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Instruments of Destruction update for 23 February 2023

Dropping Beats and Piles of Junk

Share · View all patches · Build 10624012 · Last edited 24 June 2023 – 16:41:41 UTC by Wendy

Patchnotes via Steam Community

RHYTHM STORM

Before we get to the latest update to Instruments, I recently revealed my side project, and the demo is out now. The game is called Rhythm Storm. It's a vector-powered rhythmic roguelike horde survivor game. That's a lot of random-sounding words in one place, so here's a link to the gameplay trailer:


It's a very different game, but has been a lot of fun to work on. You may notice the particle systems are derived from Instruments of Destruction's tech. Rhythm Storm also helped me learn me some good lessons about how to make a highly-replayable combat game. [See below for more on that.] Here's a link to the Steam page if you want to try it or wishlist it:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2135960/Rhythm_Storm/

VERSION 0.211 - FILL THE LEVEL WITH STUFF EDITION

Version 0.211 introduces a little feature that was requested a long time ago, but I didn't have a good reason to add it until recently. That features is the ability to add objects (entities as they're called internally) into the game while in Sandbox mode as you play the game.


So what you see above is easily achievable. Enable the Place button (last button on the top left), select the object type you want, adjust the placement settings (if desired), and use LMB to place as many of the objects as you want.

You may also notice there are some new entities in there. 3 new automobiles are available: a sports car, a mid-size SUV, and a pickup truck. These are currently not destroyable, but I'll be working on that aspect in the near future. Together with the Dummy, the sense of scale for Instruments feels more solid when these are in the world, and future objects will have better size references. Here's the full changelist, then I'll talk about some big picture stuff.

  • Added new button and mode to place objects in sandbox mode
    • Use Shift + LMB to adjust the height, Ctrl + LMB to adjust the rotation
    • Select any entity from the list on the side, and you can drop them into the world
  • Added 3 new object types (SUV, car, and truck) that can be added to levels or placed
  • Added a fog option in the middle of the middle options column
  • Added Options menu UI to build/pre-build menus
  • Fixed bombs exploding at the start of gameplay if they never got a chance to explode in previous run
  • Fixed changing the size of the power swivel resetting the torque to 1
  • Fixed KB Cam Control option not disabling Numpad 2/4/6/8 when it was disabled

INSTRUMENTS COMBAT CAMPAIGN PLAN

As mentioned before, Rhythm Storm gives some hints for the overall direction of the combat campaign for Instruments. I'm going to give the details that I'm fairly sure of at this point. If you guys hate the ideas, I will likely change the path somewhat, but I think this is the best way to add something more exciting and replayable to Instruments, particularly for those not as into vehicle building (hopefully if you like vehicle building you'll still like it).

So the new campaign will be a separate roguelike campaign from the main vehicle building campaign, and I'm aiming for a run time of 40 minutes or more. That means you'll be able to play through the whole combat campaign in under an hour, but at the same time you'll be able to do so many times before you've exhausted all the fun and possibilities to be had. It will be fairly challenging and have at least 2 difficulty levels to choose from.

There will be a lot of upgrades (100+), many of them tied to parts, and you will collect resources to spend on upgrades, unlocks, and parts. You'll be fighting and destroying lots of automated foes (drones/robots/etc) on a series of semi-procedural islands. You'll shop for upgrades and parts and build your vehicle between each island, and you'll be able to test your vehicle before committing to it (on a "virtual" test island with no enemies). Once you commit to it, there's no going back until the next shop/build phase.

In terms of the meta progression for the campaign, it will mainly focus on vehicle frames and unlocking new upgrades and parts, but there will not be any stat buffs. You'll start with a basic vehicle frame that cannot be changed, and unlock more unique frames over time. Saving your vehicle will be a thing you can do, as well as refunding parts back to the shop for partial credit. But you won't be able to load vehicles.

I expect you'll play through at least 10 islands on each run, with that number more likely to go up than down. The "objective" is still a bit fuzzy at this point, but a timed survival objective is the most likely one. The 2nd most likely objective is having to destroy a certain percentage of buildings on each map. There may be a mix of others for variety, but we'll see.

I'll be figuring out something for vehicle damage so you will have to worry about getting destroyed (or certain parts getting destroyed), in addition to making sure you don't get knocked off the island or flipped over.

Ok, I think those are the important elements. If you have thoughts, now is the time to share them.

I'll be working on various aspects of this almost exclusively for the foreseeable future. While I could probably rush to finish Rhythm Storm within 3 months, I don't think there's any need to at this point, and I'm a bit tired of thinking about it. Getting to work on Instruments is a lot more appealing right now. I also want to get Instruments released as version 1.0 in 2023, or at least close enough that it can happen early in 2024.

Windows 64-bitEnglish Instruments of Destruction Content Depot 1428101
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