The Lanes: Changelog

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The Lanes :bowling: Changelog

Brought to you by Last Level Studios

Current Update: Build 969 - Bug Fixes
  • Lanes not resetting fully, causing lanes that won’t let you create a game. Should now be fixed.
  • Joining others’ lanes during a game failing to bring up the bowling controls for the new player. Should now be fixed.
  • Scores missing from the scoreboard & result screen if someone leaves and rejoins, or joins after the first frame is completed. Should now be backfilled with misses/zeros.
  • Leaving and rejoining a game would cause the order to change, messing up the scoreboard and the next turn logic. Should now be fixed so players’ order is restored when rejoining.
  • A player further up the order leaving mid-game would break the ongoing turn for a player further down the order. Should now be fixed.
  • Gamepad launch, if you were too slow and the launch got rejected, would spam with errors as you return the thumbstick to the normal position. Now, failed launches will effectively lock the input until the thumbstick is returned to the normal/zero position to prevent that error spam.
  • Gamepad launch was scaled up accidentally, so you only had to push the stick about 1/3 of the way for it to launch, not giving much room for any spin or speed control. Should now be fixed.
  • On touch devices you’d sometimes accidentally mess up your aim line if your touch was slightly outside the bounds of the Confirm or Left/Right buttons. Should now be a full exclusion zone across the bottom of the screen surrounding the buttons.

Previous Updates:

Update 2.0 - Rewrite

New stuff:

  • Entire game re-written from ground up
  • New environment - SF pier inspired
  • More privacy modes on bowling (“Friends” mode)*
  • Coins are now the only currency
  • Bowling earns coins and XP**
  • Portrait orientation now supported for mobile devices (note: arcade games will force back into landscape; you can rotate back to portrait after leaving arcade game)
  • Completely new UI, including:
    • New way to select balls and animations (and in future, pin effects :eyes:) that should be easier for new and young players.
    • Auto-saves selection for the duration of the game, but can re-pick using “Pick Again” button (or B button on gamepad)
    • New launch mechanism that should be easier for new and young players to understand.
  • New “Info points” around the map as a way to open specific UI windows to help new and young players
    • Buy Coins - will open coin shop
    • What’s new - (not implemented yet) will open the changelog
    • High scores - (not implemented yet) will open the leaderboards
    • Daily rewards - (not implemented yet) will open the rewards screen

*More coming soon too incl. invite-only
**XP not yet visible but will be soon and play into a level system; which may also factor in to matchmaking for future competitive modes

As we’ve been rewriting stuff, we’ve also had to unfortunately temporarily cut out some content:

  • Leaderboards for strikes and perfect games.
    • We want to rethink how these work, including options for Monthly, Weekly and Daily leaderboards for a wider range of stats.
  • Badges won’t be awarded for the moment.
    • We want to replace with a more exciting “Achievements” system with a wider range of badges to unlock, better designs on the badges, and less just counting strikes and games.
  • Bowling ball return showing your balls
    • As part of the new selection screen, the ball return no longer shows your recent balls.
    • Instead, soon, this will simply show the latest balls that have been bowled, and the goal is to animate their return shortly after striking the pins.
  • Lane allocation from reception / follow markers to your lane.
    • Removed for simplification, and to encourage multiplayer gameplay, easier for all players to learn to go to the lanes directly and decide if they want to play with others.
  • NPCs removed for now.
    • Again to simplify and reduce places for bugs to occur. We will consider the future of NPCs and reintroduce them where appropriate in the future to help guide players and possibly to fill in gaps in less busy servers.