Welcome back for more patch notes!
This release brings some more improvements and bug fixes. We're continuing taking on feedback and prioritising features and fixes, so please keep reporting bugs and making suggestions, and we'll keep doing our best to address them. We're most active in our Discord server, but we also keep up with our Steam discussion board and our [email protected] inbox.
Since many players were missing the new feature with the record player, we've given Bit some extra dialogue in her post-game speech to hint that the record player speeds have some relation to the minigames. We've also changed the record player to revert to normal speed when an incompatible level is selected as an extra hint that something didn't work. We want this feature to stay somewhat hidden, but we'll continue to tweak it to make it more intuitive for the people who go looking for it.
On the gameplay side, we heard from players that they had difficulty placing the start of a charge cue in President Bird. We've added a subtle layer to the beginning to give it a little more impact, without drastically altering the feel of the level. We'll be keeping an eye on this change to see if something else is necessary. You can also expect some other sound tweaks in future updates.
As a bit of technical housekeeping, we have also increased the system requirements on the Steam store page from 2GB to 4GB. While the game itself typically does not use more than 2GB of memory, this did not account for the memory consumed by the operating system, which was causing issues for some players with lower-end systems. If you are experiencing issues and your computer is close to the minimum requirements, try closing other applications before launching Bits & Bops. Applications like web browsers can consume significant amounts of memory, which can cause out-of-memory errors on lower-end systems.
Finally, the game is now available in Spanish (Latin America)! We also have a separate Spanish (Spain) translation underway, which we expect will be available later this month. We'll continue to work on more translations over time, so please be patient if your language is not yet available. We also have many dedicated language channels in our Discord server where you can chat with your fellow community members!
Game updates
Bit now remarks on the record player at the end of her post-game speech
There is now a subtle additional sound at the start of a held note in President Bird
The white arrows are now shown every time a new game is available in the game corner
The hand in the tutorial overlay now moves more smoothly in Steady Bears
The record player speed now reverts to normal when selecting a game that does not accept the speed change
The flashes in Molecano now scale with BPM
Bits & Bops is now fully playable in Spanish (Latin America)!
Bug fixes
Progression can no longer be broken by forcibly quitting the game before returning to the store
The clock no longer occasionally gets stuck (which happened particularly often at low frame rates)
The spilled tea effect in Octeaparty now stays attached to the cup at high speeds
Inputs are no longer able to be processed while a mixtape is still loading
The first lava geyser in Molecano now makes a sound
The fan translations are again no longer loaded by default
Accessibility improvements
The record labels have been localised for all supported languages
Editor changes
The marchers in Globe Trotters no longer continue flipping indefinitely
More granular events have been added for Molecano
Marching games are now playable without an end event
Marching games now function correctly when restarted after stopping
Marching games started early in the mixtape no longer cause input to stay locked
The charge sound in President Bird no longer loops indefinitely in certain circumstances
The editor now automatically reopens your last loaded mixtape
The minigame event templates are now displayed in game order
Mixtapes are now marked as dirty when an event is deleted
Animations now play correctly when the start beat is changed during playback
Mixtapes missing certain metadata no longer cause issues when opened
The editor's maximum beat has been increased from 1024 to 4096
Internal changes
Exported .bop files now include the version of the game they were created with
Further logging has been added to track down the freezing issue