- Hot Dog Reporter Gets Reported On - 14 June 2025
Hello friends!It's been a bit since the last update. Development hasn't been moving at quite the sentient-speedrunning-hot-dog pace that it initially was, BUT I have been plugging happily away at it for some time! Some currently unreleased updates include:New levels, hidden pettable friends, and a new biomeA new ground pound mechanicDitching the tutorial level in favor of in-level hintsLots (lots) of under the hood changes to improve performance and compatibility with different screen resolutions and operating systemsNarrative writing and concept artA new menu UI that may or may not make it into the next releaseMost of this is coming to the Steam release VERY SOON! I just want to iron out some bugs and make a few more levels so it feels like a more substantial update after such a long gap between releases.BUT, the reason I'm posting this now instead of alongside a content drop is that H…
- 0.7.1 A Cache and a Loading Screen - 3 February 2024
Hello friends! Things have been pretty quiet here lately while I've been working away at artwork and narrative development, but TODAY we have an optimization and compatibility update. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THIS UPDATE AFFECTS PERFORMANCE NEGATIVELY FOR YOU! This should be obvious in retrospect, but It turns out the Forward+ renderer in Godot leverages Vulkan and broke compatibility with some older hardware, so we've reverted back to the OpenGL renderer. OpenGL means no asynchronous shaders, which introduced micro freezes when activating the platform drop effect. To work around this, we now have a loading screen at the start to cache shaders. The up side to all of this for EVERYONE is that I went ahead and built a particle effect cache as well! Which means driver updates and fresh installations of Hot Dog Reporter will no longer result in second+ long freezes when a new particle effect t…
- 0.7.0: New levels! New mechanics! New art! - 26 November 2023
Hello friends! We've got LOTS of changes in this update! Highlights include NEW LEVELS, Steam Deck verification, new mechanics (including moving hazards, updrafts, and breakable boxes), pettable cats, and new artwork! Check out the full patch notes below: FULL DATA WIPE. This includes Save data, Options data, Input mapping data, and Ghost data. In addition to new levels, there’s a new save directory structure to allow for multiple Steam users to have separate save files on the same computer. THREE NEW LEVELS! Hot Dog Reporter is officially Steam Deck verified! Updated engine to Godot 4.2 RC6! Is using a beta engine a good idea for a Steam release? Probably not but it fixed a lot of problems and got us Steam Deck verified! Lots of performance optimizations and bug fixes under the hood, but the most noticeable for some of you will be… Fixed swapping between the d-pad and analog stick bein…
- Is Hot Dog Reporter the best game you suck at? It CAN be with YOUR help! - 21 November 2023
Hello friends! It's Steam Award season and I would be SO HAPPY if you considered Hot Dog Reporter for the Best Game You Suck At award! Is it the best game you suck at? Probably not! Is it the best game you suck at released in 2023? Possibly! Do we have ANY chance of winning? Practically zero! BUT, follow me here, nominations will put more eyeballs on Hot Dog Reporter. More eyeballs means more leaderboard competition. More leaderboard competition means a higher difficulty level. Therefore, the very act of nominating Hot Dog Reporter for the Best Game You Suck at award increases its validity in the category, thus making you, dear nomineer, an ARBITER OF TRUTH. Thank you for your time. I hope you will join us in TRUTH TELLING!
- 0.6.9.666: Surprise Halloween update! - 31 October 2023
HELLOOooOOOoo FRIENDS! Ghost implementation got finished early and Halloween felt like a pretty good time to release it! Please enjoy this very slightly rushed (pleasedon’tbebroken) update! Added speedrun ghosts! Run alongside a ghost of your best time in each level! Added an option to disable ghosts …also added a couple of surprises if you play on Halloween
- 0.6.9: Mostly cosmetic! - 29 October 2023
Highlights in this release include some updated background art, a visual effect to indicate the platform drop state, button prompts in the tutorial, and a reset of the Mind the Gap level time to account for a previous bug. New particle effects and palette swap to indicate platform drop state Preload particle effects at runtime to reduce slowdown on initial load in game Updated some background art Added canopy at the top of the forest to make invisible ceilings less invisible Added button prompts to tutorial Added version to Leaderboard, Stats, and Level Select On first load of 0.6.9, checks to see if your Mind the Gap record was affected by an earlier bug and resets it to the theoretical current best possible time (3.4 seconds) Nice.
- 0.6.8: Backflips, gliders, and stats! - 26 October 2023
Hello friends! Highlights for this release include backflips (jump out of a skid to cancel momentum), an umbrella glider (slower falling), and a stat screen. Added backflip - jumping while skidding cancels forward momentum and provides extra height and acceleration, useful for quick turnarounds. Thanks to shovelclaws for the suggestion! Skidding can now also be triggered while sliding so it’s possible to backflip out of a slide Added umbrella glider - 25% fall speed while active. Default control is holding X (Xbox controller), but it may eventually get swapped with Platform Drop (Left Trigger) by default. Increased double jump height to match regular jump height (from 85% to 100%) Removed some platforms in 003 Added Stats screen Added camera constraints to level 011, preventing it from panning away from the moving platforms if you jump too high during the first leg of the level Fixed so…
- 0.6.7: Bugfixes - 16 October 2023
Holding jump after a platform drop will now allow for a continuous platform drop Fixed hearts appearing empty on Ready prompt Fixed a condition where you could get stuck sliding after death Fixed not being able to wall slide while dropping through a platform
- 0.6.6: Hotfix - 13 October 2023
WHOOPS, the double jump collision change introduced a bug where you could get stuck in the ceiling. That has been FIXED!
- 0.6.5: Hot Dog Skins, Linux Support, and QOL improvements - 13 October 2023
Hello friends! Highlights for this version include SKINS for Frankie, theoretical Linux support (please let me know if you try to run it on a Steam Deck!), and a bunch of QOL improvements. Added Skin options for Frankie Added Linux support (UNTESTED, awaiting Steam Deck review) Adjusted double jump animation to better reflect the player collision box Added Ready Prompt at the start of each level Added a Gameplay Option to skip Ready Prompt Backing out of options now only prompts a save confirmation if changes were made Moving platforms now reset their cycles on death Leaderboard should load a little faster Fixed bug where you could get stuck sliding on respawn Fixed bug where the mouse cursor would disappear on the pause screen Fixed some bugs related to scrolling through the leaderboard Fixed a very rare level timer bug that probably doesn’t invalidate the leaderboard that’s going to g…
- 0.6.4: Hotfix - 10 October 2023
WHOOPS, broke a couple of things with the digital/analog workaround in the last update, so that particular bit has been rolled back. Until I figure something else out, be careful if you decide to switch back and forth between digital and analog movement!
- 0.6.3: Controller and UI update - 10 October 2023
Hello friends! We have a handful of requested features here related to controls and the interface! Added alternate gamepad key binding options. May cause issues if using a gamepad with 128+ buttons? (if this applies to you please send me a photo of that thing) ( EXISTING CUSTOM KEY BINDINGS RESET, SORRY!) Began implementing button icons (currently only in input options) Holding the slide button will now slide continuously. No more mashing required! Added confirmation popup when exiting options. This should prevent accidentally backing out of the Options menu without saving your changes. Fixed some wildly inaccurate labels on a handful of input bindings NOTE REGARDING DIGITAL AND ANALOG INPUTS: There’s an engine bug when the same action is bound to a digital input and an analog input. I’ve implemented a workaround that fixes it 95% of the time, but because it’s not 100%, the input map st…
- Mega hot dogs, MacOS support, and bug fixes - 9 October 2023
Hello friends! Highlights for this update include MEGA HOT DOGS and MacOS support. Hot Dog Reporter 0.6.2 Changelog Added MacOS compatibility The remaining hot dog in a level now turn into a MEGA HOT DOG Made invisible ceilings less invisible Removed some floating grass Flipped the movement on the last two pairs of moving platforms in 011: AND YET IT MOVES making it possible to make it through the level without having to wait a cycle Updated Godot engine from 4.1.1 to 4.1.2 Fixed particles jittering on pause Fixed bug with potentially getting stuck on input remapping
- Hot Dog Reporter 0.6.1 - 7 October 2023
Hi! Thank you for playing Hot Dot Reporter! Here's an with a change to an annoying level and some small physics and quality of life updates. 006: Mind the Gap is now slightly less infuriating Removed the Experimental Physics option and made them standard (physics now tick 120 times per second instead of 60) Added an FPS limit to the Video options Increased time before autoselecting buttons on game end screens to help avoid accidentally mashing through it Leaderboard now shows up to 50 entries instead of 10
