Dev Log

[Hollow]

Where are these test builds of the game uploaded at?

[larsiusprime]

Okay, so my suspicions are confirmed. I'll manually update the latest test build to the regular place and hopefully things will work from then on.

@Hollow: have you asked to be a tester? If not, send me a PM and I can give you access.

[larsiusprime]

Uploading version 0.9.57 as I speak, for mac/win/linux.

I'm updating the index file now, but the uploads will take a bit of time. So if the links are broken, try again in an hour or so.

Fixes:
-Fixed various colorization bugs
-Fixed particle settings bugs, added ability to manually tweak particle density of AOE attack in data
-Added consistency to creep names
-Fixed some tutorials
-Fixed 'buy multiple Evnis' bug
-Made hermit pearls gold to distinguish them

And some other things, probably. Since there might have been some mislabeling with the last version, this one also has the promised memory leak fix and solves various crash bugs.

I will try to upload demo and browser builds later tonight. I'm pretty satisifed that the auto-update feature works as intended, and we've fixed most of the highest priority bugs. If all goes well, I think we will start deploying the game early next week as it's now "good enough" for public consumption, and we really want gold edition available before PAX.

We're probably going to do a "staged deploy" where we push new builds to the public update server first so people's games will auto-update, then we update the store and website, then we update the kongregate and newgrounds versions. The idea is to start with the smallest audience and finish with the largest, so that if something goes wrong early on we can fix it before exposing it to too many people.

I'm thinking probably something like this:
-Upload to update server
1) Linux
2) Mac
3) Windows
-Update website
1) Update fastspring store versions
2) Update browser demo
-Update web portals
1) Update newgrounds demo
2) Update kongregate demo / kreds version

We'll see how it goes. Wish us luck! And keep filing those bug reports. If anything super critical shows up I'll delay the release.

[larsiusprime]

Okay, just finished a big round of bugfixing. This takes care of everything important except for a few 2 high-priority bugs I can't do much about at the moment.

The first is the stupid scare-screen in the new version of Mac OS X that strongly implies Defender's Quest is malware. You have to be an apple verified developer to get that to go away, and unfortunately that process takes weeks. I've started the paperwork but it will take... time.

The second is that the resolution switching mechanism can screw up dual monitor setups on Linux. Not horribly so, but will require the user to re-adjust their resolution manually after playing the game. I've got a fix in the works for this, but it won't make it on day one. Linux users are already much less than 5% of our audience, and though I think it's really important to hit that platform and support it, I imagine that the small number of Linux users running dual monitors that have trouble with this issue can probably just deal with the problem until I figure out how to fix it in a week or so.

The most important thing is this: both of these issues are *already* present in version 0.9.01, so releasing gold now will be a strict upgrade, even if it doesn't fix every single last issue.

I'm uploading release candidate 5, version 0.9.58, to the test servers now. If there's nothing catastrophic found in this build, I will release it to the public first thing tomorrow morning.

Here's the bugs I fixed:
* Show item descriptions on equipped items
* Super sheep ignored by Wrenna from 2nd row
* Modding interface glitches
* Absence/failure values for 100% fail to show in GUI
* Dragon's fire breath bounces around
* Off-center targetting points
* Don't fire zeal prematurely
* Ranger targetting first picks wrong target
* Accessibility sensitive areas
* Teleported target in the middle of ranger volley
* Dark status applied too late
* Five spawns glitch
* Bonus rewards show as 'incomplete' evin if completed
* Book of daring - description misleading / books don't show descriptions

And maybe some others. It was a lot so I forget. Now I need to cut a trailer together, take a bunch of screenshots, and get our website ready for tomorrow.

EDIT:
Sorry, computers' been crashing. Got it working. UPloading now.
Mac is not being cooperative. Just linux & windows builds for now.

[coyot]

0.9.57 doesn't seem to pick up the update for me, and I don't see it on the test page as direct download either. Am I missing something?

[larsiusprime]

On the test page now. Will update test/update server later tonight, gotta run.

[larsiusprime]

We are launching gold edition today.

Here's the details:
http://www.fortressofdoors.com/2012/08/ ... today.html

More to come as the day goes on.

[Marak]

Well worth the wait! Having a ton of fun, even on older content I've already played a handful of times; the new artwork really adds a lot to the experience. Thanks for all the hard work Lars, I'm seriously thinking about re-buying the game once it hits Steam... you deserve more than the $7 you got from me for all the work you've put into the game over the last 4-6 months.

[larsiusprime]

Okey dokey, just woke up.

Today's priorities are fixing these launch bugs. I wish we'd caught these earlier, but it's kind of the nature of software development.

So - here's what we've got:
1) Map crystals don't do anything if you don't have the crystal spell yet
2) Can't rename characters
3) Ice mage eyes don't recolor
4) Whatever else I can find

coyot had mentioned a bug in the past where the dragon fire spell does not always hit every enemy on screen, but I've been unable to reproduce it in version 1.0.0 so I'm going under the presumption that it's been fixed. If anyone sees that appen in 1.0.0, please let me know so I can investigate/fix it.

I leave at 4:30 today, so I should have enough time to do a quick patch.

[larsiusprime]

Update -

1) fixed lightning/crystal.
2) fixed renaming characters.
3) fixed ice mage eyes
4) fixed misleading description on bonus battle 2

I leave at 4:30 PM today for PAX. Right now it's 9:30 AM central standard time in Texas. It will likely take at least 2 hours to compile, package, and upload all the new patched versions of the game. So, you have until about 2:00 PM today to post any super critical bugs I need to fix before I leave for the long weekend I won't be able to fix anything until next Tuesday morning, so let's have it!

Thanks for helping me with the launch, everyone!

The new patch will be version 1.0.1 and will hit later today.

[larsiusprime]

Linux patch, version 1.0.1, just went live. Once I can confirm everything's kosher, mac/windows will follow.

[larsiusprime]

Mac and windows patches are up - worked on my systems.

[larsiusprime]

Uploading new demo builds now. After that, the browser demo, and the version 1.0.1 patch deploy will be complete.

Well, the store will still need updating, but that can come later.

[Marak]

Thanks for the quick patch, now go have some fun at PAX!

[Hollow]

So what does the Book of Daring do? I assume that if you equip it, it conveys some benefit for handicapping yourself, like giving all characters who weren't used full EXP instead of reduced?

[coyot]

Why don't you dare?

[Yinan]

I used the Book of Daring and didn't find any difference except what the book says (once you summon a defender, you can't summon him again in the current game). Havn't found any benefit...

[galneon]

Loving 1.0.1...

Pertaining to the newish auto-update feature, do you think you could slightly increase the initial timeout variable? I time out pretty much every time I launch the game and have to select retry, which always works. A slightly more liberal initial timeout variable should fix it for me and others with poor connections (ancient ADSL...).

[larsiusprime]

Hey everyone, I'm back and ready to fix some bugs.

I'm a little sick, but hopefully I'll be able to beat the PAX pox and it'll just turn out to be a slight congestion.

[Anthony]

Oh man - all that fist bumping instead of hand shaking and you still got the PAX pox? Get better Lars!