MicroWorks Discord Server & Game Updates!

Hey everyone! In this announcement, we'd like to share some news and talk more about what we've been up to with the game.

So first thing's first, as you could probably tell by the title, we have a Discord server now! This is where we can casually talk and share more about the game and our progress in real time. If you're interested in following the development or just casually chatting, please feel free to join! http://discord.gg/HMUDYn3

So, with that little announcement out of the way, let's talk about what's been happening since our last update:

Right now, we're hard at work at completing the game's main and essential systems. The brain of our game, the Microgame Coordinator, is almost complete! We've added proper support for small game modifiers, those being the microgame arguments and special rounds, which can affect the gameplay in unexpected and fun ways. We've also added proper support for lives-based gamemodes, adding Survival into the mix! (Last Player Standing still upcoming). Boss stages are now fully integrated into the game, though we haven't started full work on them yet.

The code for handling microgames has also been immensely simplified, aiding us in creating more microgames in way less time, while staying fully synchronized.

We've also been plenty busy overhauling our UI! Here, check out some examples:

We were working hard on the weapons system, too. It has gotten a complete overhaul, allowing for simple and effective creation of new and cool weapons, anything from simple hitscan weapons, to projectile-based pistols and even railguns! In order to maintain efficiency, hitscan weapons are server-predicted, so even at high ping, you shouldn't experience any lag!

We also completed a full rewrite of our console system. Console variables (or CVars for short), which are our preferred way of keeping track of settings have been properly implemented. They can be adjusted at runtime and from config files located in the game's folders. CVars are fully tied into the settings menus, changing in real time while you modify them, letting the game update itself with the new values.

Our lobby system has been ironed out, letting players easily host, browse and connect to servers! We rely on Steam's peer-to-peer services, allowing everyone to host without worrying about stuff like port forwarding or going through NATs. Steam does NAT-punchthrough and all that jazz by itself. We also rely on Steam's matchmaking & lobby services to create a simple lobby browsing interface, that allows people to connect to others without passing any invite codes or IP addresses. You just open the server list, filter for the server you want to connect to and join!

Last time we talked about the workshop, we showcased it in a WIP state. We are happy to reveal now that our workshop and customization system is fully complete and functional! We've talked about it extensively in our previous announcement, but some things we can add to it are some quality limitations we've implemented to ensure no harmful cosmetics make their way on to the workshop. For example, we have a bounds limit that defines how big your cosmetic is allowed to be. Exceeding those limits will disallow your item from being uploaded.

From some smaller things, we've also revamped our localization system, which now will allow people to easily create and share localization files for their own language if they aren't already in the game, allowing people to easily mod languages for non-english speakers to play. We also introduced voting, allowing players to kick hackers or rude players from the match with just a 3/4 majority vote. We also have added voice chat into the game, alongside the already existant text chat functionality. It's a simple push-to-talk system which uses Steam to grab the microphone input and efficiently encode and transmit it to other players.

Phew.. and that's only some of the things we've been working on! We really have been plenty busy and we plan to keep on it. It is our hope that by Christmas, we can come out of Pre-Alpha, and start really filling in that outline we've created.

Until next time though, thank you for reading!