What’s up, friends? This week we have some exciting new features for you to play with. The first of which is a brand new mode called ASSASSINS.

In Assassins mode, points are awarded for each opponent eliminated, and points are deducted for suicides and team-kills. In regular games, this emphasises aggressive, destructive, quick-fire play - everybody wants to rush for the kills for maximum points. In team games - especially 3 vs 1 games - this emphasises pacing, accuracy and control. If you shoot your team-mates accidentally, you’ll lose points, so be very careful.

The second new feature is a visual one. In the initial release of Team Play, it was somewhat vague which teams you were on. You had to either memorise it, or look at the avatars in the corners of the screen, detracting from the game. Now - as illustrated super early on in the design - we’ve put hats on top of the characters in the game. Yeah, that’s right, The Canardinal wears the team hat over the top of the galero.

A new taunt. Hit right on the d-pad during a game.

Falling into a pit of sorts. This will be used later on!

A super rough new menu previs.

There are other new things in this release, but they’re mostly things you’re not able to see yet. Well, unless you hit the “E” key on various screens in the game. Secrets lie therein.

Let us know what you think of the new content on Twitter, Facebook or here in the comments. Stay friendly!

- Ashley

Full Changelog:

1st December - 12th December

New Features:

• Assassins mode!

• Team hats are now on the characters in-game. Just like this.

Known Bug/s:

• Sometimes the scoreboard processes in the wrong order in Assassins mode. Lucky it’s just a visual glitch! :)

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed bug where Finger Of God could not kill Nana Ricketts.

• Fixed bug where Finger Of God spawned twice when a player was killed by a dash/headbutt.

• Fixed bug where Finger Of God spawned when a round was over. e.g. in a 2 v 1 team game when the 1 player died.

• Fixed bug where loading appeared to never get past 92%.

• Fixed bug where incorrect score showed in the avatars during Deathmatch games.

• Fixed bug where killing oneself or a team mate counts as a kill in Deathmatch games.

• Fixed bug where respawn animation finished early because of player movement in Deathmatch games.

• Fixed bug where team hats did not reset on respawn in Deathmatch.

• Fixed bug where first frame of animation showed (or appeared to show) on a player’s respawn in Deathmatch games.

• Fixed art bug where Wonky Wagon corner tiles were ever-so-slightly off-coloured.

• Fixed bug where Canardinal’s hat changes (wrongly to a viking) on the Character Select screen.

Code:

• Added visual swing to the Finger Of God.

• Refactored God & Accelerating bullets into Turbo Bullets properly.

• Implemented basic end-game/summary stats screen with kills/deaths on.

• Implemented “near miss front” and “near miss back” animations.

• Created Arena Select state/class for future menu stuffs. Tied in summary/character-select state so they all go back to the correct (new) menu screens.

• Created “Wobble” class. This is used on the advanced modifiers screen and on a whole bunch of new menus.

• Adjusted “drag” to the Finger Of God rendering.

• Added delay between death and respawn in Deathmatch.

• Implemented “corners” rug positioning modifier.

• Refactoried end-round scoreboard updating/rendering out of the in-game state and into it’s own class.

• Refactored score variable from the Player class into the InGameState - Scoreboard class. This reduces confusion between Player score variables and Team score variables. (They’re essentially the same, now).

• Implemented “Assassins” score system to go alongside Last Man Standing. Explanation above.

• Implemented “floorboard cracks” for the Finger Of God.

• Added “everybody alive wins” timer action / score mode.

• Created “Nudge” class. This will be used on the new menus for extra juiciness!

Art:

• Crypt furniture: Coffins, ghosts…

• Turbo Bullet icon.

• Finger of God floor cracks and gibs.

• Dream machine for mode select almost finalised.

• Items/objects for world select sketched.

Animation:

• Falling into Crypt pits animations (forward & backward).

• Attempted “spinning room” start screen.

• Created and exported the new menu pre-vis.

• Started creating a respawn effect in Spine.

Misc:

• Blog post about our Cornwall holiday published and cross-posted to Game Jolt Indie DB.

• Blog post about Inverse Kinematics, written, published and cross-posted.

• Blog post about the creative production of Friendship Club, written, published and cross-posted.

• Discussed Early Access release plan/marketing and sorted out 2015 year planner.

• Added Creative England text to website / marketing materials.

• Prepared full accounts for Creative England meeting.

• Feature list for Creative England r.e. 2015 release plan.

• Timesheets for predicting 2015 release date.

• Neon Caves port evening work.

• “Cognitive space” of menus written up.

• Put up Christmas decorations in the studio.