We are alive
about 1 year ago

Hello everyone (this is Jason). Here's that news post that everyone has been asking about.

First off, we've added Pogostick Man. All of you know this. As you might guess, he rides a pogo stick. Thanks to Nova for providing vocals. Now when he plays Happy Wheels, he can scream with himself. And the internet becomes a bit less lonely of a place. Some of you have asked about having other YouTube gamers record vocals. We're not really planning on doing that. A male voice was needed and Nova, who happens to have a fairly unique voice, mentioned interest. We'll most likely go and record a bunch of new voices soon. The next character vocals are most likely female.

Pressing up/down moves Pogostick Man forward/backward with small jumps. Holding space bar results in a big jump. Pressing shift makes him stand upright on the pogo stick and control makes him crouch. Some of his joints are stronger than other characters which allow him to land big jumps without breaking to pieces. Once ejected, his joints are normal strength.

The response to Pogostick Man has been pretty incredible, but this of course has resulted in a trend of unoriginal wall-jumping levels which has polluted the level browser. Please make original levels.

Second, we have exceeded ONE MILLION Facebook 'likes'. Hitting this mark was never expected. In fact, we originally were hoping for 5000 (Jim: "we did?"). And of course we talked about doing something for this event, but then planned poorly and missed it. So the surprise is that there was no surprise. We will eventually post some awesome pictures of the socks that Jim bought. Or we won't. We know you love the suspense. Thanks to everyone who clicked 'like'.

Third, the development of the forums is on hold. We estimated it would be done by now, but then something came up.

Forth, things are a bit slow right now because Jim is incarcerated in Thailand, but I assure you we're always working on something and there are a lot of things to come.

sup
about 1 year ago

Hey there,

I've been a bit absent so I just wanted to tell youse all what's up.

For the past couple weeks I've been spending most of my time working on a better physics based animation system. In Happy Wheels, you'll notice characters can only hold certain poses. More complicated animations such as walking, or picking yourself up, or climbing would be extremely difficult to do with box2d (the physics engine used by Happy Wheels) alone. With this additional system, assuming I figure it all out, it would be possible to have complex character animations that still interact with the physics world. It's been a pain in the ass, but I've made a lot of good progress.

Most likely, I would not be adding this system into Happy Wheels. Too much would have to change with the way the current characters are built. It's possible that, when finished, I might make a mini game to illustrate what's possible (was thinking a horrifically violent version of kung-fu). Further down the line, I might want to convert everything currently in Happy Wheels to this new system and possible make it a sequel. It's all speculation right now. It all depends on how things turn out, and possibly new things I discover.

Something that would be possible with the new system would be user contributed animations. Similar to how people submit levels in Happy Wheels, an animation editor would allow people to contribute character animations that could be applied to any character.

I'm excited about figuring this out, as it would allow me to do make some really retarded stuff. I'll still be making Happy Wheels characters and random things, but currently I'd like to make some headway with this new stuff while I remain motivated.

I think that's it for now.

Oh boy
about 1 year ago

Hello, Jason here. So we made a few updates to Happy Wheels. Let me tell you about them using words. Here I go!

We've added new vocals to the Moped Couple and Lawnmower Man. I did the voice of Moped Guy and friends of ours did the vocals for Moped Girl and Lawnmower Man. Screaming as if you're being torn in half is pretty cathartic. I recommend it.

You can now quickly load levels or replays from the main menu by pressing "Load level/replay" and entering a valid URL. To find a URL, browse to that level. In pink you'll see the URL. Copy it and share it with friends and loved ones. Now you won't have to refresh the entire page to view a level someone sends you.

In the editor, you can now adjust the "center cutout" of circles to create donut-like shapes. This is helpful for wheels with spokes. However, this is only a visual change. Cirlce shapes are still solid. That is a requirement of the physics engine.

The force character bug should now be fixed. We are aware of a couple other bugs that we're working on.

Also, you can now chat with other users by clicking here. If the applet is full, you can join the IRC channel #happywheels on irc.rizon.net. A free IRC client can be downloaded at http://code.google.com/p/xchat-wdk/.

squirts
about 1 year ago

Hello, Jason Here. A few new things have been added to Happy Wheels version 1.60.

First off, new blood types have been added to the game. There are 3, each is increasingly harder on your computer's processor: particles drawn as lines, a liquid effect, and a liquid effect with a bevel and a blend mode applied. Before you go crying into your juicebox because it slows down your computer or you don't like it, you can go to options menu and set the "blood setting" to 1, the old blood type. Also, Jim is still working on how the new blood will look, so it's subject to change.

While you're in the settings, you might also notice we've added the ability to customize your controls. You have to map each key individually, but those changes will be saved (unless you switch to a different computer). If you screw up your keys, press the "restore defaults" button undo your awful mistakes.

In the editor, we've added the ability to change your level's background color. Go to the level options menu and you'll see a color selector. The color change will be seen only when you test or play your level.

When saving your level, you may notice a link to the "level rules" page. This explains the current set of rules you must follow if you do not want your level to be deleted. These rules have already been in place, but we're formally stating them. They exist simply to keep out bad or offensive levels. If you want to remind people at the finish of your level to "remember to rate," or ask them "please rate," that is alright.

And finally, a color selector bug was fixed and a trident was added to the blade weapons. You know, for fun.

polygons and vehicles and stuff
about 1 year ago

Hello,

I should have written a few news posts since the last one, but I didn't. Since then a few things have been added to the game.

Polygon shapes have been available for a while now. There has been a lot of confusion with there usage so I will try to clarify things in a nice list:

- There is a big difference in functionality when changing the polygon tool from interactive and non-interactive. If you're telling me the polygon tool is broken, you probably didn't uncheck interactive when attempting to draw.

- Interactive polygons are limited in their shape. Shapes can only be convex polygons. This means no inner angle of any vertex can be over 180 degrees, and no edges can overlap each other. Shapes must also be drawn in a clockwise manner and have 10 vertices max. This is done in order to not break the physics of the game.

- Non-interactive shapes have nothing to do with physics, so they have no limitations other than the number of vertices (50). Click while holding shift to end the non-interactive shape early without filling it. You can use this to draw lines.

- Use ctrl+click to remove the last vertex you placed with the polygon tool.

- You cannot change the interactive value once a polygon shape is placed. This was an easier solution than checking if your random art piece obeyed the physics rules, which it probably did not. (also, slight laziness)

- Polygons can't be scaled. There were too many things to consider in order for me to allow it. However, there's no size restriction on them... they just have to fit on stage.


That's the end of the list.

There's now a much improved color selector in the editor. When you choose a certain color, a brightness and saturation spectrum is displayed. Left to right is saturation, and up and down determine brightness. The brightest, most saturated version of that hue will be always be at the top right. You can save and delete custom colors with the plus and minus buttons. Additionally, when dragging colors on the spectrum, you can drag off of the color selector and grab colors from anything in the background.

And finally, there is the new vehicle feature. When selecting a group containing that contains at least one interactive shape, you now have the option of converting that group into a controllable vehicle. Any character you eject can control this vehicle once they've grabbed onto it. I think I will start a new list:

- When first creating a vehicle, you'll notice all of the interactive shapes inside will glow blue. These shapes will act as the handles for the vehicle. If you'd only like for one particular shape (such as a steering wheel) to act as the handle, double click into the group and disable the handle property for the other shapes.

- Leaning is set to zero by default, so be sure to raise this if you'd like the user to be able to lean left and right on the vehicle.

- Pressing up and down while operating the vehicle will operate attached joints. So for example, a wheel is placed on stage (not inside the vehicle), and then attached to the vehicle with a joint. The wheel's top speed and direction are determined by the joint's properties, not the vehicle's.

- Joints attached to a vehicle can be set so they are not controlled by the vehicle.

- Jets and arrowguns that are jointed to the vehicle can be controlled. Set spacebar, shift, and ctrl abilities in the vehicle properties.

- If you'd like to limit the rotation of a jet attached to the vehicle, it's best to set the joint limits to 0 and 0. This will allow the jet to rotate, but it will stay in the correct angle relative to the vehicle.

- You can actually attach vehicles to each other with joints, and they will be controlled by each other. I haven't done anything too crazy with this, but I imagine you can do some very cool stuff. I might also make it so any joint connected to a vehicle indirectly (a joint connected to a shape that is joined to a vehicle elsewhere) could be controlled by the vehicle. With this you could make a whole chain of joints flex or retract upon keypresses. That would have to be cool... I think.



OK! I think that's the end of it. This may be my longest post. Vehicles have been cool, but I definitely think I have to add some better sounds in there. Perhaps adding a sound property to running joints, and possibly selectable impact sounds for shapes. In any case, I'm seeing a lot of very cool stuff being made with the new tools. On Saturday, the top 50 for the day were all pretty great. I don't know if I've ever seen that before. Thanks so much to everyone participating. A higher quality community will definitely inspire others and lead to even better submissions.

I'll probably make another post soon with a bunch of other crap I forgot.