1.0 Launch is finally here!

It is time! Crackpots finally hit version 1.0! This marks the full release of the game, and the end of the Early Access period. This is the biggest update we've ever had, featuring a new character, stage, new game modes, masks, and a ton of new features and pieces of content. We're holding nothing back on this one!

Introducing: Wandit, the headless dog!

Wandit is a magical dog that gained the ability to separate his head from his body. When you play as Wandit, you'll have to consciously track and control the position of 2 separate entities: the body, and the head. You can control his body directly like any other character. His head, instead, will float in place until you use a command to move it to a new position. It's a lot of work, but once you master him, you'll be able to consistently control 2 areas of the battlefield at once!

Strike:

Press the strike button to hit stuff with Wandit's body by swinging its tail. Wandit's head can also strike; Every time it's close to a bullet, he'll automatically strike with his wand. Be aware that every time Wandit's head strikes, it'll fall a short distance!

Special:

Use your special move to move Wandit's head! You can aim the movement in any direction, and it'll act as a dash! If Wandit runs into a bullet during the dash, movement will be interrupted and he'll strike the bullet. Since this strike comes from a special, it'll block stuns, and won't fall from its current position! Time your dashes correctly to keep the head exactly where you want it!

Shot:

Wandit's bullets have no special characteristics, but they'll be created from Wandit's Head! While Wandit's head is charging-up, you can freely move Wandit's body with no restrictions to strike bullets and collect mana. As with the strike, every time you shoot, the head will fall a short distance!

Ultimate:

Wandit accidentally swallows his wand and starts to cough up a barrage of bullets! While he's shooting, his body will be free to act in any way. The head won't be able to strike bullets which might leave you open to attacks, but you'll still be able to reposition the head with a special to attack from multiple directions!

Wandit has been in the works for a really long time. He was conceptualized before even some of the launch characters, so to us, he's been a core part of Crackpot's cast for years! We're really excited to finally get to see the whole gang together and we hope you'll grow to love him as much as we do!

Story Mode

We're serious about Wandit being a core part of Crackpots, which is why we also gave him a fully featured Story Mode chapter! Wandit's story exists as an extra side chapter and is not specifically tied to the events of the other chapters, so you can play it at any point after clearing Chapter 6, once every character has been introduced. We won't go into any details here, so you'll have to play it for yourself!

Introducing: Kooky Kennel!

Wandit's Stage, Kooky Kennel is also included in this update! Kooky Kennel is a misterious pocket dimension where all of Wandit's dreams come true. This stage has no hazards, but it's a large stage, ideal for a character that can be in 2 places at once!

Arcade Mode

Arcade Mode is a brand new game mode that can be played in Single-Player and Local Co-op. You'll have to clear several stages of Crackpots matches, separated by brand-new minigames! This mode is meant to be highly replayable, which is why your performance will be scored based on several factors. Be sure to go through it and get the highest score you can!

Since we're introducing new minigames with the Arcade Mode, we thought this was a great opportunity to introduce another new feature:

Challenges

This is a new option added to the single-player menu. In here, you'll be able to replay all the Story Mode minigames to unlock any missing masks and achievements, as well as the brand new Arcade minigames, where you'll also be able to set highscores for each character!

When playing from the challenge menu, you can play an endless version of Brick Breaker, so there's no no upper limit to your score! Let's see how far you can get!

In this menu you'll also be able to find the special Event matches. These are special challenge battles with specialized rulesets. Win the battle to win a unique mask!

Mask Collection

The Profiles & Stats menu has been reworked into the Collection & Profiles menu, which now has a new section called Mask Collection. Inside you'll find a list of every mask in the game. Every mask you've yet to collect will appear as a silhouette along with a hint on how to unlock it, and of course, we have a lot more masks than we used to!

Additionally, there's now several types of mask:

Common: They spawn randomly as you play, simply touch one to collect it! They can also be stolen from other players by stunning them.

Rare: They're tied to specific tasks, such as playing a mode as a certain character, or completing a side-challenge in a Minigame. Complete the task and you unlock the mask! You can also steal them from players with a stun.

Premium: These masks can be either purchased or stolen from players.

Super Exclusive: These masks can only be purchased with tokens. They have no other type of conditions, and also can't be stolen.

Unique: These are tied to the toughest challenges in the game, and they can't be taken from other players. Wear them as as proof of your skill and dedication!

There's also one more way to unlock some masks. Every time you collect a mask you already own, you'll be awarded with a Mask Token. You can use these tokens in the Mask Collection to purchase new masks! Not every mask can be unlocked in this way, since some are exclusive to challenges, but it can be a great way to unlock that one common mask that just refuses to spawn!

End of Early Access

As we've mentioned, this update marks the end of Early Access and the release of the final version of the game. We don't know what the future holds, but as of this moment, we don't have more content updates in the works. The Amazing Crackpots Club is now complete! That said, we have no intention to just leave this game abandoned! We're committed to patch this game for as long as it needs, whether that's because of bugs or balance issues. And we'll always remain open to ideas for new features and adjustments for as long as there's demand for them. So if there's anything you'd like us to do, feel free to let us know on Discord or the Steam forums. We'll be listening!

We've been on this journey for a long time, and it's hard to believe it's coming to an end. We poured everything we have into this final release and we hope it shows. To everyone who's supported us to this point, everyone who enjoyed Crackpots whether with friends or alone, everyone who laughed at the silly antics of our zany cast of characters, and everyone who joined our little community, we are extremely thankful. To all of you.

And we hope you'll keep on playing more Crackpots in the future!

FULL CHANGELIST

New Features

New playable character added: Wandit, the Headless Dog! New Stage added: Kooky Kennel. Wandit's Story Chapter is now available! It'll be unlocked after clearing Chapter 6! Arcade Mode is now available. Complete a series of solo/co-op challenges and maximize your score! Challenge Menu is now available! Replay your favorite minigames from Story Mode, set highscores for the new Arcade Mode minigames, and play Event Matches to unlock new masks! Mask Collection menu added. Check your collection and review unlock conditions! "Crackpotpedia" is now available! Check out various gameplay tips as well as random bits of character trivia! Several new achievements were added. Note that any achievements relating to previously existing content are not guaranteed to be awarded retroactively, but anything that relies on savefile information (like story chapters) will be granted when launching the game. New defeat animations were added.

Characters

Some characters can freely charge a shot in the middle of their special move. After some consideration, we decided to make this mechanic consistent across all characters. This can open up some new options in your game plan, so try to experiment a bit!

Rigel

Rigel can now charge shots during his Special Decreased the duration of Comet Boost's hitboxes. Rigel historically doesn't need to be very precise with the timing of his special, sometimes hitting bullets well after the move is over. This change doesn't completely remove that behaviour, but it requires Rigel to be a slightly more precise.

Mothilda

Mothilda can now charge shots during her Special

Moranna

Moranna can now charge shots during her Special

Stages

Vigorous Venue is a massive stage that not only has a layout that's difficult to navigate, but most mana pickups are shared with the opponent. It's very easy to run out of mana, making it even harder to move around. This change should help a little bit.

Added additional mana potions to Vigorous Venue.

Masks

Tons of new masks were added. Certain masks now act as rewards for clearing specific challenges. A lot of these masks can't be stolen by other players. Collecting a mask you already own will now reward you with a mask token. Spend your tokens in the new Mask Collection menu to unlock more masks! Masks will no longer spawn during the tutorial or training mode.

Online Lobbies

The Results Screen now appears in Online lobbies. Quickly review the match's stats and choose whether to rematch, go back to character selection, or perform a tasteful rage quit. While waiting for other players on Round Start, you can now see a players list displaying who's ready. (Players who are not ready are either loading or watching character intros) Ping is now displayed in the Player Info screen

Story Mode

The Results Screen now appears in Story Mode. In this screen you can now choose to continue, save & exit, or go into a customization screen where you can change colors, masks, controls and difficulty. Several minor fixes have been made to dialogue and images all over the place. Some battles were rebalanced to maintain a better difficulty curve.

Misc. Changes

Wandit is now the hardest character in the game, so Sadie is now considered a 4-star difficulty character. The "Skip" prompt in Story Mode now appears on top of screen fade in/outs. Added additional graphics options to further tweak performance. The Vibration option for gamepads is now a slider. More stats are now tracked accross the whole game: Damage Taken, Stuns Given, Stuns Received, Stuns Prevented, and Items Used. More stats are now displayed in the Results Screen, press up/down to navigate the list. We made the title screen cooler. Victory screen is also cooler. Character portraits have brand-new art. Whenever they relate to a specific player (such as in the button config menu in Character Selection), button prompts now always match the controller that the player is using. Baby Breeze gets a pacifier now. Dynamic tutorials now appear in-game if you fail to shoot or block bullets. This can be completely turned off in Game Options. You can now check item descriptions in the Item Frequency screen.