- Summer Update - 19 August 2022
Music!! No longer are the games going to be silent! The current system has a unique song for each map, it may change in the future. Lift & Acceleration Cannon Sounds The lift and acceleration cannons got some nice punchy sound effects! Bots Can Use Lifts Been working on this one for a while. They still aren't 100% using them when they should but are a lot of the times. Still going to be tweaking this one. New Fire System Yes another new fire system... This time you shouldn't really notice a huge difference but under the hood there's a lot that's been changed. This will make changing firing stats much easier on my end. On the user side you'll notice a more consistent speed to charge correlation. New Knife Detection System Again on the user side it won't be greatly noticeable. The new system does use less network data so lag should be reduced. Engine Update! Balloon Blast is now running o…
- Winter Update! - 17 December 2021
Winter Map Visuals Every map has been given a winter/holiday look! Enjoy! Speed Boost Sound Speed boosting will now result in a fancy new sound effect. Score Update Animation Score increasing will now result in a fun little animation of the score text. It seemed to work perfectly on the first try... I'm either getting more reliable at programming or I've completely broken everything. Only time will tell. Thanks everyone for your continued support! It's been quite a hectic year so I've had little time to work on my own projects. I really hope to have a more regular schedule in the new year. Thanks again, have a safe and happy holidays. -Leland
- Fixes & Minor Changes - 1 June 2021
HUD elements will be properly cleared if a player is forced to spectators. Added background to server list. Added "No Servers Found" text if no servers are found. Made the scores bigger and added stroke to the text. Added score to the spectator HUD Added scores to replays Set an FPS cap. This will reduce GPU use without effecting performance. Thank you everyone for playing and for all your feedback. I'm hoping to keep quality of life updates coming as long as I can. Thanks! -Leland
- Free To Play Update! - 1 May 2021
New Knife Fire System The fire system has been overhauled. The knife movement has been smoothed on clients. Prior to this update the knife would jitter considerably on clients but now it's buttery smooth. General Changes Removed mini map. People weren't really using it and it felt weird and out of place. If there's demand I'll work it and see about re adding it. A draw condition. Draws were very unlikely but they did happen. Now a draw results in an actual draw condition. Prior it would give the win to blue team since they were first to get checked in the win check functions. Rotation speed scalar removed while charging. Prior your rotation speed would scale with however long you were charging your shot for. Now it's a set value immediately after starting the charge. Did a lot of network optimizations, in general gameplay should be smoother. Updated translations Max fire range has been…
- Balloon Blast Is Going Free To Play! - 20 April 2021
Balloon Blast will be going free to play May 1st! Thanks to everyone who purchased Balloon Blast! For you, you'll be getting a unique in game skin as a token of my appreciation. Hope to see you all out there! -Leland
- Some Fixes! - 18 April 2021
UI Fixed some duplicating UI bugs across clients There's still some issues of UIs getting stuck on screen. Now if you press escape it will clear all HUD elements Bots Fixed a bug that would cause bots to not be able to path to spawn
- Super Small Patch - 17 April 2021
Made the console available in the main menu. Access the console by pressing "/" Some more groundwork for a future update. Had to push to Steam to test some stuff Updates are going to get a little slower and smaller for a bit while I work on this bigger update that's upcoming. -Leland
- Minor Changes And More Update Groundwork - 14 April 2021
Spawn Blueprint Created a blueprint for spawn points. This shouldn't effect gameplay (as long as I didn't break anything) but will allow me to more quickly add the spawns to new maps It may also be useful for a super secret update... Stay tuned A More "Modular" Text Chat Again shouldn't effect gameplay but the text chat UIs and function calls have been added to separate interfaces. So if in the future we needed different player pawns adding the text chat to them will be much easier Other Stuffs Added a debris icon to the main gameplay HUD. If you made the balloons too big you weren't able to see the indicator lights Fixed camera rotation for spectating clients. Before if a client were spectating their player models (which were just floating cameras) wouldn't rotate with with players Custom knives now show up in replays A save game fix on startup which contained some graphical settings
- Minor Changes And Hint System - 12 April 2021
Hints! I've noticed quite a few players not using their abilities A new hint system is now in the game. It will prompt key presses for speed boosts and debris drops More will be added later like for firing. I jut wanted these two released as quickly as possible since they're your main abilities Other Stuffs The replay menu will no longer be locked if there are no replays in the folder There's now a refresh button in the replay folder Some behind the scenes tweaks to customization and saving functions for future updates
- Yet Another Update! - 8 April 2021
Replays... Again Seems like this always needs improving Fixed a bug that was sometimes causing 2 replays to be recorded per game Changed the naming convention of replays to make a little more sense. "#_'mapName'_'playerName'" Host Settings Screen The host settings window has been in need of updating for a while, not just in function but in style and looks All settings set by the host will now save for each session of Balloon Blast Score limit and invincibility time will now save without having to press enter. Previously taking focus off the text box without pressing enter would cause it to revert to its old value Other Fixed a bug that would cause the player list to remain on screen after round end Still working on customization functions. Some players may end up seeing some special knives appearing on their rides in the coming weeks ;) Thank you everyone for being so patient with devel…
- Minor Fixes And Update Groundwork - 7 April 2021
Replays Fixed a bug that was causing slow motion speeds in replays even after selecting other speeds Replays now consistently show the selected balloon scale Double Point Zones This shouldn't effect gameplay (as long as I didn't break anything) The double point zone spawn system has been overhauled to make it much easier to add the zones to new maps Some Groundwork I've started early work on some potential customization systems. I'm rolling out tests now. It's very early stages but I'm hoping to have a wide array of options for players to customize their rides.
- Hot Fix - 6 April 2021
Fixed sound attenuation for balloon refill It was originally broadcasting the sound from way too far Balloon inflation animation Fixed a bug where the balloons weren't inflating consistently across all maps Fixed a bug that caused a weird jitter at the start of the animation on clients
- Major Content Update - 5 April 2021
New Map! New map not really themed at the moment, open to suggestions Bot support Acceleration Cannon Model There's finally a proper model for the acceleration cannon! No longer just a plain plane Values have been tweaked a bit mostly to suit the new map A new particle system for the cannon NEW!! Jump Pad A new more vertical cannon has been created Jump pads have been added to every map (except apartments) Jump pads have their own particles as well and an actual model! WOW Balloon Scale Slider Host can now change the scale of everyones balloons Double Point Zone Balance Change The server can never choose the same zone twice in a row anymore Each zone has been weighted, either equal distance from both spawns, blue preferred, or red preferred. A red or blue preferred double point zone will never spawn twice in a row. Some General Changes With the extra jump pads and whatnot the player has…
- More Updates On The Way - 15 January 2021
I've started very early work on a new map for Balloon Blast. It is tough as just one developer while having just started a new full time job to work on Balloon Blast but I am trying. Please if you have suggestions either make a post here, leave me feedback on my website or use the in game feedback feature by pressing F8. All suggestions are extremely helpful and I appreciate all of them greatly. Thanks everyone for being understanding, updates are spread pretty thin these days but I'm hoping to ramp up a bit more. -Leland
- Balloon Blast Holiday Update - 22 December 2020
Holiday decorations Every map has had a winter makeover. New game variant! A new game mode variant has been added to the host selection screen. A "King Of The Hill" type mode. You only get points by being the double point zone and by having a balloon. Balloon physics! Your balloons now react to motion and objects. Wiggle your little vacuum tails to make your balloon a harder target. A.I does not have balloon physics... Yet. Lots of A.I fixes Bots will no longer clump up. Which was especially bad on corners. Bots will now choose a random point only within the double point zone. Before they could choose points outside the zone causing them to lose the bonus. Bots will will now more efficiently choose where to move to in spawn from their current location. Before they would only choose to move to the exact center of the spawn area. Bots will also now more directly leave spawn. Before they h…
- Voice Chat & More! - 3 November 2020
-Fixes Player list now hides properly when moved to spectators Spectators can now use "Add Friend" and "Profile" options in player list If a player joins mid game they will be moved to spectators All muted players are now saved so they will be muted forever until unmuted -Voice chat Default push to talk is "V" Mute option has been added to the details dropdown in the player list -Network bandwidth increase Unreal has a strict data limit for how much data can be passed between clients and servers. This limit has been increased a bit to allow for better sounding voice chat -Enable all chat option By default the enemy team is muted once the game starts but the host can disable that option in the server settings -Minimap added to "Toy Box" map -Players can now change their fullscreen mode in the settings menu -A bot counter has been added to the server settings -Click a name for the new dro…
- 10.26.2020 - 26 October 2020
-Main menu lock fix Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause the main menu to lock up and be unable to edit text boxes or scroll. -Respawn arrow fix Fixed a bug that would sometimes create the arrow UI on all clients. -Double text chat fix Fixed a bug that would create a duplicate text chat box when the game restarts. -Respawn arrow update If the player ignores the arrow and doesn't retrieve a balloon in 90 seconds they'll self destruct. -Replay update Clients will now record replays. It's no longer limited to just the host.
- Bot Fix - 19 October 2020
-Bot bug fix -There was a bug causing an infinite loop that would stop bots from being able to exit spawn. It's finally fixed. -Bot hops -Started working on systems that will allow the bots to jump between certain points. It's very early, they can only do it between the main platform and the bridges on Poly Bridge. -Text chat changes -Decreased the time it takes for messages to start fading. -Made the text chat box less opaque.
- Balloon Blast 10.13.2020 - 13 October 2020
-Text chat You can access text chat by pressing enter. Send your ggs and very cheerful messages to everyone in the lobby! -A.I will now check if target is invincible before firing Before this update bots would frequently fire at your balloon while you were still invincible causing them to lose their knife. -A.I will now be correct color in replays -Users can now change resolution -A.I now return to spawn then leave properly -Spawn arrow Now when you lose your balloon an arrow will appear directing you back to spawn. This is going to be especially good for new players since the balloon spawn system is fairly unique. -Allow Fire option added The host can now change a setting to either enable or disable firing. This change opens the door to a very different style of gameplay. No longer being able to snipe people from the double point zone really changes things. So excited for launch!! Only…
- Balloon Blast A.I - 5 October 2020
I've been working hard the past couple weeks to implement A.I into Balloon Blast. In the host options menu you can add or remove bots for each team. Currently there's no limit to the amount of bots you can add... Let's just not get too carried away. They're ideal for balancing the teams if you need an extra vacuum or two on the playing field. I will be working to improve the A.I behaviour before release. Changing how they prioritize targets and maybe even have different types. Some that prioritize being the center others that just want to pop balloons. Very excited for release!! Only 31 more days!
