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What’s been added?

• A brand new input system
  Which means you can use a multitude of older generation controllers. We tested with OG xbox dukes on a mac – so compatibility with your devices should be great.
• Added new input styles
  Including inverted stick direction, boost control and others.
• Added new Style mode
  This mode gives you a bunch of tasks to complete. When you complete enough, your ship can enter turbo mode where you gain an insane amount of points. Watch yourself though, because you have a limited amount of lives.
• New enemy behavior
  We’ve rewritten enemy AI for the wolfpack, purge and strife to make them smarter, faster and more difficult – just what you need when trying to hit those high scores.
• Revamped whip mechanic
  Eliminating an enemy with the whip now gives you a small chance to regen your health, perfect for keeping your multiplier high.
• Revamped secondary whip mechanic
  You can no longer drop the whip behind you. Players thought it was a bug, so we now allow you to shoot the whip out like a bullet.
• Revamped mines
  Mines will now automatically detonate after letting them go
• Added info screens to the beginning of each mode
  These screens give you some information about the mode and how the mechanics work, and also displays the relevant controls so you are no longer confused.
• Added Teams to multiplayer
  You can now team up with your buddies and dominate shwip-ball
• Revamped multiplayer joining
  Along with the teams addition, we reworked how players join a multiplayer game. No more accidental quitting! You can enter a lobby, fly around and choose a team.
• Added Names to multiplayer
  Players noticed it was hard to keep track of where you were on screen, so we added nametags. Never lose yourself again!
• UX/UI Enhancements overall
  From menus to info screens to gameover, we’ve made the user experience much better throughout the entire game.
• New music added!
  Our excellent audio producer Elezeid put together some insane new tracks for you to enjoy. You’ll be able to purchase the Official Shwip soundtrack soon, so stay tuned to our twitter for details and dates.
• Minefield enhancements
  We’ve made it easier for you to judge the effect radius of each checkpoint. Also added is a new indicator for how much time you get per checkpoint PLUS a new bonus mechanic that rewards faster players.
• Brand new particle and visual effects
  We’ve introduced a new lighting and particle system to triple the amount of effects we previously had. PLUS, the new system utilizes your GPU rather than CPU so the game should run even smoother while pumping out more FX.
• Added a particle amount slider
  For those who want less visual clutter, we’ve added a slider to adjust particles.
• Improved PC controls
  Keyboard & Mouse just wasn’t very good before. We introduced some new button combinations, though we still think a gamepad is the best way to experience the game, can’t leave our pc master race squad behind.
• Added fullscreen and resolution options to the settings menu
• Fixed over 300 bugs!
• Other small tweaks to weapons and backend systems you’ll never see unfortunately.

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Welcome! Today we’ll dive right in.

What would an arcade game be without a soundtrack? Explosions and the firing of weapons certainly isn’t enough to immerse yourself in the experience. Today we’ll unearth the problem of not having a soundtrack, obtaining the music of Shwip, how it changed the game, the person behind the music, and finally what we learned in the process.

we’re missing something…

In the early days, Shwip was just a small project we would work on seldom when the chance arose. It was our way to be creative outside of our day to day jobs. What began as a collection of components quickly turned into what could possibly be a full working video game.

New features would be added here and there and after about a year ( mind you, this was a few hours a week ) we had a game worth showing off. I began to work on a trailer for Steam Greenlight by editing together royalty free music and a few gameplay clips. It was passable for the time and garnered a few upvotes.

At this time Shwip had very basic sound effects and it lacked a key cornerstone of arcade gaming – the soundtrack. Geometry Wars, Resogun, and any shmup from the beginning of time has a soundtrack you could tap your feet to – and we didn’t have that… yet.

the unread inbox ( 1 )

We received an email a few days after releasing the trailer with a sample track from a prospective composer. Firstly, we couldn’t believe someone was interested in the game – enough so to take time out of their day to compose something for the us. Secondly, it wasn’t for us. While we appreciated the tracks and thanked the person immensely, it just didn’t suit what we were setting out to create. Thankfully, this person took another stab at it, and ultimately gave us the base for the soundtrack of Shwip.

I distinctly remember the goosebumps as we listened for the first time; the title screen running in the background. The visuals and the sounds combined together to formulate what we had in our heads for the first time. The sound of Shwip was born.

Here are a few samples from the soundtrack.

What we learned

We learned Scott, aka Elezeid is an amazing composer, producer and person in general. He’s given Shwip a sound like no other – a soundtrack that compliments the game in indescribable ways. You can visit his page on soundcloud, youtube, twitter, & facebook.

Integrate sound early in your game. I remember watching a youtube clip of the creation process behind Dead Space. The lead game designer partnered with his composer friend and ultimately made a masterpiece by allowing the sound to be a gameplay element.

Sound is just as important in an arcade game. The low hits and upbeat drums compliment the intensity of what’s on screen and helps the player get into the groove.

Overlapping soundtracks helps modes like Style convey a sense of power and urgency as the player powers up and demolishes everything in sight. Minefield features melodic tones to help guide the player as they carve routes around a trecherous field of mines. Arcade, a three minute escape brings players the most intense track of the game – feeding their ears information while pumping them up.

Each track has a a specific use and compliments the game perfectly.

What’s up next time?

Shwip is just about ready to leave early access and grow up. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, head on over to our Steam page and join the discussion over on Discord.

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Shwip has a pretty complex set of controls to grasp when first getting hold of the controller or keyboard so it’s no surprise that there can be some level of frustration. Early on, we admittedly assumed players would grasp the control styles after a series of playthroughs, but we’ve changed our tone after hearing so much of the same feedback.

We’ll start with what we originally had, and move on to the new and improved screens, so get comfy!

Controls

Shwip currently has 4 distinct game modes and 4 control styles. Each mode has different elements unique to that mode. Some modes share control elements, while others remove and add others – there’s no wonder players were confused.

Our first series of enhancements was to the control layout screen.

The screenshot above shows our first attempt at a controls screen. Notice anything wrong? There’s currently no way to know what controls exist for other modes. Time to fix that.

This new controls screen will now show players the different modes and their unique controls styles. The new unity input system has certainly made it easier to create unique bindings and showcase them, so thanks for all the hard work Unity!

Let’s move on to mode enhancements

Game Modes

As mentioned earlier, each game mode has a unique set of controls. Originally, we had two separate areas to let players know what they were in for.

These two screenshots show how we let users know about the game mode they’re about play. While informative, they don’t exactly go out of their way to embed themselves into the players mind. Originally, you had to dig through a series of menus to get the information, we set to change that.

Our second attempt aimed to give players more of an overview of the unique aspects of each mode. The additions seen here was a direct response to the feedback we got from players during our roadshows. These screens appear before you start a game, and give players a chance to read more about the mode. Furthermore, they can dismiss these screens so they don’t show up the next time you play ( which happens a lot ).

Unfortunately, these screens suffered from a serious flaw. They were flat images. Realistically, players will have a large variety of control types and situations. We assumed most players would use an Xbox controller, and geared our UI to that. What we forgot, and partially due to the old Unity input system being so lackluster, was a complete disregard for pc and keyboard users. So again, we set to change that.

The screenshot above is our newest game information screen. The screens now display dynamic control styles depending on which device the player is using. Awesome! We hope this new series of screens helps players grasp the game modes better, enabling them to play as we originally intended. The screens even go as far as to display BOTH keyboard and gamepad buttons in multiplayer.

The screenshot shows how the UI changes to display a pair of control styles – all dynamic and updates in real time. Those enhancements continue to the new team selection screen for multiplayer.

A conclusion – what we learned

We’re a two person team here at Jamhammer Games with a lot to learn about game design and how it affects our players. This experience has helped us gain a new respect for our players and those who have tested Shwip for us over the years. Look forward to these improvements in our next Update due soon on Steam! Take care.

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Hammerlog was a bit too ambiguous for what we want this section of the site to be so we decided to rebrand. Nothing much else to it…

MCX 2019

The awesome group over at the Hand Eye Society invited us along with other indie devs to showcase Shwip at the Mississauga Comic Expo 2019 back in September. We set up shop early in the morning and showcased the game to hundreds of participants. We thank you Hand Eye for giving us a chance to participate, and can’t wait for our next opportunity to showcase our hard work.

The NEW input system

So we’ve been early access for about a year now, and we haven’t updated Shwip in a while. That’s on us. One of the biggest blockers to release is the Unity input system, and instead of dive into it ad nauseam, let’s get right into it.

It’s a lot of work to refactor your game…. alot. We’re currently back to around 80% functionality with the new system from Unity, and making great progress. The new system will allow WAY more compatibility for controller types, and will let us launch on new systems easily and without headache.

That’s it for now, thanks for staying with us.

Cheers.
Jamhammer Team

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Kids and adults sat down to enjoy some single and multiplayer Shwip action. Feedback was great – ranging from some bits of confusion in relation to our newest mode Style to random people stopping in their tracks and commenting on how beautiful all the colours looked.

We got a chance to test Style mode publicly for the first time yesterday. The ability to have all sorts of people play a new mode without explanation is one of the best parts of these events. As small developers, we often don’t have the resources to hire QA departments or user testing groups or sign up for major events like PAX or EGLX.

We want to say thank you to the Hand Eye Society, the organizers of the Play 2 Practice event, and the Amazing crew over at the Microsoft Store in Square One. We can’t wait to participate again soon, maybe with a new game we have in the works

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We’re making sure our final mode, Style is everything we want it to be – so we’re currently testing it and making tweaks and adjustments before setting it live.

We’ve begun the final polish on some in game aspects, and looking into the new unity input system. Unfortunately, it’s still in preview so we aren’t sure if that will be added into the final game as of yet.

We’re most active on twitter, so be sure to come say hi!

Cheers,
Jamhammer Team

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The original vision of Style was an upgradable version of Arcade. You had the same slew of enemies, but they were harder to kill. By using combos and “style” points, you could upgrade your ships abilities to better dispatch enemies. Unfortunately, this concept didn’t translate well to players on show floors and in the beta. Ultimately, the mode is called Style, and we want players to do exactly that – play with style. But how?

Growing up, our favourites were the likes of Project Gotham Racing and Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2. Those games had players string together massive combos for both the ultimate feels, and a massive combo bonus. We are building the new Style mode based on those factors. Gone is the upgrade path, along with the harder to kill enemies. Replacing that is a combo system and the ability to fill up a TUR-BOM-ETER bar, which will allow players to unleash up to three very nice powerups of their choosing.

Stay with us as we develop the mode and begin showcasing it to the world.

Upcoming changes to Shwip in v1.1.3

EGLX, Forest City Comicon, CNE Gaming garage all gave us incredible insight into how players react to the game. So instead of having players organically learn the small nuances of each mode, we created an intro screen. Here’s a look at the three modes so far. Style is still a work in progress.

We don’t want to hold your hand, because the intricacies of Shwips control scheme is better experienced organically and naturally, but we figure you need a BIT of an intro before the pixels start flying.

Thanks again for your support in our development of Shwip. Until next time.

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Steam Link to purchase

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