The final version of Brawler has just hit Steam. Version 2.2.0 is an exclusive update to the Steam version of Brawler to celebrate the game turning 5 this February! This update finally sees the long awaited Steam achievements added to the game!
Version 2.1.0 of Brawler features graphical fixes, improved AI, and I even added the ability to pause with the Esc key (plus you can now quit back to the main menu from a paused game using the Q key!) Happy brawling!
Also, if you want to see this announcement over on Steam, here is the link.
I hope everyone has been enjoying the 2.0 update of Brawler! Some good news for Brawler fans, to celebrate its 5th anniversary there will be one final update before I move on to development of other games. It won’t be anything massive, but you will see some visual and AI tweaks, fixes and improvements. Until then, continue to defend the streets against the street gangs.
I’ve set the date for the release of Brawler 2.0… it’ll be 4 years from the day that Brawler was originally launched, 14th of Feb.
While making a 5 year anniversary event would have been cooler, I’m sure Apple would have delisted it before then if I did wait. Plus there is no point in just sitting on the update when the majority of it will be completed by this Feburary. There will still be some graphics that will require re-rendering, but that’ll all come out in future smaller updates. So you can now count the days until you’ll be able to get your hands on this updated version of Brawler. In the meantime, here’s a promo video I made for the update.
It’s that time again when Apple says, “We don’t care if there is nothing wrong with your app and it runs fine. If you don’t put out an unneeded update soon, we’ll kick your app off the App Store.” No wonder so many apps have a “fixed bugs” update with no specific fixes. This is the second time Apple plans to kill Soulless… and I can’t compile Soulless using Stencyl now without major reworking as Stencyl has had a lot of updates and changes since now breaking Soulless in many ways… So it will, unfortunately, disappear from all of Apple’s stores. So grab it while you can for a massively discounted price while you can.
Mac App Store & iOS App Store.
I’ve been fixing many bugs to version 2.0.0 of Brawler (maybe better known as the Brawler HD update). Most are simply a by-product of upscaling the entire game, so were unavoidable. It had dawned on me that I’ve fixed so many of these over a long period of time to the point I’ve forgotten half the stuff I’ve already fixed. So on that note, thought I’d share some bug fixes that had nothing to do with this update process itself but have been long outstanding, only now discovered through me crawling back through this code for the update.
Turns out there was yet another bug preventing anyone playing the iPhone/iPad from unlocking the secret character for survival mode. That’ll be fixed in this update.
An issue with the AI in survival mode if going one-on-one has now been ironed out in this update also.
Have also made improvements to Stage 4 boss Raptor’s AI.
Speaking of bugs, unfortunately, Poser, the program I use for creating my 3D graphics is experiencing a nasty one right now that is preventing me from rendering the newer graphics needed for my Brawler update. Which is why I’ve been delving more into the code side of things in the meantime.
The Stencyl remake has been put on hold, but for good reason. I was gutted when I discovered gamepad support wasn’t going to be possible for the Mac version of Brawler created in Fusion. I didn’t know until really far into development either. Having started out as a Mac game developer, it felt really crumby that my supporters on that platform would be getting an incomplete experience.
So that’s where my mission to recreate Brawler in Stencyl comes in. Not only would it support controllers on all platforms, but the other limitation of Fusion being a 32bit application meant it was limited to 2GB of RAM. So rather than being a straight port, I also intended this version to be 720p, I mean with the huge undertaking of recreating everything, it would be silly if this update did nothing more than add controller support.
Over a year and nearing on 2, not a lot of progress has been made sadly. Intros, menus and the beginnings of the 1st stage… so essentially just a proof of concept after all that time. It certainly seems like it would be possible, but there is a LOT that still needs to be recreated.
Over this time however, some very interesting developments have surfaced. Clickteam has done a nifty little hack that makes their 32bit Fusion ignore tradition and go beyond its imposed 2GB limit. Then there has even been an extension released by Phi that allows controller support for both Mac & PC. So I can now, use Clickteam Fusion to create a 720p version of Brawler with full controller support, my original goal! Long story, but now you understand the reasoning for dropping the Stencyl remake. Being built using the original code would also give a more 1:1 version that may look very different by the end with the resolution boost and re-rendered graphics, but will retain everything anyone has come to love about the original game. Unfortunately, it does mean the last couple of years have been wasted somewhat, but I’m sure the free upgrade fans of Brawler get out of it will still be worth the wait.
Now that Brawler has turned 2 I thought I should provide a little bit of a peek at the upcoming Stencyl remake. It is still in a very early state, but it is all very promising indeed. Too early to give any time frame for a release, but this update is more to celebrate Brawler turning 2 and that the Stencyl build is coming.
The long overdue update for Brawler has finally gone live for iOS. As mention in 1.1.2 is the latest Brawler update, this is the patch that should fix any saving issues, so I’m really glad to finally have all version of Brawler fixed now.
As I don’t have the time to recreate Brawler in Stencyl from scratch, I came up with a crazy idea. Convert the Stencyl version of Soulless into Brawler! That’s what you see here, I’ve managed to convert the intro and menus so far, but the game itself is still very much Soulless as you see once level 1 begins. So why port Brawler into Stencyl?
Brawler ran at 960x540 to reduce the size of its resources to keep things running smoothly. This Stencyl build will be 1280x720. Most images can simply be resized, but due to the low resolution of my previous version, the actual character sprites suffered. So I’ll be re-rendering character sprites for this port, making the sprites look better than ever! Since this is powered by Stencyl, gamepad support will also be support for both PC & Mac.
The Stencyl powered version of Soulless is something really special. Anyone that has played one of the previous builds will really feel the performance boost the game received thanks to being built in Stencyl.
What benefits will there be if Brawler was ported to Stencyl? Besides consolidating all of my games into a single engine making it’ll easier for updates in the future, due to my choice of game engine used to originally create Brawler, a nasty surprise was that it didn’t support game controllers for Mac users. So porting my game to Stencyl will mean everyone will finally be able to play the game as it was intended. Brawler itself also ran at 960x540 to reduce the size of its resources to keep things running smoothly. A Stencyl build will be 1280x720. Most images can simply be resized, but due to the low resolution of my previous version, the actual character sprites suffered. So here is a preview of what a difference re-rendering the sprites will make both in detail and size.
To celebrate the 13th anniversary of Soulless, a previously unreleased version of the game built with Stencyl has been polished off and content from both the previous versions of the game from 2008 and the 2.0.0 update in 2014 have been put into this latest release to provide a deluxe version of the game! If you’ve already purchased the game there is no need to re-purchase it, despite it being a complete re-creation of the game it is provided as a free update to existing customers via your online store of purchase. If you have never played Soulless before now is the best time to join in the spooky Halloween celebration on it’s 13 birthday!
Still no luck with the iOS update I’m afraid, but meanwhile, there is another update that should fix any saving issues anyone may have with Brawler. In short, if your settings didn’t save or you couldn’t unlock any other characters this is the fix you have been waiting for. Once the iOS issues have been solved this update will make its way onto there too.
Just a small update to fix a bug that 1.1.0 introduced where enemies became unnaturally difficult to attack from stage 4 onwards. This update is already live for macOS and Windows, but it looks like the fix may be delayed a little for iOS, due to errors I’m receiving from Xcode. I’ll get the update out there as quick as I can though, and thank you everyone for your support!
The biggest update to Brawler to date since its release is here. This update comes with numerous bug and visual tweaks, a new item pickup that grants extra time and a complete overhaul of the game’s difficulty. Brawler will now adapt itself to how well you, the player, progresses throughout the adventure. If you go really well they fight back harder, but if the game is too much of a struggle they’ll take it a bit easier on you… but not too easy on you.
A new fan art section has been added to the Brawler page. I really appreciate every sale of my game, and today another honour I really appreciate. Brawler has just received some fan art so there is now a section on the game’s page where you can see it and any future fan art.
The choice of stores you can get Brawler from continues to grow. So now not only can you get it from the Mac App Store and Steam but now you can also get it from the MacGameStore! I’ll also update this space with news of any future stores Brawler becomes available on. You can also check the Brawler page here for links to store or game updates.
Brawler is my first title to hit Steam. So if you haven’t already purchased it from the Mac App Store or you simply prefer using Steam you can now get it from here!
Keep an eye on this space to see what other storefronts Brawler will be on next in 2021.
The day is finally here. Brawler is out right now! You can get it right now through the Apple App Store for macOS or iOS. Also, expect to see it appearing on other storefronts and platforms very shortly. I thank everyone for their patience, this one has taken a while and I hope everyone really likes it.
