Spinch news & patch notes

Hey Akuparians! Guess what, it’s our birthday!, Akupara Games is turning 8 years old and to celebrate, we have put Spinch on sale for 68% off! Be sure to grab those deals, check out our lovely event page, and check out the sales! Maybe the game you’ve been waiting for is waiting for you here, with a crisp sale to match. https://store.steampowered.com/sale/akuparagames8thanniversarysale {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32082136/1b810888a3baac10bb6e47830de98f6cfaa88b2c.png Also, to celebrate, we will be hosting a multi-hour stream with tons of activities, announcements, and more! Stream is starting at 11:45 PM PDT! We really hope to see you there - and here’s to another year of publishing your favorite indie games on the market https://www.twitch.tv/akuparagames - Riv otter

Hey, Spinches! Check out the Spinch Mixtape! We're partnering with some of the best and brightest in underground indie music! If you love bangers by Mega Ran, Wordburgler and Dreamsters Union, you'll love the Spinch Mixtape, coming soon! We debuted the mixtape along with a ton of other announcements at the Indie Houses Keynote which included a ton of news from a ton of indies just like us. Give it a watch if you haven't!

Hey, Spinches! This update is going to be quick. We’ve deployed a hotfix to address a number of small issues that Mac users had reported, including the delayed fixes for Mac from the 1.0.5 Patch. We’ve also patched the PC version of the game, since some of the issues crossed over between them, but most of these issues impact Mac users. Changelog: -Fixed an issue causing players’ audio settings to not save with certain menu navigation -Fixed a leaderboard issue after defeating the World 3 Boss -Fixed a leaderboard issue where times were sometimes pulled from incorrect levels -Fixed a leaderboard issue for Mac showing incorrect times -Fixed the Mac version failing to launch under some circumstances with updated builds -Fixed graphics sometimes not spawning correctly on level 6-1 for Mac players -Fixed an incorrect graphical artifact spawning for Mac players on certain levels -Fixed a visual issue where sugar cubes load in on the load screen before the level on Mac -Fixed a number of other minor issues for Mac As always, if you’re having any other issues with the game, please feel free to let me know in our Steam Discussion forums!

Hey, Spinches! This update is going to be very short. We’ve deployed a hotfix to an issue some players were having trouble with last week, wherein a save file was blocking their progress from the game. This has since been fixed (a few days ago in fact!) As always, if you’re having any other issues with the game, please feel free to let me know in our Steam Discussion forums!

Hey, Spinches! It’s been a while since our last update to the game and I bring good tidings for a host of requested features, changes, and bug fixes that have made it into Spinch! These changes are Windows only for the moment, but we’re working hard on getting them up and running on our Mac builds as well. Most of our changes this go around were targeting problems with the game’s display. You’ll now be able to set the game to windowed mode and effectively set the game’s resolution yourself by sizing that window correctly. This should solve a whole host of weird problems folks were seeing with the pixels not being quite right for their resolution. We’ve also made a ton of fixes to animations in the game not firing correctly, so all your strobing rainbows will strobe appropriately from now on. We also listened to some player feedback from the Discord about the difficulty of the 6-1 mega maze and added a few new checkpoints in there to reduce that frustration of some of the longer goop chases. We’re pretty committed to the challenge of the game and aren’t planning on adding other features to make it easier, but this one really stood out as a problem. There is some bad news to go along with all this good news, though, which is that the framerate issue on 144hz monitors still persists. This issue has been the toughest challenge for the team to date and we’ve still come up short on a solution. It turns out this problem is not Spinch specific, but rooted in the engine of the game itself. Other games in the same engine have been able to sidestep it, but we’ve tested a number of different solutions without any of them working out. We held the patch just to see if a few last minute theories might pan out, but at this point we’d rather get you the fixes we do have than hold the patch any longer. There is still a workaround if you want to play the game despite this problem, and you can find those details here. Anyway, here are the full change notes! -Added more checkpoints to Level 6-1 -Added display options to the game -Fullscreen is now toggleable -The game's resolution scales in windowed mode -Anti-aliasing is now toggleable -V-Sync is now toggleable -Fixed the game combining jump and dash if you set certain hotkeys on the gamepad -Fixed the leaderboards showing 5 stages for World 6 -Changed best times to display “N/A” when no best time has been achieved -Fixed a bug that sometimes caused players to take damage and die after defeating a boss -Fixed animations in level 2-1 -Fixed animations in level 2-4 -Fixed animations in level 3-3 -Fixed animations in level 3-4 -Fixed animations in level 4-4 -Fixed animations in level 4-5 -Fixed a bug that caused the game to sometimes set custom options to default on startup -Fixed the "Ammo Count" localization in all languages -Fixed a bug that caused music to sometimes not play over the end credits -Fixed a bug causing incorrect leaderboard times for level 6-2 -Fixed the Achievements and Leaderboard localization in all languages -Fixed a bug that caused best time to show in bonus stages -Fixed a bug that caused the Spinch counter to show in bonus stages -Fixed the position of the two collectable Spinches in the Spinch counter on level 5-2 -Fixed the position of the two collectable Spinches in the Spinch counter on level 4-3 -Fixed the audio from Moondog levels overlapping if the player dies quickly in succession -Fixed the audio from Moondog levels getting de-synced when the player pauses -Fixed some of the spikes in level 5-3 dealing no damage to the player -Additional gameplay and optimization changes If you’re having any other issues with the game, please feel free to let me know in our Steam Discussion forums!

Rise and shine, you little Spinches! The big Steam Autumn festivities kick off today! If you know anyone who’s had their eye on Spinch but hasn’t bought it yet, or have someone you want to gift this super trippy psychedelic platformer to, the game is currently on sale for 20% off during the Steam Autumn Sale! That brings the game down to the oh-so-sweet price of $14.99, but that Spincherific deal only lasts until December 1, so move fast! While you’re here, why not help us get Spinch recognized in The Steam Awards? The game is eligible for any category, but the Outstanding Visual Style award just SCREAMS Spinch. If you agree, do us a solid and nominate the game for the Outstanding Visual Style category! It helps us a lot! That’s all, my little spinchlings. Catch you later! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32082136/0e0eb0350abc030961941db809e345549c1024d8.png

Hey, Spinches! This one isn't a patch, but it is very good news! Trading Cards are now available for your favorite psychedelic platformer! There are five cards that you can earn over the course of your dashes, jumps, wall-slides and speedruns! If you want to get trading, head over to our Steam Discussion threads to try and make matches! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32082136/c500e912a8f6e3688825b38da6bd870e915dfd2e.png

Hey, Spinches! One of the biggest problems the community identified on launch was achievements. In our last patch, we fixed some of the immediate problems with achievements, but there were still leftover issues that we needed to sift through. Today, I’m happy to report those fixes are all in! Every single achievement in the game should be working and if you earned credit towards that achievement before today, you will retain that credit (up to and including earning the achievement) today! You may need to re-trigger the achievement by jumping, dying, or breaking open a hidden door. Most achievements will re-trigger when you hit the “Play” button on the home screen. We also prioritized the problems we were seeing on the final boss fight. Sometimes, the credits would fail to roll. Sometimes, the final boss would cause a crash and you’d need to restart the fight. These are also both fixed! If you haven’t checked it out, we also published a guide on how to get through some of the trickier sections of the game. We also have the Spinch Features and Bugs Board, which publicly shows issues we’re tracking and what we’re working on. Our next update will focus in on problems with high refresh rate monitors, for instance! It gets updated twice weekly, so if you want to stay up to date on what’s coming, check there! Anyway, here are the change notes!

• Fixed the triggers for the Door Crasher Achievement
• Fixed the triggers for the Jumping Journey Achievement
• Fixed the triggers for Worlds 2-6 for the Baby Collector achievement
• Fixed the game crashing after beating the final boss
• Fixed the credits failing to roll after beating the final boss
• Fixed some rare cases where localized language characters would be replaced with null characters

If you’re having any other issues with the game, please feel free to let me know in our Steam Discussion forums!

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32082136/48cf7281f7fa09429d6760640b4774a84bd0ab92.jpg Enter Astral Island is a live illustration and music session that takes place every Wednesday at 5PM PT / 8PM ET on Twitch featuring the creator of Spinch, award winning Canadian cartoonist, Jesse Jacobs, and the sound composer of Spinch, Canadian hip-hop and graffiti artist, Thesis Sahib. Watch Jesse Jacobs create one of his illustrations live, while Thesis Sahib plays beats on his Gameboy and other circuit-bent, modified toys. Stop by to ask questions, and even see their reactions to a collection of clips they find of people playing Spinch throughout the week! Enter Astral Island Twitch Channel Link: https://www.twitch.tv/enterastralisland For more information on Jesse Jacobs

• Website: https://www.jessejacobsart.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/je55ejacobs
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobs_comics/

For more information on Thesis Sahib (James Kirkpatrick)

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesissahib
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamestkirkpatrick/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.kirkpatrick.5648

Hey, Spinches! Here it is! If you’ve been following us on social, hanging with us in Discord, or keeping up with our Steam discussion threads, you know that there are a few high priority issues that we’ve been working on fixing for Spinch. In today’s patch, we’re tackling a bunch of them! Our big focus has been fixing achievements, which turned out to be very complicated! What we thought was one issue turned out to be a couple bugs all layered on top of one another, so rather than delay the patch to hit everything, we’re shipping what we have fixed now. We’ve also fixed a number of other issues to have the game running smoother for all the speedrunners, achievement hunters and just Spinch lovers out there. There are a number of issues that we’re still tracking but haven’t yet solved. It looks like some of the world by world achievements like “Baby Collector” aren’t triggering properly, so we’re still looking into that. We’ve also heard a bunch of different feature requests from casual players to hardcore platforming junkies that are also being looked at. Not all of these features will make it in game, but if we can provide a quality of life change to make the game more fun, we will. I’m going to set up a public facing project management board to broadcast to the community the different problems we’re looking to fix, from bugs that need squashing to features that we’re considering adding. We’re continuing to look into high priority tasks such as crashes (especially on the final boss), the final boss resetting after completion, and frame rate issues with monitors. Thank you for being patient with us! We truly appreciate it! Anyway, here are the change notes!

• Leaderboards are now live - compete with players globally in each level!
• Achievements tracking certain objectives such as “Death Wish!,” “Jumping Journey!,” and “Cub Collector!” will update the next time the player performs that action
• If you’ve previously completed 100% “Baby Collector,” “No Hitter,” and “Survivor” criteria for a world, they will not activate as an achievement. We hope to be able to retroactively award you these on the next patch. Fresh completion of these will still award them
• There are known issues with unlocking “World 2 Baby Collector!” and “World 3 Baby Collector!” which we hope to address in the next patch
• In-game achievements earned will now properly trigger their Steam achievement counterparts
• The “moonwalker” wall slide animation that Spinch would sometimes do when sliding off an edge has been fixed
• The 3rd Spinch baby on level 3-4 will now properly count towards your total
• The 11th Spinch baby on level 6-1 will now properly count towards your total
• In level 2-4, the 3rd Vibration Eye will now properly chase the player
• In the controls menu, the game properly shows which hotkey is assigned to which command
• The game will now better detect your input on a moment to moment basis
• The game now has appropriate inputs for PS4 controllers
• The tutorial won’t show you commands for an input you’re not using anymore
• Pausing during recovery to a checkpoint will no longer loop the recovery sound at full volume
• Setting a hotkey to “Z” will no longer reset Spinch to the last checkpoint when you press it during the tutorial
• Bubbles from swimming will no longer drift outside of the scenery
• On level 3-3, closing a door on top of a log will no longer clip the log into the door
• Some scenery on 2-4 is now animating appropriately

If you find any achievements that don’t activate properly, have issues with the leaderboards, or any other issue, please let us know!

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32082136/3b396b070b0beb347a19e6c3596465968c07ec4b.png

Spinch Speedrunning Contest

Start: September 4, 2020 10:00 AM PT End: September 13, 2020 11:59 PM PT

Win a pair of custom sneakers designed by the creator of Spinch, Jesse Jacobs! Post a screenshot on Twitter of your fastest time on World 2.4 (with all the babies found), and be sure to tag us @akuparagames and include the hashtag #SpinchRun, and the person with the fastest time wins the sneakers! We will be posting up the best times each day. UPDATE: The current best time is: 1 Minute, 36.55 Seconds In an instance there is a tie, a tie breaker round will be announced. There can be only one winner. This contest is open to all people in all regions, and you can keep posting up your best times after the first submission.

Thank you, thank you to all the fans coming out for our weird, trippy platformer. It means the world to the whole team to get this much love and attention day one! Speaking of day one, Spinch has not been immune to day one issues. While that's indeed unfortunate, we're working on fixes as you read this. Here are a few problems that are known issues actively being addressed:

• Achievements aren’t triggering correctly. Some work, some don’t.
• The game gets grainy and pixelated with unusual resolutions.
• The game doesn’t track every Spinch baby on world 3-4
• The spikes on 5-3 aren’t properly damaging players
• Certain high end machines are causing Spinch to suffer lag and framerate issues.

For that last one, we’ve found a workaround! If you’re experiencing lag or framerate issues causing your game to slow down significantly, set the refresh rate of your monitor to 59hz. If you’ve come across any of the above issues (or anything that we haven’t seen reported yet) please don’t hesitate to get in touch! You can always feel free to email issues to me directly here: buddy akuparagames.com. Until then, have fun dashing, jumping, and transcending the material realm. That’s what Spinch was made for!

Run! Jump! Dodge! Dash! Dive! Save your babies today as Spinch launches on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/794240/Spinch/ Not only will you get the strobing rainbow platformer if you pick up the game today, but you’ll get it at 33% off! We’ve partnered with the Gamemaker Sale for the game’s launch to offer a special, limited time discount to everyone that buys in the first few days. If you’ve ever tuned into a stream of Enter Astral Island, liked one of my gifs on Twitter (god, how many gifs I made for Twitter,) this one’s for you! And given that it’s launch day, you better believe we’ve got a ton of launch day festivities planned! You’ll find very cool streamers ready to lose their minds to the transcendental creatures and locations of Spinch all day on Twitch! Tomorrow, yours truly (me, Buddy) will be streaming the second episode of Buddy Gets Good: Spinch, wherein I hilariously fail at the platformer over and over again until, by sheer brute force, I progress. We’ll be hosting a speedrunning competition and even giving away a Nintendo Switch to our fans on Twitter! That's all the news that's fit to print! Head on over to our Steam forums to hang out with everyone else braving Astral Island's many threats and let me know what you think of our game! -Buddy {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32082136/11971b5aa936e98404ccb63266b2febb403dd408.png

Hey, spinches! We're officially one week out from launch on September 3rd! But you won't have to wait that long to get a little taste of the sugary Spinch action! Starting today, we're once again setting the Spinch demo live for the weekend because Spinch is featured in Gamescom's Indie Arena Booth. The demo includes three different levels featuring wild and innovative mechanics that you'll see more of next week when Spinch launches! If you are still champing at the bit for Spinch, we're also going to feature content creators and streamers for Spinch on our game page all weekend! No matter what time you tune in, you can guarantee that there will be an awesome personality giving the 2D precision platformer their all! If you want to tune in to some of our livestreams, here's the schedule! Friday, August 28th: Fefer at 11AM Eastern, 2PM Pacific, 9PM GMT! CarneyVorous at 1PM Eastern, 4PM Pacific, 11PM GMT! Saturday, August 29th: ChaoticFear19 at 9AM Eastern, 6AM Pacific, 1PM GMT! XaleFiction at 4PM Eastern, 1PM Pacific, 8PM GMT! Enter Astral Island at 8PM Eastern, 5PM Pacific, Midnight GMT! Tune in, say hello, and hope that the spinch babies get saved! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32082136/dbfe5323228e8afa5202b3cac72b4328a6e392fa.gif

Spinch is just around the corner! Though the game launches in just a couple of weeks on September 3rd, we wanted to give a little 2D precision platforming power back to the fans! Until August 15th, we’ll be featured alongside a number of other teams in the Yogscast Tiny Teams event, so look forward to round the clock streams on our Steam page as well as a free demo of the game up for the whole week! The demo features three completely different levels each showing off mechanics, visuals and music from the game's six individual worlds, so if you're looking to get that sneak peak before the game launches next month, now's your time! As always, if you questions or concerns about the demo, you can get in touch with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Discord! While you're at it, the demo to our other upcoming title Gone Viral will also be up for the duration of the Yogscast Tiny Team event, so head on over to that Steam page if the roguelite brawler sounds like it's up your alley! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32082136/dbfe5323228e8afa5202b3cac72b4328a6e392fa.gif

You might have heard this news during the Day of the Devs event, but the rumors are true! The psychedelic 2D precision platformer will be landing for digital download on September 3rd, 2020 for just $14.99! Featuring the mind-blowing art of indie comic legend, Jesse Jacobs; the chiptune music of Ontario rapper, James Kirkpatrick; and the innovative gameplay from upstart Canadian studio, Queen Bee Games, Spinch will challenge, amaze and mesmerize players of all kinds! https://store.steampowered.com/app/794240/Spinch/ https://youtu.be/kMnNJMRmrXk Enter into a world thick with bubbling psychedelia. Descend deep into a new ecology teeming with multiple pathways, luminous levels, and complex obstacles. Transcend the material realm and assume your true form as Spinch, a hyper-agile organism consumed by the quest to rescue its litter of missing offspring from an endless invasion of misshapen and malformed offbeats and oddities. Dash, dodge, jump, and even launch your own children as projectiles to take down six eccentric bosses in six vibrant worlds. With only a ticking clock and quick restarts - no lives or game overs - the game is welcoming to players of all experiences, but a formidable challenge to even the most capable of speedrunners. Features: Retro-styled visual wonderland with a dazzling color explosion by award-winning Canadian cartoonist, Jesse Jacobs A fine-tuned platformer with tight controls to dash, dodge, and jump off surfaces to survive against neon spiders, massive rainbow worms, and bomb-dropping moondogs Plunge into the unique worlds ranging from neon plains, to experiment tanks, to frozen icelands, all the way to outer space! Face off against enigmatic bosses and shoot them down with your children as ammunition Inviting and replayable for everyone; a speedrunning challenge for the insane Soundtrack by famed Canadian artist, James Kirkpatrick, featuring compositions written on modified Gameboys and circuit-bent, hand-made instruments. -- We’ll be featuring the game plenty over the next few weeks, so if you want to stay up to date, make sure you follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook! Your children need you! Can you rescue them in time?

Our good friend Kenhie is a variety streamer and speedrunner, and will be playing Spinch live for an hour. Let’s see how far he can get! Kenhie is a full time streamer on Twitch. He is currently doing a long blind marathon of From Software games like the Dark Souls trilogy/Sekiro/Bloodborne. Once he’s done with the blind marathon he wants to challenge himself even further and learn to speedrun some of these titles, so be sure to check him out! See him on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kenhie

• Monday / Wednesday / Thursday: 8:00AM PT
• Friday / Saturday: 7:30PM PT

About the Game:

Enter into a world thick with bubbling psychedelia, as you disrupt your psychic architecture and be absorbed into the environment teeming with multiple pathways, luminous levels, and complex obstacles. Transcend the material realm and assume your true form as Spinch, a hyper-agile organism consumed by the quest to rescue a litter of its missing offspring from an endless kaleidoscopic invasion of misshapen and malformed offbeats and oddities.

Feature List

• Retro-styled visual wonderland with a psychedelic color explosion by award-winning Canadian cartoonist, Jesse Jacobs
• A fine-tuned platformer with tight controls to dash, dodge, and jump off surfaces to survive against neon spiders, massive rainbow worms, and bomb-dropping moondogs
• Plunge into the psychedelia of unique worlds ranging from neon plains, to experiment tanks, to frozen icelands, all the way to outer space!
• Face off against enigmatic bosses and shoot them down with your children as ammunition
• Inviting and replayable for everyone; a speedrunning challenge for the insane
• Featuring samples from the Spinch soundtrack by famed Canadian artist, James Kirkpatrick, featuring compositions written on modified Gameboys and circuit-bent, hand-made instruments.

Connect with Us

Kenhie

• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kenhie
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/itskenhie
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itskenhie

Queen Bee Games

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/queenbeegames
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queenbeegames/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QueenBeeGames
• Tumblr: https://spinchthegame.tumblr.com/

Jesse Jacobs

• Website: https://www.jessejacobsart.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/je55ejacobs
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobs_comics/

James Kirkpatrick

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesissahib
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamestkirkpatrick/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.kirkpatrick.5648

https://store.steampowered.com/app/794240/Spinch/

On Wednesday, we showed you a live recorded illustration session featuring Jesse Jacobs, the creator of Spinch, along with beats from sound composer, James Kirkpatrick. This time, we’ll be doing it live on Instagram live! Join us for an hour, feel free to ask both Jesse and James questions, and come and hang out with us!

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobs_comics/

About the Game:

Enter into a world thick with bubbling psychedelia, as you disrupt your psychic architecture and be absorbed into the environment teeming with multiple pathways, luminous levels, and complex obstacles. Transcend the material realm and assume your true form as Spinch, a hyper-agile organism consumed by the quest to rescue a litter of its missing offspring from an endless kaleidoscopic invasion of misshapen and malformed offbeats and oddities.

Feature List

• Retro-styled visual wonderland with a psychedelic color explosion by award-winning Canadian cartoonist, Jesse Jacobs
• A fine-tuned platformer with tight controls to dash, dodge, and jump off surfaces to survive against neon spiders, massive rainbow worms, and bomb-dropping moondogs
• Plunge into the psychedelia of unique worlds ranging from neon plains, to experiment tanks, to frozen icelands, all the way to outer space!
• Face off against enigmatic bosses and shoot them down with your children as ammunition
• Inviting and replayable for everyone; a speedrunning challenge for the insane
• Featuring samples from the Spinch soundtrack by famed Canadian artist, James Kirkpatrick, featuring compositions written on modified Gameboys and circuit-bent, hand-made instruments.

Connect with Us

Queen Bee Games

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/queenbeegames
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queenbeegames/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QueenBeeGames
• Tumblr: https://spinchthegame.tumblr.com/

Jesse Jacobs

• Website: https://www.jessejacobsart.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/je55ejacobs
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobs_comics/

James Kirkpatrick

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesissahib
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamestkirkpatrick/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.kirkpatrick.5648

https://store.steampowered.com/app/794240/Spinch/

Akupara Games is partnering with Queen Bee Games and Jesse Jacobs to publish Spinch! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32082136/dbfe5323228e8afa5202b3cac72b4328a6e392fa.gif The psychedelic platformer is an easy fit into the library of well-crafted and beautiful indie games that Akupara has worked on in the past. A collective of indie game veterans, Akupara will be handling social media, marketing and platform integration for the team at Queen Bee so they can keep their focus on making the precision jumps and strobing rainbows that makes Spinch so unique and satisfying to play. We’ll have plenty of announcements for Spinch coming soon, so keep an eye on this space! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/32082136/007924393a78009de403d57796d2715231ccbd3c.jpg