Official Release feat. Original Music

After much anticipation, this is the first update that's been published for Bratricide since May 31st, 2022. It's possible that there will be some minor bugfixes in the future (I've encountered some glitches with the Credits grapes), but this is the final major version release. As such, I'm declaring October 31st, 2024 to be Bratricide's official release date.

The reason that I restarted development after so much time is that there was an opportunity to work with Natalie Dolan on creating an original soundtrack for the game. That soundtrack is the main feature of this update, and its seven original songs are used in some fun, dynamic ways, such as getting quieter when the box flap is down and getting louder when Bratrick is on the attack. I'm a huge fan of video game music, so I'm very grateful to finally have some in a game that I created. The strings, bells, and whistles that Natalie used in the orchestration really elevate Bratricide's backyard aesthetic.

In addition to the wonderful soundtrack, there are some other miscellaneous tweaks that have been made to improve the player experience. Not much has been changed in the way of gameplay, but the new visual and technical updates better reflect my original vision for Bratricide and add some excitement to this tried-and-true game. The comprehensive list of changes can be found below.

Lastly, I'd like to give a big thank you to the players who have enjoyed the many different versions of Bratricide over the past 3 years. I've had a lot of fun working on it and I hope you've had a lot of fun playing it. 

Here's to the next game!

~Jason

Visual Aesthetic Changes:

When Bratrick uses his full-screen attack, white stars appear in the sky. They move at a random speed in the same direction as Bratrick. These stars also appear in the title screen for Endless Mode.

The sun now rotates when Bratrick is attacking. The rotation speeds of the sun, gas mask, and exterminator patch now adapt to which attack Bratrick uses, so they stay at a steady pace and always return to their original position exactly when the attack finishes.

The sun's rays now have random length when Bratrick is attacking. This was meant to evoke the look of an audio visualizer.

When the player beats a level, Bratrick no longer teleports to the middle of the screen.

The y-position of the ants on the stick is now slightly randomized to add some visual variety.

The skull and foxglove skull effects are now preloaded, so they fade out much smoother. This is especially noticeable with the foxglove skull, which used to look quite awkward when fading out.

The magnifying glass art has changed slightly in both gameplay and the title screen.

Fonts have been changed in the Tutorial and Credits levels.

Code Changes:

The window now resizes to fully fit the screen of the player when in fullscreen mode. Special thanks to Caleb Foss for help with this feature.

The speed of the game is no longer dependent on performance. Regardless of the frame rate that the game is running at, Bratrick will take the same amount of real-time seconds to cross the screen due to a newly implemented adaptive speed system. Other actions that fall under this system include Bratrick's laughter, the ants' movement and health loss, the credits letters' movement, the grapes' falling, the foxglove flowers' growing and falling, the effects' moving and fading, the stars' movement, and all color changes.

A foxglove flower dropped by an ant can no longer be picked up by another ant. 

In addition to these bigger improvements, a large number of small bugfixes and optimizations has also been made.