- Boxing day bug smashing bonanza - 26 December 2019
After Christmas I like to sit at my computer, barely able to touch the keyboard due to my distended belly, barely able to see the screen because of my beer goggles, and upload a new patch to Smith and Winston. Well there was this bug report and from that there was a bit of testing and a bit of crashing and soul searching. When entering the end of level portal some idiot had written some code that deleted the entire world and then tried to delete bits of it again causing the game to crash. Behold a new build has been born. Have fun, Merry Christmas and a Happy new year! dazza.
- 🎃Halloweeeeen Sale and Helmets👻 - 28 October 2019
Whether you're planning to go out and scare your neighbours, let off a bazillion Diwali fireworks or follow the ancient Celtic harvest traditions and sculpt a turnip in to a truly terrifying object (honestly, don't click that link if turnips scare you) we've got some all hallows' eve fun for you! Behold! free in game helmets that are themed in a silly way and make no sense in the strange shattered ring world that is Smith and Winston! Why are we not charging for these tiny easy to build and add to the game items you ask? Because we are not douche bags we reply in a spooky voice 👻👻👻. 🕸️So 🕸️ scary 🕸️.... Have fun and whatever you are celebrating we hope you have a great time. 🎃 Dazza & Charlie 🎃 PS: The new helmets are already in your Collectables menu, you don't need to find them in the game.
- Wibble - (update 1.0.1) - 29 August 2019
If you played the game and the whole screen was blurry or even wibbly-wobbly like the fire on the right... or if the plants weren't gently swaying like young optimistic teens at a school disco pontificating on whether Britney really did want to be hit one more time then we've got news for you! https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2F52dd9e6131f14cc7c210b0298d48aea211f51dd5.gif It was a cunning plan to remind you that you were playing with OpenGL on an NVidia card. Now that's done we've fixed the bug, I mean wibble. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2Fd41b5b845ebee1a495362614c629e0f40aa84850.gif We also patched a few particles that were naughty and won't be allowed out to play again. Have fun Exploring and Destroying.
- We made it... just. Release Day! - 27 August 2019
Obviously we totally know what we're doing and nothing went wrong at all in the Steam back end and we didn't have to open a support query and have a massive panic at all... no siree. Have fun, we hope you like our weird sense of humour and don't forget to use the buddy mode in coop to play with your friends and family... it's hilarious. Thanks to everyone that gave feed back, reported bugs and said nice things. Every little thing was massive to us and spurred us on through some tough times. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2F06de16794c9ba0b416c39475f7b21ba2a34837f1.gif Explore and Destroy Dazza and Charlie.
- Release Date Set: 27th of August - 16 August 2019
We've set the release date for Smith and Winston. It's been a very very long road to get here. Thanks to everyone that has given feed back and encouragement. It really has helped. We have of course created a little trailer: https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=A26srWhEuOI&feature=share So long and thanks for all the fish.
- Just one more thing... - 8 August 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2Fd6fcf69c99bd975db659b2f5bfeb262887e536bc.gif We discovered a pretty weird and quite delightful bug in macOS builds using Metal as the renderer yesterday. It happens on all builds (Windows, Linux and macOS) with all renderers (OpenGL, DX11 and DX12) but Metal looked the best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-ZZcvWBR3M If you remember the old days with four color CGA graphics adapters then this is pretty nostalgic :) For the technically inquisitive: This happened when the engine only gave the shaders 7 lights instead of the mandatory eight and only happened on very rare occasions. So the eighth light in the scene has some other random settings for it's position, color, brightness etc. We also fixed a bug where we rendered very expensive particle systems when they were offscreen... so yeah, this will help people w…
- Develop Indie Showcase 2019: Video - 3 August 2019
Jupiter Hadley (twitter: @Jupiter_Hadley) made an great little montage video showing Develop 2019 including a little clip of Smith and Winston. I thought you'd like to see it. Lots of interesting games in there that might grab your attention. We uploaded the final Smith and Winston beta a few days ago. The game is now complete and we'll be "releasing" it pretty soon. We're working on a new trailer video and fixing any issues that players being to our attention. If you want to wishlist us or even write a review we'd be very grateful. It all helps :) https://youtu.be/BLR12WGXiNo Have fun Exploring and Destroying, dazza
- What do you mean it's not done yet! - 26 July 2019
Like a fine wine or soft cheese Smith and Winston makes us dizzy and smells like feet! But you want to know why it's not finished yet? https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2F41ede178f9f8282f8e38e13333dd8ba6ca0e6bb6.gif This is a picture of the VOIDs home. He's a tidy fellow really but he's been stealing all those monoliths for some reason and plugging them in! We are very close to finishing. We're planning on releasing the complete game early next week but still marking it as beta. Then after a few weeks of final testing tweaking and poking we'll release it to the world so it can stink up everyones refrigerators. We got delayed by Develop conference in Brighton. We were one of ten games that got chosen from nearly two hundred applicants. It was great fun but quite tiring for two old farts like me and Charlie. Because develop is for industry people we…
- Develop Indie Showcase 2019 - 18 June 2019
We are pretty chuffed to announce that Smith and Winston has been selected for the Indie Game Showcase at Develop: Brighton 2019 here in the UK. Develop is an industry event where developers from all over Europe get together and talk shop. We're very surprised and quite elated that Smith and Winston is one of the 10 games that has been selected by an expert panel. We didn't even have to bribe them with cake! The nine other game are all amazing and well worth a look if you are looking for great indie games to play. https://www.developconference.com/whats-on/indie-showcase https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2Fe639ee49487ba59a8790b12efaeb0d644bb4a4ce.gif Charlie and I will both be there running a stand so if you happen to be a developer in Europe... come and Explore and Destroy! dazza
- Update #10 - Power Cubes, Shippy, New Levels, More Debris and much more! - 23 May 2019
Everything here is available to download now... so update, explore and destroy! New levels to explore Spynall Tapp Where the demons dwell if you can find the secret door at least. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2Fcda1e597eacd429c50b605523456e5290def5e48.jpg Asteroid You’ve made it to the surface of the Asteroid. The space ship that the VOID used to gather the monoliths to unleash his power… it’s a bit weird on the giant cube. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2Fd260290136712eef2375058b40d07923cd767e23.jpg These are the final two levels before you enter the Asteroid to face the VOID itself. Escape from the teacher Listen, we all know that you hate training levels. But we also know that some people need them. So we’ve added a get out quick door at the beginning. So if you are super l337 hard core haX0r twin…
- Update #9 - Save the Day - 18 April 2019
Save the coop We’ve turned on save games for coop. So now you can officially continue a coop game you’ve been playing with your buddy. Coop rebirth If one of the coop player runs out of lives they will be given a free life with a full shield if you can get to the next level. We’re prototyping an in-level recovery mechanism where a pick up can recover the lost player. We’re not sure if the pickup should come from killing, destruction or just add it to the extra life pickup. Any ideas? https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2F436341b891c756e5f58f5b5f2595dfcf92a0dda7.gif Buddy Mode We think this is a big one. In buddy mode player 2 can never be killed and if they fall off of the level they get respawned. We wanted a way to play Smith and Winston with our young kids. Hopefully you’ll find it useful. It’s part of our design mantra of always making the playe…
- Update #8 - Coop, shattering and more! - 10 April 2019
We've releaed a new update to Smith and Winston, so while it's downloading behind your back why not read this and be amazed :) Shattering For a long time we’ve had the world blowing up in to tiny voxels. This has been very satisfying for everyone. We’ve made it even more satisfying now by creating big chunks of floor and walls from the world when you blow it up. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2F0115a0a26c83a726fcc213a657106f9d0fad918d.gif Tree Collapse Cutting the bottom out of a tree is one of the first things that players do. When it doesn't fall a lot of players feel cheated. So now the tree will fall down shattering in to bits in the process. This is oh.. so... good :) https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2F8d2dec7e09cb75fc5747a8394aaa8fd5b8d72b59.gif Head over Heels for Coop. We recently showed Smith an…
- Update #6 - New Levels, Shield is Live and a Rejig. - 6 March 2019
All of this is live now so update Smith and Winston! ːsteamfacepalmː Story and Arcade Merged If you’ve been following along you’ll know that originally there were two game modes: Story and Arcade. With the introduction of the shield (see below) and thus the removal of one shot death these two modes seems a waste of time. So they are merged. The downside of this is that everyone’s saves games are now invalid so, unfortunately, everyone has been kicked back to boot camp and has to start the mission again. The good news is that the mission is much clearer, much more balanced and starts a lot easier because of the shield. Introductory Offer Lets be honest no one really likes a cut scene but they are sometimes necessary. We found that people were asking questions like: Who are Smith and Winston? Am I playing as Smith or Winston? Why is shippy such an asshat? Is shippy the ship? How many pota…
- Prototyping a shield... whadda ya think? - 27 February 2019
After quite a lot of feedback from players we're prototyping a shield in the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP9q7huXdnc This is part of a bit of a reorganisation of the game. We're merging "story" and arcade mode in to one to make a better game. Originally story mode was essentially the same as arcade mode except when you ran out of lives you could continue from the beginning of the level you just died on and your score was reset. Even while typing this I can hear what a complete mess of an idea that sounds like ːsteamfacepalmː When you make a game you often get lost in ideas, pause, look at the idea and realise it's been through some sort of transporter accident and it needs to be humanely killed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIiNbDVQMRE So now we're planning one mode of play (and coop of course) a shield with three slots (so the fourth hit kills you). shield pickups that rec…
- Update #5 - Holodeck lessons - 22 February 2019
Another quick update with some bug fixes and a new BETA area for your feedback. Hollow Holo https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2F73d899acf2fb1a0b14835bb186d995a44d71b061.gif We hear you and agree we're really not happy with the way we use Shippy to teach the player how to play Smith and Winston. It's boring and annoying. Training areas in games are always hard tbh so we're having another go at it. As part of a brand new intro sequence the player will be sent, by shippy, to a holodeck training area to learn the buttons and get a feel for controlling Smith and Winston before getting stuck in. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2F868d9dc726566dc66c4e8dc5faf11b42115467ee.gif The shippy text is all provisional and untranslated and we've not added Shippy's patented rudeness or voice yet What do you think? Is it a be…
- Update #4 Live - Chopper Boss of DOOM - 17 February 2019
We've released a new update to Smith and Wintston! This is mainly a metric ton of tweaks to the first half of the game to make it more balanced and more fun to play. Thanks to everyone that gave us feedback and helped make the game even better. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2F32a6cad0a61eb9173f95f386bc3aaa3d345a9cfe.gif Features: Added in the Chopper boss. This is the middle boss in the game. He’s pretty epic (testable via the new BETA TEST menu) Added a BETA TEST menu so player can test specific features of the game and give us feedback without destroying their Arcade Save games. We’ll be adding things to this menu and asking for feedback a lot we think. Added a button for twitter and facebook in the title screen Tweaking/Balancing of lives and ammo based on player feedback and streamer videos Added disabled story and coop buttons to the main…
- Patch 2 to Update #3 available today. - 22 January 2019
Another patch, this one has bug fixes and a few features. Nearly everything here has been reported by players so a big thanks to everyone that helped. We're getting close to releasing new levels soon as well ːsteammockingː New Features:Camera shake can be adjusted in Options > Game > Camera ShakeController rumble can be adjusted in Options > Game > RumbleAdded three custom mouse cursors for KB/Mouse players, see Options > Controls > Mouse.Added a languages menu on Option where you can select the temporary translations for Spanish, German and French or the default English.Tweaks to the game:Added a glow to in game switches to make them a bit more obvious.Added a flashing light to Shippy beacons so you can ignore them even more :)Lava wasps now get killed by the exploding Lava eggs.Spiders can be killed with grenades.Dashing makes you invulnerable to explosions as well as bullets (while y…
- Update #3 available . - 14 January 2019
Today we released a 32MB patch to Smith and Winston fixing a few small issues that have been reported by players and one we noticed in a Twitch steam. Hot low end action On lower end machines players are having to turn down the amount of debris. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. So we’ve tweaked the physics a bit to get some more juice from your CPU and get some more debris on screen at 60 fps. Keeping your head! Because we are idiots we didn’t think about heads properly. So if you collected one of the hidden Collectable heads in the game you could never switch back to a standard Smith or Winston head. Well now you can. More text… or space for it Some of the shippy text when you’re at the crash site didn’t fit in the little shippy box. We know no one is going to read this text but we really want you to be able to ignore all of it properly, in it’s entirety with aplomb. No dead flying! When you we…
- Update #2 is live - 5 December 2018
Earlier than promised (by only a day) we've released the second update to Smith and Winston. Of course we're really excited to hear what you guys think of the new levels including another secret level! Can you find it? Get lost in the ancient underground temples but watch out for the killer space slugs. They take a lot of hits to kill. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2F5a80644fccb23f148b3043748000c7367ed4ab3b.jpg Get up high and survey the landscape, jumping to the left of me, enemies to the right and here I am stuck in the middle with... is that a weapon power up down there! https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2Fa6e5ff177499a9d6dceadfc752310dfd658eb1b7.jpg When you've spent the evening shooting, plundering and exploring why not take a trip to the Chalk and Flowers level. The sun is setting, the birds are ch…
- Update #2 update - 16 November 2018
"How are we doing with the next update due on the 6th of December" I hear you ask, well I'm glad you asked because it's going really well. Update #2 is going great and we're on track to deliver it a few days early! With this update you really get in to the core of the combat, every level but Chalk and Flowers has got some really challenging and time consuming to design combat. It's great fun, a little bit challenging but not too much, you're still in the first half of the game after all. The new levels are enigmatically called Bridge over Nothing, This Seems 'Nice', Deep Down Again, Back to the Daylight and "Chalk and Flowers". Here are some pictures whet your appetite: Bridge over Nothing https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F33782665%2F65155c514c9f0644992b2f1e76143354bc1e5eee.png This Seems 'Nice' https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F%25E2%2580%25A6
