It's here! Battery Jam 1.0!

We set a goal years ago to release a game, we were lucky enough to get to develop it full time for the last 9 months or so, and here we are. After all our planning, discussions, and hard work getting Battery Jam to what we felt made for a solid and complete experience we're finally here!

With that content completion comes a price change. We'd intended to adjust the price at launch since we went live into Early Access, and that's happening as promised. Today, we're bumping it up to $14.99. We wouldn't do it if we didn't think it was worth it, and we hope you agree! If you don't, then make sure you keep an eye on Steam Sales!

But enough about money, how about what's being added to this update?

• Nebula and Satellite both focus on narrow arena formations to emphasize the ability to control zones of the board with raised tiles. On top of that, they're in outer space, so everything else is irrelevant!

• One out of three Halseo employees have studied Japanese a bit. So we went to people who knew what they're doing for this one!

• We hope the AI difficulty settings allow players to fine tune their experience a bit more! Dig in and crush them at every difficulty!

• Addressed boomboxes merging
  
• Added mouse symbols in options and in game while using Mouse and Keyboard
  
• Options menu glitch for keyboard support
  
• Visual glitch on skyline
  
• Boomboxes spawning out of the arena
  
• Addressing AI loitering
  
• Numerous small fixes

We hope you enjoy the game, and on behalf of the three of us at Halseo, thank you to the players, and to our friends and family that helped along the way, and SCAD+, for making this possible!

Great news everyone!


What does that mean?

• Two more levels being added!
  Here's a peek at one of them!
  
• We have AI difficulty settings coming in!
  
  
• And of course, some general bug fixing!

Right now, there is a small hiccup on our side. We had intended to raise the price of the game to $14.99 once we came out of Early Access. You might have noticed, as of this writing on May 10th, 2018 at about 10 AM Eastern, the price has already changed.

We were under the impression we would choose when that new pricing would go into effect, and seems we misunderstood! We're really sorry about that. We've reached out to Steam for some help and are working to see if we can kick the price back down for the rest of Early Access.

Keep an eye on our Twitter for updates about that situation, we'll inform everyone as soon as we have answers!

Hope you're ready for our coolest update yet! Not only are we adding two new levels, which happen to be our fanciest levels to date, Plant and Slag, but we're adding AI so you can beat them up IN THE NEW LEVELS!

You can add them to a match while you're in character select! Check it out!

• Plant
  - A dense, small new level set in a beautiful and serene jungle! Or is it? Plant is a real tight level where you're always vulnerable!
  
• Slag
  - This laboratory isn't just eerie, it's also huge and empty! Make the most of the space to attack poorly defended opponents from across the map!
  
• AI Opponents
  - Now you can play the game solo or use AI to fill out matches with friends! They can be added in the character selection screen!

• Mouse and Keyboard Support
  - Now that single player is possible in Battery Jam, it only made sense to properly support keyboard and mouse control! Mouse input is supported across all the menus and the keyboard and mouse control in game has been greatly improved and refined.

You want match settings? Teleporters? Enhanced visual elements on levels? Refined music tracks!? YOU GOT 'EM!

• Added Match Settings menu
  
• Added optional teleporters to every map
  
• Added level specific feedback once game timer reaches 30 seconds
  
• Updated various music tracks with additional saxophone
  
• Updated Tutorial and Control Screen for clarification
  
• Good old fashioned bug fixes

We’ve added a ton of options and ways to modify the game! Great features like...

Game Mode Presets

• We’ve added pre-built game mode options for easy access, which you can further customize with tons of settings, such as...

Game Speed

• Now you can tailor the pace of the game to your preference! Choose between normal, slow or fast game speed!

Teleporters

• Push boomboxes into the teleporter to catch the competition off guard, or run through yourself to traverse the map quickly!

Invisible Territory

• This modifier makes it so the colors of the tiles fade over time! Spice up our default mode by adding some mystery to who’s tiles you’re destroying, or add in deathmatch scoring to take the focus off the arena!

Score Type

• You can also now change whether the score in a match is based off of tiles captured, kills, or crushes with the boombox!

Timers

• Boombox timer, match length, respawn time each have an option in match settings to adjust!

Boomboxes

• More than the timer option, you can also choose whether or not they turn into capture boxes, and how many boomboxes appear in the arena! Two not enough? Try ten!

Infinite Energy

• And not an ounce of responsibility!

Points to Win

• Two minute matches not your style? Change the game to a points to win setting to have standard deathmatch modes, or a variation on our default tile based mode!

Now on each level, when you’re playing a timer based game mode, each level will have a unique event to help ramp up the tension of those final moments!

• Changed the “Rocket Punch” to “Stun Shot” to help clarify the intent of the ability.
  
• Changed “Popping and Dropping Tiles” to “Raising and Lowering Tiles” for clarity.

• Problem with the bubble making player invincible after attempted pop while bubbled
  
• Problem with players remaining stretched when hit while dashing
  
• Problem with players getting knocked out of the play space
  
• Problem with victory screen displaying in slomo
  
• A bunch of other inconsequential bugs not worth mentioning!

Battery Jam has now been released into Early Access!
So what does that mean!?

It means you get the game! Which as of launch on January 30th, contains all four characters, four levels, Classic Jam (Free for All) and Team Jam!

Over the course of early access we'll be working to add features like -

• New Levels
  
• New Music
  
• AI Bots
  
• Match Settings

We'll also be doing our best to address feedback and bugs as they come up.

Thank you so much for spending time with our game, and we hope you enjoy it!

Hello everyone!!

Thank you so much for checking out Battery Jam! We're really excited to finally get to show it to all of you!

We made a small mistake during our submission process we need to clarify!

Battery Jam will be in EARLY ACCESS in January, not officially released.
That comes a bit later! As our storefront gets re-reviewed, we figured we'd let you know why Battery Jam will be in early access, and what our plans are with it.

Until the store page updates, here's all that information posted here.

Why Early Access?
Halseo is comprised of three guys shoved in a room in Savannah, Georgia, and we need early access to test the game and get feedback as we wrap it up for final release!

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
Only a few months! As of launch we're doing our best to have the game completed and officially released around March 2018.

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
The final version of the game will have additional levels as we complete them during Early Access, and a bit more music to add as well!

Currently, we do not plan to add online functionality.

What is the current state of the Early Access version?
Presently the game contains four stages across two levels for players to experience. A large portion of the Early Access release is fairly indicative of what the final product should be. Our big plans for now are to bug test, and address feedback as players find new and exciting ways to break the game, and finish up the last of the content we're releasing.

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
Probably! We do intend to increase the price of the game after early access, by how much is still being figured out.

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
We need feedback in all areas! We've got various resources available to our studio but at the end of the day we're looking to make sure the game's working well, make sure the game is playing well, and making sure people enjoy what we've got going on!

There's always opportunity for more, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!

Sorry for any confusion!