protophant

Breakers Yard is Back with Multiplayer & Boss Fights!

There's been a gap since the last update, but that's because I undertook some huge projects:

- Multiplayer: Due to popular demand (and self-evident awesomeness) I've added 2-player co-op to Breakers Yard. It works best with controllers, but you can cuddle up with someone and share the keyboard too!

- DrillBoss: Every five levels you're now have to take on the massive, dangerous, explosive DrillBoss. Good luck (you'll need it)!

- New Music: There are new audio tracks pumping into your ears courtesy of Anthony Castiglia, send him some love on Twitter: @ACastigliaJr

As always send in your comments, suggestions, thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams. Getting player feedback is the best!

Thanks for playing, DD

Breakers Yard Build 113: Options Menu!

The latest build of Breakers Yard now includes an options menu to adjust music and SFX! Seems pretty simple, but a fair amount of back-end work went into managing the audio along the way. For example, triple bombs used to be SUPER loud because the bomb sound effect would play three times simultaneously. More stuff to come, and I promise it's even more exciting than audio levels! 

Have fun,

DD

Breakers Yard Build 112: Invisible Unity5 Update!

Breakers Yard Build 111: High Score Menu!

At long last, you can see the high scores for Breakers Yard without starting a new game and killing yourself. This is long overdue, and probably should be hosted on the web somewhere, but for now you can see the leaderboards a lot easier in-game.

This, along with the new "How To Play" menu and the upcoming "Options" menu, was a vehicle for overhauling the menu system, which is more of me doing myself a favor rather than you a favor, but hey, soon you'll be able to toggle music and sound effects!

Other cool stuff: Some other smaller improvements made it in too: The cars are not as tightly packed as they once were, so it's easier to maneuver through the junkyard, and enemy flame projectiles will now make you catch fire.

Also, I fixed the secret character so that he doesn't boot you out of fullscreen anymore. What secret character? Press 'B' for Brad! (Look out though, he doesn't start with any perks!)

Breakers Yard Build 110: Darkness Falls!

Here’s what’s new in Build 110 of the Breakers Yard Beta! Not in the beta? Sign up here!   Darkness Falls! In the latest build the storm clouds timer has been shortened, but when time does run out you'll get a heads up: The whole level becomes shrouded in darkness! Level Number UI! By popular demand, the current level the player is on is now displayed in the UI. Perpetual Compass Point! The rope is tough to see in the mayhem of Breakers Yard. So now the rope will always have a bouncing compass point hovering over it. NOTE: This does not completely neuter the Compass Perk, since only with the perk will the compass follow the player around the level (as opposed to sticking with the rope). Other Stuff! Oil catches fire a LOT better, craters have been removed (they may come back), and some animations got fixed.

Have fun, and remember: A new build means new leaderboards!

Build 109: Oil Catches Fire!

Ahoy! Build 109 has awesome things inside! Not in the beta? Sign up here! Oil hazards now catch fire! If an oil patch (or your footprints) gets struck by lightning, hit by a bomb, touched by another flame, or run over by a person on fire (such as yourself) it will catch fire! This can lead to chain reactions, so look out! Resolution fixes, really this time: It's time to get serious about resolutions. I have built a lot of support for a variety of widths into this build, but if you can see the clouds during normal play, or the first level is visible behind the title screen, please let me know (and include the "width" number that is displayed on the title screen). Have fun, and remember: A new build means new leaderboards!

Build 108: Oil Slicks!

The latest build of Breakers Yard features a new environmental hazard: Oil Slicks! Scattered around the junkyard, you'll see black, oily patches that make you lose traction. If you run into one you'll also track oil around, making the rest of the level slippery too! Also features sweet oil particle effects.

Not in the beta? Sign up here!

Breakers Yard Build 107: Special Effects and Tweeks!

Ahoy! Build 107 is here with some schmancy new special effects. And if you didn’t see: Breakers Yard has been Greenlit! Thanks to everyone who voted, here's what's new this week:

Fancy dirt-holes that get left behind when robots are destroyed.

Small smoky explosions every time you put a robot out of its misery.

Sweet particle effects when on-fire.

You can't shoot when on-fire, but you move way faster!

UI and resolution improvements

Stay tuned till next week for more!

Breakers Yard is Greenlit!

Holy what? Breakers Yard was Greenlit this week! 

Thanks to everyone who voted, I can’t wait to start digging into this and start prepping for a release. When would that be? No idea, but stay tuned!

Breakers Yard Build 106: Catch Fire! 

The latest build has an awesome player-friendly feature, let me know what you think. Not in the beta? Sign up here!

Catch Fire! Do you often kill yourself with your own bombs or flames? This is a release for you! In Build 106 you still take damage when you get hit by these, but you will also catch fire for 10 seconds. Not only are you invincible, but you destroy everything you touch! *cue Starman music*

Resolution Tweeks! Thank you all for your feedback on screen resolutions, I have added more tweaks to improve support. Still seeing clouds around the edges or the first level behind the title screen? Send me your resolution and what platform you're on!

Thanks for playing, and don't forget to vote on Greenlight!

Breakers Yard Build 105: Lightning Storms!

There's some major new features in Build 105, so if you get a chance, let me know what you think. Not in the beta? Sign up here!

Lightning Storms! I added storm clouds that start zapping lightning after the player has been on a level for two minutes. Do you ever see the lightning? Do you see it too much?

Auto-Resolution! The game will auto-magically detect your screen's resolution and adjust accordingly. This isn't perfect yet, so if you see problems, please send me your resolution (width x height) and I'll look into it. "Resolution Problems" include: Seeing the clouds on the edges, and the title-screen not fully covering the screen (i.e. you can see the first level around the edges).

Breakers Yard Beta, Build 104: Post-PAX Tweaks!

Not in the beta? Sign up here!

After launching the beta I've started to redirect my attention to actual gamedev, here were some of the low-hanging fruit I was able to take care of in-between emails and twitch streams:

The speech-bubbles from NPCs no longer interfere with the UI.

After getting inflated/exploded by a PumpBot, the player's all-around attack could still trigger (fixed).

The Old Man now holds the rope in his enclosure in the first level. This will hopefully help first-time players learn to bring the rope to the catapult.

Maybe not the most heavy-hitting features, but it's a slow burn and there will be more next week!

Have fun, and vote on Greenlight!

DD

P.S. If you’re wondering what happened to the other builds since 100:

Build 101: The PAX East build

Build 102: Mid-PAX fixes and first beta release

Breakers Yard Entering Beta!

After two years and a hundred builds for the browser, it’s time to move on. What does that mean for you? Jump on the beta for Mac and PC now! 

I’m giving away codes (for now) that are distributed through the folks at Humble Bundle, but I do have plans to actually sell Breakers Yard one day. Eventually I may close the beta to new entires or put a price tag on it, so get in early!

The roughly weekly updates will continue going forward, but they will only be for the Mac and PC versions. The latest build of the browser version will remain up as a sort of demo, but it will only get updated rarely, if at all.

So please come along with me on this adventure, sign up for the beta now!

After a hundred builds of Breakers Yard on the web, playing an action game in a browser has started to wear a bit thin. So, I’ve decided to move the principle development of the game to standalone versions for Mac and PC (which is how I exhibit it at shows).

This is great news for the performance of the game, but it will also focus my development efforts as I continue to target Steam. The only hitch is distribution: How do I get the game to you, the player? Answer: Humble Widget.

For now, Breakers Yard will only be distributed through gift codes as part of a closed beta. How does one become part of the closed beta? Right now, during the weekend of PAX East, all you have to do is email me at dan-at-protophant-dot-com ask for one! I’m only giving away 100 this weekend via email, after that it may be a tougher to get a code. The plan is of course to eventually make it available for purchase on Humble Widget (and Steam!).

Breakers Yard Build 100: Mega Milestone Update!

One hundred!! There are a ton of updates for the 100th build, the biggest and best of which is that each starting character has a starting perk!

The Blue Breaker starts with the extended ammo clip.

The Green Breaker starts with the speed boost.

The Red Breaker starts with an extra slot for combining weapons.

The Yellow Breaker starts with a fourth heart AND gets the all-around attack.

On top of all that there are a bunch of tweaks and fixes that went out with this build as we prepare for PAX East (we'll be at a Booth 9236!).

Shops have lower price, and they appear much sooner!

Since the barrels drop weapons so much, the Old Man will always have Perks now (also perks zoom-to-corner and have SFX now).

The barrels now explode and take damage from flames and explosions!

Bombs do less damage (against the player and for the player).

Performance and UI improvements!

Have fun, and vote on Greenlight! (wouldn't you like to stop playing this in a browser?)

Breakers Yard Build 99: PAX East Tweeks

Just a quick update for this one, the latest build of Breakers Yard has a couple tweeks because we'll be at a Booth 9236 of PAX East next week!

If you hadn't seen, we're giving away couple of Sunday Passes to PAX East. One of the participants had trouble figuring out how to proceed to the next level. I finally got fed up with the first level being so garbarge, so I shrank the size of it significantly. The rope, old man and catapult are all in the same place so hopefully that reduces the amount of confusion for new players.

Breakers Yard Build 98: Pausing!

After over two years of development, the latest build of Breakers Yard has pausing! Holy crap! This actually will make my life a lot easier too since it'll be way easier to capture screenshots.

Press shift to pause (or start on the 360 controller)!