12/14/24 - v1.37.1.0 - v1.37.1.0 - Upgraded particle system and improved particle effects for Steam/PC and Android
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.37.1.0) This upgrades the particle system to support a 2-pass approach to particle rendering. What this means is, most particle effects now share a unified alpha channel, and separate the alpha render pass from the color render pass. This allows most particle effects, such as enemy explosions, to maintain their ‘melding together’ effect of adjacent particles, while also being more prominent from the background. The previous additive-only particles would sometimes get blown out or lost in bright backgrounds, or colors closely matching the color of the particles. This new approach leverages multicore CPUs to neutralize much of the increased workload, resulting in only a minor net increase in particle processing time. The rendering side does have an increased load, but is still low enough overall that virtually all systems won’t see a slowdown.
This update includes a few Android-specific improvements as well, including a new “unlocked” framerate setting, improved app startup time, fixed single core device support, and a savegame loading fix.
There are also a few autoplay demo bug fixes included with this update for all platforms.
For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
6/19/24 - v1.37.0.0 - 3D positional sounds, buffed exploder shots, improved wave intermission, bug fixes, and more for Steam/PC and Android
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.37.0.0) Substantial upgrades have been made to the OpenAL sound system for this update. This includes 3D positional sound sources, tracking object movement for attached sounds, and remastered sound assets that are compatible with the new system. Also, surround sound speaker support has been added, but all the action is in front of the camera. Sound source velocity and doppler effect support has been added to the sound system as well, but are not utilized yet.
This update includes numerous other improvements, including rebalanced volume levels for all sounds and music playback, buffed exploder and cluster shots, extended wave intermission animation, improved high frequency update consistency, refined player bullet particle trails, and more!
For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
3/8/24 - v1.36.3.0 - Bug fixes for all platforms, and added separate update rate from frame rate for Steam/PC
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2. (v1.36.3.0) This update adds high frequency update support to the Steam/PC version! This means, even if the game is running at 60fps, the game input and simulation could be running at up to 200hz. This allows for the responsiveness of a high refresh rate display without the need for one. This is similar to other low latency technologies, such as Reflex or Anti-Lag, but this is a single solution effective across all graphics vendors. Other game engines require synchronizing input and simulation updates with the render frame rate, but the BlastZone 2 game engine has been architected in a unique way. It allows for the rendering and input/simulation systems to run completely asynchronously from each other, making high frequency updates possible.
This is an exciting new technology, and I can’t wait to hear about everyone’s experience with it!
This update also includes a few bug fixes for all platforms, including player ship size and brightness bugs during the flyin animation. The final boss bullet pattern has been updated to prevent exploits as well.
For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
12/20/23 - v1.36.2.0 - Improvements to multithreading and performance for Steam/PC and Android
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.36.2.0) This update focuses on multithreading improvements, and a few performance improvements. This includes reduced frame hitches, up to 10-25% particle system performance gains from improved memory bandwidth efficiency, and some general performance gains.
Both the PC/Steam and Android versions also gained general 10% performance from adding support for SIMD FMA cpu instructions. CPUs that don’t support these instructions are still supported via a fallback SSE2/NEON code path. Also, most of the multithreading advanced options on PC can now be changed without restarting the game.
For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
8/4/23 - v1.36.1.1 - Several improvements to the 2nd person shooter sequence in Mission Mode for Steam/PC and Android
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.36.1.1) This update makes several improvements to the 2nd person shooter sequence in Mission Mode Area 5, including fixing enemy bullet bugs, and fixed effect alignment and timing. This gives an overall more polished sequence as you dodge from enemy fire, while you’re in their sights!
For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
7/7/23 - v1.36.1.0 - Improvements to physics, frame time consistency, and the frame limiter for Steam/PC and Android!
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.36.1.0) This update adds several technical improvements to the engine. This includes improved, more accurate and consistent physics across any frame rate. There are also a few improvements to frame time consistency, reducing frame hitching that existed in specific situations for some systems, and an improved frame limiter, for a smoother overall experience. This update also includes particle system optimizations, using an additional CPU thread for spawning particles, and reducing frame hitches when many particles are on screen.
For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
6/1/23 - v1.36.0.0 - Mission+ Mode Released for Steam/PC and Android!
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.36.0.0) This update adds another new game mode, Mission+ Mode! This works similar to “New Game+” in other games, as it starts Mission Mode from the beginning, but with all weapons and abilities unlocked, and all stat upgrades at level 3. To keep the difficulty balanced, this mode is always played at Veteran difficulty, and with fewer lives to start. This mode can only be unlocked once Pilot Mission Mode is completed. This will serve as a great new way to experience BlastZone 2 for advanced players.
The PC/Steam version of the update also includes a few 3rd party library updates, which address various bugs.
For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
4/21/23 - v1.35.0.0 - Turbo Mission Mode Released for Steam/PC and Android!
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.35.0.0) This update adds a brand new game mode, Turbo Mission Mode! The goal of this mode is to add an alternative high difficulty way to play the main campaign that is very fast for advanced players. This increases the speed of the player ship, enemies, and enemy bullets by 35%, but keeps the ‘Pilot’ quantity of enemies, similar to the Turbo modes for Survival and Blitz. New highscore categories and leaderboards have been added for this new mode as well. Enjoy the new mode!
This update also includes localization fixes and a crash fix. For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
3/23/23 - v1.34.2.0 - Rebalanced Training difficulty for Survival/Blitz modes and a new command console for Steam/PC and Android
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.34.2.0) This update focuses on rebalancing the Training difficulty of Survival and Blitz modes. This involves several aspects, including enemy spawn rates, bullet firing rates, difficulty scaling between waves, and messaging to the player. The difficulty of earlier waves have been reduced, but later waves maintain their difficulty and there are fewer starting lives to balance the overall experience. This was done to help ease new players into the game and learn its systems before the difficulty ramps up too much.
This update also adds a new command console for the PC/Steam version. This features a history of previously received messages and access to previously entered commands. This makes it much easier to text chat in online multiplayer. Also, input support for several new special characters have been added to the console.
This update also includes localization fixes and a crash fix. For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
2/10/23 - v1.34.1.1 - Maintenance release for Steam/PC and Android
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.34.1.1) This is a smaller update that includes optimizations, bug fixes, and refinements. The ship flash animation has been optimized for all ships, including the player ship, enemies, and bosses, resulting in up to a 5% performance gain. There is a bugfix for the player ship being stuck in the highlighted state when quitting a previous game while taking damage, then entering the ship selection screen. There are some refinements to the load process timing when doing screen wipes to ensure all loading is completed when the screen is fully obscured to prevent occasional artifacts.
For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
12/16/22 - v1.34.1.0 release for Steam/PC and Android - New and updated sound effects + charging animation improvement
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.34.1.0) This primarily adds a few new sound effects to the game, including a new flurry weapon firing sound, bullet hit sound, and new sounds for achieving each level of weapon charge. A few sounds have been shortened as well, including menu sounds and item pickups.
This update also includes an updated charging animation after achieving charge level 1 while still charging for level 2. There is also improved frame debug data, being easier to parse and supplying separate categories for average, max, and min values. To access this debug data, press the fire 3 button 7 times rapidly during the main menu.
For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
11/23/22 - v1.34.0.2 release for PC/Steam and Android - Ship selection menu improvements and BZ1 updates
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.34.0.2) The primary updates in this release are improvements to the ship selection menu. Now, the next and previous ships are displayed at the top of the screen in a muted form with their shortened names. This visualizes the full roster of ships to choose from, while keeping the currently highlighted ship more prominent. The color of the currently selected ship and arrow selectors has been changed to yellow as well to maintain a consistent color scheme across all menus. The local multiplayer ship selection screen has been updated as well with similar updates to color and ship list.
This update also makes a few changes to BlastZone 1, upgrading it to v1.4. This includes a fix for a rapid fire laser exploit and slightly reduced enemy speed.
This update includes a few smaller updates as well, including localization adjustments and a screenfade adjustment. For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
11/10/22 - v1.34.0.1 PC/Steam release - Bug fixes, better bullet layering - Radeon driver bug fixed
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! (v1.34.0.1) This is a maintenance release, focused on bug fixes and optimizations. The biggest fix addresses player bullets being invisible for Radeon graphics cards using drivers 22.7.1 or later. This is because 22.7.1 and later use a brand new, rewritten OpenGL driver, which greatly improves performance, but also has a few bugs. Thankfully, some bugs were addressable on the game engine side.
This update also includes a few small optimizations for player and enemy bullets, resulting in up to a 1% boost in performance. Player and enemy bullets are now layered on top of all particles and other effects as well, making them more prominent than before.
There is also an antialiasing bug causing graphic corruption in this game when using Radeon drivers 22.7.1 and later. Workarounds include using Radeon driver 22.6.1 or earlier, or disabling antialiasing. This bug has now been fixed in the 22.11.1 drivers, so anyone using 22.7.1 or later should upgrade to this driver. Nvidia/Geforce graphics cards are not affected by this issue.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
11/10/22 - v1.34.0.1 Android Release - Bug fixes and optimizations
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.34.0.1) This release contains the bug fixes and optimizations from the PC version. The invisible player bullet bug may have affected some Android devices, so this update fixes that issue.
The antialiasing issue from the PC version doesn’t affect the Android version.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
9/17/22 - New lobby system for Steamworks Multiplayer; Migrated to new SteamNetwork API for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.34.0.0)
A big new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! (v1.34.0.0) This update adds public lobby support for Steamworks multiplayer games via Steam Matchmaking. Now, anyone can create a lobby and any player can join it. Lobbies are restricted to 2 players each, and players must be within the same region. This was all built using the Steam backbone and server infrastructure, so it is pretty robust. This has been a hotly requested feature, so I hope everyone enjoys it! Inviting players through the Steam friends list is still available for those to wish to use it.
Also, this update migrates to the new SteamNetworking API for Steamworks online multiplayer games. The previously used Steam Networking communication is deprecated, so migrating to the new version ensures no interruption in Steamworks multiplayer game access. There are also upgrades with the new network communication API that improves responsiveness and consistency of gameplay.
There are a few Steam Friends bug fixes as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
9/17/22 - Menu transition tweaks and bug fixes for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.34.0.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.34.0.0) This update adjusts ship stat bar blending during menu transitions for all ship selection screens. There are also fixes for several elements of the multiplayer host selection screen not fading in and out during menu transitions.
This update is fairly small compared to the PC/Steam version. This Android release is built from the latest v1.34.0.0 codebase, but the majority of updates only apply to the new lobby system, which the Android version doesn’t support at this time.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
8/4/22 - Bug fixes for the Steam Deck and other adjustments for the PC/Steam version (v1.33.3.1)
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.33.3.1) This update focuses on bug fixing for the Steam Deck, with the goal to eventually be officially certified for the Deck. Quite a bit of progress has been made so far, with all known bugs for the Deck being fixed as of the release of this update. The list of bug fixes include muted sound, frame hitching, and graphic corruption.
With this update, BlastZone 2 works very well on the Deck at max detail, and is now a supported platform by the developer. If this game receives full certification by Valve, an announcement will be posted for it. In the meantime, any bug reports will be greatly appreciated to help with the certification process.
Some of the bugs fixed may affect other systems as well, as some of these issues have been reported in the past, but were never reproduced internally until having a Deck on hand to test with.
This update also fixes an occasional hang issue for background explosions, and updates the design of Mission Area 2 and 6. There are a few other smaller changes and tweaks for this release as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
8/4/22 - Occasional hang fix for the Android version (v1.33.3.1)
A small update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2. (v1.33.3.1) This update fixes an occasional hang issue for background explosions, and updates the design of Mission Area 2 and 6. All other updates for this version don’t apply to the Android platform.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
7/18/22 - Improvements to enemy bullets and ship selection screens for PC/Steam and Android (v1.33.3.0)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.33.3.0) This update completely reworks how enemy bullets are rendered, greatly improving performance. The most impact will be noticed for the final boss of mission mode, which has the most enemy bullets by far. The amount of performance gained has a wide range, based on CPU speed. The most performance is gained by very slow CPUs, such as dual core netbook-class CPUs, which can be up to 50% or higher for the final boss scene. Moderate to lower end quad core CPUs gain less performance, but still quite substantial, at about 20% or so. The least performance is gained by modern, higher end CPUs with more than 4 cores, which can be around 2-3%.
From these performance gains, enemy bullet trails are now always rendered at full quality, even when numerous bullets are on screen. Previous versions would significantly reduce bullet trail quality for the final mission boss scene.
src=screenshots/BulletDetail.jpg width=422 height=600
The Android version benefits from everything described as well, with slower budget devices gaining the most performance.
This update also adds weapon icons for all ship selection screens, including the single player, local multiplayer, and online lobby screens. These screens have also been rearranged to make use of them better. This makes it much easier to see the kind of weapon loadouts and hyper loadouts each ship has at a glance as you scroll through.
src=screenshots/NewShipMenu.jpg width=640 height=360
This update also fixes a few bugs with the PC OpenGL 1.5 renderer introduced in the previous v1.33.2.0 update.
For more details for the PC version, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. For Android, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
6/24/22 - Training Mission Mode improved for new players and text fixes for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.33.2.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.33.2.0) This update includes many of the fixes and improvements from the PC version, including the improved Training Mission mode, optimizations, and improved leaderboard score submission security. There are a few Android-specific fixes as well, including text rendering fixes for the pipe ‘|’ and pound ‘#’ symbols.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
4/8/22 - Added mouse cursor lock and bug fixes for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.33.1.0)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! (v1.33.1.0) This update adds new mouse cursor lock functionality to the A1 ship. This means if mouse controls are used for this ship, it will always be in the precise position the mouse cursor is. In the hands of a skilled player, this allows for a degree of precise movement around bullets and hazards that otherwise was not possible. The reason why only the A1 ship received this upgrade is because of difficulty balancing. The A1 ship has the weakest armor and weapons, but the fastest speed in the game, so it fits this play style. Giving any other ship this capability would break the game. All other ships will continue using their original mouse behavior, which follows the mouse cursor at the highest speed each ship is capable of moving. A new display has been added to the ship selection screen to show which ships support mouse cursor lock or not, but is only shown when mouse controls are enabled.
This update also includes a few rare crash fixes, mouse button fixes, and particle alpha value clamping fixes. Also, there is a general performance uplift of about 1%.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
4/8/22 - Added cursor lock and bug fixes for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.33.1.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.33.1.0) This update adds a cursor lock similar to the PC version, but for use with touch controls. This allows some ships to lock directly to either the relative touch cursor, or the direct touch location. This feature is enabled for the A1 and A2 ships in the game, the two fastest ships. I’ve received multiple requests for this feature on the Android version in particular, as other Android shmup games control this way. Ship movement speed is a core part of BlastZone 2’s gameplay, as it differentiates the play styles of each ship and maintains difficulty balance between them. I think limiting the cursor lock to only the A1 and A2 ships is a good compromise, because the faster movement of those ships is offset by them having weaker armor and weapons.
I hope everyone enjoys this new gameplay upgrade!
This update includes most of the bug fixes from the PC version, including crash fixes for singleplayer and multiplayer scenarios, and particle alpha clamping fixes. The mouse control bug fixes don’t apply to the Android version. The general performance improvement was already part of the Android v1.33.0.1 release as well.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
2/13/22 - Technical upgrades, raised requirements, and bug fixes for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.33.0.1)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.33.0.1) The primary focus of this update is to upgrade numerous technical components in the underlying engine to better target newer devices and eliminate deprecated components. The result of this improves general device compatibility, stability, security, and prevention of potential current and future bugs.
To accomplish this, the minimum device requirements to install the game have been raised to Android 4.1 Jellybean or higher. (up from Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread of older versions). Issues have been discovered for old devices anyway, so this officially excludes them from the compatibility list. Considering the current Android version market share, this new requirement is unlikely to impact a significant number of users.
This update also includes a critical bugfix, addressing a softlock for some devices when a gamepad is erroneously detected. Now, if the game is started with gamepad controls enabled, double tap the touch screen during the title screen to switch back to touch controls. This also adds the ability to switch between touch screen and gamepad controls from the config menu.
Other optimizations and bug fixes are included as well. Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
11/27/21 - Full localization support added with support for 11 total languages for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! (v1.33.0.0)
A big new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! (v1.33.0.0) This update completely reworks all text displays in the game to support localization. Alongside this update, 10 translations are being added to the game, bringing the total to 11. Localization support has been a highly requested feature for a while now, and this will make the game accessible to a much greater audience. It was a huge undertaking to upgrade the underlying engine to support this, as well as all the translation work for each language.
The languages released so far include English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Polish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Russian. More may be released in the future on request. Also, please let me know if errors are found in any of the translations and they will be promptly corrected. A lot of time went into checking over each translation, but it’s possible a few errors got through anyway.
The localization system uses a new discrete language data file that can be updated separately from the main game binary. Translation corrections can be done, and entirely new languages can be added to the game just by updating this file. Updates of this nature can be quickly released, without having to wait for a new stable binary update.
The text rendering system has also been upgraded to support thousands of new characters, including accented characters from European languages, as well as characters from East Asian languages, such as Japanese, or Korean. Previous versions of the game only supported the 128 baseline ASCII character set, which only supported the English language.
This update also includes bug fixes and particle system optimizations.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
11/27/21 - Localization support added with 6 total languages for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.33.0.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.33.0.0) This update largely incorporates the improvements and changes from the PC version, but with a few limitations. The Android version adds the following languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. The remaining langues use glyphs not currently supported by the Android text rendering system, so they are not being released at this time.
All other improvements made for the PC version have been incorporated into the Android version as well.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
8/6/21 - Native 64 bit support and optimizations for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.7.3)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.7.3) The biggest update in this release is that the game executable is now built as a native 64 bit binary, eliminating the need for a 32 bit compatibility layer. Advantages of this include faster loading times and a much higher memory usage limit. To use the new 64 bit version, no special action is needed besides the usual Steam game update, it will auto detect which version is best suited for your setup. That means 32 bit systems are still compatible with the game, and those users will receive the 32 bit version of the latest game update.
This update also includes lower memory usage during loading screens and a 1-2% performance boost.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
8/6/21 - Bug fixes and optimizations for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.7.3)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.7.3) This update includes a few bug fixes and optimizations. The Android version received the same loading screen 10% memory consumption reduction as the PC version, as well as faster loading times. Also, overall game update performance has been boosted by 1-2% by eliminating unnecessary object computations.
Bug fixes include the cutscene playout memory leak fix from the PC hotfix release, plus a fix for a rare game slowdown issue.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
7/23/21 - Maintenance release for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.7.2)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.7.2) This brings improvements to the particle system, reducing hitching in some situations. More specifically, this update optimizes the process of resizing the particle buffer cache. This update also fixes a rare multithreading crash fix, and migrates to the latest LibPNG library.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
7/23/21 - Improved terrain graphic detail for the VeryHigh setting for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.7.2)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.7.2) This brings substantial graphics quality improvements in the form of higher detail foreground terrain models for the “VeryHigh” detail setting. These have double the triangle count and are equivalent to the “High” detail setting on the PC version. Keep in mind the new models require device support for the “GL_OES_element_index_uint” extension for OpenGL ES 2.0, or support for ES3. Devices that don’t support either of these will automatically fallback to the old models.
The improved graphics quality does incur a performance cost of about 35% overall, but rendering optimizations made over the years make up for this. If performance or battery drain is still a concern, the “High” terrain detail setting provides a substantial graphics improvement over “Normal”, while maintaining a balance of performance. Also, this update increases the APK download size and disk usage by 20mb, bringing it to about 75mb total. This is still reasonable considering the amount of content BlastZone 2 has.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
7/6/21 - Greatly improved particle performance and unlocked limits for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.7.1)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.7.1) This update makes two big improvements to the particle system. The first is full CPU core scaling, which originally was only supported on the PC version. Tests on several test devices show performance gains from 30-100%. Devices with 2 CPU cores will see no performance gains, 4 cores will see gains in the lower range, but still quite substantial, and 8 cores will see the most gains. Higher particle counts will see greater gains as well. This enables many more devices, including older or lower cost devices, to run particles at the VeryHigh detail setting with little to no slowdowns.
The second big improvement in this update is an unlocked particle limit for VeryHigh particle detail for devices that support it. To support it, devices need to have more than 2 CPU cores for performance reasons, but also need to have either support for OpenGL ES 3.0+, or the “GL_OES_element_index_uint“ extension for ES2. Most devices from the past several years should support these, and no action is needed from the user to make use of them.
The above two improvements now put particle detail and efficiency on par with the PC version, including all upgrades over the years that used to be exclusive to the PC version.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
6/23/21 - Multithreading fixes, log output, and reduced vram usage for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.7.1)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.7.1) This update makes a few technical improvements, such as debug log output, reduced memory usage, and added more advanced options. This update also fixes a few multithreading bugs, including rare instances of game speed irregularities and crashes. All these updates only apply to the PC/Steam version, so no equivalent update will be released for Android at this time.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
6/3/21 - Improved particle multithreading, new sound loader, and faster startup for the PC/Steam version (v1.32.7.0)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.7.0) This update improves particle thread workload balancing, has a new sound loader, and improves startup loading time.
Improvements made to particle thread workload balancing can improve performance by up to 1%-10%, depending on the number of particles being processed and the number of CPU cores in the system. Performance gains will be closer to 1-2% in heavier load areas. Optimizations have also been made to draw call batching. This means when there are many objects on screen, such as bullets or enemies, performance will be increased by up to 5%.
A new sound loader has been built internal to the game engine, and no longer uses the “alut.dll” external library for this functionality. This DLL file has now been removed. Also, the game startup loading time has been reduced by up to 87%. This was done by taking the heaviest area of loading, hundreds of enemy behavior script files, and loading them in the background once the main menu starts. This was done in a way that the most important data will be ready by the time mission mode starts, so this won’t affect gameplay at all.
This update has upgraded from DirectInput 7 to DirectInput 8 for non-XInput gamepads. Most input devices won’t be using DirectInput, but this update improves the experience for those that do. This update also adds a console message limit to prevent excessive memory and drawing load in some circumstances.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
6/3/21 - Rendering and loading optimizations for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.7.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.7.0) This update optimizes rendering performance by up to 5%. This was done by optimizing draw call batching, which has the greatest impact when there are many enemies or bullets on screen. The startup loading time reduction has also been applied to the Android version.
The console message limit has also been added to the Android version. All other updates for this new version only apply to the PC/Steam version.
For more details, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
3/25/21 - Added a new Advanced Options menu to the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.6.0)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.6.0) This update adds a new “Advanced Options” menu to the game, reorganizing existing options and adding a few new ones. These options don’t apply to the Android version, so this new menu will not be released for that platform.
This is a submenu of the regular “Options” menu and moves the existing “Renderer” and “Draw Call Type” options there, since most users won’t need to change them. The new options added include “Game Update Multithreading”, which improves performance, but can be disabled to reduce input latency. There is also “Particle Helper Threads”, that greatly improves performance and it on by default. Lastly, there is “Display Switch Compatibility”, which fixes an issue with laptop secondary displays, but can be turned off to allow secondary displays to work above 60hz. Descriptions for all these options are displayed in game as well for convenience.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
3/25/21 - Memory usage optimizations for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.6.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.6.0) This update includes a number of hotfix improvements made to the PC version since the v1.32.5.0 release. This includes a 30mb reduction in ram usage, a demo quit screen flicker fix, and smoothed out particle generation for low frame rates.
For more details, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
2/22/21 - Greatly improved particle CPU core scaling and bug fixes for the PC/Steam version (v1.32.5.0)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.5.0) This update focuses on greatly improving multithreading core scaling for the particle system.
This update greatly improves particle system workload distribution to CPU cores. This improves overall particle performance for all CPUs with more than 2 cores/threads, and makes the amount of performance gained much closer to linear with the number of CPU cores/threads available. For example, a 6 core/12 thread test system has a 57% particle performance boost from this update, and now has a 5x performance boost when compared to single threaded performance. In previous versions, core scaling was closer to 3.2x for the same system. Also, a 4 core/8 thread test system now scales at 3x performance when using multithreading, compared to about 2x in previous versions.
As a measure of absolute performance, this latest release can run over 110k particles at 60fps on a 6 core/12 thread CPU, while previous versions were limited to 73k in the same situation. Maximum particle counts seen in regular gameplay scenarios are around 20-25k at VeryHigh detail, and averages around 5-8k, so it will run at full performance on lower end, lower core count CPUs.
This update also includes a game-side mitigation for drifting issues that affects some XInput gamepads. This was caused by faulty gamepad hardware, and this update will reduce it, or fix it entirely.
This update also migrates to the latest Steam API release v1.51. (up from v1.46) This includes all the latest fixes and improvements for Steam functionality.
**A hotfix has been released for this update that fixes a critical Demo version startup softlock. This also includes a particle system precaching bug, saving about 30mb of memory.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
P.S. - You may have noticed most updates over the last year or more have focused on technical improvements and optimizations, with gameplay-related elements only getting occasional adjustments. This is because I’ve been working on a new game project that shares the same engine as BlastZone 2. All engine improvements I’ve been making for the new game have been released for BlastZone 2 so everyone can benefit from them. More information is coming soon!
2/22/21 - Particle system update released for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.5.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.5.0) This is a relatively small update compared to the PC version and brings more subtle technical refinements to the particle system. This includes improved particle counting and general code design improvements to prevent bugs. The CPU core scaling improvements from the PC version don’t apply to Android, though.
For more details, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
1/31/21 - Improved minimum and average particle performance for PC/Steam and Android (v1.32.4.0)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam and Android versions of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.4.0) This update improves performance in a few aspects of the particle system and fixes bugs.
The biggest improvement in this update is a big performance boost when hitting the foreground particle cap. This dramatically improves the minimum particle update rate when the whole screen is filled with particles. This applies to all particle detail levels except for VeryHigh, as that doesn’t have a particle count cap. The amount of performance gain has a wide range and depends on the rate of new particles being spawned while the cap is reached. This ranges anywhere from about a 10% boost, all the way up to a 800% boost for extreme test case scenarios. In common gameplay scenarios, the boost is around 50-60% in specific cases, which is still quite substantial. Please note this only affects the asynchronous update rate of particle movement and has no effect on the framerate of the rest of the game.
The particle cap optimization is particularly relevant for the Android version, as all particle detail levels have a particle cap, and those caps are a bit lower.
Player ship booster particle rendering has been optimized to run many times faster, improving overall performance by 5-10% at all times during gameplay. This was done by combining all booster particles into a single draw call. It was the last remaining particle effect lacking this optimization after the v1.32.0.0 overhaul a few months back. This was used to double the particle count of the Android version’s player ship booster, matching the PC version level of detail.
There are also a few other optimizations and bug fixes in this update. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
1/4/21 - Maintenance release for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2(v1.32.3.5)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.3.5) This is a maintenance release that makes a few technical improvements to the game engine.
Terrain loading speed on startup has been improved, primarily for running the game from a mechanical hard drive. The biggest difference can be noticed for VeryHigh and Extreme terrain detail.
There are a few other technical improvements and fixes included as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
1/2/21 - Critical Bug fixes for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.3.5)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2. (v1.32.3.5) This update includes a few critical bug fixes, such as a startup crash fix that affected some devices. Also, a crash bug has been fixed when connecting to a Bluetooth device that doesn't include a valid address.
A client side bug has also been fixed for viewing and uploading scores to the leaderboard.
For more details, check out the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
12/30/20 - Leaderboards fixed!
The leaderboards have been fixed for BlastZone 2! They were down for a while, I apologize for the inconvenience. This occurred from a server migration, but all data has been recovered.
This was a completely server-side fix for the PC/Steam version, so this fix is effective immediately without needing a client-side update.
The Android version requires an additional client-side update to fix the leaderboard. The v1.32.3.5 update is coming in a few days that will contain this fix.
12/8/20 - Improved sound system multithreading, dialog box scripting, and loading bars for the PC/Steam and Android versions of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.3.4)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.32.3.4) This makes a few improvements to sound system multithreading, including a new sound event handling system. This fixes many very rare crash issues and rare missed sound events. These issues may have never been seen by most players, and required very specific timing of thread collisions, but have now been addressed. Please note the Android version uses a different sound event system, so this update doesn’t affect the Android release.
This update also improves the dialog box scripting system. The effects of this aren’t noticeable when playing the game, but makes it easier to adjust dialog boxes from a development standpoint. Also, loading bars have been completely reworked, improving progress smoothing, rendering performance, and being better designed so more improvements could be made in the future with less effort.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
10/23/20 - Particle system improvements for Steam/PC and Android (v1.32.3.3)
A new update has been released for PC/Steam and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.32.3.3) This makes a few improvements to the particle system, including a fix for occasional explosion particle flickers. Also, maximum CPU cores/threads supported by the particle system on the PC/Steam has been raised from 16 to 128. This allows the particle system to take full advantage of any consumer CPU available. The previous cap was set to prevent bugs before the big particle system upgrade in the v1.32.0.0 release. Extra time for testing was taken since then to ensure stability before increasing the cap.
This update also makes improvements to the texture loader, now supporting full texture format autodetection. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
10/12/20 - Improved enemy bullet rendering for Steam/PC and Android (v1.32.3.2)
A new update has been released for PC/Steam and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.32.3.2) This is a smaller update that improves enemy bullet rendering and a few other adjustments. Occasional Z clipping issues for background enemy bullets have been fixed, and the front of bullets have been made more prominent.
This update also improves the final player death red screen fade, ensuring it affects all on screen objects, including particles, bullets, and HUD objects.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
9/30/20 - Player ship booster improvements for the PC/Steam and Android version of BlastZone 2(v1.32.3.1)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.32.3.1) This is a smaller update that makes a few improvements to the player ship booster. The way the booster is rendered has been improved to both fix occasional Z clipping artifacts and slightly improve performance.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
9/17/20 - Added a new “Desktop” resolution option for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.3.0)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! (v1.32.3.0) This adds a new “Desktop” resolution option to the game, supporting any resolution not previously listed as a discrete option. This is done by matching the current desktop resolution and automatically adding black bars for any non-16:9 aspect ratio. This also allows support for vertically oriented displays while in fullscreen mode.
This update also changes the default resolution to “Desktop”, making the first time running the game more seamless. All the performance optimizations made over the years should make the game run well at the desktop resolution for the vast majority of systems.
This automatic resolution detection already exists on the Android version, so no equivalent update is being released for Android at this time.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
9/5/20 - Added monitor switching support for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.2.0)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! (v1.32.2.0) This adds support for monitor switching for multiple monitor setups. In previous versions, the only way to start the game on a different monitor was to change the primary monitor in the Windows settings. Now, the monitor used to start the game on can be switched using the options menu in-game, or the external configuration program. The default value is “Primary”, which uses the same behavior as previous versions.
Monitor switching also has a hidden “MonitorSwitchCompatibility” option in the game config file. This is enabled by default, and it ensures monitor switching works with all systems. The drawback is that monitors other than the primary one will be limited to 60fps when vsync is enabled for high refresh rate displays. Disabling this option fixes this issue and ensures the framerate on every monitor correctly matches vsync. However, disabling this option also causes the game to hang on startup for some NVidia Optimus laptops when using a secondary monitor.
Since multiple monitors doesn’t apply to the Android version, no equivalent update is being released for Android at this time.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
8/10/20 - Added XInput support and UDP multiplayer data syncing improvements for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2 (v1.32.1.0)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2! (v1.32.1.0) The big feature of this update is adding native XInput support for gamepads. This expands gamepad compatibility and adds several new features, including hotplugging support, more descriptive button binds, and binding to triggers. Previously, XInput gamepads were supported through a DirectInput compatibility layer, but some gamepads had problems with this. Most users should use the new “XInput” option in the game options menu, it will automatically use the specified gamepad number without having to set it up manually. The old “Gamepad X” options are still available for legacy DirectInput-only gamepads if needed, but won’t be available if only XInput gamepads are connected.
Another big part of this update improves data syncing for UDP multiplayer, both for DirectIP and over Steamworks. If the connection between players becomes poor, or there is a short connection interruption, the client can now detect this and request a full data resync from the server. This fixes occasional corrupted or missing objects on screen for the client and provides a more stable experience. Countermeasures for connection quality issues were already in place in previous versions, but this provides an additional “last resort” recovery if other methods fail. UDP and Steamworks are the recommended ways to play online multiplayer, but the TCP option is still available if needed.
There are a few bug fixes and improved particle time scaling as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
8/10/20 - CPU multithreading performance and Bluetooth multiplayer data syncing improvements for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (1.32.1.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.32.1.0) This update includes improved netcode from the PC version in the form of improved data syncing for Bluetooth multiplayer. This fixes occasional corrupted or missing objects on the client side for poor connections. For more information, check the post above for the PC version.
This update also includes improved CPU multithreading performance specific to the Android version. Dual-core devices see the biggest improvement, as both cores are now loaded more consistently. In previous versions, one of the two cores would frequently go idle, but thread management improvements have addressed that. This also enables asynchronous particle updates for dual-core devices, something only possible in quad-core or above CPUs when it was first released in v1.32.0.0. This allows for particles to update at a slower rate than the rest of the game when too many particles are on screen for the CPU to keep up with. Frame rates on dual-core devices have increased by up to 200% for extreme particle count test scenarios. Common in game scenarios won’t be this extreme, but it shows how much of a difference it can make.
Devices with quad-core CPUs receive a ~1% performance improvement in single player, and up to a 5% boost in Bluetooth multiplayer. Devices with more than four cores will see no benefit though.
This update also targets API level 29 (Android 10.0), to improve performance and security for the latest devices.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
6/25/20 - Huge technical improvements! UDP Direct IP multiplayer, particle system overhaul, 5x faster load times, and more for PC/Steam! (v1.32.0.0)
A big new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2, (v1.32.0.0) focusing on several big technical improvements to the underlying game engine. Among these is adding UDP Direct IP multiplayer support to the game. This has much better latency, responsiveness, and smoothness than the existing TCP Direct IP option. Steamworks multiplayer already uses UDP, so it is still the best way to play online. However, UDP Direct IP helps when using offline mode, if Steam isn’t available, or when on a LAN. The TCP option is still available as a last resort when using a poor internet connection that may produce bugs with UDP, but this should be very rare. Updated descriptions of each online option has been added so it is clear which is the best option for a given situation.
The second big part of this update is huge improvements to the particle system. Previously, only a portion of particle effects were part of the highly optimized particle system. Now, it has been generalized to incorporate virtually every particle effect in the game. This cuts the draw calls per frame from an average of 500-600, to around 150-170, reducing CPU usage and graphics driver overhead. Also, much more of the particle processing pipeline now scales up to many cpu threads, greatly benefiting quad cores and above. In synthetic stress tests (with over 500k particles), the particle system can now handle up to 4-5x as many particles on screen at the same performance levels for most system configurations. Regular gameplay scenarios will see a maximum of a 100% performance gain in specific situations on older machines with slower CPUs and GPUs and allow for higher particle detail settings. Newer and faster machines will see much less of a performance improvement in game, but will see a reduction in frame hitching. A few new particle effects have been added as well, including firing effects for normal bolts, flurry shots, and wave shots.
A third big part of this update is a brand new model loader. It uses a new proprietary model format that uses half the disk space and loads up 5x faster than previous versions with no effect on quality. Loading the Extreme quality terrain models at startup is reduced from 30 seconds down to about 5-6 seconds on many systems. This reduces ram usage by about 6-7% as well.
This update also adds a few new renderer frame stats. This includes triangle count, draw call count, and particle counts. This helps illustrate how scalable the rendering options are, ranging from about 50,000 triangles at low details, to over 10,000,000 triangles at extreme details. This also shows how hard the particle system is being pushed at any given time. This info is mainly used for development and optimization, but it may be interesting for those who are curious. To access this, press the F1 key 3 times at any time in the game.
Several bug fixes and other improvements are included in this update as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
6/25/20 - Improved particle system and smaller APK size for Android (v1.32.0.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.32.0.0) Even though a few big features in this update are exclusive to the PC/Steam version, the Android version sees significant improvements as well. This includes big improvements to the particle system, which greatly improve performance on mid range and lower end devices. In many cases, devices that were performance constrained to the “High” particle detail setting can now run “VeryHigh” with much smoother gameplay. All the new weapon firing particle effects are in place here as well.
All models in the Android version have been updated to use less disk space with no effect on quality. Also, all duplicate model data for each CPU architecture have been eliminated and consolidated into a single block of data. These combined reduce the APK install size by about 16%. Also, the loading screen now pops up sooner in the loading process, making the initial tap on the game icon more responsive.
Many of the other improvements and bug fixes from the PC/Steam version apply to the Android version as well. Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
4/21/20 - Improved gamepad analog controls for Steam/PC and Android (v1.31.3.1)
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2 on Steam/PC and Android! (v1.31.3.1) This one focuses on a few gamepad improvements. Analog stick controls have been improved, allowing for continuous 360 degree movement angling. This improves movement precision and eliminates the old “snapping” directions. Previously, the analog stick would prioritize moving up, down, left, and right with only a small area of analog angling at each of the diagonals. Also, the dead-zone at the middle of the analog movement area has been shrunk, allowing for finer movements at a small scale and a greater degree of speed range in each direction.
This update also improves gamepad deinitialization when closing the game. This has the potential of fixing edge case bugs for some gamepads on some systems.
For Android, this update also fixes a button binding bug that would incorrectly detect button presses for some gamepads. Moga gamepad support has been removed as well, because the API has been deprecated for many years and doesn’t work for any version of Android after 4.3. General gamepad support is still in place, and works for a much wider range of devices. Workarounds can be used to make Moga gamepads work as general gamepads as well. Moga removal has also unified all gamepad code, ensuring better consistency across all gamepads and reduced the possibility for bugs in the future. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but it only affects a very small group of users.
Other improvements have been included as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
3/30/20 - Massive 50-60% performance gains and greater view distances for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! (v1.31.3.0)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! (v1.31.3.0) This update makes huge performance gains, one of the biggest improvements seen in a single update. Gains range from 15-25% when using lower terrain detail levels, up to 50-60% for Extreme detail settings. This significantly lowers the hardware requirements; If anyone had performance issues with the “VeryHigh” or “Extreme” terrain settings in previous versions, I strongly suggest trying them out again with this new release. This improvement was done by adding lower detail terrain block LODs for areas far in the distance. This has a minor reduction in image quality, but won’t be noticeable in most situations.
This huge boost in performance was also used to increase the view distance for all ViewDistance detail levels. This increases detail for the VeryHigh setting by about 20%, while still having big performance gains over previous versions.
The drawback of this update is more memory usage and a greater workload during the startup loading screen. System ram usage will increase by up to 25mb and vram by 75mb, but any machine that could already run the game should have no issue with this. Also, the startup loader has been improved to scale up to more cpu cores/threads to take on the increased workload, making the increase in loading time negligible in most situations.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
3/30/20 - New “High” detail terrain setting and 120hz support for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.31.3.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.31.3.0) This adds a new “High” terrain detail setting between the existing “Normal” and “VeryHigh”. This new setting makes use of the new terrain LOD feature so terrain closer to the camera has greater detail and distant terrain has reduced detail. This significantly improves performance over “VeryHigh”, while looking much better than “Normal”. The other detail levels remain unchanged, since “Normal” already uses the lowest terrain models available, and “VeryHigh” is still useful for higher end devices that could make use of the slightly higher visible detail in distant objects. Most recent devices should run this new “High” detail level quite well.
The second new feature in this update is support for the new 120hz displays in the recently released Samsung Galaxy S20 devices. This was done by converting the old “Battery Saver” config option to a FrameRate selector, since that is all the old option did anyway. Now, there are explicit selections for 30fps, 60fps, and 120fps. If a 60hz device selects the 120fps option, it will still run at 60fps, but with fewer battery saving measures in place. Because of this, it is suggested for most devices to stay on the 60fps option.
For more details, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
3/16/20 - Terrain Rendering and Culling Optimizations for Steam/PC and Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.31.2.0)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.31.2.0) This update makes several improvements to the object culling system. This includes high precision culling, multithreading optimizations, and early cull detection. These improve performance the most for background terrain, ranging up to a 15-20% boost, depending on system specs and detail settings.
This update also fixes compatibility issues with older GPU hardware and drivers that are limited to OpenGL 3.1 or 3.2. These cases now fallback to the OpenGL 3.0 renderer. Other bug fixes include occasional incorrect sizing and fog for enemies.
A small hotfix update was recently released as well. This fixed a bug that would occasionally get the player ship stuck in a highlighted state during wave intermission and wave intro sequences.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
2/7/20 - Improved texture filtering for Steam/PC and Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.31.1.1)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.31.1.1) This update primarily improves texture filtering in a number of scenarios, fixing graininess and moire effects in HUD textures and menu borders when running resolutions below 1080p. This also improves performance at lower resolutions, matching asset pixel density to each display resolution. This doesn’t affect resolutions at or above 1080p, as those already use the highest quality assets.
The Android version has greater performance improvements than the PC version, as there were a greater number of textures to do filtering optimizations for, including text and some environment textures. This slightly increases the APK size and uses more memory, but doesn’t affect minimum device requirements.
This update also changes the planet edge atmosphere design in the outer space environment. The render process for this effect has been changed from 2 passes to a single pass, improving performance. This required the asset to be rebuilt, so the design was improved as well.
Here is an image illustrating texture improvements in this update at lower resolutions. The HUD texture takes the worst case scenario in previous versions, running at 1024x768 resolution, and the same texture at the same resolution with the latest version. It also shows the updated atmosphere effect. Take a look:
src=index_files/bz2v1.31.1.1TexFil.jpg width=566 height=410
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
1/19/20 - Improved B1/B2 ship primary weapon, ship descriptions, many optimizations, and bug fixes for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2 (v1.31.1.0)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.31.1.0) This includes a significant improvement to the B1/B2 ship primary weapon, making it more effective in long range combat. The “Burst Shot” still has a high damage close range spread of bullets, but the center bullet now continues moving across the rest of the gameplay area, allowing it to hit long range enemies. However, the long range bullet is less effective than from other ships, moving slower and doing less damage over time. This is better than having no long range component at all and keeps the ship balance and intended gameplay style intact. This especially makes bosses more fun to play against. Previously, the only long range attack option was to rapidly tap the Fire2 button, which can be tiresome.
This update also includes descriptions for each ship in the single player ship selection screen. This helps show the play style of each ship to help newer players decide which is the most fun.
A big part of this update is optimizations across many areas of the game engine. On the GPU side, this includes vertex processing speed improvements across the board and lighting optimizations. On the CPU side, a significant chunk of rendering calculations have been offloaded from the rendering thread to the update thread, better balancing the multithreading workload. Combined, these optimizations have up to a 20% performance improvement depending on the situation and hardware used.
For Android, the above optimizations to lighting and vertex processing were used to boost lighting quality for the cave environment on all devices when 2 lights are used. This includes when Hyper mode is enabled, or beams are being fired, but not both at once.
Other bug fixes have been included as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
12/20/19 - Maintenance update for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.31.0.3)
A new maintenance update has been released for BlastZone 2(v1.31.0.3). This makes a few improvements to the game startup loader, including slightly faster model loading and better progress feedback. In previous versions, when using VeryHigh/Extreme quality terrain, the loading bar would appear to “hang” while loading, but this is no longer the case.
The particle system has improved vertex streaming as well, resulting in up to 20% better performance in some situations.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
Some of you may have noticed the recent focus on technical improvements for BlastZone 2. This is because a new project was started a while back that uses the same game engine. All engine improvements are brought into BlastZone 2 as well so everyone can benefit from them. An official announcement is coming soon, so watch for it!
12/20/19 - Maintenance update for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.31.0.3)
A new maintenance update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2(v1.31.0.3). The biggest improvement is fixing a device-specific particle performance bug that cut the framerate in half when any amount of particles are on screen. This only affected a select few devices, but this greatly improves performance for them. Also, general particle performance for all devices has improved by up to 20%.
This update also improves the framerate/runtime debug display in game. The runtime values are now updated every frame, and display an average of the last 10 frames to make the values easier to read. The debug display is also now multithreaded, reducing the performance overhead of running it. To activate it, tap the upper left corner of the screen during the main menu.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
11/22/19 - Terrain detail and Options screen improvements for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.31.0.1 - v1.31.0.2)
A few new updates have been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! (v1.31.0.1 - v1.31.0.2) This includes a new “High” detail setting for all terrain. This serves as a balance, having more detail than normal, but without the high system requirements of VeryHigh/Extreme. Also, this is available as part of the base game, no additional DLC downloads are required.
This also replaces all Cave terrain except Normal detail. This is because Normal detail had a different cave design from the other detail levels, so now they are all consistent. Higher and lower detail levels now look more rocky and jagged, which looks better without affecting performance.
Several updates have been made to the in-game Config screen as well. This includes improving the renderer selection to detect the OpenGL versions supported by the current hardware and drivers. This previously only showed the maximum OpenGL versions supported by each renderer. Terrain Detail and DrawCallType options have been added as well, these used to only be available in the external config program. The menu has also been reorganized to fit the new options and make it easier to follow.
Here are some screenshots showing the updated cave design for Extreme detail.
A few bug fixes have been included in this update as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
11/22/19 - Updated design for “Normal” detail cave terrain for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.31.0.2)
The Android version of BlastZone 2 has been updated with the improved Cave environment design for Normal detail, which is equivalent to Low detail from the PC version. The VeryHigh detail setting on Android remains the same, as it is equivalent to the Normal setting from the PC version, which didn’t need to be updated.
This update includes a few bug fixes as well. Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
11/1/19 - New OpenGL 4.6 renderer for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! (v1.31.0.0)
A big new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.31.0.0), adding a new OpenGL 4.6 renderer! Much of the engine was overhauled to make this possible, and it was done without breaking compatibility with the existing OpenGL 1.5 and 3.0 renderers. In fact, these engine upgrades improve performance by around 5-10% across all renderers. This new renderer doesn’t require OpenGL 4.6 hardware and drivers to work either, it is backward compatible down to OpenGL 3.1. Hardware older than that will fall back to the GL 3.0 renderer.
The GL 4.6 renderer currently doesn’t look any different from OpenGL 3.0, but it uses the latest standards and approaches for running everything under the hood. This opens the possibility of implementing new effects in the future made possible by GL 4.X without being held back by compatibility with older hardware.
The GL 4.6 renderer is the new default as well. Everyone upgrading from a previous version of the game that was set to GL 2.0/3.0 will automatically be switched to the new renderer if the hardware and drivers support it. The only drawback of the GL 4.6 renderer is the simple model set is not compatible with it. Switching back to the GL 3.0 renderer will allow them to work again if needed.
A few bug fixes have been included in this update as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
11/1/19 - More performance improvements for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.31.0.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.31.0.0), bringing many of the engine improvements made for the PC version. This includes general performance improvements by up to 10%. The text system received the biggest boost in performance, bringing up to a 20% gain for screens with lots of text on some devices.
For higher end devices, these improvements help reduce battery consumption and heat as well.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
10/4/19 - Major technical improvements and a few bug fixes for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.30.0.0)
A new update has been released for the PC version of BlastZone 2 (v1.30.0.0), bringing major technical improvements and a few bug fixes.
The biggest part of this update is a newly overhauled VBO code path for the engine subsystem that processes geometric detail. Overall performance of this code path has increased by 35-75% depending on system hardware and settings, and triangle throughput has increased by up to 200%. This was originally exclusively used on Android for compatibility and performance reasons, but these improvements have made it the new default option on PC. It also has the most consistent performance across a wide range of hardware configurations. It addresses a performance drop issue for NVidia hardware running VeryHigh/Extreme terrain detail, and greatly increases Intel graphics performance across the board compared to previous releases. A new option was added to the external configuration program to switch back to the old DisplayList code path, as it is still the more performant choice for AMD/Radeon graphics, but only by a 10% margin.
The particle system has also seen big improvements for this release. Particle count efficiency has increased by up to 35%, depending on system specs and settings. This was achieved in part by increasing the amount of reused data between frames, and a new concurrent vertex streaming system.
Several optimizations have been done to reduce load times as well, both for game startup and switching scenes. These are a combination of serial and multicore optimizations, and running VeryHigh or Extreme quality terrain sees the most benefit.
Graphics hardware feature level checks have been added to the game as well, improving compatibility with old systems. Now, systems that don’t support OpenGL 2.0/3.0 will fallback to OpenGL 1.5. Also, systems that don’t support OpenGL 1.5 will fall back to earlier levels of 1.X, but going down too far compromises the experience. Despite the compatibility improvements, it is still highly recommended to stay within the minimum spec of the game.
The game executable and all dll’s have migrated to the VS2015+ runtime as well, so the old VS2010 runtime is no longer necessary.
A few bug fixes have been included in this update as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
10/4/19 - Huge performance improvements for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.30.0.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.30.0.0) This update substantially improves performance across the board, ranging from 35-75% depending on the device and detail level. This was done by overhauling the way geometric detail is processed and greatly improving the particle system. These increase triangle throughput by 100-200% depending on the device and settings. For higher end devices that already have good performance, this update helps reduce battery usage and heat as well.
This update also includes all bug fixes detailed for the PC version.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
6/28/19 - Added Ultra-Wide 21:9 resolution support for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.29.4.3)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2, (v1.29.4.3) adding ultra-wide 21:9 resolution support to the game. However, using these resolutions has no effect on gameplay or field of view. Black bars are used on the left and right sides to fill the space outside the standard 16:9 viewport. The main purpose of adding these resolutions is to allow 21:9 monitors to run at their native resolution without scaling or letterboxing.
This update doesn’t apply to the Android version, as there already is support for phones with wider than 16:9 aspect ratios.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
4/12/19 - Small hotfix updates released for BlastZone 2 PC/Steam v1.29.4.2
Two small hotfix updates have been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2. The first one fixes a startup crash issue when attempting to use the “Very High” or “Extreme” detail terrain without downloading the free DLC first.
The second hotfix update makes a few changes. This includes an improvement to framepacing when framerate caps are used. This fixes frame hitches when there are quick changes in the rendering workload, such as when many enemies explode at once.
Also, a new useGameUpdateMultithreading option has been exposed but is only accessible by manually editing the config file. This option is enabled by default to maximize performance, but can be disabled to reduce latency at a performance cost. Also, this update is built using the new Visual Studio 2019, bringing with it various optimizations and improvements, but doesn’t require any new runtime installs to work correctly.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
4/12/19 - Improved frame pacing for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.29.4.2)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! This update brings the Android version up to parity with the PC version (v1.29.4.2), including all the latest codebase refactoring and robustness improvements.
However, the main reason for releasing this update is that a number of frame pacing improvements have been made exclusively for the Android version, resulting in smoother gameplay and animations. Since frame flipping and thread management work a bit differently on Android, the methods used for those have differed from the PC version before now, resulting in more frequent frame hitching on some devices. With this update, new methods have been devised that more closely mimic how the PC version works, resulting in a significantly smoother frame cadence. This new version still isn’t quite as smooth as the PC version for some devices, but the results are still much better than before.
Also, battery usage has been reduced without impacting performance, even when the “Battery Saver” option is disabled. This was accomplished by using more accurate thread sleep timers from the above frame pacing improvements to use small thread sleeps if the device is capable of rendering faster than 60 fps.
Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
3/27/19 - Fixed occasional shutdown crash and improved startup loader for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.29.4.2)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! The primary purpose of this release is to fix an occasional crash that would occur when closing the game. This was a multithreading issue, the chances of it occurring being higher for higher core/thread count CPUs, and more rare for 1 or 2 core CPUs.
This update also includes an improved startup loader. It now adapts better to system performance, loading faster on higher end CPUs, and better preserving system responsiveness for slower/older CPUs. The bar filling animation is smoother now as well, making it easier to observe progress. Memory usage has been reduced during the loading screen as well.
Several areas of code have been refactored in this update as well, making the game more robust in general and quicker to develop for.
All changes in this update only apply to the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2, as the crash bug doesn’t exist in the Android version and it uses a different startup loader. No update is required for the Android version.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
3/14/19 - Startup sound bug fixed, migrated to VS2017 and new system requirements for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2 (v1.29.4.1)
A new update has been released for the PC/Steam version of BlastZone 2! This update fixes a PC/Steam only bug that would start the game with sound and music volume at 0. The workaround for this was to manually raise the sound and music volume after starting the game each time, but this was not ideal. I apologize for the inconvenience, this has now been fixed. The sound code has also been optimized and reduces frame hitching.
Also for this update, the development environment migrated from Visual Studio 2010 up to Visual Studio 2017. This brings all the latest optimizations, fixes, and security improvements from compiler advancements over the years. Also, the configuration program has migrated from .NET 3.5 up to 4.5, bringing a similar advancement there as well and eliminating the need for an older .NET runtime install. This update doesn't apply to the Android version, as v1.29.4.0 already uses the latest Android SDK.
With the above two migrations and following Steam’s recent changes, this version eliminates Windows XP support. All users with Windows XP no longer have access to BlastZone 2 on Steam anyway, so this was done to better target modern hardware.
The above changes have increased the minimum and recommended system requirements, but they are still very low for modern standards. Here they are:
Minimum requirements:
OS: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 32bit or 64bit
CPU: Any SSE2 CPU (Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 or higher)
Graphics: Radeon HD 2400 128mb, Geforce 8400 128mb, Intel HD 2000 or higher supporting atleast OpenGL 1.5
Recommended for running at high detail:
OS: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 32bit or 64bit
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon X2 at 2.4ghz, or Intel Core 2 Quad, AMD Athlon X4 at 1.8ghz or higher (can utilize >4 cores if available)
Graphics: Radeon R7 250 1gb, Geforce 750 1gb, Intel HD graphics 4600 or above supporting OpenGL 3.0 or higher
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
3/7/19 - New update released for Steam/PC and Android, refactored engine components, fixes and improvements (v1.29.4.0)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.29.4.0) A big part of this update is refactoring several components of the underlying tech and engine of the game. This was done to find and fix existing bugs, reduce the likelihood of new bugs, and speed up development of new features.
There are several bug fixes and improvements in this update as well. Most notably, load times for the outer space background have been greatly improved. This makes the biggest difference when using the “VeryHigh” or “Extreme” terrain detail packs. Other environments still have the ~1-2 second load time in this case, but loading the outer space environment is nearly instantaneous.
This update also includes frame pacing improvements, netcode improvements, graphical tweaks, optimizations, bug fixes, and more.
The Android version has migrated to the latest Android SDK/NDK for this update as well, bringing a number of fixes and improvements with it.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
1/9/19 - Improved player and enemy bullet trails and other updates (v1.29.3.4)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.29.3.4) This is a smaller update that makes a few improvements to enemy bullet tails, including a more consistent animation and improved performance. Previous versions would look just fine at 60fps, but would get distorted when running a framerate above or below that. Now, they look perfectly consistent across any framerate. Also, particular care was put into how the animation works for high refresh rate displays (144+ hz) to make it look as smooth as possible. Optimizations have also been made to significantly reduce the CPU load when many enemy bullets are on screen. This was done by increasing the amount of reused data from previous frames, thus eliminating a significant amount of redundant calculations. Player bullet trails have been improved as well, but the biggest difference there is better particle distribution when running a framerate below 60fps.
Another hotfix update was recently released to fix a few smaller bugs and issues. This included a level select state bug for online multiplayer and changing the default gameover menu selection for online multiplayer. Check the release notes for more info.
For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
1/6/19 - Leaderboard score submissions fixed
This is an announcement that BlastZone 2 leaderboard score submissions are now working again. I apologize for the inconvenience, but leaderboard score submissions were broken for a while on both PC/Steam and Android, stalling at the "Getting info from the server" message in game. Reading leaderboard scores never had any issues, both on the website or in game, but submitting new scores has now been fixed. This is an immediately available server side fix for both PC/Steam and Android and doesn't require any client side updates.
11/27/18 - Improved specular highlights, difficulty balancing, crash fix, hitching fix, and more for Steam/PC and Android (v1.29.3.3)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.29.3.3) This is mostly a maintenance release, but fixes and improves a few significant areas. Specular highlights have been improved for numerous objects in the game, being more accurate and better performing than before. Objects affected include enemies, bosses, and player ships. However, the biggest specular lighting improvement is in the cave background, showing much more depth and detail.
This update includes greatly reducing Boss hull damage on the player. This was previously too harsh, so the damage was cut in half to balance difficulty better. Animation hitching has been greatly reduced as well for the PC version, making gameplay much smoother than before. This was a thread timing issue that affected some CPUs more than others, but did not affect the Android version. Also, a particle-related crash issue has been fixed; apologies to anyone affected by this.
More fixes and improvements are included in this update as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
10/22/18 - Rebalanced Training Mission mode and other adjustments for Steam/PC and Android (v1.29.3.2)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.29.3.2) The main focus of this update is on rebalancing Training Mission mode to make it more fun to play. This is the first impression many players have of the game, so it is a very important element to improve. Damage output for all ships have been greatly increased to make enemies easier to destroy, addressing an issue many new players have. This also makes each section of a level quicker to take down, putting a greater emphasis on “popcorn” enemies generated between each section as the player gains experience. To counterbalance this and keep overall difficulty the same, this mode starts with fewer lives and fewer bonus lives are awarded during play. This also helps serve as a better training environment to help new players transition to higher difficulties.
General improvements to the Mission Area 1 design have been made for all difficulty levels, as well as many other fixes and improvements. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy the gameplay improvements!
10/22/18 - New “VeryHigh” graphics detail options for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.29.3.2)
A big new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.29.3.2) This update includes the Training Mission mode improvements, and all other updates from the PC release detailed above. This update has big graphics updates for the Android version as well, in the form of new “VeryHigh” options to select.
The first new graphics option is “Particle Detail” brought over from the PC version. The “VeryHigh” detail option here doubles the particle desity from previous Android versions, but also includes lower detail levels to improve performance on low end devices. In previous versions, the particle detail on Android was locked at the PC equivalent of “High” detail, as it was the best compromise between detail and performance across the widest range of devices. However, the recent particle system improvements and Android-specific multithreading improvements have improved particle performance substantially. This led to higher end devices being underutilised, so enabling “VeryHigh” particle detail now allows those devices to much better utilise their computational power to improve detail. It is also worth noting that the new multithreading improvements ensure that overall performance and control responsiveness is prioritized when there are massive particle counts on screen. High end devices should handle it just fine, but if mid range or low end devices are maxed out with high particle counts, it will slow down the particle update rate to ensure responsiveness is preserved. This should run acceptably for most devices today. The game still defaults to “High” detail, but feel free to raise the particle detail and enjoy the improved visuals!
The second new graphics option “Terrain Detail”. The default value here is “Normal”, which has the same terrain detail as previous versions. The only other option is “VeryHigh”, that upgrades the background terrain with over 10x the detail of previous versions, and is equivalent to the PC version “Normal” terrain detail setting. This is more demanding than the “VeryHigh” particle detail option and should not be used on low end devices. Only flagship devices from the last 4 years and mid range devices from the last 2-3 years can run it at full performance. To put it in perspective, the “Normal” quality terrain was made to run on 8 year old devices as a bare minimum, with it running at full performance on 6 year old flashship devices or newer. The difference in detail is huge for the mountain ranges in the alien home planet, and lighting detail for the caves environment for example. Keep in mind that terrain detail changes will take effect on the next scene change, such as when starting a new game.
Here are a few reference images taken from the Android version to show how much detail is increased with the new graphics options:
src=index_files/AndroidDetail.jpg width=640 height=640
src=index_files/AndroidTerrain.jpg width=496 height=650
The above two options bring the game to PC levels of detail and it is astonishing how well many devices can handle it! Many engine optimizations over the years have made this possible as well. Keep in mind that these are completely optional and are not enabled by default, in case preserving battery life is a higher priority. Check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
9/28/18 - Bug fixes, tweaks and adjustments based on AVGC feedback for Steam/PC and Android (v1.29.3.1)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.29.3.1) This one is focused on making several changes based on feedback and observations from the BlastZone 2 booth at AVGC. This includes difficulty balancing, streamlining menus, screen wipes, improving ingame text, and more. This is a relatively small update, but it addresses many small things to improve the experience as a whole. Thanks a lot to everyone who dropped by our booth and helped contribute to making the game better!
For the PC version, UAC access requests have been removed from the game, which may fix antivirus false-positives and administrator requirements. BlastZone 2 never made use of UAC access, but the access request is a compiler option that was never supposed to be enabled. Another long running bug that has finally been fixed is the 4k render scale issue. People running 4k monitors or high DPI scaling will now display the game properly. Any feedback on the effectiveness of these fixes is welcome.
Several other tweaks and fixes are included in the update as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy the gameplay improvements!
9/28/18 - Greatly improved bluetooth netcode and multithreading update released for Android! (v1.29.3.1)
Bundled with the above update for Android is the v1.29.3.0 netcode improvements, as well as numerous Android-specific improvements to bluetooth communication and multithreading. The bluetooth communication code has been vastly improved to reduce packet loss and detect corrupted packets, eliminating occasional bugs. This results in a much smoother experience with less lag and fewer graphical glitches and desyncs. Also, the default network tickrate has changed to 20hz on Android to better accommodate a wider range of devices. This can still be changed to 30hz or 60hz, but will only work well on higher end devices.
For those curious about the above improvements, they were accomplished by accounting for the way bluetooth data is received on Android. Even though discrete packets are sent by the server, the client can receive data of multiple packets concatenated together, or packets are split between multiple data transmissions. This data irregularity would result in high packet loss in previous versions. Now, packets are correctly split apart for parsing and packet fragments are reconstructed for recovery, allowing for much higher data preservation and lower packet loss. Also, checksums are attached to every packet, so any corrupted packets are detected and discarded.
The Android version of BlastZone 2 now has greatly improved multithreading, resulting in higher and more consistent framerates. Thread management overhead has been greatly reduced, significantly benefiting all devices. Also, the number of active threads now directly scales with the number of CPU cores available. This benefits 2 core devices the most, as tasks are now queued up and dispatched as each core becomes available instead of trying to cram multiple threads into each core. This update benefits devices with 4+ slower cores, or 2 cores the most, but faster 4+ core and single core devices have some benefit as well.
The v1.29.3.1 update is now available for Android. Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
9/14/18 - BlastZone 2 AVideoGameCon 2018 sale for 25% off!
BlastZone 2 has a booth at AVideoGameCon (AVGC) 2018 this weekend Sept 15-16 in Secaucus, NJ! In celebration, there is a 25% sale on the game all weekend for everyone. Click on your platform of your choice on the left panel of this page. Pick it up while the sale lasts!
For more information about the convention, visit the website at: http://www.AVideoGameCon.com
9/13/18 - Overhauled netcode packet compression system, new command ship to defend in Classic mode, and more for Steam/PC (v1.29.3.0)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2! (v1.29.3.0) The biggest part of this update is a completely new packet compression system for online multiplayer games. The primary benefit of this is a significant reduction in latency and CPU usage, and packing higher precision floating point values while keeping bandwidth usage about the same. The amount of latency reduction varies depending on CPU power. The time to generate a packet with the old code ranged from 2-16ms, but the new code ranges from 0.25-0.75ms, a huge difference! The old way to compress packets was done by a zLib post process after each packet was created. This was a very CPU intensive operation for the use case. The new compression system has been created from scratch and is done while each packet is created. It uses fast bit-level compression specialized for the way BlastZone 2 packets are constructed.
Another notable part of this update is a new command ship to defend in both of the Classic game modes. This gives better context for the goal of the game, instead of abstractly needing to prevent enemies from passing by the player. Now, the game plays like an escort mission; if too many enemy ships crash into the command ship behind you, it explodes, causing a chain reaction making your ship explode as well. This in combination with the new weaving enemy type in the previous update makes the Classic A and Classic B modes more engaging and fun to play.
Several other fixes and improvements round out the update. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy the gameplay improvements!
Please note that the Android version of this update has been delayed because of Android-specific issues with the new netcode. The release window for Android is unknown at this time, but should be fairly soon.
9/10/18 - New website launched for BlastZone 2!
The new website for BlastZone 2 has launched! It includes an improved design, interactive buttons, bandwidth saving features, and better news article page navigation. The leaderboards page has been significantly improved as well, with better category selection and data caching. The website has been brought up to modern standards in many ways and thanks a lot to Kevin Edzenga for all the hard work to bring this to fruition!
Take a look through all the new pages and feel free to give feedback!
9/5/18 - Added a new ship unlock progression system, emissive lighting improvements, and other improvements and fixes for Steam/PC and Android (v1.29.2.0)
A big new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.29.2.0) The focus of this update is to add a new ship unlock progression system. New players will now start with the A2, A3, and B1 ships, with the rest of the ships being locked out. Players upgrading from a previous version will have additional ships unlocked if they have Mission Veteran mode or Blitz mode unlocked. To unlock a new ship, the player needs to surpass Wave/Area 8 in Mission, Survival, or Blitz mode, and this can be done multiple times until all the ships are unlocked. Also, unlocking a ship in one game mode will unlock it for all game modes. This way, the player can focus on their most proficient game mode to unlock ships to help out with other game modes. The goal of this update is to make the content progression more gradual by making the player earn the more powerful ships through proficient play. This also helps newer players focus on the more basic ships to start with to build up gameplay skills.
This update includes a new enemy type for Classic A and Classic B modes that moves up and down. This new enemy is introduced a few waves in to the game and gradually increases spawn frequency as the game progresses. This mixes up gameplay by having to track enemies in more ways than the old horizontal linear movement.
This update also includes emissive lighting improvements for the OpenGL 3.0 renderer. Each item drop, enemy, and boss now have their own unique emission material that can work independently of each other. Item drops now have the same emission animation as the OpenGL 1.5 renderer, as this capability was previously missing from the GL3.0 renderer. The new emission maps for enemies and bosses are now animated as well, improving visual fidelity.
A number of other tweaks and fixes are included in the update as well. For more details, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy the gameplay improvements!
Another update is in the works that greatly improves the netcode and improves the Classic game modes. This will be released within the next week or so.
8/20/18 - New enemy patterns for Survival/Blitz mode, balance changes, and lighting improvements for Steam/PC and Android (v1.29.1.0)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.29.1.0) The main additions in this update are 4 new enemy spawn patterns for Survival and Blitz modes. These include curved or angled waves of fast enemies, or large groups of seeking enemies.. There have also been a few balance changes for general enemy spawn patterns for Survival/Blitz modes and increased kill counts per wave. The goal of these changes is to increase progression of complexity to keep gameplay interesting.
This update also includes lighting improvements and optimizations for Player/Enemy ships and cave background. All Player/Enemy ships now better display normal mapped specular highlights and enemy and boss ships now use emission maps to improve visual fidelity. The cave background lighting now has corrected normal values for each vertex, which better calculates how lighting should look based on the position and orientation from the camera and light source. Specular highlights have been added to the cave background as well. The cave environment has also received the biggest optimizations. This impacts Android devices the most, providing up to triple the framerate for lower end or older devices. The Amazon FireStick is one good example that greatly benefits from this. PC players have received this same optimization, but it doesn't have as much of an impact since PC hardware has higher shader power, but it does still help low end netbooks and older PC's.
The PC version update also includes updated 3rd party libraries for things like texture loading, fonts, music, and leaderboard communication. Since the last set of library updates were integrated, there have been a number of new releases to fix security issues, improve performance, and fix bugs.
In preparation for AVideoGameCon, improvements have been made to the Kiosk mode of BlastZone 2 to make it more accessible on the show floor. The main improvement in this update allows for a second player to join midgame without waiting for the current player to be done first. Also, the game trailer now automatically plays when the game is idle for a while. For more information about this convention, check out the website here: http://www.avideogamecon.com
Many other tweaks and changes are included in the update. For more details on all the balance changes and other changes included in this update, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy the gameplay improvements!
7/27/18 - New level selection screen, new scriptable particle system, improved netcode, and more for Steam/PC! (v1.29.0.0)
A big new update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2!
The flagship feature for this update is a completely new scripted particle system. It uses a powerful scripting system for advanced effects and highly customizable animations, and incorporates all the optimizations of the existing explosion particle system, simulating up to millions of particles at once. A simple example particle script has been included in the "test_pack_1" level pack, but isn't used yet other than that. A huge update is in the works to fully leverage this new particle system. It will flesh out the battlefield of ships around you and add new effects, such as volumetric clouds, trees, and smoking fissures, among others. More details will be announced soon, so watch for it!
Also included in this update is a new level selection screen. This changes the layout of the screen, adds descriptions of each of the levels and bosses, and shows a background preview for each of the areas. These give much better context and information before choosing a level so the player has a better idea of the style of gameplay to expect ahead of time.
A number of netcode improvements have been made including a TCP_NODELAY parameter and timing adjustments for DirectIP multiplayer communication to significantly reduce latency. The Steamworks multiplayer UDP netcode has received a number of improvements as well to reduce latency and improve handling of high object counts. It now strictly complies with packet size limits on a broader range of routers to fix reported issues. There are also a few general bug fixes for both Steamworks and DirectIP netcode, including improved particle effect precision, corrected particle effect types, and improved packet error detection. All of the above improvements and more provide a much better online multiplayer experience.
A few other improvements are included in this update, such as scalable enemy bullet detail with the particle detail setting, and more. For more details on this update, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
7/27/18 - FireTV remote control support added and many other improvements released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.29.0.0)
A new update for the Android version of BlastZone 2 has been released! Many of the updates from the Steam/PC version listed above apply to the Android version, including the new Level Selection screen, the new particle system, and improved netcode. There is also a new feature added just for the Android version.
The Amazon FireTV remote control that comes with every FireTV/FireStick is now supported by BlastZone 2! Previously, any Amazon FireTV player needed to buy the Amazon FireTV Gamepad to play the game, but now anyone can play! The control scheme of BlastZone 2 happens to work perfectly with the limited button layout of the remote control. The direction controls move the ship around, and the Rewind, Pause/Play, and FastForward buttons are mapped to the Fire1, Fire2, and Fire3 controls, with the Menu button mapped to Pause. The center button on the Remote is ideal for menu selections or playing BlastZone1 as well. One-handed play is possible, but is ideally played with two hands on the remote. Please note that if a gamepad is connected to the FireTV device, it will take priority as the primary controller, but the remote control can still be used as a second player for local multiplayer. In addition, any smartphone with the FireTV app installed can be used as a controller for the game and for local multiplayer, but this control scheme is less than ideal and will be more difficult to use. Either way, this all makes the game more accessible to more people to play, so try it out!
A few issues have been fixed for the Amazon FireStick as well, including missing clouds, missing particle effects, and other graphical glitches. This significantly improves the FireTV and FireStick experience and graphical fidelity to bring them up to the level of other platforms. These fixes apply to other Android devices as well, so if you have been experiencing these issues, they will now be fixed.
The Bluetooth connection state cycle has been fixed as well. Previously, the game could enter a broken Bluetooth connection state, which would disallow the player from hosting or joining another Bluetooth multiplayer game until the game was force closed and restarted. This has now been corrected, so any number of games can be started and stopped in a number of ways and everything will continue to work fine.
The v1.29.0.0 update is now available for Android. Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
7/10/18 - Update highlights and new price point for BlastZone 2
A huge amount of work went into update releases for BlastZone 2 over the last year and a half and beyond. This includes new gameplay content, as well as a technical and graphical overhaul. This essentially makes the current state of the game a "Remaster" of what it was at release. The game has reached a higher tier of content quality, bringing it to a new price point at $9.99 for the Steam version and $4.99 for the Android version.
I would like to thank everyone who supported BlastZone 2 all this time to help fund this development. In appreciation for this, we are working on another huge update to the game as a free addon. More info is coming soon about this, watch for it!
For a summary of the numerous improvements that have been made to the game since release, check out the Steam announcement HERE
6/27/18 - BlastZone 2 is on sale on Steam for 67% off!
Announcing that BlastZone 2 is taking part in the Steam Summer Sale for 67% off! Head over to the Steam Store page HERE and take advantage of this great deal before it expires!
6/25/18 - New trailer released for BlastZone 2!
Trailer #4 has been released for BlastZone 2! This shows off the numerous gameplay and graphics improvements made to the game over the last few years. It has been created with a faster succession of clips to cover more material in less time, keeping things concise. It has been posted to the top of this website, as well as the Steam, Google Play, and Amazon App Store pages for BlastZone 2. Enjoy!
6/25/18 - Big gameplay balance update and Mission Mode HUD improvements released for Steam/PC and Android! (v1.28.3.0)
A big new gameplay focused update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! (v1.28.3.0) I have recently received a few game balance suggestions from the community, so I've taken a lot of time to go through every game mode in the game to improve gameplay balance. The biggest part of this update makes a number of changes to Mission Mode stat upgrades. These upgrades are now 33% more potent per pickup, but to balance that out, the drop rates have been reduced, and starting stat levels are slightly lower to prevent the player from becoming overpowered. Along with this, the Mission Mode HUD has been updated to add icons to associate item pickups with each stat. Some users have been confused as to which pickup upgrades which stat, so this clears that up.
More gameplay balance changes include reducing the vertical hitboxes for player beams and projectiles. This will increase the skill needed to hit enemies, but to balance this out, enemy bullet hit boxes have been significantly reduced as well, making it easier to dodge them. This will make the recently more bullet focused Survival and Blitz modes more fun to play. Also, the number of points drops in Survival and Mission mode have been increased to improve the number of bonus multipliers in Survival Mode and Hyper power boosts in Blitz Mode. From testing, this helps Blitz Mode in particular, as strategic play rewards the player more to better maintain Hyper Mode to fight back against the more intense later waves of enemies.
A few other tweaks and bug fixes round out the update. For more details on all the balance changes and other changes included in this update, check out the full release notes HERE and Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the new update at the Google Play Store HERE and Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy the gameplay improvements!
6/12/18 - Android version of BlastZone 2 updated with burst fire shots, new icon, and more (v1.28.2.1)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2. This update brings over the burst fire update for long range enemies and help screens from the PC version. There is also a new game icon included with this update that is significantly improved from the old icon.
This update also improves performance and responsiveness for old, single core CPU devices. The recent multithreading update for Android greatly improved performance and responsiveness for devices with 2 or more CPU cores, but actually hurt performance for single core devices. This update addresses that by using the old single threaded processing when a single core device is detected, and uses multithreading for devices with 2 or more cores. This helps the game run optimally across a wider range of devices to give everyone the best experience possible.
A cloud rendering bug has been discovered for some devices, and I'm actively working on a fix for the issue. This bug disables the moving clouds layer for some users, but the game otherwise runs okay. A fix will hopefully be released soon.
The v1.28.2.1 update is now available for Android. Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
6/8/18 - Updated several website pages with the latest information
Several pages of this website have been brought up to date with the latest information and images for BlastZone 2. Besides the main News page, some of the pages on this website haven't been updated for many years until now. Most of the Gameplay Features page has been rewritten to include Blitz mode that was added post-release, and information for all the playable ships has been added. Also, the bullet points at the top of the page have been updated to reflect the latest version of the game.
The Media page has been updated to include all the game screenshots recently posted on the News page, as well as all the promotional images used on the Steam and Google Play store pages. New buttons have been added to the left column for all pages to include the Amazon App Store page for BlastZone 2, as well as showing that the game is available on Amazon FireTV devices.
Check out the updated website pages and let me know what you think!
6/8/18 - Added burst fire shots to long range enemies and updated Demo version for Steam/PC (v1.28.2.1)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2. The biggest change in this update is adding new burst fire shots to long range enemy types for Survival and Blitz modes. This adds to the variation of obstacle types to dodge, making the gameplay more interesting. Also, all burst fire shots are fired directly at the player, so it gives a unique audio and visual signature to predict that behavior for dodging.
This update also makes a few changes to the help screens to be more informative of how to play each game mode. This includes better controls displays and updated descriptions on each of the pages. Updated logos have been created for the game as well, making use of the recent graphics improvements to the game.
The Demo version has been updated to the latest version as well. This brings over a huge amount of updates and improvements that have been added to the full version over the last few months. Now, Demo players can enjoy improvements to widescreen support, gameplay, graphics, performance, and the new renderer.
The v1.28.2.0 update is now available on Steam/PC. Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy the new update!
5/29/18 - Improved long range enemy types in Survival/Blitz mode and more technical improvements for Steam/PC (v1.28.2.0)
A gameplay improvement update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2! (v1.28.2.0) This update puts more emphasis on bullet patterns by making improvements to long range enemy types for Survival and Blitz modes. Now, long range enemy types move around the right side of the screen for a while and fires rapidly at the player. This brings more variation to gameplay by giving the player a broader scope of enemy behaviors to account for to survive.
There are also a few performance improvements for the new OpenGL 3.0 renderer. Shaders are now dynamically swapped out for objects based on the current lighting situation to improve graphics performance. Dynamic batching of shader properties has also been implemented to reduce shader management CPU overhead. The new 3d matrix calculation system created a few updates back has been improved as well to better balance multithreading workloads between the rendering and main update threads, improving overall CPU performance. A rare multithreading crash bug was also fixed in this update.
The v1.28.2.0 update is now available on Steam/PC. Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy the new gameplay and technical improvements!
5/29/18 - Full multithreading support added to the Android version of BlastZone 2, new gameplay and performance improvements, and full Android 8.0 Oreo support (v1.28.2.0)
Another big update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.28.2.0) This update brings over the new long range enemy type and other technical improvements from the PC version. This includes significant performance boosts in the renderer to make up for the performance drop associated with the switch from OpenGL ES 1.1 to the new OpenGL ES 2.0 renderer with improved graphical effects. For more information, read the Steam/PC update post above and release notes, as they apply to the Android version as well.
In addition, the Android version has finally been updated to fully leverage multithreading and multicore CPU's! While the core engine was designed from the ground up to leverage multicore CPU's quite well, this functionality has only been used on the PC version before now. The Android version was mainly run on a single core, with only a few smaller elements using other cores, such as touch input to improve responsiveness, and leaderboard communication. This was done because multithreading is handled differently on Android and the priority was to maintain stability above all else, as incorrectly implemented multithreading code is prone to crashing.
Now, the core engine multithreading code has been adapted to work on Android, and significant testing has been done to make sure it is as stable as possible. The engine has been split into 4 threads; main game simulation, rendering, particle system updates, and multiplayer packet processing The main game simulation thread provides an overall performance boost for all devices with more than one CPU core, and eliminates hitching in a few areas where it existed. The particle system thread doubles performance of particle updates on Android, allowing for many more particles on screen with much less of a performance hit. It now better leverages the performance benefits of the new particle system created a few months back. The multiplayer packet processing thread helps greatly reduce the performance impact of playing a bluetooth multiplayer game, bringing performance much closer to singleplayer levels and reducing lag and packet loss. Testing has shown up to a 30% performance boost while playing a bluetooth multiplayer game.
This multithreading update can leverage up to 4 cpu cores quite well, but devices with 2 cpu cores will also see a significant jump in performance and smoothness. The PC version can leverage up to 16 cpu cores, but this is unnecessary on Android and this update is still a huge leap over the old single core execution.
Much higher detail bullet patterns for bosses of Area 4 and 8 in Mission Mode have been brought over from the PC version. Previously, these two bosses had their bullet density reduced to perform better on mobile devices, but this reduction isn't needed anymore. Multithreading support allows for much higher bullet counts on screen at similar performance levels, so these higher detail bullet patterns take advantage of this.
This update also includes full support for Android 8.0 Oreo, targeting API level 26. This doesn't change minimum requirements though, and is still backwards compatible with devices using an older version of Android. The Google Play Store will require atleast API level 26 support starting later this year, so this update ensures compliance with the new rules.
The v1.28.2.0 update is now available for Android. Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
5/1/18 - New OpenGL ES 2.0 renderer, critical bug fix, higher API level, and 64bit support released for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.28.1.1)
A huge new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.28.1.1)
The brand new renderer detailed in the latest PC release has been brought over to the Android version of BlastZone 2 and updated to be compliant with OpenGL ES 2.0. This was a massive undertaking for the Android version especially, requiring the entire renderer to be rewritten. Moving from OpenGL ES 1.1 to 2.0 is a complete paradigm shift, going from no shaders being supported at all, to requiring everything to be shader based. Every aspect of the fixed function pipeline had to be removed for this to work.
The original OpenGL 1.5/2.0 hybrid approach the PC used was not possible on Android, so the Android version has always used a cut down renderer with many graphical features removed. Now, I am proud to say that the Android version finally has full support for every rendering effect that used to be exclusive to the PC, such as normal mapping, specular mapping, and improved water, lighting and fog effects. Here is an image from the original shader update for PC to illustrate the big graphical improvement this has for Android.
src="http://www.blastzone2.com/screenshots/ShaderCompare.jpg" width=640 height=696
This update also fixes a critical bug in the Classic B game mode that broke the ability to properly stop the game and record a high score. I apologize for the inconvenience and this bug only affected the Android version, not the PC version.
Also included in this update are a few technical improvements to adhere to new rules that will soon apply to all apps on the Google Play Store. This includes increasing the target API level to 24 (Android 7.0) from API level 19 (Android 4.4) of previous versions. Doing this improves security and performance, and enables features for newer devices. The minimum API level is still 10 (Android 2.3), so this doesn't affect compatibility in any way. Several changes in the codebase were required to work with this new API level correctly, so this was done in advance to make sure there is no interruption in app availability when the new rules come into effect later this year. The Google Play Store will require a target API level of 26 (Android 8.0) later this year, but preliminary testing shows that it will likely not require any code changes to achieve. The main reason I'm not targeting API level 26 yet is because I do not have any test devices that use this API level yet, so I will hold off on releasing that update until I can test it properly.
One reason why BlastZone 2 wasn't upgraded to a newer API level until now is because Moga gamepad support doesn't work correctly above API level 19 (Android 4.4). I was able to keep this functional for newer devices by limiting builds to API level 19, but now that a much higher API level is being targeted, the only solution left is to disable Moga gamepad support for all devices using Android 5.0 or higher. It still works correctly for older devices using Android 2.3 up to 4.4, but newer devices can only use the generic gamepad support now. From what I've seen, this shouldn't affect many users, and generic gamepad support is much more important for newer devices anyway. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but resolving this issue is out of my hands, as the Moga SDK hasn't been updated to natively support newer devices.
Another technical improvement released with this update is full 64bit support. Now that BlastZone 2 is compatible with targeting API levels above 19, it now allows for building native 64bit binaries. This improves performance on many devices, as now the code can take full advantage of newer CPU architectures. This is in preparation for all apps requiring 64bit support in the Google Play Store by the middle of 2019. It is worth noting that the latest version still supports older 32bit devices as well, so compatibility hasn't been affected by this.
The v1.28.1.1 update is now available for Android. Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
4/30/18 - Improved lighting for the new OpenGL 3.0 renderer on Steam/PC (v1.28.1.1)
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! (v1.28.1.1) This one focuses on lighting improvements for the new OpenGL 3.0 renderer. It now has multilight support, with hyper mode and beam weapons emitting light that reflect off enemies, bosses, items, and the cave background. The OpenGL 1.5 renderer always had multilight support, but it has been rebuilt for OpenGL 3.0 to look better and be more realistic. The golden hyper mode light is localized around the player, now properly attenuating on the cave background and for enemies nearby the player. All beam weapons now have light evenly emit from the entire length of the beam and properly attenuates as enemies and objects move further away from the beam.
This update shows more of the kinds of effects now possible with the new renderer. If you haven't read the announcement for the new OpenGL 3.0 renderer, I strongly suggest you do. Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy the new technical improvements!
4/23/18 - A brand new OpenGL 3.0 renderer has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2! (v1.28.1.0)
Another big technical improvement update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2! As mentioned in the last update announcement, BlastZone 2 underwent a huge codebase overhaul to modernize it and make it more forward looking. With this release, the rendering pipeline has been completely rewritten to use OpenGL 3.0 shaders to render the entire scene. Almost all the fixed function dependencies have been removed for the new renderer and every stage of the rendering pipeline has been brought internal to the engine. Only one feature of the old OpenGL renderer remains, which is a key part in optimizations that boost performance by roughly 40-50%. The rest of the new renderer was written to target the OpenGL 4.1+ core profile, but this one feature would require the compatibility profile, so OpenGL 3.0 is being targeted instead. This is still a huge leap from the old OpenGL 1.5/2.0 hybrid approach of the old renderer. It is worth noting that the new renderer is backwards compatible with OpenGL 2.0, so this release doesn't affect compatibility at all.
There is an internal build of the game that targets the OpenGL 4.1+ core profile, but the big cut in performance with no graphical upside makes it counterproductive to release at this time. It will only be released if performance can be equalized with the current OpenGL 3.0 renderer, or if exclusive features are added to make the performance hit worth it.
The OpenGL 1.5 codepath is still fully functional for older hardware, so compatibility has not been affected by this release. Not only that, but the new renderer also improves OpenGL 1.5 codepath efficiency, better managing API calls so fewer are needed to render the scene. This code path is accessed by changing the "Renderer" option in game.
The v1.28.1.0 update is now available on Steam/PC. Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy the new technical improvements!
4/23/18 - A brand new OpenGL ES 2.0 renderer is coming soon for Android!
The brand new renderer detailed above is coming soon to Android as well! The new renderer is being adapted to Android using OpenGL ES 2.0, which is a huge improvement over the current OpenGL ES 1.1 renderer. It includes many new graphical effects that have been exclusive to the PC version so far, including normal mapping, specular mapping, and water effects. The new Android renderer is currently undergoing device compatibility testing and will be released soon!
4/5/18 - Huge terrain optimizations and overhauled backend processing for Steam/PC (v1.27.1.0)
Some big technical improvements have been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2! (v1.27.1.0) The most prominent of these are huge terrain rendering optimizations. These benefit the new VeryHigh and Extreme detail terrain DLC the most, bringing performance boosts ranging from 50-200%, depending on the situation and system specs. This is such a big difference that the minimum and recommended requirements to run the DLC are much lower now. If your system ran too slow using either of these DLC packs before this update, I strongly recommend trying them again. The new, lower requirements will be posted soon. The terrain optimizations improve performance for the Normal and Low quality terrain as well, just to a lesser degree. The Low quality terrain should expect to see a 4-5% boost in performance, and the Normal quality terrain should see about a 18-35% boost, which is still quite sizable. It is also worth noting that these performance boosts are across the board when playing the game, and are not just for specific situations. Also, these optimizations were achieved without any effect on image quality. Enjoy the performance boosts!
The second portion of this update worth noting is an overhaul to the way much of the rendering pipeline is calculated by the engine. More specifically, all Projection and ModelView matrix calculations are performed internally now, giving the engine direct control over the way they are managed, improving flexibility and providing more opportunities for optimizations. This overhaul removes large swaths of old, deprecated API calls as well, modernizing the codebase without breaking compatibility.
This is the first stage of a larger, overarching goal of modernizing the entire rendering pipeline. The renderer was originally designed back in 2006, using a hybrid approach combining OpenGL 2.0 features and effects built on top of an OpenGL 1.5 rendering pipeline. (OpenGL 3.X/4.X didn't exist back then.) This was done to have optional access to newer features, while maintaining compatibility with older hardware. The part of the overhaul done so far maintains compatibility with OpenGL 1.5 if the shaders are disabled, but I am looking into the best way to move forward from here. If maintaining OpenGL 1.5 support ends up not having enough demand to be worth it, I may drop support entirely in favor of an OpenGL 2.X/3.X/4.X exclusive renderer. Any feedback about this would be appreciated!
The v1.27.1.0 update is now available on Steam/PC. Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. More announcements will be made in the future detailing specific goals for the new renderer, so stay tuned for those. Enjoy the new technical improvements!
4/5/18 - Optimizations and technical improvements for the Android version (v1.27.1.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! This includes updated lighting for the Outer space background, and a few optimizations to the text system and terrain. The render time and memory usage of the text system has been cut in half for the Android version, but this only increases performance by about 1-2% since it is a small part of the overall rendering pipeline. Also, some small optimizations have been done for terrain rendering on Android to improve CPU/GPU concurrency, increasing performance by another 1-2%. The reason why terrain performance hasn't jumped nearly as much as the PC version is because the huge terrain optimizations have actually been exclusive to the Android version before now, so the Android version already has them. The reason why the PC version didn't receive them until now is because of differences in rendering systems actually caused a performance drop on PC until the recent rendering overhaul.
The rendering system overhaul detailed in the Steam/PC announcement above has also been applied to the Android version, so Android players are running the newer, modernized codebase as well.
Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
3/29/18 - Expanded gameplay range, 16:9 widescreen letterboxing, and looping minibosses for Steam/PC and Android (v1.27.0.0)
A big new gameplay update has been released for BlastZone 2 on both Steam/PC and Android (v1.27.0.0) that reworks and rebalances the entire game to primarily target a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. This expands the range of movement and gameplay area over previous versions and expands many of the menus. One critique I've heard about BlastZone 2 is the limited movement range; it was put in place to ensure a similar gameplay experience between 4:3 aspect and wide screen monitors. Now, horizontal movement and gameplay space has been expanded to the full viewable 16:9 aspect area and the game always runs in widescreen mode, even for 4:3 resolutions using letterboxing. This is beneficial for all players because 4:3 users gain a wider field of view, and widescreen users benefit from their entire viewable space being utilized for gameplay. This also equalizes the gameplay advantages and disadvantages that previously existed due to different aspect ratios.
As for vertical movement limits, Mission mode was completely designed with the original vertical limits in place, so expanding them would break many of the levels, allowing the player to easily skip significant areas of gameplay. Completely redesigning all of Mission mode to accomodate a larger vertical space was outside the scope of this update. Mission mode still benefits from increased horizontal movement though.
The Survival and Blitz game modes now take advantage of the full vertical and horizontal space of a 16:9 aspect ratio. This involved not only updating player movement limits, but also reworking all enemy movement and spawning patterns to take advantage of the larger gameplay area. This opens up more control flexibility for strategic options. A lot of work went into rebalancing these modes to make them more fun to play, so I hope everyone enjoys them!
Classic A/B modes received small updates as well, allowing for increased vertical player movement, but enemy spawning patterns haven't been changed to preserve the existing gameplay balance.
A number of menus have been updated to take advantage of the wider aspect ratio as well. Some of the menus were previously somewhat cramped and had abbreviated labeling to fit everything in a 4:3 space, such as ship selection screens, so those look much better now. The ingame HUD has also been updated to work better for widescreen.
This update addresses another criticism of the game, which is that minibosses had a time limit and would leave if the player couldn't defeat them in time. This has been rectified by adding a new feature to the enemy scripting system. Now, enemy behaviors can have looped sections and can stay on the screen battling the player forever until the player wins or dies. This gives the satisfaction of overcoming the challenge of each miniboss and not merely lasting long enough for it to leave.
The v1.27.0.0 update is now available on Steam/PC and Android. Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
3/21/18 - New 4k textures and greatly improved outer space environment for Steam/PC (v1.26.1.3)
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2 on Steam that greatly improves texture detail in the game. It introduces 4k textures, which have four times the detail of previous versions of the game. To make use of the new textures, make sure you have "VeryHigh" texture detail selected in the options. The "VeryHigh" option from previous versions is now equivalent to the new "High" option, and the rest down the line. The main textures that benefit from this update include all the terrain textures, all the sky domes and space star field, planets, and more. The added texture resolution makes the biggest difference for 4k and 1440p resolutions, but also benefits 1080p and below.
Also included in this update is a revamped Outer Space background, including brand new textures for the planet and sun, and improved lighting for the planet and moon. Take a look below: (click for a larger view)
src=index_files/bz2newspacesmall.jpg width=640 height=360
The Home Planet terrain has received more improvements to lighting and shadowing detail as well. Check it out below:
src=index_files/bz2newhometexsmall.jpg width=640 height=360
Combining these new textures with the recently released Extreme quality terrain DLC really is a sight to behold! Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
3/21/18 - Outer Space environment improvements for the Android version (v1.26.1.3)
The Android version isn't getting the 4k texture upgrade from the PC version, but the design improvements have been brought over. This mostly includes the revamped Outer Space background, including new textures and improved lighting for the planet, moon, sun, and star field background. This also includes further lighting and shadowing improvements for the Home Planet terrain as well. These improvements were made without raising memory or processing requirements.
Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
3/14/18 - High quality terrain DLC released for free on Steam! (v1.26.1.2)
A completely free DLC has just been released for all owners of BlastZone 2 that greatly improve terrain detail. This DLC applies to the Home Planet, Alien Planet, and Caves terrain and it really is a sight to behold. They show every little detail of each crevice and ridge in the scene with high resolution lighting to show it off. Please note that the only way to enable these new terrain detail settings is from the "Launch Configuration Tool" option from the game startup window. Also, the first time BlastZone 2 is started up using this DLC, the load time will take much longer than usual, but subsequent game launches will reduce it.
Take a look at the newly improved terrain below: (click for a larger view)
src=index_files/XQcavesSmall.jpg width=640 height=360
src=index_files/XQalienSmall.jpg width=640 height=360
This DLC has been split into two packages, "Very High" and "Extreme" detail. The "Very High" detail package raises the baseline terrain detail by 10x (bringing it from 65k tris to 650k tris per block) and provides the best compromise between greatly improving detail while keeping performance reasonable for most moderately powered machines. The "Extreme" detail terrain pushes triangle counts to the absolute limit of what the content pipeline and game engine can handle, having 32x the detail of baseline terrain (about 2.1 million triangles per block). Extreme detail is not suggested for use by most users, as it drastically increases system requirements, requiring atleast a Radeon RX 480 or Geforce GTX 1060 to run at adequate performance.
The reason why this has been released as separate DLC and not included in the base game is because it greatly increases the game install filesize (from 80mb to 800mb), and greatly increases load times. These should only be used by players with higher end machines. The base game was built as the best compromise between keeping the game scalable to run well on low end machines and integrated graphics, while keeping the graphics substantially better than most games at the designed minimum and recommended specs.
As of a few months ago, the content pipeline and model management system in BlastZone 2 was limited to 65k triangles per object, and the terrain was built to make full use of that limit. Given that, the terrain was still able the achieve a competent level of graphical fidelity while keeping performance very high. As of v1.25.1.0, the model management system and model loader was greatly improved to raise the triangle count limit all the way up to about 2.1 million. The new model management system had many other advantages as well, but this DLC is the first time the new triangle limit has been fully leveraged.
In addition to the DLC, lower quality terrain is now included in the base game as well. These terrain models were taken directly from the Android version of BlastZone 2 and have a triangle count of 5k per block of terrain, having less than 1/10th the geometric complexity of the baseline terrain. This detail level is ideal for really old, low specced machines, netbooks, or integrated graphics. Even so, the amount of detail still contained in these models is much better than you'd think, using the low triangle count as intelligently as possible.
The home planet terrain has also been greatly improved for all detail levels. Lighting and shadowing has been adjusted to better accent finer details of the terrain. This was done without any performance or memory hit as well, so everyone can enjoy the improved terrain detail. Here is a screenshot illustrating it. (click for a larger view)
src=index_files/XQhomeSmall.jpg width=640 height=360
Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
3/14/18 - A few small updates released for Android (up to v1.26.1.2)
To coincide with the recent Steam version update, a few of those updates have been included in the Android version as well. This includes a fix for the item Pickup particle animation color and updates to screen fade transitions to hide the loading process better. The improved homeworld terrain illustrated above has been brought over to the Android version as well.
Another small update for the Android version (v1.26.1.1) was also recently released. This update included refined ship transition animations for all ship selection screens and tweaked weapon names.
Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
2/12/18 - Gameplay balancing, alt-fire update, and readied charge shot effect for Steam/Android and sound fixes for Android (v1.26.1.0)
A new update has been released for BlastZone 2! This update mostly focuses on gameplay improvements, ranging from weapon balance changes and improved alt-fire controls, to a new particle effect when holding a charge shot before firing it. The weapon balance changes include reducing the damage of the outer bullets of the Wave Shot for ship AB1 and AB2. This weapon was previously overpowered, so this should bring it back in line with the other primary weapons. The AB1 ship also had its secondary fire weapon swapped out for the Burst Shot to better characterize its style, mixing long range and short range weapons.
Another big improvement in this update is in the way alt-fire weapons are controlled. Now, alt-fire shots can be accessed by tapping the Fire2 button. There is still a lead time before the shot is fired, but this alleviates the old requirement of having to hold the Fire2 button for the correct amount of time to fire it. Also, alt-fire shots can now be fired at the optimum rate by rapidly tapping the Fire2 button. This new control scheme adds more versatility and gameplay options to all the ships in the game, but benefits the B1 and B2 ships the most. These two ships are now much more effective against big bosses, making better use of their only long ranged attack.
The previous update added particle bursts to illustrate attaining each level of charge without having to look at the HUD charging meter, but this update takes these improvements a step further. Now, once maximum charge has been attained, a new particle animation is shown to illustrate that the weapon is no longer charging and is now awaiting the player to fire it. This makes the graphical feedback of the player ship more intuitive and further reduces the need to look at the charging HUD meter, allowing the player to focus on the action better.
There are a few Android-specific sound fixes and improvements included in this update as well. The weapon charging sound is now stopped when firing a charge shot, also preventing multiple charging sounds from overlapping when firing multiple charge shots in succession. General sound playback has also been improved, fixing sounds from intermittently not being played or getting garbled. The Android sound system is now less CPU intensive as well, helping improve performance on lower end devices, and reduces battery usage on higher end devices.
There are a number of other tweaks and improvements in this update as well. I hope everyone enjoys these new gameplay improvements and don't forget to leave your comments in the forums! The update is now available via Steam, the Google Play Store, or the Amazon App Store. Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
2/5/18 - Overhauled Survival Mode scoring system with multipliers and many other improvements for Steam/PC and Android (v1.26.0.0)
A big new update has been released for the Steam/PC and Android versions of BlastZone 2! Survival mode now has a completely new scoring system that makes use of a skill-based multiplier system. Destroying enemies with well placed charge shots increase the multiplier and hitting enemies with regular shots maintains the multiplier. The multiplier gradually decreases over time and reduces rapidly when getting hit by enemies. New players can still play Survival mode while ignoring this new scoring system, but it adds a lot of depth for mid range and advanced players, effectively raising the skill ceiling without affecting the skill floor.
Prior to this update, all the game modes were evaluated and it was discovered that Survival mode was mostly used as a stepping stone for newer players to ramp up and unlock Blitz mode. This helped and gave the mode a useful place in game progression, but there was an opportunity to maintain its relevance for more advanced players. As it stood, Survival mode was the most straight forward mode in the game, not having much unique to help it stand out. Now, with this new scoring system, I found myself playing it very differently and being much more engaged in the moment to moment decisions to maximize my score. This gives the new Survival mode a more unique identity, and makes it more fun to play.
The main drawback of this update is that it makes the current online leaderboard obsolete. Skillful players can now easily surpass the top scores of the leaderboard and the current top score holders will need to claw back up to maintain their titles. Some thought was put into potentially boosting all the current scores to keep them relevant, but it was ultimately determined that this is an artificial fix and there is excitement in shattering the old skill ceiling organically.
A number of other additions and improvements are a part of this update as well, including score rank categories added to more game modes, which adds more options for unlocking those achievements. There are also better ship state feedback effects, including animations for attaining each regular charge level, as well as a context sensitive hyper charge animation to show when it is charging at an accelerated rate or not. More details on these and more are in the release notes.
I hope everyone enjoys the newly revamped Survival mode and don't forget to give your feedback through email or the forums! The update is now available via Steam, the Google Play Store, or the Amazon App Store. Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
12/21/17 - Many new particle effects and other updates for Steam/PC and Android (up to v1.25.4.0)
A few new updates have been released over the past month. The most notable of these updates (v1.25.4.0) include over a dozen new particle effects that have been added to the game. These include a new Hyper Mode effect, weapon firing effects, and bullet dissipation effects. These new effects take advantage of the recent huge optimizations to the particle system, so performance is still great, even on low end machines. There are also changes to Hyper mode movement and netcode improvements in this update.
A few weeks ago, another update (v1.25.3.4) was released on PC that focused on improving texture management and loading. This fixed a broken textures bug, reduced memory usage, and improved texture load times. An extra hotfix to this update was originally intended to fix a remaining game close crash/corruption issue, but has the additional effect of greatly reducing the time it takes to close the game. The Android version of this update reduces memory usage and improves startup loading time as well.
An Android-specific update has been released as well (v1.25.3.4a) focusing on greatly reducing APK filesize without sacrificing content and migrating to the latest Android SDK.
Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
11/17/17 - Another critical crash fix for Steam/PC (v1.25.3.3)
Another quick update has been released to fix a crash bug that has recently been discovered on the Steam/PC version. This crash would occasionally occur on game close and had the rare possibility of corrupting save data, including high scores, unlocks, and settings. The v1.25.3.3 update fixes both of these issues. Please note this issue doesn't affect the Android version. To ensure you have this update, check the "View ReadMe/Release Notes" option in the launch window, or start the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for "v1.25.3.3" or above. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE.
11/14/17 - Many technical improvement updates for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2 (up to v1.25.3.2)
Over the past month, a number of technical improvements have been made to the PC version of BlastZone 2, split across a few update releases. Most of these improvements focus on improving performance for the particle system and greatly improving the startup loading system.
The particle system now automatically detects the optimal number of threads based on the number of detected CPU cores. This eliminates the need for the "Particle Threads" option, which some people may not have taken advantage of anyway. Now, the particle system takes the best advantage of everyone's system without needing to explicitly set it up. Also, there are a few general optimizations to the particle system that significantly reduce CPU load at high particle counts and reduce the rendering load per particle.
The startup loading system has been completely revamped as well. This was required to fix a "Not Responding" issue on lower end machines during the loading screen. Even though everything was working properly, Windows may have falsely detected BlastZone 2 as crashed before this update. The new loading system also significantly reduces load times, taking better advantage of CPU cores and scales up to a higher number of CPU cores. Also, there is now a progress bar and working spinner to give better feedback during this process. To further reduce load times, the startup loader now supports loading precompressed S3TC textures directly into video memory, eliminating the need to compress textures into memory at load time. This also eliminates the "Texture Compression" game option, as the precompressed textures are higher quality as well, being nearly indistinguishable from uncompressed textures in most situations. This also reduces the game filesize footprint, since S3TC textures have a higher compression ratio than the PNG textures they replaced.
As a side note, the v1.25.3.1 update introduced a player/boss death crash bug that was fixed in v1.25.3.2. This crash impacted the public release branch on Steam for about a week and a half before it was fixed and I apologize for any inconvenience this caused.
Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
11/14/17 - Numerous graphical and technical improvements for the Android version of BlastZone 2 (up to v1.25.3.3)
Over the past month or so, a few Android updates have been released, focused on graphical improvements, as well as a few technical improvements brought over from the PC version. The technical improvements are mostly optimizations to the particle system, reducing both the CPU and rendering load per particle. This significantly reduces performance hits when many explosions are visible and helps reduce battery drain.
A number of graphics improvements have been released as well. The goal of these are to bring the game much closer to the PC level of detail and reduce the compromises needed to keep the game compatible with older/slower devices. This includes higher resolution textures brought over from the PC version. The most noticeable areas improved are environment terrains, skies, star backgrounds, planets, and boss textures. Also, mipmaps have been added in all these areas to improve detail smoothness of far away objects. The best results can be seen on large screen tablets or TV devices, but helps for smaller handsets as well. Improved compression is used to offset the increased memory load of higher resolution textures. This results in no change in device memory requirements; the existing memory budget is used more efficiently now.
The Cave environment model has also been significantly improved, showing much more geometric and lighting detail than before to bring it closer to parity with the PC version. This was done by more intelligently using the existing polygon budget, so there is no performance hit for this increase in detail.
Measures have also been taken to reduce the APK size of the game. The demo version sees the biggest improvement here, reducing the APK size from 35mb to 26mb even while using higher quality assets than previous versions. The full version sees a modest increase in filesize (41mb to 48mb), but this increase is much smaller than it would have been given the improved asset quality. The APK filesize reduction was done by profiling and eliminating numerous assets only used by one version and not the other.
Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
10/5/17 - New model loading system and vastly improved alien planet terrain detail for Steam/PC (v1.25.1.0)
A new update has been released for the PC version of BlastZone 2! (v1.25.1.0) The focus of this update is to take advantage of the new model loading system that was introduced in the v1.25.0.0 update, but went unused. One of the main advantages of this new system is the ability to load external model files. Previously, all models had to be compiled into the executable, so any new update required redownloading all the model data with it. This will reduce the download size of future updates, as only the updated parts will need to be downloaded again. Another big advantage of this update is that it greatly increases the triangle ceiling per model. Previously, individual models were limited to 65k triangles, but now that limit has been raised to over 2 million triangles. All models being used still adhere to the 65k triangle limit though to maintain consistent performance, but I am exploring the possibility of taking advantage of higher polygon rates in the future. Internal tests have shown that ~2 million triangle models are working quite well in game and there is a future possibility of releasing a "high polygon pack", but I can't guarantee anything at this point.
The new model loading system has been heavily optimized to make it ready for public use as well. The game launch loading process has been reworked to take full advantage of up to 5 CPU cores to speed up load times. Also, loading metadata is now saved out after the first startup to improve load times even more for subsequent launches of the game.
Another big portion of this update is the Alien Homeworld background terrain has been revamped to vastly increase detail. This was done by more intelligently using the 65k triangle budget for terrain blocks, so performance will be identical to other terrain backgrounds. The visual difference is quite striking though, and I encourage everyone to take a look for yourself. The sacrifice taken to achieve this comes from removing the cave entrance seen in the intermission screen before entering Area 7 of Mission mode. I think this was worth it for the amount of detail gained in the rest of the terrain. There is also a newly improved Charge item model as well.
Take a look at the newly improved terrain below: (click for a larger view)
src=index_files/BZ2_TerrainCompare.jpg width=640 height=717
Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
10/5/17 - Improved terrain detail for Android! (v1.25.1.0)
A new update has been released for Android! (v1.25.1.0) This update brings higher detail terrain to the Home World and Alien Planet background terrain. The Home World terrain improvement is more subtle and mostly helps the lake perimeters line up more accurately with the adjacent hills. The Alien Planet mountain terrain has received a much greater boost in detail though. While maintaining the exact same triangle count and performance to the previous version, triangle usage has been refactored to add much more detail to each of the mountain ridges and bumps. The resultant level of detail actually exceeds the Alien Planet terrain from older versions of the PC version. The latest PC version still exceeds the latest Android version here, but still illustrates how far the Android version has come in detail without any performance reduction. This update also includes the improved Charge item model from the PC version. Enjoy the improved visuals!
Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE.
9/27/17 - Level select improvements and new Kiosk mode released for Steam/PC (v1.25.0.0)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2! (v1.25.0.0) The main improvements in this update focus on Mission Mode level select, changing the way it works. Now, only individual levels are played and the player is directed back to the level selection screen to choose another level. Also, starting stats and lives have been tweaked to better fit this new play style.
Another big update included here is a new "Kiosk Mode" that completely changes the way the game is approached. This mode was created to split the game up into small 5-10 minute gameplay sessions with a broad selection of areas to try out. This is intended for use with public showings of the game, including conventions, trade shows, and similar events; so people can walk up to play a "bite size" version to make it easier to see the many facets of the game. This mode is accessible in this release, but is not the intended way to play the standard public release of the game. There is a hidden setting in the game config file to turn on this mode, but should only be attempted by more technically adept users.
Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
9/27/17 - Level select improvements and Area 1 clouds animation update released for Android (v1.25.0.0)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! (v1.25.0.0) This update brings over level select improvements from the PC version, check the above announcement and PC release notes for more information about this. The Kiosk mode update has also been added at a technical level to the Android version, but is not exposed to end users at this time.
This update also includes cloud animations for Mission Mode Area 1. This animation has always been in the PC version, but was stripped out of the Android version because of graphic glitches and performance issues. The graphic glitches have been fixed and the recent 20% across the board performance boost for Android gives extra headroom to accommodate rendering the cloud animation now. This makes Area 1 of Mission Mode look much better and give a better feeling of flying at high altitudes.
Check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE.
8/29/17 - A few recent maintenance updates for Steam/PC and Android (v1.24.2.1 - v1.24.2.4)
A few new updates have been released for Steam/PC and Android. (v1.24.2.1 - v1.24.2.4) These updates include a number of multithreading improvements, crash fixes, and improvements to client side motion smoothing for multiplayer. There is also now a limit to the number of particle threads for the PC version so that it cannot exceed the number of logical CPU cores in the system. The latest Steam/PC version is v1.24.2.3 and the latest Android version is v1.24.2.4. The newer Android version number includes an additional startup crash fix and optimization that doesn't apply to the Steam/PC version.
There are a number of other improvements and bug fixes included in this update as well. Be sure to check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Also, check out the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
8/6/17 - Massive particle system optimizations for Steam/PC! (v1.24.2.0)
A new update has been released for Steam/PC! (v1.24.2.0) This update overhauls the particle system, resulting in huge performance gains when many particles are on screen. Testing shows that roughly 20-30x more particles can be shown on screen for the same performance levels of previous versions. Not only that, but performance can be improved even more through a new Particle Thread Count option. The game defaults to dedicating 2 threads to particles to ensure the best experience for Single-Core and Dual-Core CPUs, but can easily be raised up to 8 threads in the Configuration Program to take full advantage of Quad-Core or Octo-Core CPUs. Please note that the thread count cannot be changed in game. These performance gains can be tested through the "Stress Test" and "Stress Test 2" custom addon packs for those who are curious. I strongly suggest raising the particle detail level to "High" or "Very High" now, even for lower end machines.
There are a number of other improvements and bug fixes included in this update as well. Be sure to check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
8/6/17 - Big across the board performance improvements and higher particle detail for Android! (v1.24.2.0)
To coincide with the huge particle performance improvement update for PC, there is an even bigger update released for Android! The newly overhauled particle system has a roughly 10-15x performance boost for Android. This is lower than the boost for PC, as this doesn't take advantage of multithreading, but is still quite substantial. Also, the particle detail has been greatly increased to take full advantage of the improved performance. Now, the particle limit has been raised by 12x over previous versions, which puts it on par with the "High" particle detail setting from the PC version. All of this is done at the same performance level when the particle count limit is reached, and at much better performance when fewer explosions are on screen.
Additionally, there are substantial improvements to the Android code path of the model manager, which translates to a 20% performance boost across the board! This means that performance is always significantly higher now, not just for specific situations. Lower end devices can now enjoy smoother gameplay, and higher end devices now have lower battery consumption and heat output.
The full release notes of this update can viewed on the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy the better gameplay experience from this update!
7/12/17 - More netcode improvements for Steam/PC and Android (v1.24.1.1)
A new update has been released for Steam/PC and Android! (v1.24.1.1) This update is a follow up to the recent online multiplayer improvements update and makes further improvements to the netcode. The primary improvement included is out-of-order packet detection and discarding to help reduce juttery object movement for the client player that still remained after the motion smoothing improvements. Another improvement is generalized object movement packet loss tolerance to produce more consistent behavior for the client beyond several key cases that were covered before the update. This includes covering sudden behavior for bosses and enemies in mission mode and is tuned to work well with motion smoothing as well.
This update is now available on Steam and Android. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement HERE, the release notes HERE, the Google Play store page HERE, or the Amazon App store HERE. Enjoy!
7/7/17 - Online multiplayer client side motion smoothing and improvements update released for Steam/PC and Android! (v1.24.1.0)
A new update has been released for Steam/PC and Android! (v1.24.1.0) The focus of this update is to improve the experience of the client player when playing Online or Bluetooth multiplayer games. This is primarily done by adding a new "Motion Smoothing" option for the client player that uses a combination of interpolation and prediction to generate additional object positions to what is being sent by the server. This makes the client side experience appear much closer to how the game looks for the host/server even when a lower 20hz or 30hz tickrate is used. This has a big advantage of greatly cutting down the bandwidth and send rate needed for a great experience. Also, this can fill in the gaps and account for packet loss to improve the experience for lower quality internet connections. However, the drawback is that there is some additional perceived latency on a moment-to-moment basis. The amount of latency added peaks at about 50ms when a 20hz tickrate is used, but averages at about 20-25ms or so for the same tickrate, and is lower when higher tickrates are used. During testing, this amount of latency wasn't enough to adversely affect overall enjoyment and playability of the game. However, if a particularly laggy internet connection is being used and latency needs to be reduced as much as possible, the option exists for the client to disable motion smoothing.
Other updates include fixing a client-side new object flashing bug and covering additional cases that would cause bugs for high packet loss connections.
This update is now available on Steam and Android. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement HERE, the release notes HERE, the Google Play store page HERE, or the Amazon App store HERE. Enjoy!
NOTE: Another update will be released in a few days with further improvements to netcode. This discards packets received out of order to fix juttery client behavior that still may occur in this update. More info will be released about this soon!
6/22/17 - BlastZone 2 is taking part in the Steam Summer Sale! It is 66% off for a limited time!
Announcing that the Steam Summer Sale started today and BlastZone 2 is taking part in it! For a limited time, the Steam/PC version has a 66% discount, which brings the price down to only $1! Grab it now while the sale lasts and don't forget to tell your friends about it! Keep in mind, this price includes the BZ1/BZ2 bundle and all recent updates to the game. You can grab it from the Steam page HERE. Enjoy!
6/19/17 - Soft keyboard support and multiplayer chat added to the Android version of BlastZone 2 (v1.24.0.1)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! This biggest improvement of this update is adding soft keyboard support for leaderboard names. This makes it much easier to enter names without relying on directional pad letter selection. The original way to enter leaderboard names is still in place for use with gamepads.
Another big new feature in this update is adding chat message support for bluetooth multiplayer games. Chat messages can only be entered during the multiplayer lobby screen or pause screen to prevent bringing up the soft keyboard accidentally during gameplay. Each of the screens that allows for bringing up the soft keyboard contains a text label informing the user of where to tap.
The full release notes of this update can viewed on the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
Another note I'd like to add is that I have received a few requests for Wifi multiplayer support for the Android version of BlastZone 2. I am beginning to look into the possibility of adding support for this in the future, but I can't guarantee anything at this point. I will post more updates as things progress in this area.
6/15/17 - BlastZone 1 Released for Steam and Android!
Announcing the release of BlastZone 1 for Steam/PC and Android! This is a completely free game release that is now bundled with all versions of BlastZone 2 on all platforms, including Demo/Lite versions. The purpose of this release is to address a frequent question I've been asked over the years of how people can play the original BlastZone game. Before now, I've directed such questions to the Classic A game mode of BlastZone 2, which is a greatly improved version of BlastZone 1, but that probably isn't what people have been asking for. Now, everyone can experience the original game in its original form! Keep in mind, the original game was built for the TI-85 and TI-86 graphing calculators back in the 1990's, so it is very crude by today's standards. Also, this release is a faithful recreation of BlastZone 1 and not a precise emulation of the original code. There are a few improvements over the original TI-85/86 version, including higher resolution ASCII characters and improved control responsiveness. Also, a few of the menus have been consolidated and combined together to streamline the experience. Despite these changes, it still maintains a very faithful experience to the original to give everyone an idea of what the game was like back then. The final version number for the TI-85/86 is v1.1, so I incremented this release to v1.2 to differentiate it.
To play BlastZone 1, make sure you have the v1.24.0.0 BlastZone 2 update or higher, then start up BlastZone 2 and select the top "BlastZone 1" main menu option. Any questions and feedback are welcome in the forums or via email. Check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Enjoy!
To coincide with this release, I'm also releasing an open source version of the original TI-85/86 BlastZone! Anyone who has TI-85 or TI-86 hardware can upload this to your device to play. Installation instructions are included with the game for reference. If there are any questions about this, let me know. Download the game HERE . Enjoy!
6/15/17 - Critical Android bug fixed for bluetooth multiplayer mission bosses (v1.24.0.0)
Just a quick note that the v1.24.0.0 update released for Android also includes a fix for a critical bug that broke bosses when playing Bluetooth Multiplayer in Mission mode. This update is now available on the Google Play Store and Amazon App Store. I apologize for the inconvenience.
6/10/17 - Android update 1.23.0.0 and known issue PSA
Shortly after the big v1.23.0.0 PC release, the same update was brought over to the Android version as well. This brings over the new online lobby screen for use with Bluetooth multiplayer games, as well as net code improvements and a number of other bug fixes and improvements.
I also want everyone to know that there is a known issue with the Android version when playing Bluetooth Mission multiplayer that breaks the big boss battle in Area 2 for the client player. This also breaks level progression after that point. Please note that all the other game modes (Classic A/B, Survival, Blitz) all work just fine and aren't affected by the bug. I apologize for the inconvenience and I'm currently working on fixing it. I do not have an ETA on the fix for this bug, but will do my best to address it soon. This bug doesn't affect the Steam/PC version.
**6/13/17 UPDATE** The bluetooth Mission multiplayer boss bug mentioned here has been fixed in an internal build and will be released with the next Android update. This will most likely be within the next few days as of this writing. I apologize for the inconvenience.
6/9/17 - Steam/PC update 1.23.1.0; More multithreading improvements
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2! The main focus of this update is a follow up to the v1.23.0.0 technical improvements, making further improvements to multithreading. This further improves performance, load times, and reduces hitching in specific areas, such as leaderboard communication. For full release notes, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
6/2/17 - Huge new update for Steam/PC! Includes a new online lobby screen and many technical improvements (v1.23.0.0)
A huge new update has been released for the Steam version of BlastZone 2! The two main areas improved in this update are the online multiplayer lobby screen and numerous technical improvements to the underlying engine. The online lobby screen has now been brought up to the same level of polish and information as the other ship selection screens in the game. This includes ship model displays, stat bars, names, and loadout description categories.
As for the many underlying engine improvements, these include improving framerate cap selection so that any value ranging from 20-240 in 1 fps increments can be used and improving frame pacing consistency down to within 0.02ms or lower. This improves support for high refresh rate and adaptive-sync displays such as g-sync and freesync. Also, the core engine logic has been revamped to run the main game update and render operations in separate threads, significantly improving multicore performance for the game. This allows the game to support the use of up to 6 cpu cores if available and makes better use of existing cores for dual and quad core cpus. Also, the online multiplayer netcode has been greatly improved to be more robust and tolerate much higher packet loss, allowing for up to constant 75% packet loss and occasional spikes greater than that.
There are many other updates in this release, including a number of bug fixes for the game and improvements for the config program. Be sure to check out the full release notes HERE and the Steam announcement HERE. Since this is such a big update, I would appreciate feedback, including bug reports, in the forums or via email. Thanks and enjoy!
4/18/17 - Antivirus issue fix and new item drop design spec for Steam/PC (v1.22.6.0)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2! This address a critical issue that some antivirus software were falsely detecting BlastZone 2 as a virus. I can assure everyone that these were false positives and they were caused by BlastZone 2 using a hidden cmd window to execute cURL commands to upload and download leaderboard data. This was addressed by migrating to a completely internal solution that uploads and downloads leaderboard data directly within the game without the use of a hidden command prompt window. This will prevent any antivirus software from flagging BlastZone 2 in the future. For anyone who has already experienced this issue, it is completely safe to remove BlastZone 2 from your antivirus blacklist and play as normal.
Improvements in this update include a new enemy definition property for level editing, and particle rendering optimizations for extreme situations among other improvements and fixes.
For full details, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
4/18/17 - Recent updates released for Android (up to v1.22.4.11)
A few smaller updates have recently been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2 to bring all applicable bug fixes over from the Steam/PC version. This does also include the critical multiplayer wave progression fix, which applies to Bluetooth multiplayer on Android.
The version number is deviating a bit from the Steam/PC version for now since some of the bigger Steam/PC updates don't apply to the Android version, such as the multithreading improvements and scripting updates. However, I am working on some Android-specific bug fixes and looking into adding a few Android-exclusive features in the near future. I can't comment on any specifics yet, but more announcements are coming soon!
A full list of the recent updates can viewed on the Google Play store page HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
4/12/17 - Online multiplayer bugfix and new debug data displays for Steam/PC (v1.22.5.1)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2! This update focuses on a critical bugfix for online multiplayer that broke wave progression for the client in survival multiplayer games. Other general improvements to packet loss tolerance have been made for online multiplayer as well. Also, this update includes new process time displays for each of the game systems that can be enabled by pressing F1 multiple times in game.
For full details, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
4/7/17 - Multithreading improvements, Bug fixes, and code maintenance for Steam/PC (v1.22.5.0)
A new update has been released for Steam/PC! The focus of this update is to greatly improve multithreading, which among other things results in up to a 25% reduction in overall cpu usage and smoother animations from improved thread timing. Also, this update fixes a critical Direct IP multiplayer bug that broke client side communication. A number of warnings in the codebase that were found by Cpp Check have also been fixed to prevent potential undiscovered bugs. A few other bug fixes and tweaks round out the update.
For full details, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
3/22/17 - Addon pack update and data loss prevention update (Steam:v1.22.4.8; Android:v1.22.4.7)
An addon pack update has been released for the Steam version of Blastzone 2. This eliminates the "PackRegistry.dat" file requirement for the for the game to detect addon packs. All addon packs are now automatically detected in the LevelPacks directory. This also eliminates issues that would arise when future official addon packs are released when local unofficial packs are applied, which would reset the registry file. This was done as a convenience measure as well, eliminating one of the points of failure when creating new addon packs. This update only applies to the Steam/PC version and doesn't affect the Android version.
Another update included is to prevent data loss. Now there are data saves at a few key points in the game to ensure that a crash or improper close of the game doesn't lose any data. Previously, the only save operation would be done on application close. This update has been released for both the Steam/PC and Android versions.
This update is now available on Steam and Android. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement HERE, the release notes HERE, the Google Play store page HERE, or the Amazon App store HERE
3/15/17 - Library updates for Steam/PC version (v1.22.4.7)
A new update has been released for the Steam version of BlastZone 2! The main focus of this release is to update many of the third party libraries BlastZone 2 makes use of. This is to take advantage of all the latest optimizations, bug fixes, security fixes, and general improvements that affect several areas of the game. Some of the libraries were years out of date, so these updates were long overdue. The updated libraries include libPNG, zLib, cURL, and FreeType. These handle PNG loading, compression, leaderboard communication, and font generation respectively.
For full details, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
3/4/17 - New bugfix update for addon packs released for both PC/Steam and Android! Also includes 2 new stress test level packs (v1.22.4.6)
A new update has been released for both the PC/Steam and Android versions of BlastZone 2! The main focus of this update is to fix a number of bugs with level addon packs. This includes fixing a crash bug when attempting to spawn an undefined enemy as well as a few bugs managing the quick charge ability.
This update also adds 2 new stress test addon level packs. The first one "stress_test" is a moderate test that spawns a large amount of slow moving enemies that gradually fill the screen. The second pack is "stress_test_2" that spawns an extreme amount of enemies for further testing. All special weapons have been unlocked for these to test destroying many enemies at once and test a large amount of particles on screen. A framerate display can be enabled by pressing F1 any time during the game. The existing "test_pack_1" has also been modified to include a new enemy type for demonstration
This update is in preparation for level editing documentation that will be released in the near future. I apologize for the delay in releasing this information, but I hope everyone will enjoy experimenting with making content for BlastZone 2!
For full details, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE. The new version update is also available in the Google Play Store HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
2/24/17 - The Android version now has local multiplayer support! (v1.22.4.5)
A huge new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! This adds local multiplayer support for all Android devices, with the only requirement being that 2 gamepads are connected. This can be used for any phone, but is ideal for the recently added support for TV devices such as the Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Gamepad vendor mixing is supported as well, including Moga gamepads, bluetooth gamepads, xbox gamepads, generic gamepads, and more! It is also worth noting that this update takes advantage of the new local multiplayer ship selection screen made possible through the recent 1.22.x code migration update. Both players can select their ship simultaneously for a streamlined local multiplayer experience!
The new version update is now available on the Google Play Store HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
2/13/17 - BlastZone 2 startup crash fixed for the Steam/PC version (v1.22.4.4)
A new update has been relased for the Steam/PC version! The most important part of this update is a fix for an occasional startup crash that affected a number of users. This issue was around for a while and tracking it down was very difficult because of the random nature of it. I would like to thank the contributors in the Steam forum who first reported this issue and continued to give feedback about it.
This update also includes a difficulty selection fix for level addon packs and optimizations to the startup loading screen. For full details, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
2/13/17 - The Android version has now fully migrated to the 1.22.x engine codebase from the Steam/PC version! (v1.22.4.4)
This brings the Android version up to parity with the Steam/PC version as v1.22.4.4. The biggest improvement included is a completely revamped level loading system that adds support for addon level packs. This opens the door to adding new content to BlastZone 2 in the future. A small sample level pack has been included in the full version of the game to demonstrate this new functionality.
It is also worth noting that the new local multiplayer ship selection screen has been brought over from the PC version, as it requires the 1.22.x codebase to function correctly. However, this new screen is currently going unused in the Android version since local multiplayer isn't currently supported on that platform. I have received requests to add local multiplayer to the Android version, so I'm considering it but can't guarantee anything yet. The recently greatly improved gamepad support for the Android version and support for the Amazon Fire TV and other settop boxes would facilitate this well.
One last thing I want to mention is that other than the two features listed above, all other fixes and improvements have always been in parity between the Android and PC versions, despite the version numbers being quite different before now. This should resolve any concerns that the Android version has been greatly behind the PC version. The reason why the 1.22.x code migration hasn't been done before now was because it required drastic changes to the codebase for features that weren't high priority for the Android version.
The new version update is now available on the Google Play Store HERE and the Amazon App Store HERE. Enjoy!
1/24/17 - New exploder and cluster bomb weapon improvements! (Steam-v1.22.4.3 Android-v1.21.3.8)
Announcing a new update for BlastZone 2! This greatly improves all exploder and cluster bomb weapons in the game so they explode on impact instead of only being timer-based. This makes these weapons very effective at close range in addition to the medium range spread they already had. This also eliminates the need for perfect timing to hit a group of enemies effectively, as enemies will now crash into the bombardment of explosions instead of often flying right through. There is a small amount of bonus damage done to enemies that impact an un-exploded shot as well. When the new improved cluster bomb is used against bosses at close range, it is very effective at concentrating the damage for devastating effect! The ships affected by these new weapon changes are the B1(Phalanx), B2(Behemoth), and AB1(Devastator) ships, so try them out and experiment for yourself!
To ensure you have this update, start the game and check the lower left corner of the title screen for "v1.22.4.3"(Steam) or "v1.21.3.8"(Android) or higher, enjoy!
Other recent updates include fixing the missing ship type column for local Blitz mode highscores. Also, Moga gamepad support has been fixed for Android.
This update is now available on Steam and Android. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement HERE, the release notes HERE, the Google Play store page HERE, or the Amazon App store HERE
1/13/17 - BlastZone 2 update released for Android!(v1.21.3.5)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! This includes a number of improvements brought over from the recent Steam release, including improved Blitz mode difficulty balancing, bug fixes, and optimizations.
This update (v1.21.3.5) is now available on the Google Play Store and Amazon App Store. Enjoy!
1/13/17 - BlastZone 2 Steam version update released with Leaderboard popup fix (v1.22.4.1)
As a quick followup to the previous Steam release, a new update has been released to fix the Leaderboard popup issue. This issue would breifly bring up a command prompt box when submitting a score or downloading the latest scores and would be rather jarring. This issue was fixed for many users a while back, but seemed to persist for most users. Now, a complete fix for all users has been implemented. Make sure you have version 1.22.4.1 or later.(located on the lower left corner of the title screen) Enjoy!
1/12/17 - BlastZone 2 Steam/PC version updated with improved local multiplayer support!(v1.22.4.0)
A new update has been released for the Steam/PC version of BlastZone 2! The standout feature of this update is a new local multiplayer ship selection screen. This allows both players to select their ship simultaneously for a more streamlined experience. Previously, each player would select their ship sequentially, which slowed down the experience and made it less engaging. However, this new screen is only used if the second or both players are using gamepads. If the second player is using a mouse, the old sequential ship selection will be used since there isn't an interface for a mouse to select a ship.
Other changes in this update include doubling the points required for extra lives in Blitz mode to improve difficulty balancing. After receiving some feedback and doing additional playtesting, I concluded that the player had too many lives in the late game for this mode and it reduced the urgency to hold onto every life. Reducing the extra lives awarded made Blitz mode more fun to play and I hope everyone will agree. Feel free to send me more feedback about this.
A few small optimizations, bug fixes, and a new Steam API update round out the rest of the update.
This update is now available on Steam. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement for the v1.22.4.0 update HERE or the release notes HERE
10/17/16 - BlastZone 2 updated with broad gamepad support for Android!(v1.21.3.4)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! This includes broad gamepad support, which opens up compatibility for a number of new platforms and use cases. Previously, only Moga brand gamepads were supported, but now nearly all gamepads are supported! This includes most bluetooth Android-specific gamepads, as well as Xbox One, and Xbox 360 gamepads. Playstation 3/4 gamepads might work with this as well, but those haven't specifically been tested yet. Also, this enables native support for the nVidia Shield as well as being officially approved and available for the Amazon Fire TV.
Please note that generic gamepad support only works for Android 4.1(Jellybean) or higher. This is a big step for BlastZone 2 compatibility and availability and I would appreciate any feedback for this new feature. This update (v1.21.3.4) is now available on the Google Play Store and Amazon App Store. Enjoy!
9/2/16 - BlastZone 2 participating in the Steam Shmup weekend!
Announcing BlastZone 2 is participating in the Steam Shmup Weekend! Starting today Sept 2nd until Sunday Sept 4, BlastZone 2 is greatly discounted! If you haven't bought the game yet or are waiting for a sale, this is your chance. Enjoy!
6/8/16 - BlastZone 2 update released for Steam(v1.22.3.6)
A new update has been released for the Steam version of BlastZone 2! This is a maintenance update that fixes some unpredictable and flashing behavior for the final player explosion animation. This update also migrates to the latest Steam SDK version. Enjoy!
This update is now available on Steam. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement for the 1.22.3.6 update HERE or the release notes HERE
6/8/16 - BlastZone 2 update released for Android(v1.21.3.3)
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! This includes the Google Play and Amazon App Store versions. The biggest changes include fixing the final player explosion from not displaying correctly and migrating to the latest version of the Android SDK. For the Amazon App Store version in particular, device detection has been greatly improved so that devices supporting Bluetooth now have multiplayer enabled. This was an issue exclusive to the Amazon App Store and didn't affect the Google Play Store version of the game. Enjoy!
4/25/16 - BlastZone 2 reviewed at CitaGamer! (Spanish co-op review site)
BlastZone 2 has been reviewed at the co-op focused review site, CitaGamer! The game received high praises there, but keep in mind this website is in Spanish. I am happy to see BlastZone 2 featured there and I encourage everyone to check it out!
src="index_files/citagamer.png" width=500
Check out the CitaGamer review HERE. Enjoy!
4/13/16 - BlastZone 2 v1.22.3.5 Steam Update released! - Steamworks multiplayer fixes and achievement fixes
A few new updates have been released recently for BlastZone 2, bringing the version number up to 1.22.3.5. These updates include Steamworks multiplayer fixes including an invisible boss bug, level progression bug, and general improvements to packet loss tolerance. Also, these updates include fixes for multiple achievement bugs, including certain combinations of level/difficulty progression.
This update is now available on Steam. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement for the 1.22.3.5 update HERE and 1.22.3.4 update HERE or the release notes HERE
4/13/16 - BlastZone 2 Trading cards released for Steam!
One big request I've often received for BlastZone 2 have been trading card support for the Steam version of BlastZone 2. I am happy to announce that the full set of trading cards and associated badges, emoticons, and backgrounds have been released! Head over to the BlastZone 2 Steam page and start earning them!
11/10/15 - BlastZone 2 v1.22.3.3 Steam Update released! - Fixes sound hardware compatibility issues
A new update for BlastZone 2 (v1.22.3.3) has been released for Steam to address a few remaining sound hardware compatibility issues.
While all the sound-related crash issues were fixed recently, some compatibility issues remained. This included the sound occasionally cutting out or not sounding correct for some systems. These were identified specifically for the Creative Sound Blaster Xi-Fi and have now been addressed, along with fixes for other cards as well. Sound hardware detection and handling has been updated to be much more consistent across a wider range of hardware. Anyone who has any sound related issues with BlastZone 2 I strongly encourage to try out the latest version.
This update is now available on Steam. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE
10/26/15 - BlastZone 2 v1.22.3.2 Steam Update and v1.21.3.1 Android update released! - Several gameplay balance and sound system updates
Many new updates have been released for both Steam and Android over the last few weeks. These bring the version numbers up to v1.22.3.2 for Steam and v1.21.3.1 for Android and both include gameplay balance updates. The player hitbox size has been reduced to make it easier to dodge bullets and make the game more forgiving and fun to play. Also, boss health has been increased by about 50% to make the boss fights more intense and make use of their entire pattern scripts, since they were cut short in many cases prior to these updates. Also, there are many sound system fixes and improvements specifically for the Steam version.
These updates are now available on Steam and the Google Play Store. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE
I hope everyone enjoys the newly balanced gameplay and don't forget to give your feedback in the forums! Enjoy!
9/11/15 - BlastZone 2 v1.22.2.0 Steam Update and v1.21.2.0 Android update released! - Survival/Blitz mode wave scaling improvements
A new update has been released for both Steam and Android! These updates are v1.22.2.0 for Steam and v1.21.2.0 for Android and both include improvements Survival/Blitz mode wave scaling for wave 9+. After a lot of playtesting, it was discovered that while wave 1-8 is interesting and fun in Survival and Blitz mode, the difficulty curve would flatten out after that. This was because waves 1-8 keep introducing new enemy types and increasing enemy density, while the later waves only slightly increased enemy speed. Now, after wave 8, there are a few additional waves of increased enemy density, but after that the enemies increase in speed very rapidly! Playtesting has shown that this approach keeps the intensity high, each wave is a real achievement to surpass, and the anticipation of the next wave's difficulty keeps things very interesting.
This update is now available on Steam and the Google Play Store. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE
I hope everyone enjoys the newly balanced gameplay and don't forget to give your feedback in the forums! Enjoy!
9/10/15 - BlastZone 2 v1.22.1.0 Steam Update and v1.21.1.0 Android update released! - Explosion particle improvements
A new update has been released for both Steam and Android! These updates are v1.22.1.0 for Steam and v1.21.1.0 for Android and both include substantial improvements to particle explosions. The final explosion for bosses sees the biggest improvement, now being much bigger and keeping the same shape as the boss that just exploded. There are also impvements for the player death explosion and slight improvements to regular enemy death explosions. Also, additional particle optimizations have been applied to handle the higher particle counts of the new explosions and make sure they run and look great on low end machines and devices. A new sound is also now used for the final boss explosion for greater impact.
As a side note, the reason why there are different version numbers between the Steam and Android versions is because the recent Level Addon Pack support update hasn't been brought over to the Android version yet. All other bug fixes and improvements have been synced between the two platforms though.
This update is now available on Steam and the Google Play Store. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE
Enjoy!
8/18/15 - BlastZone 2 v1.22.0.0 Steam Update released! - Level addon pack support
The next big update has been released for the Steam version of BlastZone 2! The big new feature for v1.22.0.0 is level pack addon support. Now it is possible to download or create new packs of levels and choose which pack to play in-game. An example level pack has been included that has two short levels, a boss, and a handful of misc cutscenes and extra effects. However, keep in mind that this release is only one part of a larger content creation rollout. I will soon be releasing documentation and tools to create levels with, which will require v1.22.0.0 or higher to work correctly. More information about the next stage of the rollout will be released soon. I am also exploring the possibility of adding Steam Workshop support, but I cannot officially confirm support for it yet.
Other changes for this update include fixing a small hitbox bug for regular player bullets, and screenwipe and fade improvements. For the full list of changes, check out the Steam announcement HERE or the release notes HERE
Enjoy!
8/18/15 - BlastZone 2 v1.21.0.4 Android Update released! - Bug fixes and improvements
A new update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! The main purpose of this update is to bring over all the bug fixes and improvements from recent Steam version development. These include a fix for the small hitbox size for regular player bullets, screen wipe and fade improvements, better timing for the wave splash screen, and others. This update is now available on the Google Play Store and Amazon App Store. Check out the full release notes on those pages. Enjoy!
7/27/15 - BlastZone 2 Trailer 3 released!
A new trailer for BlastZone 2 has been released! This showcases a ton of new content that has been released for the game since Trailer 2 was released a few years ago. This includes showing off many of the new weapons, Blitz Mode, the new HUD, and improved level designs, as well as other lesser known features such as Retro Graphics Mode. Take a look to see all the exciting new content you've been missing! The trailer is featured at the top of this page. Enjoy!
7/27/15 - BlastZone 2 Android HUD and Menu Update v1.21.0.0 Released
As promised, the new v1.21.0.0 update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! This brings over the recent HUD and Menu overhaul updates from the Steam version. These updates make the HUD much easier to follow and greatly improve the visual fidelity of the HUD and Menus. This update is now available on the Google Play and Amazon App stores. Enjoy!
7/27/15 - The advanced play video series has been released!
The BlastZone 2 advanced play video series has been released! These videos serve both to showcase the other game modes in the game besides the flaghsip Mission mode, and to show how advanced play looks in the game. I've noticed that most player-made videos on YouTube are at more of a beginner level, and since there are many subtle features for expert-level play, this is a great way to show them off. If you're new to the game, this is a great way to familiarize yourself with each of the game modes. These videos also include developer commentary by me, Matt Edzenga. Enjoy! Here are links to every video in the series:
width=560 height=315 src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLu3zIlXAZwMgXLoxKSYxnZL09phsZ1Vu_" frameborder=0 allowfullscreenVIDEO 1 - Blitz Mode Advanced Play
VIDEO 2 - Classic A Mode
VIDEO 3 - Classic B Mode
You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel to get immediate updates! Please note that these videos were done using v1.20.0.0
7/27/15 - The Weapons DLC video series is complete!
The complete Weapons DLC video series has been released! These videos go through every ship in the game and show off their entire weapon loadouts. There are a total of 15 weapons in the game spread across 7 ships, and most ships have their own signature weapon that no other ship has. This is a great way to familiarize yourself with the recent huge update and decide which ship is right for you! These videos also include developer commentary by me, Matt Edzenga. Enjoy! Here are links to every video in the series:
width=560 height=315 src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLu3zIlXAZwMjoechsyj3p7C7E0zVc565Q" frameborder=0 allowfullscreenVIDEO 1 - Showcases "The Phalanx" ship
VIDEO 2 - Showcases "The Eviscerator" ship
VIDEO 3 - Showcases "The Obliterator" ship
VIDEO 4 - Showcases "The Behemoth" ship
VIDEO 5 - Showcases "The Devastator" ship
VIDEO 6 - Showcases "The Vorpal Fighter" ship
You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel to get immediate updates! Please note that these videos were done using v1.20.0.0
7/19/15 - BlastZone 2 Steam Update v1.21.0.0 Released! Huge HUD and menu overhaul!
The new v1.21.0.0 update has been released for the Steam version of BlastZone 2! This update completely overhauls the HUD and menu borders! Now, the HUD is much more intuitive to follow and looks much better. Icons have been added for all weapons and dynamically shows which weapons are available as you play. The lives are now icons and all health and charge bars use a more stylized and compact design. All the menus now have graphical borders on them as well, making them look much better. Numerous other updates been been included as well. For the full release notes of this update, check out the main release notes HERE and the Steam Announcement and additional release notes HERE. This update will be brought over to the Android version soon, so watch for it! Enjoy!
border=0 width=600 height=337 id="_x0000_i1032" src="index_files/BZ2HudUpdate2.jpg"
7/19/15 - BlastZone 2 Android Update v1.20.2.0 Released
The new v1.20.2.0 update has been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2! This brings over all the recent updates from the Steam version up to and including v1.20.2.0. This includes a big explosion creation optimization, a greatly improved Area 3 cutscene, and new storyline dialog for Areas 2-8 of mission mode; among many other updates. However, there was one Android-specific issue that has been fixed recently. This was a startup crash that affected some devices in certain situations. This bug was tough to track down and existed for a while, but I'm happy to say that its finally been fixed. So, anyone who had issues running BlastZone 2 on their Android device, give it another go and I apologize for any inconvenience. These updates and more are now available on the Google Play and Amazon App stores. Enjoy!
As noted above, the huge HUD and Menus update that has been released for the Steam version will be brought over to all Android versions very soon, so watch for it!
6/15/15 - BlastZone 2 Steam Update v1.20.1.0 Released!
The new v1.20.1.0 update has been released for the Steam version of BlastZone 2! This update upgrades the game to Full Controller Support on Steam! The last keyboard-required element was accepting Steamworks Multiplayer invites, but that is now possible using the controller by pressing (Fire3 + Pause) at once. Other updates in this patch include some weapon balancing and greatly optimizing explosions. Explosion particles are now multithreaded, which allows slower multicore machines (such as netbooks) to turn up the particle detail with minimal slowdown. Explosion creation has been greatly optimized as well, eliminating hitches when many explosions are created at once. For the full release notes of this update, check out the main release notes HERE and the Steam Announcement and additional release notes HERE. This update will be brought over to the Android soon, so watch for it! Enjoy!
6/7/15 - Catching up...
There has been a huge amount of BlastZone 2 news during the last few months, but I apologize that the main BlastZone 2 website hasn't been updated lately to reflect that. I will rectify this going forward by making sure all news and updates are posted here as well as by other means. As the first step, I am posting several stories on this site to summarize all the significant developments that have occurred for BlastZone 2 in each area. Check back here for all future updates for all platforms!
6/7/15 - A new series of videos are being released on YouTube showcasing the new features of the Free Weapons DLC released on Steam and Android
To showcase the plethora of new features, weapons, and abilities in the new Weapons DLC released for free on Steam and Android, I have begun releasing a series of videos on YouTube. There are many videos planned for this series and it will follow a release schedule of 2 videos a week. There have been 2 videos released so far, and here are the links to them:
VIDEO 1 - Showcases "The Phalanx" ship
VIDEO 2 - Showcases "The Eviscerator" ship
More links will be posted here as videos are released. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel to get immediate updates!
6/7/15 - BlastZone 2 free Weapons DLC update released simultaneously for Steam and Android! - v1.20.0.0
Announcing the availability of the biggest gameplay content update ever released for BlastZone 2! This update has been released completely free and adds 9 new weapons to the game and completely revamps the weapon loadouts and stats for all selectable ships in the game. This update greatly enhances the variety of playstyles in the game, ranging from high speed machine guns for fast/light ships, short range power bursts for close combat, exploder shots and cluster grenades for medium range combat, and increased accessibility to beam weapons for power ships. There is also a force field that can be used both defensively and to intentionally smash into your enemies! The feedback I've received for this update has been great and I urge anyone who hasn't tried it yet to do so! This update was developed and released as a big thank you to the thousands of supporters on Steam Greenlight. BlastZone 2 literally wouldn't be where it is today without all of your help! For the full release notes of this update, check out the main release notes HERE and the Steam Announcement and additional release notes HERE
6/7/15 - BlastZone 2 Steam Updates v1.20.0.0a and v1.20.0.0b - Cutscene improvements
Simultaneously released for both Steam and Android are a few updates that improve cutscenes. First off is v1.20.0.0a that greatly improves the Area 3 intro cutscene of Mission mode by adding camera movement and polishing the player ship movements. Also, for v1.20.0.0b, dialog box text has been added to all cutscenes in the game. This adds context to every mission in the game and a much greater degree of purpose behind many of the events that transpire during the levels as well. The storyline has always existed for Mission mode, but now its a more self-contained package. Enjoy!
6/7/15 - BlastZone 2 Steam Updates as of v1.20.0.0
Since the big Steam release in February '15, there have been numerous updates released that add Steamworks Multiplayer Support, improved Steam Cloud support, and other bug fixes and improvements to the game. The Steam version of BlastZone 2 has seen a great reception and I will continue to support this platform with future updates. Check out the BlastZone 2 Steam page: CLICK HERE Enjoy!
6/7/15 - BlastZone 2 Android Updates as of v1.20.0.0
Numerous improvements and updates have been released for the Android version of BlastZone 2 to match the improvements in the Steam version. However, there have also been several improvements specific to the Android version, such as improved sound quality, better lighting and graphics quality, various optimizations, and gamepad support. Moga branded bluetooth gamepads are now fully supported for Android, but general gamepad support isn't complete yet. The majority of code has been implemented for general gamepad support already, but it will take additional time to complete it. For now, enjoy all the recent improvements to the Android version HERE Enjoy!
2/22/15 - BlastZone 2 is now available on Steam!
I am excited to announce that BlastZone 2 is now available on Steam! The game has recently passed Steam Greenlight, so I'd like to give a big thanks so everyone who voted for BlastZone 2! I literally couldn't have done it without huge support from the community and I have very grateful and humbled by it. To celebrate, there is a 10% launch discount in effect until February 26th, so grab it while its hot! Also, you may have noticed the lack of updates to BlastZone 2 for quite a while now. Well, the release on Steam and its great reception there has spurred me on to resume full-time development again! Several updates have already been released for the game and a few really big updates are planned for the near future. One of the bigger recent updates for the Steam version includes Achievements support for 55 new achievements. More announcements are to come regarding future big updates, so keep an eye on this page and the steam page for details! Here is a link to the Steam store page: CLICK HERE Enjoy!
7/25/13 - New PC version released - v1.12.5.2
The v1.12.5.2 update patch and demo for the PC version have been released. This is a maintenance release that brings over recent fixes and improvements from the Android version. This includes a startup memory allocation fix and defaulting the fps lock to 60 to prevent some system config/hardware combinations from having potential overheating issues. Also, versioning of the PC version has now been changed to match the common codebase version between the PC and Android versions to prevent confusion. Head to the downloads section HERE to download the new patch and demo and check out the release notes. Enjoy!
7/25/13 - New Android version released - v1.12.5.2
A new update of the Android version of BlastZone 2 has been released! The last few updates since 1.12.4.7 have been mainly bugfix and platform target releases. This includes startup fixes for some devices, and issues with putting the phone to sleep while playing the game. Also, newer devices and tablets are being targeted better, including higher res icons and making it so these devices don't need to use compatibility modes for the game to run well.
For more details on this update, check out the Google Play store page HERE. This update is now available on the Google play store and will be available on the Amazon App store very soon. Enjoy!
7/6/13 - New PC version released - v1.12i
The v1.12i update patch and demo for the PC version have been released. This is a maintenance release that brings additional optimizations and bug fixes over from recent Android development. This includes a big enemy bullet rendering optimization that cuts render time per bullet by 30%-50%. Along with this is a significant image quality boost for all bullets and especially for when there are large bullet counts on screen. A few other minor optimizations for the space background and graphic tweaks round out the update. Head to the downloads section HERE to download the new patch and demo and check out the release notes. Enjoy!
4/23/13 - New Android version released - v1.12.4.7
A new version of the Android version of BlastZone 2 has been released! This is another big performance focused release. Enemy bullet rendering has been optimized to render up to twice as fast as the previous release, which already saw a big performance improvement. Between these two releases, worst case scenarios with tons of bullets on screen sees a performance increase of over 400%! Test devices have shown the framerate go from 15fps in v1.12.4.5 in these scenes up to a solid 60fps! This makes a big difference for these intense scenes and ensures constant smooth gameplay. Also, while the previous update only optimized those most intense scenes, this optimization works in all situations. Other optimizations in this update include a few for the outerspace background rendering.
For more details on this update, check out the Google Play store page HERE. This update is now available on the Google play store and will be available on the Amazon App store very soon. Enjoy!
3/25/13 - New Android version released - v1.12.4.6
A new version of the Android version of BlastZone 2 has been released! This is a big optimization release that has a noticable improvement across a wide range of devices. The biggest improvement in this update is when large quantities of bullets are on screen. For example, using a Galaxy S3 test device, some of the most intense sections of mission mode have been boosted from running at below 15fps to over 40fps! This speed boost will be even bigger on lower end devices. A side benefit of this is reduced battery drain for the most intense sections of the game.
Also, the startup sequence of the game has been greatly improved, switching focus to the game much quicker than before, showing a loading screen, and improved overall startup time. An issue in previous versions was that the game would be starting up normally once the icon was pressed, but may appear to have locked up the device for a few seconds before the game is finally shown. This issue has been addressed, giving much better feedback on startup. Also, a help screen bug has been fixed when starting mission mode for the first time. For more details on this update, check out the Google Play store page HERE. This update is now available on the Google play store and will be available on the Amazon App store very soon. Enjoy!
3/25/13 - New PC version released - v1.12h
The v1.12h update patch and demo for the PC version have been released. This is a maintenance release that brings a few optimizations and bug fixes over from recent Android development. This includes a big bullet optimization that allows for hundreds of more bullets on screen while keeping performance high on even the lowest end machines. There is also a help screen bug fix when starting mission mode for the first time. Head to the downloads section HERE to download the new patch and demo and check out the release notes. Enjoy!
3/4/13 - New PC version released - v1.12g - Unlocked Classic survival for Demo players!
The v1.12g update patch and demo for the PC version have been released. This is a maintenance release that brings several bug fixes and improvements brought over from recent Android development. This includes online multiplayer improvements, fixes to firing delays, message displays, and more. One big thing to note is that the demo version now includes a fully unlocked Classic survival mode! Now, everyone can enjoy unlimited levels and all weapons from the remade version of the original BlastZone game. Also, Demo players can now compete with full version players on the leaderboards. Enjoy!
3/4/13 - New Android versions released - v1.12.4.1 - 1.12.4.5
Over the last few months, a few updates have been released for Android. These include particle optimizations, text fixes, multiplayer communication fixes, and the fully unlocked Classic survival mode for Lite players. For full details on these versions, check out the Google Play store and Amazon store pages for the game. These updates are already available at these locations. Enjoy!
9/5/12 - PC version up for review on Steam Greenlight!
BlastZone 2 is now up for review on Steam's Greenlight service! I encourage everyone to uprate and favorite the game on there so BlastZone 2 can get a permanent spot on Steam! Thanks a lot for all the support and comments so far! You can access the page HERE. Also, the PC version is now on sale for $4.99, so grab it while its hot!
9/3/12 - PC version on sale for $4.99 - Steam Greenlight promotion!
The PC version of BlastZone 2 is now on sale for $4.99, thats 50% off! I would greatly appreciate everyone's help and ratings for Steam Greenlight!
8/29/12 - New Android version released - v1.12.4
The v1.12.4 update for the Android version of BlastZone 2 has been released! This update adds a new battery saver feature. When enabled, the game will be limited to 30 frames per second, greatly reducing battery drain and allowing the device to run cooler as well. This compromise in performance still keeps the game action packed and fun to play while maintaining all the benefits listed. This mode is most effective for higher end devices but will still try to save as much power as possible for mid and lower end devices without degrading performance below 30fps.
This update is now available on the Google Play Android store and will be available on the Amazon app store in a few days. Have fun!
8/27/12 - New PC version released - v1.12f
The v1.12f update patch and demo for the PC version have been released. This is a maintenance release that fixes an online multiplayer Blitz Survival bug and rolls up all the recent improvements made to the base engine from Android development. This includes a few optimizations and improved Z buffer precision. Head to the downloads page to get the new patch or demo update. Enjoy!
8/22/12 - New Android version released - v1.12.3 - Big multiplayer update!
The v1.12.3 update for the Android version of BlastZone 2 has been released! This update is completely dedicated to improving multiplayer in the game. All data communication now has much better compression, which greatly improves responsiveness and reduces battery drain. Also, all communication now strictly adhears to the transfer limits of bluetooth, which greatly reduces disconnects and crashes. A few other multiplayer specific bug fixes are in the update as well. The multiplayer experience is much better now, so enjoy and any feedback is welcome!
Also, keep in mind that this update is not backwards compatible with previous versions, so both players need to get the update to play. This update is now available on the Google Play Android store and will be available on the Amazon app store within the next day or so. Have fun!
8/9/12 - New Android version released - v1.12.2
The v1.12.2 update for the Android version of BlastZone 2 has been released! This update adds music to the game, which was brought over from the PC version. It also fixes a reported bluetooth multiplayer bug. In previous versions, there was a bug that if a very fast device hosts a multiplayer game and a slower device joins, the client device will eventually be overloaded with network data and crash. This update addresses this by making the multiplayer tickrate configurable by the host with a default rate of 30hz. For most combinations, 30hz should provide good gameplay without overloading slower devices. However, there is a 20hz option if there are still issues at 30hz, and a 60hz option that reverts to the old method of sending data very rapidly to provide the smoothest gameplay possible for devices that can handle it.
In addition, this update reduces the filesize of the lite version by about 18% without any sacrifice in game content or quality. A few optimizations have also been applied to improve performance. This update is now available on the Google Play store for Android and the Amazon App Store. Enjoy!
7/30/12 - New Android version released - v1.12.1.2
The v1.12.1.2 update for the Android version of BlastZone 2 has been released! This update along with the previous v1.12.1.1 are primarily bugfix releases. All dependencies on an external SD card have been removed in favor of using internal App storage. It was discovered that some devices that didn't have an SD card wouldn't be able to save at all or would crash on startup, so this has been addressed. Please note that anyone upgrading from a previous version with save data will have their data automatically migrated from the sd card to internal memory so nothing will be lost. Also, the amount of save data used for internal memory is extremely small and the move to SD card option is still available, so internal memory usage shouldn't be an issue.
The latest update also fixes rendering issues with recently released phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One X. A few other tweaks, bug fixes and optimizations round out the update. The latest version is now available both for the Google Play store and the Amazon App Store.
I apologize for the delay in version updates for the full version on the Amazon App Store, but all platforms are now updated to the latest version. Enjoy!
7/3/12 - New Android version released - v1.12.1
The v1.12.1 update for the Android version of BlastZone 2 has been released! This update adds a new game mode "Blitz Survival"! This mode is very intense with lots of enemies on screen, but your ship starts fully powered to combat them all! This mode is also intensive in terms of performance requirements and takes advantage of the latest phones as well. This update is available for Lite version players as well, which gives support for the new Blitz mode in multiplayer if a full version player hosts the game and the Lite player joins. This mode isn't available to Lite version players in singleplayer mode. This update also brings the code base up to the same version as the PC version. This means the new game mode hotkeys, updated descriptions, and performance improvements are in this update as well. It is now available on the Google Play store and will be available on the Amazon App Store within a few days. More updates to come! Enjoy!
6/25/12 - New PC version released - v1.12e
The v1.12e update patch and demo for the PC version have been released. This is mostly a bugfix release for a few issues found with the new Blitz Survival mode but also includes a new shortcut to view the details page for each game mode. During the gamemode selection screen, press the Fire3 button to access it. Head to the downloads page to get the new patch or demo update. Enjoy!
5/31/12 - New PC version released - v1.12d
The v1.12d update patch and demo for the PC version have been released. This is a maintenance update that fixes a Classic survival mouse autofire issue and adds an option to the gameover menu to more conveniently see how you stack up on the world leaderboard. World leaderboard support is now available to Demo version players as well so everyone can compete. Lastly, this update includes a newly reworked model management system that speeds up load times and improves general performance. Head to the downloads page to get the new patch or demo update. Enjoy!
5/28/12 - New Android version released! Adds multiplayer and leaderboards to the lite version
The v1.11.4.1 update for the Android version has been released! The most notable changes are enabling multiplayer and leaderboard support for lite version players! Lite version players can play with full version players as well, but you can only play the first two levels of any game mode together. However, if a full version player hosts the game, it enables Classic B or Enhanced survival matches to be played for both players. Also, the kills needed to beat multiplayer survival waves have been increased to balance out the game. A few bug fixes and optimizations round out the update. This update is now available on the Android Google Play store and will be available on the Amazon app store soon. Enjoy!
5/28/12 - New PC version released - v1.12c
The v1.12c update for the PC version has been released! This update increases the kills needed per wave for multiplayer survival modes. This improves pacing for the game as some waves would go by too quickly in multiplayer before. Head to the downloads page to get the new patch or demo update. Have fun with the new update!
5/12/12 - Android version is now on sale - 40% off!
There is now an early bird sale for the Android version on the Google Play market place! It is a 40% discount on the game, bringing it down to only $2.99! Get it now while its hot!
5/12/12 - New Trailer Released!
There is a new BlastZone 2 trailer now available on YouTube! You can use the embedded version on this page to take a look. This new trailer includes all the new graphics and gameplay content released since the PC launch of the game, and it really shows how far the game has come! Share this video with all your friends!
5/10/12 - New Android version v1.11.4 - Adds multiplayer!
The v1.11.4 update for the Android version of BlastZone 2 has been released! This is a big update, which adds multiplayer support over bluetooth. This means that both devices must support bluetooth and be in close proximity to eachother for it to work. Internet play is currently not supported. Also, bug fixes and several updates have been included from user feedback, such as move to SD card support, configurable touch controls opacity, and new ways to quit the game. The update is now available on the Google Play Android Store and will be available on the Amazon App store in a few days. Enjoy! More free updates and content coming soon!
5/1/12 - New PC version released v1.12b
The v1.12b update for the PC version of BlastZone 2 has been released. This update brings over the recent balance changes from the Android version for Mission mode Area 1, 2, 3, and 4. These changes focus on making the game more fun to play and provide a more strategic experience for attaining high scores. Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE.
4/23/12 - New Android version released v1.11.3
The v1.11.3 update for the Android version of BlastZone 2 has been released which adds world leaderboard support for all game modes. The leaderboard page on this website has been updated so Android leaderboard scores can be viewed outside the game. Also, this update makes numerous balancing tweaks to Area 1, 2, 3, and 4 of mission mode and to Classic A and B survival mode to make the game more exciting and fun to play! There are also a few bug fixes and tweaks included. Download the update on your device from the Google Play store. More free updates coming soon!
4/18/12 - The Android(tm) version of BlastZone 2 is now available!
The Android(tm) version of BlastZone 2 has been released! This version has several improvements over the iOS version including new graphics effects, improved environment quality, a new font system with clearer fonts, and performance improvements in several areas. Also, the mobile control schemes have been tweaked and improved for the best gameplay experience! Several new features and free addons are planned for the Android(tm) version as well, so watch for them! The Lite version is available for free and the standard version for $4.99. See the game on the Google Play store HERE
4/18/12 - New PC Update v1.12 - New game mode and mouse support!
A new Patch and updated Demo v1.12 for the PC version has been released! This update adds a new game mode called Blitz Survival. This mode starts the player with a fully powered, unlocked ship that can charge hyper mode really fast. However, there are tons more enemies to fight in the mode, so you'll need all the power and weapons you can get! Also, this update adds mouse support, so the game can now be played with higher precision and allows for local multiplayer without a game controller! A few tweaks and bug fixes round out the update. Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE.
3/21/12 - New PC Update v1.11a
A new Patch and updated Demo v1.11a for the PC version has been released today. This update addresses a recently discovered multiplayer highscore bug and includes a new non-shader water effect brought over from recent mobile development. Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE.
3/19/12 - New PC Update v1.11
A new Patch and updated Demo v1.11 for the PC version has been released today. The primary purpose for this update is to replace all fonts in the game and improve the text system in general. Also, all texture files in the game have been replaced with better compressed versions of identical quality to reduce the total game filesize by about 25%. There are a few other bug fixes and tweaks as well. Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE.
3/14/12 - PC Leaderboard security improved, breaks compatibility with PC versions below v1.05
Server side leaderboard code for the PC version has been updated to improve security. However, this breaks compatibility with PC versions below v1.05, so anyone below this version will need to update to continue submitting leaderboard scores. Everyone is strongly encouraged to update to the latest version anyway, so this shouldn't be an issue.
3/14/12 - Forum spam cleaned out
I apologize for the inconvenience, but recently the forums became full of spam. I have deleted all the offending posts and removed all users from the forum. I have also updated the forum with better security and anti-spam countermeasures, and will continue to actively monitor the forums so the same problem doesn't happen again. Anyone who wishes to post in the forum will have to reregister. Thanks for your patience.
2/23/12 - Status of the iOS version and downtime
The new v1.10.4 update for the iOS version of BlastZone 2 is officially complete internally and is ready to send to Apple for approval. This is a huge update that adds multiplayer support over bluetooth or wifi via an Ad-Hoc connection, or over the internet using Apple Game Center. This update also includes several tweaks, bug fixes and a few big optimizations and graphics improvements. However, I regret to inform everyone I have been notified by Apple that BlastZone 2 has been removed from the App Store, citing very vague reasons. I am currently talking to people at Apple about this matter and will post updates here as things progress. Sorry for the inconvenience, I will work to resolve this matter as soon as possible.
2/23/12 - New PC Update v1.10a
A new Patch and updated Demo for the PC version has been released today. The primary reason for this patch is to update the credits page to have more specific licensing information. There are a few other minor bug fixes and tweaks along with the new game icon originally created for the iOS version. Head to the downloads page to get it!
1/22/12 - The iOS 4.x compatibility update released and continued iOS development
Last week, the new v1.10.3 update for the iOS version of BlastZone 2 was released on the iOS App Store! This update adds iOS 4.x compatibility and a few other minor tweaks. Please note that the game will work on iOS 4.0, but requires 4.2 and above to enable GameCenter functionality, including leaderboards and achievements. Use the icon on the left side of this page to view the iOS app store page. Development on the iOS version continues, with multiplayer support being the next big milestone. A lot of progress has been made so far porting over the PC multiplayer netcode and adding GameCenter integration for it. More annoucements will be made soon on its progress!
1/9/12 - New update for BlastZone 2 now available on the iOS App Store! - v1.10.2
The new v1.10.2 update for the iOS version of BlastZone 2 is now available on the iOS App Store! This update brings a lot of improvements the community asked for, such as relative touch controls, auto-fire, 47 achievements, and several other improvements and bug fixes! Other recent updates since release include Game Center support and leaderboards as well. This update is available for free for both the standard and lite version of the game. Check it out on the App Store HERE and the Lite version HERE. Also, I can confirm that the iOS 4.0+ compatibility update will be here soon as well! Enjoy!
12/15/11 - BlastZone 2 is now available on the iOS App Store!
BlastZone 2 is now available on the iOS App Store! Two versions on the game have been released today, the Standard version for $4.99 and the Free Lite version. Try it out and tell all your friends! The game requires iOS 5 to be installed on your device. There will soon be free updates to the game adding support for the Apple GameCenter, leaderboards, achievements, and online multiplayer! Announcements will be made when the free addons are released. Check it out on the App Store HERE and the Lite version HERE
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12/15/11 - BlastZone 2 Holiday Sale - 20% off the PC version!
The BlastZone 2 PC version is now discounted 20% off for a limited time for the holidays! Just enter the coupon code "HOLIDAYSALE" (without the quotes) on checkout to get your discount! This discount is also available at the Indievania marketplace HERE. Get it now before this sale ends!
12/9/11 - iOS version of BlastZone 2 to be released on 12/15/2011!
Announcing BlastZone 2 will be available on the iOS App Store on 12/15/2011 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch!! This version of BlastZone 2 contains several exclusive features such as 3 new control schemes, the ability to save your progress through the game, and a battery saver option so you can play all day! The amazing 3D graphics in the iOS version contain all the detail from the PC version, making it one of the best looking games on the platform! The game plays great on an iPhone 3gs/4, original iPad, or 3rd/4th generation iPod Touch, and even takes full advantage of the brand new iPhone 4s and iPad 2, providing the smoothest experience ever!
12/6/11 - New PC version released v1.10 - Numerous engine improvements
The new PC Demo and full version patch v1.10 have been released for BlastZone 2! This update brings the PC version up to the same game engine version as the upcoming iOS version. Most of the relevent changes for the PC version include greatly optimized performance in several areas and greatly reduced memory usage without any quality loss. Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE. Enjoy! In other news, a new blog entry has been posted today, so check it out HERE at BlogSpot! Also, a big announcement regarding the iOS version will be made very soon!
11/28/11 - The BlastZone 2 Blog is up and other updates
The BlastZone 2 blog is now up at http://BlastZone2Game.blogspot.com! This blog will follow the process and events during BlastZone 2's development and a few technical tidbits along the way for those who are interested. Check it out and follow it! As a side note, a lot of progress has been made on the iOS version of BlastZone 2 and it will be released very soon! Check back on this page for more updates! Also, the new v1.10 PC patch and demo is currently in the testing phase and will be released very soon as well.
11/10/11 - Announcing BlastZone 2 for iOS coming soon!
This is the official announcement that BlastZone 2 is currently being ported to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch! Results are looking really good so far, being able to maintain almost all the graphical detail from the PC version while maintaining great performance. The current target for release is during the holiday season, but further posts will be made as progress continues. Also, there will be a new v1.10 free patch and demo for the PC version coming soon which will incorporate most of the updates being made to the underlying engine for iOS. This includes numerous performance optimizations and greatly reduced memory usage without any reduction in quality. More info coming soon, but here is a screenshot of the progress so far.
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10/29/11 - New review from Bytten.com awards BlastZone 2 a 84% score!
The indie game review site Bytten.com has awarded BlastZone 2 a score of 84% and praises the game for its fun gameplay, good graphics, and varied game modes! Read the full review HERE.
Here is a quote from the review: "If you like horizontal blasters, this is going to work well for you, and you'll find plenty of variation to keep you entertained for a while."
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10/29/11 - New version released v1.09b, maintenance release
The new free v1.09b patch and demo have been released for BlastZone 2, which contains several bug fixes, optimizations and tweaks for the game. Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
10/19/11 - New version v1.09 with water shaders and shader comparison shot
The new v1.09 update has been released, which is available both as a new free demo and a free update for the full version. This version includes a new rippling water shader for the homeworld environment among others. Also, below is an image that shows the difference between the new shader updates and the way the game used to look before them. Click on it to see a larger view. Notice how the metal reflects light much more realisticly and the added definition and shadowing to the model surfaces. Download the new version HERE and see the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
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10/13/11 - New version released v1.08, new graphics effects and Pixel Shader support
The new free v1.08 patch and demo have been released for BlastZone 2, which upgrades the graphics engine to support OpenGL 2.0 and Shader Model 2.0! This provides much more detail for all player and enemy ships in the game and makes them shine like very realistic scuffed metal. Included is an option to turn off the new shaders to compare for yourself! Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
9/30/11 - New version released v1.07a, more graphics updates
The new v1.07a patch and demo have been released for BlastZone 2, which includes more graphics updates for the cave environment. There is now also an option to disable texture compression if needed. Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
9/27/11 - BlastZone 2 reviewed at GameTunnel.com! Gets a 8/10 score
BlastZone 2 has been reviewed at the well-known indie game review site GameTunnel.com! Among the reviewers, an 8/10 score was awarded and online multiplayer support was noted one of the big strengths of the game. The game was strongly recommended by them as well. It was critisized for the repeating backgrounds, so the recent v1.06 patch was developed to make sure the backgrounds are as breathtaking as the gameplay. Take a look for yourself! Read the review HERE
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9/23/11 - New version released v1.06, huge graphics update!
The new v1.06 patch and demo have been released for BlastZone 2, and it is a big one this time! This update vastly improves all the terrain backgrounds, having much more detail and variation than before. Also, there are numerous optimizations to the terrain handling code which offsets much of the increased requirements for running the new backgrounds. This update is really a must have for fans of the game! Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
9/15/11 - New version released v1.05
The new v1.05 patch and demo have been released for BlastZone 2. This update focuses on difficulty balancing and leaderboard security. There are also several optimizations and bug fixes. Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE. Enjoy!
9/9/11 - New version released v1.04 and extended trailer posted
The new v1.04 patch and demo have been released for BlastZone 2. This update adds bonus filler enemies to mission mode levels if a section is completed quickly. There are also several balancing updates including more potent stat upgrades along with the usual optimizations and bug fixes. Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE. Also, an updated trailer was posted recently that includes extended footage and weapons from the full version. Enjoy!
8/26/11 - New version released v1.03
The new v1.03 patch and demo has been released for BlastZone 2. This update adds the ability to view the leaderboard from within the game and better feedback when uploading a new score. There are also a few optimizations and bug fixes in this patch. Enjoy! Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE
8/16/11 - New patch released v1.02c
The new v1.02c patch has been released for BlastZone 2. This includes several bug fixes, optimizations, and enhancements. Enjoy! Download it HERE and see the release notes HERE
8/4/11 - New patch released v1.02a
A new version of BlastZone 2 has been released, bringing the version number up to 1.02a. This includes several bug fixes, balancing changes, and enhancements. The release notes are included with the patch, go to the downloads page to download it. Please note that the patch only applies to the full version of the game, the demo must be redownloaded to get the latest version. Enjoy! See the release notes HERE
7/17/11 - BlastZone 2 is released!!
Finally BlastZone 2 has been released! Click on the buy link in the left panel to get it!
6/23/11 - New Website launched!
The new BlastZone 2 website has been launched at http://www.BlastZone2.com !!We are currently ramping up for release and a final release date for BlastZone2 will be announced soon!
