Buster Monkeys Public Beta

With the start of the new year we’ve been re-evaluating a number of things about ourselves.

For one thing, we’ve been really terrible at posting updates of any kind here on our devlog or on other social media accounts. So it wouldn’t be unreasonable for an outside observer to think cMonkeys and its games or other projects are all dead or abandoned.

That’s simply not the case. We’ve been quietly working on various projects and have participated in a few Ludum Dare game jams over the past couple of years. (LD41, LD42, LD44)

To avoid continuing to appear dead, one of our goals this year is to be more active here on our website as well as on social media.

Another thing we’ve re-evaluated is our track-record in completing and releasing games. We generally work on a new project or idea and start to prototype it, and after a while if/when it becomes apparent that it’s not going to work out for us to finish, we scrap it and start work on another project. But we’ve done this all in silence so it looks like we haven’t done anything at all.

We thought that maybe we ought to finally finish something, and around that time we found the Finally Finish Something 2020 jam on itch.io which provided us with the perfect motivation to get one of our projects released, at least as a playable beta demo. And that’s exactly what we did.

Introducing Buster Monkeys

Buster Monkeys is inspired by the old arcade games we lost all our coins to in days past. We’ve taken the gameplay of the Pang (aka Buster Bros.) series and combined it with our penchant for space shooters.

We submitted a playable beta of Buster Monkeys to the Finally Finish Something 2020 jam (FFSJam) and are eager to hear feedback on the game.

Our plan is to continue adding more levels, weapons, enemies, and ships to the game as we push it toward its final release.

We have a wishlist of other features we’d like to add, such as multiplayer co-op, achievements, leaderboards, a campaign with a proper story, etc., but much of that will likely depend on how well received the game is as a whole.

For now, please try out the demo on itch.io and let us know what you think of the game. And please join our mailing list if you’re interested in being notified when the full version is released.

Cubiq RC3

The third release candidate (RC3) of Cubiq has just been submitted to Google Play. The release should roll-out to devices within a few hours.

Changes:

  • More helpful messages when ads fail to display.
  • Quit box no longer breaks when halfway through starting a game.
  • Fix spaceship teleporting in the space stage.
  • Added more people to the credits.
  • No longer accept invalid submissions to leaderboards.
  • Other minor finishing touches.

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Cubiq RC2

The second release candidate (RC2) of Cubiq has just been submitted to Google Play. The release should roll-out to devices within a few hours.

This is a hotfix release for an issue introduced in RC1.

Changes:

  • Fixed time elapsed being calculated incorrectly.

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Cubiq RC1

The first release candidate (RC1) of Cubiq has just been submitted to Google Play. The release should roll-out to devices within a few hours.

Changes:

  • Fixed Tip of the Day sometimes being too small to read.
  • Fixed Tip of the Day sometimes displaying multiple tips at once.
  • Fixed leaderboards sometimes breaking. (Thanks Arturo)
  • Finalized some artwork.

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Cubiq Beta 9

The 9th beta release of Cubiq has just been submitted to Google Play. The release should roll-out to devices within a few hours.

Changes:

  • Fixed cubes sometimes not dropping down when starting a new game.
  • Fixed Tip of the Day not displaying when skipping the splash intro.
  • Added more Tips of the Day to the loading screen.
  • Stage select cubes now appear smoother (less blocky).
  • Chains on padlocked stages are more shiny looking.
  • Game Over screen more gracefully handles when ad fails to play.
  • cMonkeys website is a clickable link in credits.
  • Fixed typo.

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Cubiq Beta 8

The 8th beta release of Cubiq has just been submitted to Google Play. The release should roll-out to devices within a few hours.

Changes:

  • Fixed getting game over and stage complete at the same time.
  • Added a Tip of the Day to the loading screen.
  • XP level now syncs with Google Play Games Cloud Saves.
  • Devices with a 4:3 aspect ratio can now see the entire gameplay area.
  • Stage select screen no longer snaps into position while still dragging.
  • Fixed stage select screen sometimes not snapping on first or last levels.
  • Fixed stage select screen resetting to stage 1 but showing name of last played stage.
  • Time and Moves counters will flash to draw attention as they start to run low.
  • Fixed Triple Combo (Silver) achievement having wrong number of steps to complete. (Thanks Amanda)
  • Overhauled cube images and added guides to help players know which color is on which side of the cubes. (Thanks Jibz)
  • Visual improvements to other graphic elements (such as the meters).

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Cubiq Beta 7

The 7th beta release of Cubiq has just been submitted to Google Play. The release should roll-out to devices within a few hours.

Changes:

  • Improved level select scrolling for devices with small screens. (Thanks Jibz)
  • Fixed wrong name being highlighted in leaderboards.

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Cubiq Beta 6

The 6th beta release of Cubiq has just been submitted to Google Play. The release should roll-out to devices within a few hours.

tl;dr version:

0.1607.6 – 21 July 2016

  • Added a back button to the Stage Complete screen. (Thanks Jibz)
  • Fixed two wizards spawning on Arcane Arts theme. (Thanks Katelyn)
  • Reduced chance for duplicate entries in leaderboards.
  • Repositioned the feedback button for improved aesthetics.
  • Fixed typo.

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Cubiq Beta 5

The 5th beta release of Cubiq has just been submitted to Google Play. The release should roll-out to devices within a few hours.

tl;dr version:

0.1607.5 – 15 July 2016

  • Fixed crashing during startup on some devices.
  • Fixed “limit reached” bug which prevented watching ads to earn cubos.
  • Fixed screen flashing when main menu appears.
  • Nature Walk theme’s leopard no longer gets stuck running in place after theme transition.

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