Oh hi there
about 1 year ago

We haven't posted in a while, but we are in fact working on Happy Wheels (well, at the moment Jim is playing a way intense video game that was released today, so I'm not sure how much will get done at the moment).

The was a setback with the forums, so there is no ETA on when they'll be back. We know it's very important for everyone to have a place to troll, so we'll have them up eventually. If you have a bug to report, please email fancyforce[at]gmail[dot]com and put "bug" in the subject. Please explain your bug as best you can and include links to examples, if possible.

If you haven't noticed, update 1.49 added the cannon object as well as food items. A mute button was added to the gameplay menu. This also fixed the jet noise bug. Also, when testing a level, pressing the "f" key now adds a temporary red dot at your characters' location. This is helpful for cannon levels or any time your character is airborn and you want to know where it will land. This tutorial explains it pretty well: >http://goo.gl/G8CIT

We should have a small update by the end of next week. We're moving offices as well.

Jim is working on a new character and it should be ready by mid-December. Begin your wild speculation now.

possibly long rambling
about 1 year ago

Hello,

I haven't made a news post in quite some time. Sorry about that. I'll ramble on about the update 2 weeks ago, as well as today's update, and about site plans.

The arrow gun and chains were added to the game 2 weeks ago. The arrow gun works like the harpoon, but is less deadly. Characters will only die if it shoots them in the center of the skull. Unlike the harpoon gun, the arrow gun doesn't have to be in a fixed position and can also be joined and grouped with other items. As an example, you could attach the arrow gun to some shitty looking, moving jeep full of fat women (I'm upset I haven't seen this or anything too complicated yet). The chain was meant to make it easier for people to make long rope like objects. They can break when over stressed. In case you've not seen it, here is a video illustrating some of this.

Today's update is not quite as exciting, but it should be very helpful in making complex levels. Groups can now be edited in place after they are created. You'll no longer have to break them apart and rebuild them. Double-click on them to enter an editing mode, and double-click again on the background to exit. You can also change the depth of items now with ctrl + up or ctrl + down. Previously you'd have to delete and re-paste items to get them into the correct depth order.

Jason also added in tokens (coins?), which will act as another method of completing levels other than the finish line. Place however many tokens you want, and when they are all collected, the level is won. This will be useful if you'd like the player to follow a specific path.

Over the next few weeks the site will be setup to use vbulletin, so that will mean a real forum and a non broken framework. All user accounts will be transferred over to that. The site should look mostly the same, but will run less like dogshit. Once that new system is set up, it will be a lot easier to add fun user related stuff to the backend of the site.

It was my birthday 3 days ago. So very old now. Thank you very much to the creepily knowledgeable few who wished me a Happy Birthday.

I'd really like to make some new games, so I'll be dividing my time up between that and Happy Wheels. Maybe I'll be making a character next.

I can't think of anything else, so that's it for now.

Germany land
about 1 year ago

Hello guys,
We are in Berlin, and so far it's going splendidly. We are doing a fine job of drinking and eating. Doner kebab is tasty. I haven't eaten much actual German food, but every other nationality represented here has been delicious. You also don't tip anywhere, which still has me feeling guilty after most meals.

I am disappointed in that I have not discovered any poop shelf toilets, which I thought were still prevalent.

I speak no German. No, I do know the word "Hallo". That means hello. Jason knows 4 more words than I do, and can also count to ten. My method of communication is going up to people and asking "Hallo... do you speak English?". Thankfully, most younger people respond with "yes". I am also good with pointing and shrugging my shoulders.

You may have noticed the forums are down. After the server migration, the site was still performing poorly. It seems that the poorly optimized forum was greatly affecting site performance. Adura has currently taken them down, and is working to replace them with an actual real forum. That should fix several related, horrible site problems. In the meantime, that has also caused the site to run well.

We're going to try to get a bit of work done here on slow days. We really have to add in a remove favorites function. I'm happy to see lots of stupid jet levels. I have to find some levels to feature. If anyone still finds bugs with the new character, please comment here.

.................
about 1 year ago

Well, I can't really express how angry I am in text. If only you could see my flailing arms. When the site went down Friday, I was under the assumption that it would be back up later that evening. It's now 1 am on Tuesday, and the site has just gone back up.

Anything that could have gone wrong with the new server installation did go wrong. What should have taken a few hours took 3 and a half days. The entirety of the blame goes to my hosting, who did the most spectacularly awful job possible. Even in the last 24 hours, there was not even the slightest hint of urgency in fixing my problems. I will be finding a new host as soon as I return from Berlin. I regret the timing of my trip as well as the fact that these are servers that I have purchased, as I will most likely have to sell them. I have lost a good deal of ad revenue as well as wasted money on hardware purchases. I am looking into how I will be compensated.

Adura, my server admin, has done an amazing job and is in no way to blame for the downtime. He's the reason the site is working at all now, and did a large portion of my host's work for them.

Unfortunately, there seem to be previous issues with my host's firewall popping up... most likely because we are now using a new set of IP addresses. This could mean some connectivity issues until they get their shit together.

I get into my office tomorrow morning, and I will update the game as soon as I have a chance. Hopefully the firewall issues won't be too bad. Sorry again and thanks for being patient (if you were).

...
about 1 year ago

So I have a pretty good update ready, but I am waiting for my site to be upgraded before releasing it. It's a major bummer to release a preview video, only to have people arrive at to a broken site. I was hoping to have this done earlier in the week, but I've had several issues with my hosting. If I didn't own the servers I'm using, I would more willingly move to a new host. In any case, an additional server is finally ready to be used. We will soon shut down the site temporarily and transfer all our crap. Hopefully that will be in the next few hours.

Thanks to everyone for being patient in dealing with my shitty site problems and not entirely abandoning the game.

Here's a video of the upcoming item.