Don't Pop My Bubble v3.0 is Here!
Over a month after its release, a major update to Don't Pop My Bubble has finally arrived! With it comes some important changes to update consistency of runs, quality of gameplay, and more content of course!
As this is the first ever posting for the game, and before we get to the patch notes, I'd like to share with you the thought processes behind this update so the decisions made to the game make more sense to the bubble-defending folk.
I can't let them pop my bubble!
The development of Don't Pop My Bubble usually has limited play testers and the time to playtest as a whole. With that being said, playtests more commonly occurred after its initial release, and it was very exciting receiving insight into what makes consistent runs.
It'll be covered a bit more extensively in the patch notes, but overhauling the coin system, adding a super related to money, and creating a scaling occurrence rating of supers were our largest focus points, with also trying to balance coin prevalence throughout a run and introducing an increased layer of luck to make runs more consistent!
Shortly after assessing how to make consistency better, it was clear that the game needed a bit more polish to smaller places. Fun fact: Don't Pop My Bubble started out as a student project! So, after a few months of ignoring those aspects, their quality has been updated.
As well as with the scaling occurrence of supers are the occurrence of themed waves, tweaking certain enemies and spawnrates, and giving a fresh coat of paint to some visual elements and overall responsiveness of a run. The last part, responsiveness, was super important, with things like the base getting hit, depositing money, a boss getting enraged, and more to help the player understand where to look and what is going on.
Lastly, content. Everyone enjoys new content, and as a developer, new toys to play with is always a treat. Finishing out scrapped content from earlier builds/releases and adding new content to a handful of areas of the game to ensure variance, replayability, and an engaging experience were also greatly considered.
The primary way to give a player new content is through the most obvious: enemies, bosses, supers, upgrades, money, you know, the things they interact with all the time! That being said, all of those areas (and more!) received updated additions to make the current bulk of the game even thicker.
With all of that out of the way, here are the patch notes for the update! Enjoy!
Patchnotes for Don't Pop My Bubble v3.0
New enemies have been added:
Top (tier 1 enemy)
Rotates around the base while slowly getting closer
Jack (tier 2 enemy)
Lands nearby the base; explodes if left alone for too long
Poking Hand (tier 3 enemy)
Hovers nearby the base; pokes back and forth, doesn't die when making contact with the base
Jack of Blades (boss)
Shuriken-themed boss, moves in a similar pattern, shoots a triple shot of shuriken, and has defensive capabilities
New Supers have been added
Super Suds
Moving around leaves behind a pool of damaging bubbles
Money Maker
Multiplies values of coins picked up
Themed Waves have been updated
All but one themed wave enemy pool has been updated to include spawning for the new enemies
A new themed wave has been added: Toybox Trouble
Some themed waves have had their spawnrates adjusted
Themed waves now have a higher base chance of happening (12% >> 15%)
For every 10 waves complete, an additional +1% is added to the total Themed wave occurrence chances (max. +4% added to total)
Coins have been reworked
Previously, coins scaled based on every 4 wave's passage, and were a set amount per one instance of coin
This has been changed to add 4 differently weighted coins: copper, silver, gold, and irradiant
Copper is worth 1, Silver 3, Gold 5, and Irradiant 20
Enemy tier as well as the original wave scaling method dictate what kinds of coins spawn
Game scaling has been adjusted to the reworked coins
New Upgrades: Super Upgrades
New coin added: Mega coins
Mega coins are given at the end of every 5th round and are used to buy super upgrades
These are saved between runs and can be viewed on both the main menu and in game UI
Once a normal upgrade has been maxxed out it turns into a super upgrade
There are 7 super upgrades
Move Speed --> Super Suds
Pickup Range --> Mega Magnet
Fire Rate --> Trick Shot
Deposit Radius --> Bubble Barrier
Dash Cooldown --> Ramshackle
Bullet Speed --> Triple Shot
Bullet Size --> Money Maker
Each super upgrade can be upgraded 3 times
Unlike the mega coins, these upgrades are not permanent between runs, they simply make the current run more potent
Hovering over currently held supers, both with and without upgrades, now provides more detail on the super (even if it's been upgraded)
Bug Fixes, Balance Changes, and Tweaks
Previously, Needle Shooter and Cacti projectiles movement direction wasn't normalized
They've since been normalized and all projectiles shot, whether towards the player or the base, move at the same speed
Previously, when a coin was spawned next to a player as they died, upon picking it up after respawning, the coin would instantly disappear. This now no longer happens and the usual animation plays
Previously, if a player died and pressed pause, it there would be no cursor (most noticeable for KBM players). Now, the cursor will always appear during the pause menu
The Maximum spawnrate of enemies has been adjusted
Before wave 20 (2s >> 2.5s)
Between wave 20-30 (2s >> 2.25s)
After wave 30 all waves still have a 2s spawnrate for enemies
King Cushion and his minions have been adjusted
King Cushion minion spawnrate has been increased in base (12s >> 11s) and enraged (9s >> 8s) phases
A King Cushion minion movement glitch where if a player walked through the minions aimed towards them while invincible (Ramshackle super, respawn invincibility) the minion would freeze and no longer chase after the player has been fixed
King Cushion minion movement speed has been decreased (0.9 >> 0.875)
Queen Been and her minions have been adjusted
Queen Bee minion spawnrate has been increased in base (8s >> 7.5s) and enraged (6s >> 5.5s) phases
A Queen Bee minion movement glitch that would move the minions in tandem with the Queen Bee's movement even after being shot outwards has been fixed
Queen Bee minion movement speed has been increased (2.25 >> 2.3)
Queen Bee minions respawn quicker if all are defeated before she fires what remains of them outwards
All boss' max HP (which scales based on wave) now has a maximum of 350HP
All boss' movement speed (which scales based on wave) now has a maximum move speed (varies from boss to boss)
Super bubble spawnrates have been adjusted
Super bubble base spawnrate has been increased (7.5% >> 8%) (boss wave spawnrates have been adjusted to keep the original total spawnrate the same)
For every 10 waves complete, an additional +0.5% is added to the total Super spawnrate (max. +2% added to total)
Base Heal upgrade has been adjusted (+5HP >> +3HP)
This was done to reduce the potency of healing the base; this sounds as though it goes against wanting consistent and long runs, however, after a certain amount of upgrades the base feels near invincible, and it's a bubble! Bubbles are usually fragile!
Extras:
Alignment of some UI elements (tutorial base art, main scene play area border, pause menu controls) have been fixed
When depositing money at the base, money symbols appear and animate on the right side of the screen
When the base gets hit, a small pulse animation to emphasize the base getting hurt
SFX played when the base takes damage has been slightly increased for the same above reason
Bosses now appear in a randomized but set order and rotate through every 30 waves, meaning you get a different boss until wave 30 and afterwards their order loops
After a boss has lost some HP and reached an enraged state, a chime plays to signify the boss' rage and help emphasize the second phase of the fight
After a boss fight, the game never told you enemy HP gets increased +1. Now, the wave after a boss fight, the "New Wave!" text includes a message saying, "Enemy HP UP!" to better communicate that
After reaching a game over via player death, the animation that plays beforehand how removes the magnet radius VFX to emphasize the player and not their pickup range
Super cooldowns in the bottom left of the screen are now slightly transparent to help distinguish them from Super bubbles and incoming enemy indicators
In the main game UI, super cooldowns load in from the bottom left of the screen to minimize space taken up by their cooldowns
Score and Timer text now shrink text instead of wrapping it when characters exceed expected lengths
Animations on upgrade icons would be a bit clunky if you ran out of money while they were shrunk and then obtained enough to purchase them; now, animations always start from the beginning for a smooth pulse whenever they're available to purchase
In the main game UI, the top left game title has been changed to remove "QDos" and instead display the version number of the game
Some interactable elements have been moved to fix visual glitches (the bottom 4 upgrades)
The title screen now gets jiggy with it
A new animation plays when reaching a game over via player death
Pressing the Home button (or whatever the universal button equivalent is!) now pauses the game
Devmode, a secret way of turning on a highly powerful cheatmode, has been udpated and is currently enabled for this build.
While devmode is active, the word "BUBBLE" in the top left changes color to denote cheats are currently active
The activation of devmode is a secret... if you find out how, don't tell anyone!
My Bubble is Safe for Now...
...and that's about it! This was done over the last month, the game released over a month ago but progress on v3.0 didn't really get greenlit until the end of May. If there's any comments, criticisms, feedback on new updates or even bug reporting, feel free to reach out to the X/Twitter for the game below, and while there, maybe consider following?
Thank you everyone, and remember! Don't let them pop your bubble!
QDos | Don't Pop My Bubble! (@qdosllc) / X
Changed files in this update