves, and much more. The list doesn’t end there, as we have introduced customizable victory and loss conditions to personalize your gameplay experience. We are positive that the new mode will deliver long hours of quality entertainment and breathe in new air to The Mims Beginning.
- Mysterious Caves – new level: Mims have detected heat coming from the caves, the likely location of the engine heaters. There’s something sinister lurking in the shadows, however. There are also mysterious creatures, whose fate is inexplicably bound to that of the island. If any harm would befall them, the island will surely be doomed.
- Geyser Lake – new level: The carrier’s breakdown resulted in the ship’s parts being dislodged into the lake. Its boiling temperature prevents the Mims from getting anywhere near its deadly waters to use their energy. It is time to fall back on the old technology of constructing buildings out of stone minerals.
Other additions/improvements:
- New predator, Kanbear: a mighty enemy, capable of performing a deadly charge
- New pest, Frogan: pest that feeds off fruits and emits a putrid smell that robs Mims of their energy and willingness to work
- New catastrophe, Tornado: that scatters everything around
- New wild animal, Godusinus: special creatures that will not cause the Mims any harm, but will graze on fruits; they can’t be sold, and will furthermore bring catastrophes on the island, if harmed
- New cutscenes
- New tracks and sound effects
- Collider optimization
- Gameplay optimization: improvements as per players’ suggestions
In the meantime we also started working on elements that will not be part of the latest update, such as new levels and their code, level design, models (e.g. Rocket Drill, Magnetic Engine), new islands ( e.g. desert, old ruins, etc.), new enemy types (e.g. dragon, giant spider). With that in mind, we should roll out the next update (likely the last pre-release one) much sooner. Put it differently, all the elements of the puzzle are there, but we still need to arrange them.
We rely on your help in optimizing the Survival mode (in particular, the difficulty levels), as well as the newly introduced levels.
We eagerly await your feedback and ideas!
Best!
Squatting Penguins Team
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