i posted this on reddit and discord so im gonna post it here too. thank you to all the new players for buying and playing Your Only Move Is HUSTLE over the winter sale. I never thought this game I made for my friends and I to goof off in would be going so strong this long after release with over 700 freaking modded characters on the steam workshop and tons of people playing it all the time. it's very surreal and I am thankful.

for anyone wondering about new content, I don't have any exciting news. YOMIH was never meant to be a long term project, and the more I work on the game, the more haggard and sick it makes me (both mentally and, apparently, physically now too). long term projects like this are just difficult for me. it's also not really in my blood to milk it like a business or to build a brand around it. this is why there is no paid dlc, customization is fully free to everyone, and I almost put out the game itself for free until people begged me to sell it, so I picked the highest price for which I could stomach peddling my little stickman software. I still feel weird about that decision.

but I want to show my appreciation, and offer some assurance that I'm still alive and committed to fixing any major issues when they come up like the lobby crashing thing. game is not abandoned by any means, just coasting along for now. there's an update on the unstable branch I still need to eventually finish up, and a final 6th character I've been planning for a long time if I can hold my nose and dive back into the code once more. before anyone asks, mobile and Mac ports are probably not happening any time soon unless I find a really awesome publisher who takes care of absolutely everything for me.

for those who don't know, I've been making loads of free games since the release of YOMIH—mostly small scope jam games but you might find them fun. peep those at https://ivysly.itch.io/ . this is where most of my dev energy has been going lately. I have been thinking about worthy successors to YOMIH, and if there ever is one, it will be a lateral shift and not a direct sequel; I don't have it in me to design and balance another fighting game. but I've had some ideas about what to do with the main cast 🙂

anyway I love you guys. it feels good to be proud of not just my own game but the awesome community
who has turned it into something bigger. keep it real -ivy sly ːorganiccucumberː

PS if anyone is interested in hearing me talk about myself more and occasionally post project updates you can follow me on blue sky[bsky.app] as i have largely abandoned twitter.

YES i am aware of the crash! unfortunately, it is not something i caused this time...

there is a software unrelated to YOMIH going around that scrambles network packets to avoid ISP blocks/censorship which also happens to have the unintended effect of crashing lobbies. until i figure out how to fix it, i have added a safeguard that is triggered when this software is detected and prevents users of this software to connect to multiplayer lobbies. credit to Leftie, Script, and Adamiya for the find. hopefully this is an easy fix but i will have to do some testing.

sorry i'm late! the last patch was over a month ago and seemed to be working fine so i took a couple weeks off not expecting people to nuke lobbies with sketchy scripts.

i have also added a safeguard from the current unstable build that might help with crashes.

turns out last patch broke hard knockdowns and a few other moves, as well as some new character select screen bugs. these should be all or mostly fixed.

new version number because this is *technically* a gameplay change, but nearly all 1.9.19 replays should work.

no gameplay changes yet.

modded players should see a new loading screen when the game starts. i've also made it so the game only needs to load modded characters once, instead of after every match. please let me know if this relieves the "mod mismatch" error.

additionally, cloud saving has been enabled.

nothing special. thank you to https://emi.pet and sodium fluoride for finding and alerting me to a particular vulnerability involving remote code execution - scary!

update 2024-08-03, in response to some comments:

>nothing special
>fixed RCE

...what?

why not explain what the vulnerability was? im curious, this is scary. i dont want to play a game without transparency within the code construction and the potential vulnerabilities, especially since im a cybersec freak. would love to hear from you about this

maybe i should not have had such a casual tone about this patch, as it fixed a rather severe exploit, but the actual change was something like 10 new lines of code, and yomih has never had issues with hackers or cheaters, so i see this as a preventative measure and peace of mind. i should clarify this exploit had been in the game for a long time, but i've never heard any reports of anyone actually using it.

basically, networking in Godot works like this: rpc calls allow your game to call functions on the other player's computer. previously, YOMIH allowed one client to rpc call *any function on the Network object*, including base Node methods. i hesitate to offer excruciating detail, but that had all sorts of wide-reaching implications, and RCE was the worst of them. this update only allows the client to call script functions, not built-in Godot methods. so you can no longer do the bad thing.

on that note, this does NOT prevent mods from doing whatever the hell they want. this has been and always will be the case, as the modloader is pretty laissez-faire (and probably can't be restricted much more on this old version of Godot). workshop mods of questionable ethics are always removed and the modders banned, and mods are open-source by necessity so mods are unlikely to contain anything like that, but it can technically happen, so use mods and old versions online at your own peril.

Biggest change is that lobbies no longer default to custom characters being enabled. This is to promote a similar balance of modded to vanilla lobbies to before character loader was merged into base game, as modded lobbies have become a dominant majority and vanilla players are finding it difficult to find games. You can just as easily make a modded lobby, but now it is opt-in instead of opt-out.

No big shakeups, just more balancing and tweaks. I was a little late to get it in before the summer sale, sorry!

Just another aesthetic change: modded characters no longer inherit the extra aesthetic freeze-frames that came with the last patch.

I have added a toggle to the base character scene to have the freeze-frames that is disabled by default but hopefully made it stand out enough that new mods dont forget to enable it :P

And probably the smallest gameplay-changing update (which requires a new game version) that YOMIH has ever seen:

• Super Jump
  
  • Slightly reduced range of angles (140 degrees -> 138 degrees) (should fix boring optimal combo Ninja players were unhappy about)

Mostly balance and aesthetic changes, and anti-stall measures for the new character.

Some of the modders were doing naughty things with my code :( but this should help.

Robot should be back in the game for modded character users, and many modded characters who were causing a startup crash should not be doing so any longer.

Hello gamers. the new character, Mutant is finally out! sorry it took me so long. there was a lot of work to do, not just on the new character, but on every part of the game.


Art by blauxel!
Some highlights before i get into how Mutant works:

• the Character Loader mod has been absorbed into the base game and somewhat optimized to reduce lag when lots of characters are installed.
  
• big change to the neutral game: air options have been globally reduced by 1, to prevent passivity and stalling. this means, for example, Ninja only gets one double jump/air dash/etc before touching the ground. but don't worry, when you start a combo, you get your extra air option back.
  
• several QOL features to display more relevant information on the screen, such as when you have initiative, who is being combo'd, a tooltip hint that explains DI, and more.

Mutant (endearingly referred to as Slop Man) is an extremely rushdown-oriented character with tricky movement, a poisonous bite, and fierce close-range attacks.
A unique movement option called Juke allows Mutant to micro-adjust its positioning, setting up for counter-attacks and unpredictable neutral scrapping. This requires a resource, as shown by the green pips in the top left. You can get more pips by attacking the opponent, or by using his super, Howl.
Mutant's Dash has some interesting properties. Aside from avoiding some attacks with its low hurtbox, Dash Forward can be followed up with a unique Dash Attack, and a special, Sneak Attack, which can sneak past the opponent and break their guard.
Landing Envenom, Mutant's special throw, afflicts the opponent with a poison status. Additional to losing health over time, attacking a poisoned opponent causes acid bubbles to fly out of their bodies, turning into ad-hoc stage hazards that Mutant can use to its advantage.
Vault is a unique special that lets Mutant harmlessly bounce off opponent projectiles. You can also use it to attack the opponent directly.
Howl is a level 2 super that gives Mutant several Juke pips, and access to a new move, Slop Dash, which allows Mutant to move in any direction, similar to Ninja's Air Dash, but even from the ground.
Rebirth is a level 3 super that pulls the opponent toward Mutant, and does several things on hit:

• Knocks the opponent away from Mutant at a dynamic angle
  
• Slightly heals Mutant
  
• Refreshes Mutant's air options

This move is best used to extend combos, at the heavy cost of 3 bars.
Mutant has some weaknesses too. Both Mutant's damage resistance and damage output are lower than the other vanilla characters. DI is generally more effective against Mutant's attacks, and DI reads are required both to combo as Mutant and to get out of Mutant's combos. Additionally, Mutant struggles to approach against strong zoning tactics.

However, Mutant is designed, like all base characters, to have an answer to every situation. While Mutant's options are more polarized, you should still be able to fight and win against anyone with this new character.

Anyway that about wraps it up. I hope you enjoy all the new stuff ːorganiccucumberː if you have any complaints, please direct them to the nearest Cowboy main