Hey all, it’s been a while. Sorry – really just wanted to wait till we had something to say. So, okay, now we do. Here is an update of where we are at with the development. We’re still working our way toward the DLC and we have been super busy. Touch wood it’s just a few weeks away. On the patch front, we’ve issued one patch so far for the current build and we’re about to upload another one. Thanks to Nikhil Naik and Matt Mabarrack for pointing out bugs and suggested improvements. We really appreciate the feedback and it’s important in our constant quest to improve the experience. What’s happening right now is that as we develop new content and improve the codebase, we also introduce new bugs and extra breakages elsewhere in the game – so it’s a constant battle to stay on top of the content. Just some of our long list of new laundry items include:

  • Our new location “Monsters” is a big wave tow-in level its coming along. It’s currently crashing at the opening movie in the Championship mode and it feels very much like a memory issue, but we’ll know more this week. We’re also designing this big right-hander a bit differently to the other locations, and again we’ve got a bit of sorting out to do with where and how it breaks but it’s getting there. We’re also working on the individual levels for Monsters with their varying wave heights and feel
  • We’re introducing some character stats that are long overdue and these include paddle stamina stats, in which you’ll be able to purchase extra stamina to dig deep for much longer. We’ve also increased the base paddle speed a bit so you can out the back faster. Another stat is the wipeout stat, which is an interesting one. We’ve added some extra time underwater once you wipeout, which causes a little bit of a freak out factor to being held down underwater – all surfers know that feeling and we wanted to introduce that, especially for the bigger waves. From a gameplay perspective though, it’s a fine line between freaking out and annoyance, so we’ve got to get the balance right. So far the code works brilliantly, so now it’s a question of gameplay balance in terms of cost and effect in game. The final stat is aerial rotation, which works awesomely, but again it’s a question of gameplay monetary cost vs in-game experience. Thanks to our friend “Raw Data” on Twitter for his suggestion of an unlimited paddle strength cheat and the code “hungryforit” – it’s in for the DLC!
  • We’re introducing tow-in specific surfboards. They generally go faster than the normal boards and are more stable in the bigger waves. We’ve also introducing a balance bar for the Monsters big waves, and ensure that the balance bar rating for each of the tow-in boards is at the highest balance level – i.e. barely moving at all/easy. This is one of the benefits of selecting a tow-in surfboard
  • New jetskis – one of the other cool additions to the DLC are some new tow-in specific jetski’s that can be purchased from the shop that each have specific performance values for those bigger waves
  • Free Surf: We’ve realized that most of the surfers are playing Free Surf mainly, so consequently we’re going to set up the Free Surf a bit differently and create more of an experience in this mode. More on this later.

Ultimately we’re working toward developing versions for the Nintendo Switch, PS4 and perhaps XboxOne as well, but we’ll continue to just walk first, focus on improving the PS3 experience, taking on the feedback and we’ll see how we go.

Finally, special mention to Jack our long time art collaborator who is leaving us to go back to study at Uni. Jack is awesome and will be especially missed. We wish him all the very best – thanks Jack!

The Bungarra Team