XENOTILT: HOSTILE PINBALL ACTION news & patch notes

A small update, thanks to our eagle-eyed players who spotted this issue: -If you enter a Bonus Room with Red Ball, it's returned when you go back to Main.

Here's what's new!

• Fixed Rex Room Logic for Heart not resetting correctly on Enter.
• Rex Multiball will start automatically when Lit if Rex Hits equals 20.
• Chainsaw Hits no longer count as Rex Hits.
• Fixed bug where Red Alert Mode/FX was errantly set on start of New Game.
• Added support for LG Dual Up, let us know if it works!

12/24/2024 (OUT NOW!)

• Balance changes for to make earning Survivor Tokens easier.
• Lowered the Survivor Token Requirement from 9 to 4.
• Lowered cap for Survivor Refund Cost from 6 to 3.
• Secret Jackpot contributes to Survivor Token Progress.
• Super Jackpot contributes to Survivor Token Progress.
• Max S. Token Requirement per game is capped at 6.
• Failsafe for Multiball Stuck in Tomb Room.
• Optimization for Ball Smoke FX.
• Optimization for Score Pips.

Behind the tunes with composer ec2151

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3354150/XENOTILT_Soundtrack/ The soundtrack to Demon's Tilt was made using a now-ancient (and discontinued) freeware tracker software, called VGM Music Maker (or VGMM), by the great chiptune artist Shiru8bit. VGMM simulated the crunchy YM2612 and SN76489 soundchips, which were used in the Sega Genesis/Megadrive. For XENOTILT, as the game was a step up graphically and conceptually from its predecessor, I decided to “power up” the sound and emulate the YM2151 with PCM samples. The 2151 was a chip used in many classic arcade machines throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including R-Type, OutRun, Sunset Riders, and countless more. The soundchip allowed for more instruments, more effects, and more sample usage that really comes alive in the drums and percussion. The type of music I wrote for the game simply could not have been done with the Sega Genesis chip! For this game I looked to Deflemask to write the music and found it a very capable piece of software. Many of these tracks began as voice recordings, with me humming a new idea into my phone as I was walking or waiting at the train station, trying to avoid the looks of passersby. Other times I would sit at the piano and 5 or 6 ideas would come instantly. Other times nothing would come out of my head no matter what I did to the keys. The creative process is a winding road. The first track written for the game was Wicked Colony. Alienation went through many, many revisions and many musical ideas in that track found their way into the rest of the soundtrack. All or Nothing is a remix of a track I wrote for a canceled game all the way back in 2011, when I was still a school lad. If you hear the original (on my bandcamp), it is almost unrecognizable. While DEMON'S TILT went with Heavy/Power Metal, XENOTILT leaned more into Electronica. Clubbin' Xenos 2 Death was the most overtly Rob Dougan/Matrix inspired, if the title didn't give it away. Though the main chorus though brings spaghetti westerns to my mind... Vector 0 was one of the last few tracks I wrote for the game, and by that time the feeling was one of me offering a send-off to the game, so it carries a bit of an emotional weight for me. I am proud of all the work I did for the game, enjoy the soundtrack! If anyone is inspired to try out writing tracker music themselves, Some particular recommendations I have are Deflemask, FurnaceTracker, and WaveTracker. A special mention to the PC88/98 tracker, BambooTracker! Ok, I won't bog you down with annoying endless tracker rec's and specs =) As a final note, Cyberdrake Remix is based off the fantastic track by HEAVYVIPER, who also contributed original sound design to both games. https://heavyviper.bandcamp.com -ec2151 X/Twitter, @ec2151 Soundcloud/Bandcamp @ec2151 https://ec2151.bandcamp.com {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43544534/cc0f51c43a1d3c0942ce0c8b2395cf92223f52ef.jpg

Thanks to our amazing community, XENOTILT has completed its journey from Early Access to full release! Version 1.0 is our most polished build yet, prepared to bring the best experience possible. Since launching Early Access in 2023, we’ve added two new game modes, optimized the codebase, and incorporated numerous bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements—all based on your feedback and support. To celebrate, we’re introducing Steam badges and trading cards! Collect these virtual items as you play through the new 1.0 content. Plus, the full XENOTILT soundtrack will be dropping soon on Steam—so stay tuned. A Note on Pricing: We'll be raising the price in the new year, so if you’ve been on the fence, now’s the time to jump in and grab XENOTILT at its current price! Incase you missed it here is what has been added since Early Access Launch!! P.S. like what you see/playing consider dropping a review! :)

EX-MODE!

EX-CLUSIVE Bonus Rooms. EX-TREME power-ups. EX-TENDED challenge!! EX-MODE is the expanded version of Arcade/Normal Mode. It features 3 bonus areas with new bosses and a Billiards inspired "Gravity Pool" table. Also with expanded mechanics like the "Tri-Gift" after "Core Overkill" you can hit 1 of 3 targets for new one-ff abilities such as "Dwarf Star" a 4 way star-shaped laser that clears the screen. An expanded OST was produced for these areas. This was a sizable content update for XENOTILT. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43544534/27978cb68daa7bf846d1002ac383623ee8267a64.jpg R&D Lab: A full size 2-flipper table. A MECHA T-REX is under secret development! Avoid it’s teeth and go for the heart! Has some neat transforming surprises and a slew of attacks including Meteor Showers and Ice Beams. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43544534/1b8b26f49dbdba9a084eba53cfd25d519cb4d4e1.jpg The Tomb: A 4 flippered, full size pinball table in Its own right with a unique multiball mode accessed via a Golden Scarab. Do battle against an Undead Pharaoh. Avoid its mythical Sword and goad it out of the shadows by lighting torches. Features a unique Multiball Lock. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43544534/b7b4f761183f2ce8c125c41cc088a16ce483def1.jpg Gravity Pool: Hosted by a Golden Dragon, Take a breather with a game of Billiards with unique rules. Chain together sequences/combos for big points. Sink Billiards to earn Prizes that will supercharge the main table.

EX-SURVIVORS

Rescue hidden SURVIVORS. Hire them for unique BONUS SKILLS! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43544534/133b3aae5d4aac85a1050d8c2d622bd3cc142b54.jpg In EX-MODE when you complete objectives related to the Bonus Areas a “Rescue Shot” will show up on the Tier 1 Airlock, hit the Airlock to rescue a Survivor. This is a carry-over progression system, from the Main Menu you can see the Survivor Table and start hiring your team of up to 12. Each Survivor has a unique “Bonus Skill” which acts as perma-buffs to gameplay. Earn Bonus Tokens by doing Protocols so you can hire more expensive Survivors.

CRISIS MODE

CHAOTIC TIME ATTACK. Go the distance and enter SUDDEN DEATH! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43544534/b2b1fe4c5f7d41f29439854f1946e1f9ef05e43d.jpg A Time based challenge mode. Try and last 10 minutes as the clock ticks down rapidly. Make it to sudden death and squeeze out what precious points you can before your inevitable end to a slowly rising death-laser. Your time is your score, new time based targets (gates) can be completed in sequence for larger time based bonuses. Thank you! THANK YOU!! P.P.S. Remember folks: As long as gravity exists, PINBALL NEVER DIES!!

Ok--here it is....we are in 1.0 land! The exit from Early Access to Release is upon us. We will be making a post about the official Release and our post-launch plans in the next day or so. Stay tuned! Until then, here's what's new in this update: 11/11/2024 -Fix for infinite missile bug. 11-9-2024 -1.0 is here, Thank you!! -Various fixes to Ball Stuck & Ball Attendant feature. -Various Minor Fixes.

Fixed an obscure bug that was stopping player progression if you entered bonus rooms twice.

Sorry about that, upgrading the Steam SDK had tragic consequences and blocked access to Leaderboards and the rest of Steam. We reverted to the older SDK and now it works.

A small update here--a lot of the bug reports about not collecting tokens in EX-Mode may be due to confusion on how the system works due to there being no HUD representation of tokens gained and your progress towards earning one. So we've remedied that with some token status bars at the bottom of the HUD in EX-Mode. Oh, we also updated to the latest Steam SDK. Perhaps that might fix some people's occasional hangs on startup--whenever we looked at the crash logs, a lot of them were inside the steam api DLL. So this might clean some of those up. Here's the full list of updates: -Reworked UI for EX-MODE Progress Trackers. -Failsafe for Clogged Tri-Path on T2. -Updated Input Management Solution. -Various performance Fixes. -Updated to latest Steam SDK

Made another small fix to track down this mysterious survivor token bug. Removed some debug keys that may have been zeroing out the value--and also added a lot more diagnostic data in the logs to track the value.

* Small localization fixes * Attempt to fix survivor token count issue * Added debugging diagnostic info

BUGS SMASHERS, SALUTE!

Thanks to everyone who played and gave feedback on the bugsmashers branch, we're now ready to put the 1.0 preview in the main branch. This includes all the new content, bug fixes, and QOL improvements previously only available in bugsmashers. While there are still some known bugs remaining, releasing to a wider audience will help us track down solutions for the last ones. If you happen to have video capture of bugs, please link it in the forums. Especially replays on twitch that show context. We will be leaving Early Access soon. Remember, once we're out of EA, the price will be increased. You still have a chance to get in at the ground floor if you haven't bought XENOTILT already. If you want to be notified of sales, wishlist it! For those of you not familiar with the content in the 1.0 preview, here's a brief rundown:

• EX-MODE is here!
• EX-SURVIVORS ready up!
• CRISIS MODE starts the clock!
• 3 New Bonus Areas in EX-MODE.
• 3 New Music Tracks join the OST.
• Major Performance Improvements.
• Various Bug fixes.

We will be putting this out as .9. It's not quite 1.0 as there still are some minor bugs, features, and QOL updates we plan on adding before we call it 1.0. Don't worry--there's still more to come from us once we're in full 1.0 release. This includes a soundtrack release among other things. WELL DONE P.A.L.A.D.I.N.

-EX-MODE is here! -EX-SURVIVORS ready up! -CRISIS MODE starts the clock! -3 New Bonus Areas in EX-MODE. -3 New Music Tracks join the OST. -Major Performance Improvements. -Various Collison Issues fixed. -Many Bug fixes.

TRY THE 1.0 PUBLIC BETA!

Ok! We said Friday is the day, and we weren't kidding! Owner's of XENOTILT, right click on game in library, Properties>Betas> select the bugsmashers branch from the beta settings.

Why are we putting it in the beta branch?

We want feedback from you! We want to incorporate notes from the community on balance, bugs, and tuning before we transition out of Early Access. So BUGSMASHERS feel free to light up our forums with your suggestions! That's not to say XENOTILT's support ends at 1.0. We have a lot of plans for this game. After all, we're still updating DEMON'S TILT, too. If you like what you see, and haven't dropped a review, please do so, thanks! -Ralph Barbagallo

WORDS FROM WIZNWAR

It's been quite a journey, what should've been a piecemeal rollout of the two modes, I decided to finish together. It was hard to get a "complete picture" of the game's breadth without working them both up simultaneously. Looking for balance change feedback! Bugs are expected, please report them to the correct forum, you can make a new thread per issue. if you are an expert BUGMASHER, please drop footage, streams, youtube links, anything video so I can see the repro on video it helps immensely. -WIZNWAR 3-1-2023 -EX-MODE is here! -EX-SURVIVORS ready up! -CRISIS MODE starts the clock! -3 New Bonus Areas in EX-MODE. -3 New Music Tracks join the OST. -Major Performance Improvements. -Various Collison Issues fixed. -Various Bug fixes. 11-11-2023 -Fixed timing issue on Last Ball where Results Screen was popping to quickly. -Fixed T3 kicker collision issue. -Fixed issue where hiding score pips meant the Combo Meter wasn't correctly updated. -Fixed T2 Missile Counter not display correct count.

2024 AND THE ROAD TO 1.0

DINOS VS. ROBOTS FEST! XENOTILT, on sale now!

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43544534/09d39a33cd26cbf3b0fa4d6836251ff2b26b0eb2.jpg ANNOUNCING Keep your eyes out for the Public Beta coming soon!! (shooting for later this week) Owners of XENOTILT will be able to opt into a Public Beta! 2024 will conclude our journey to the 1.0 full release. The next step on this journey is the introduction of two new modes: CRISIS and EX-SURVIVORS MODE. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43544534/b2b1fe4c5f7d41f29439854f1946e1f9ef05e43d.jpg CRISIS MODE A brand new Time Attack mode for XENOTILT--battle against the clock, when the clock hits ZERO it's GAME OVER. Your time survived is your score! Level up by collecting blue CHRONO MEDALS. On level-up you earn precious seconds. Select unique rewards via the new "TRI-GIFT". Hit Time Targets, to extend the clock. Survive 10 MINUTES and enter SUDDEN DEATH where the true CRISIS SURVIVORS emerge. Crisis Mode is all about a fast play session, it has a quick retry screen to get you going instantly. EX-MODE Like the EX-MODE from DEMON'S TILT, the SAMARITAN has been tuned for added difficulty, new rules, 3 Hidden Areas to explore, and new Meta Progression system called "EX-SURVIVORS". {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43544534/133b3aae5d4aac85a1050d8c2d622bd3cc142b54.jpg EX-SURVIVORS Rescue Survivors from the SAMARITAN! Clear Bonus Areas for a chance to find them. Currency earned during gameplay allows you to hire these Survivors before your next run. Survivors unlock new capabilities by way of their unique "BONUS SKILL". There are many Survivors to discover, how many can you find? Min-Max your team to get an edge over EX-MODE. BONUS AREAS Like in DEMON'S TILT, EX-MODE offers 3 new Bonus Areas to explore with 3 new screen-filling BOSSES. You're in for a treat here, with complexity far beyond what DT offered. NEW MUSIC 3 new original pieces of music join the OST!! (E.C.2151 shreds!) SEE YA SOON! These new modes have been tested internally for MONTHS. But it's time we let the XENOTILT community check it out and provide feedback. It includes a massive amount of bug/performance fixes in addition to this new content. We're not quite ready to put this new content in the main branch--but once we've incorporated of your feedback and completed the localization we'll be ready! Spread the word, let the other PINBALL WIZARDS know!! Thanks P.A.L.A.D.I.N.!!

The Steam Awards season is upon us! Please help get XENOTILT nominated for Outstanding Visual Style! It really helps boost the game's visibility. And stay tuned...we'll have an update very soon with some new game content additions to XENOTILT!

10-23-2023

• Vibration now has a strength slider!
• Vibration values are tweaked.
• Fix for Missile Pods on T2.
• Tilt Bob Art on High Score Table.
• UI arrows fix for Results Screen.

Here's an early treat:

• Added a new failsafe for rare Ball Out on Multiball Matrix.
• Hardcore Mode correctly resets T3 Perks visuals on restart.

Some small enhancements here, did a lot of readability fixes for Steam Deck. -UI polish work for Steam Deck. -General UI Polish. -Added more XP Medal awards for certain Hera Events.

More fixes are i! -Spinner Work. -Achievement Work. -Failsafe for Olmech Stuck fix. -Missing String. -Minor UI Polish. -Hera Skull graphics glitch fix.

-Spinner Fix for frozen Spinners. (let me know) -Added 1s between Add-A-Balls on Wizard Mode Start. -Delayed JP Lits on Wizard Mode Start. -Fix for camera judder during Lock Sequence. -Fixed Olmech potentially drifting over long session. -UI polish.

-OOB failsafe returns a Red Ball if you had it. -OOB failsafe will return a ball to the Tier currently focused. -'"Infinite" Ball Save' awards 1 minute of Ball Save. (previously did nothing) -Fortune's Favor has been buffed, awards extra hit on Olmech Armor. -Victory Laps Mode FX correctly ends when the Mode ends. -Victory Laps will Lit Add A Ball Sequence if you Fully Drain before it starts. -Changed Letters Lit on Results Screen to show cumulative. -Fixed Bonus Tally where Core Overkills were not being counted.

-Additional Multiball Matrix debugging and fixes. -Additional fixes for phantom Ball bug. -Fixed Wizard Mode music not ending on Mode End. -Some UI polish. Also, there's some extra debugging info in this build so maybe we can diagnose this mystery startup crash.

- Finally fixed issue where remapping would delete UI navigation bindings - Click the "joystick" button on the remapping panel to cycle through all connected sticks - Additional fixes for Startup Crash Bug. - Fix for Chrysalis Ball Throw bug. - Fix for System Overload Achievement. - Various Collision Fixes.

8-26-2023 -Fix for T1 to Trough stuck. -Fix for phantom ball bug. (ongoing) -Collider adjustment for T2 leftmost ramp. -Added international languages on boot warning screen

8-25-23 - Leaderboards shouldn't have a delay on when you click the button. Thanks!