Protonaut Open Beta is LIVE!

[weasel]

EDIT: Build 51 released in comments.

Well, after months of work and a healthy serving of elbow-grease, Protonaut is finally open to the public!

This is what we in the industry like to call a "Soft Launch" - we are still actively working on the project and have some exciting plans for it in the future, but the game is finally at a point where it deserves to be seen by a larger audience. We want to share our hard work with everyone!

We hope our Alphanauts will stick with us as the game continues to evolve into the ultimate puzzle-platforming experience! (ugh, that seemed like a sales line from a bad flyer, sorry about that)

I'll take this time-out to give a great big thanks to Greg Wohlwend (http://mile222.com). He's the Artistic Lead on this "little" project of mine. Who knew that when I first made my TNT-laying demolitionist simulator it would end up being a microscopic robot collecting core elements! Greg has been a fantastic help not only with artistic direction, but actually doing all the artsy stuff, game design, and even having a heavy hand in sound and music selection. Anything you see when you look at the game is his - all my work is the invisible strings that tie it together in the background.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy what we've put together so far. I know I've already been blown away by what our Alphanauts have created in the Level Editor - I wonder what our public will come up with?

Things will be a little slow over the next week as I head to the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) in Austin, Texas - but as soon as I get back I'll hit the ground running with new updates and features as suggested by Joe Q. Public.

See the latest changelog after the jump (There are a few minor physics changes - will probably break some old replays).

[weasel]

GAME CHANGES:

- Fixed a new user creation error that has been around for a week or so, and I just failed to notice.
- You can no longer collect Carbon by having it fall off the edges of the screen.
- I had a glitch in the player processing that was limiting his left/right/up speeds (but not his freefall, down speeds). This has been fixed, which makes things like swings, cars, catapults, and other fast moving objects work much smoother and "feel right". The downside: broken replays. :( sorry, better now than after release!
- New "please login" for vote
- Fixed not being able to save a replay if you got a replay error message (such as not logged in)
- The Help menu now says what the default Restart key is
- Fixed bug where making a new account wouldn't let you do anything that required a sign-in (You had to re-sign-in first)
- Fixed bug where signing up wouldn't store your password

OFFICIAL LEVELS:

Here's what I have so far (Bold were updated in this release):

Tutorial 01: 888 Collecting and Jumping
Tutorial 02: 795 Firing
Tutorial 03: 805 Nitrogen
Tutorial 04: 806 Hydrogen
Tutorial 05: 827 Single Bonds
Tutorial 06: 796 Double bonds
Tutorial 07: 807 Ghost Bonds
Tutorial 08: 890 Carbon/Iron intro
Tutorial 09: 809 Wall-Jumping
Tutorial 10: 891 Wall-Climbing

Trial 11: 857 Mine Shaft
Trial 12: 887 Invaders
Trial 13: 854 The Hive
Trial 14: 855 Swing Sets
Trial 15: 873 Stepping Stones
Trial 16: 856 Raiders
Trial 17: 861 Descent
Trial 18: 860 Palindrome
Trial 19: 885 Tumbler
Trial 20: 761 Labyrinth
Trial 21: 889 Shepherd
Trial 22: 882 Monty Hall
Trial 23: 735 Rig the System
Trial 24: 747 Venture
Trial 25: 723 Overcomplicated

[Nikola Tesla]

Wooooo!!! Yay!!! We are open to teh publics!

[OfficiallyHaphazard]

Congrats weasel and greg--awesome job!

[aeiowu]

woop woop! thanks hap!

awesome work Andy. *lifts Andy up on shoulders*

:)

[Linkzcap]

Awesome. Protonaut is becoming a really nice game! :)

Also, there is no screen when you die by touching the last nitrogen.

[Azxs12]

Yay!! Finally!!!:woop::woop::woop: I am so happy!!!!

[darkeagle]

Hooray! I can't wait for the 19th, either. Even though I'm not coming to the party...

[tes753]

Congrats to weasel (Andy)!! Hopefully this might be the next Fantastic Contraption!

[Lemons]

Congrats to weasel (Andy)!! This Will definitely be the next Fantastic Contraption!

Fixed that for you.

[Azxs12]

http://www.protonaut.net/?replay=368 My pronaut is so strong he can fly when he jumps.

[portgoose]

http://www.protonaut.net/?replay=368 My pronaut is so strong he can fly when he jumps.

That is weird...


On another note, great job Weasel! You have definitely put a lot of time into this game, and you have truly succeeded in creating a unique and immensely satisfying platformer/puzzle. I hope Protonaut is a huge success!

[weasel]

BUILD 51:

AUDIO CHANGES:

- The Un-Mute button now restores the appropriate music instead of always defaulting to menu music
- Game music now keeps playing until you return to the Main Menu (by hitting Escape).
- The intro now has some sound effects in it. At this time they don't respect your Mute setting, this will be fixed in the future.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES:

- Dying while grabbing the final element (ie: touching the last nitrogen) now ends the game properly.
- Death now has priority over Victory, so in cases where there is a tie you won't see a victory screen.
- The player can now aim a full 180 degrees (in preperation for Mouse Aiming)
- Aiming speed is now a smidgen faster in one direction (it was faster to aim down than up. Woops.)
- The player can no longer jump "in the air" (abusing a bug in my wall-jump code)
- Nitrogen now has a more predictable power dropoff for its explosions (technically, it used to explode twice - really hard up to 3 meters, and softer out to 5 - now it is medium dropoff across all 5 meters)
- Nitrogen is overall less powerfull than previous builds. It can fling you farther than you can jump if arranged correctly, but not much farther.
- The closer you are to nitrogen, the more it pushes you when it detonates. (not new - just reiterating how it works)
- Nitrogen explosions have more effect on you if you are simply standing next to them (as opposed to jumping over them)

MENU CHANGES:

- The menu tabs now have highlighted characters that can be used as keyboard shortcuts (as long as you aren't actively running around in the game itself - so the keys won't conflict with your custom choices)
- Changed up some of the keyboard shortcuts to prevent overlap; Undo is now CTRL-Z for example. Some things that never had keyboard shortcuts before now do; Test (in the Editor) for example.
- The endgame screen (victory/gameover) can now be keyboard controlled; (N)ext Level, (P)revious Level, (S)ave Replay, (+) Upvote, (-) Downvote.
- Fixed the "Already voted" / "Login to vote" images to display at the correct times.
- "Login to Vote" was showing up after server comms were received, instead of just putting it up immediately. Fixed.

[Linkzcap]

http://www.protonaut.net/?replay=397

Are Nitrogens supposed to be destroyable without the gun?

If so, cool!


Also - Collecting Carbons is fun! But I don't think all of Tutorial 8's Carbons are possible to get. By that I mean the one on the far left...

[Azxs12]

http://www.protonaut.net/?replay=397

Are Nitrogens supposed to be destroyable without the gun?

If so, cool!


Also - Collecting Carbons is fun! But I don't think all of Tutorial 8's Carbons are possible to get. By that I mean the one on the far left...


The nitrogen fell on the bullet-thing and exploded.

[Linkzcap]

The nitrogen fell on the bullet thing and exploded.

Oops, my bad. Funny, it happened twice.

Also, whenever I vote for a level, no matter if I never played it before or not, it says "ALREADY VOTED".

And, I have been noticing something very annoying for a while. Sometimes when I want to shoot something or face something or something along the lines of that, Protonaut turns around without my control.

[casiopt1]

hey hey, just pointin out to all the protonauts that i made a little update to the music today. nothing huge just some tweaks to the balance to more effectively massage your ears while you play ;) enjoy.

[Azxs12]

hey hey, just pointin out to all the protonauts that i made a little update to the music today. nothing huge just some tweaks to the balance to more effectively massage your ears while you play ;) enjoy.

Hmm... your not a site admin... whatever.

[casiopt1]

Hmm... your not a site admin... whatever.

I'm the game's musician.

Edit: OK OK... at first I was a little ruffled at this, but then I realized your post was probably just misguided. Let me properly introduce myself for all the people who don't already know me by this alias. My name is Roger Levy, I'm doing the work on the music and sound effects.

Phew.

[JakeL5555]

Also, whenever I vote for a level, no matter if I never played it before or not, it says "ALREADY VOTED".

And, I have been noticing something very annoying for a while. Sometimes when I want to shoot something or face something or something along the lines of that, Protonaut turns around without my control.

First, you probably voted on the level a while ago soon after the votes were wiped. Second, when you shoot nitrogens from a close range, occasionally 'Naut turns around forcefully without your control.

@Azxs: Obviously you don't have to be an admin to be a partial creator of the game as the forum and game are two completely different entities.

[Linkzcap]

First, you probably voted on the level a while ago soon after the votes were wiped. Second, when you shoot nitrogens from a close range, occasionally 'Naut turns around forcefully without your control.

@Azxs: Obviously you don't have to be an admin to be a partial creator of the game as the forum and game are two completely different entities.

Nope, I went to a completely random level that I have never seen before just now , played it, yet it still says "ALREADY VOTED".

And Protonaut doesn't turn around when I shoot, it's more like when I am standing on an Iron that's balancing on bond or something strange like that and Protonaut flips around.

[OfficiallyHaphazard]

Nope, I went to a completely random level that I have never seen before just now , played it, yet it still says "ALREADY VOTED".

And Protonaut doesn't turn around when I shoot, it's more like when I am standing on an Iron that's balancing on bond or something strange like that and Protonaut flips around.


Your vote goes through, the message means that you have then already voted on the level. I agree, it is confusing.


The reason he turns around is because the angle may change, shifting the protonaut in the opposite direction and thus turning him around

[Linkzcap]

Your vote goes through, the message means that you have then already voted on the level. I agree, it is confusing.


The reason he turns around is because the angle may change, shifting the protonaut in the opposite direction and thus turning him around

I understand the strange turn around thing I suppose, but the voting..

I can't even vote on levels now. It says, before I ever played the level before, "Already Voted".

Edit: Scratch that? I just voted on a level.

[weasel]

Ah crap, yeah the phrasing is off. If you see the thumbs up or thumbs down icons, that means you can vote. If you click on it, THEN it says "already voted," that means it just recorded your vote. It should say something like "Thanks". My bad.

It should also say "login first" if that's the problem.

The protonaut faces the direction he is travelling; if he is moving towards the left, he will face left. If he is moving right, he'll face right. I do have to tweak it so he won't turn if you don't press a key; it is a bit frustrating, I agree.

[Linkzcap]

http://www.protonaut.net/?replay=454

Weird super jump?

[JakeL5555]

http://www.protonaut.net/?replay=454

Weird super jump?

With no actual/recorded evidence, I'm taking a stab in the dark here and guessing that each subsequent nitrogen that you shoot builds more and more pressure inside our little protonaut. Eventually, one nitro pushes the limit and releases all the pressure at once blasting him to infinity and beyond.

[darkeagle]

Also, Weasel, you really need to fix it so you can't set off the hot keys when you're typing.

[JayJSE2]

yeah, because sometimes (I think if you press P) it goes to the tutorials