Antidote development news – August 2017

We got some great feedback from players with the new loadout. Thank you so much to all of you who got in touch – you’ve made a real difference!

The most resounding piece of feedback was “it’s good, but it needs a lot of tweaking and tutorialing”. What we’ve decided to do is extract a few pieces of the loadout that were fun but didn’t quite fit there, and add them to the core game. These bits will be in the beta sooner, at the cost of delaying the loadout a month or two. So, what are the bits?!

1 : A new pre-play panel. When we go to pick a level, we don’t often pick by name. Sometimes, yes, but usually we just remember the layout of the map! So we’re working on a panel that shows more information about each level, most importantly a preview of the level, along with a few interesting science facts, gameplay tips, and support for global leaderboards and medals (which will also be coming soon!). This menu also lets you choose what difficulty you play the level on… yep, finally!

2 : Medium and hard difficulty. This will let you hone your skills : medium difficulty on level 1 will require more strategy and skill to beat. Hard difficulty will strain your defense building skills on every level, and will add some extreme challenges for those who want them! We’re also going to tweak a few of the later levels to be a bit more forgiving on easy…

3 : Global leaderboards. These should be coming soon and are… exactly what you’d expect! Can you get the highest score in the world? Can you even beat the Psyon Games staff ;D?

4 : Charges are now called lives. Because that’s what they are! There is no change other than the name, so don’t worry if you’ve already bought it.

5 : Protein system. The power generated by the hamster doesn’t all go to fuelling MUI – some of it keeps a protein generator running. Protein has a lot of uses in the lab! The first we’re making available is the ability to buy a few extra lives (what used to be charges) This means if you can’t buy infinite energy, you can still save up some protein during the school/work day, then spend the protein in the evening when you have more time. If you’ve bought infinite energy, don’t feel left out : you’ll generate protein faster, and have a big advantage when the loadout launches!

In the above image, see how many enemies come on level 2 set to “hard”. It’s almighty difficult – no way you can beat it with only small eater and Miley – though maybe you can prove us wrong?

These features will all be hitting beta over the next couple of months, so keep updating and let us know what you think! If you’re in the alpha, you should get most of these features in the next week or two. And yes that means you can set some awesome exclusive high scores (if you’re interested in joining the alpha, send us a message!)