If you tuned into our last livestream, then you know that Alien Hominid Invasion development is still well underway, and that we’ve been working on a spaceship-full of new and exciting features! If you didn’t tune into our last livestream, Mothership knows, but you can still catch the non-live recap right here:
And if you like to use your readers rather than your watchers, here’s a list of the latest and greatest features from the last couple months of development.
…Well, the ones we’re willing to reveal, at least.
New level type: bonus levels with enemy waves. In these bonus levels, death doesn’t matter, and you can rack up rewards. HUD elements will also be orange instead of purple, fun!
New boss…? Or something… Who knows. We’re great at teasing.
But when you do beat a boss, they begin patrolling the city blocks on your next rampage through the streets
Installball has new attacks… like shooting bullets from his eye!!!
Megabot now has spinning buddies to aid her. Terrifying!
Armored enemies now throw the alien off of them and cannot be thrown themselves
Snipers now run away when you get too close
Flybots are more fun to break (because they explode on the ground)
Uzi and “Lozenge” enemies have deliberate bullet patterns now instead of unpredictable spreads
Sawedoff now pierces armor by default
New boost types introduced in loot – damage on roll, damage when picking up coins, damage to robots, revenge damage when being hit, and other gameplay changers
Coin rain now grants larger coin value per pickup – coin stacks!
The grenade explosion look is now more concise to help with game clarity
Players are now graded in the post-game screen, so stay in school! Or something like that
DPS readout for + or – is now reflected in the player setup UI
Development is a long road, and even longer when it goes all the way through space. We appreciate each and every one of you sticking with us while we continue to mold and shape Alien Hominid Invasion into something awesome!’
Valentine’s Day is coming up! If you want to make something sweet and special for someone (or yourself) fast, here’s a neat way to make a unique and decorative piece of chocolate art without piping. In fact, you won’t need any special supplies for this one! You can give it to someone as a delicious gift as is, or you can decorate other sweets with your decoration creation!
What you’ll need: – Chocolate dark brown and white made for melting and dipping. I used melting wafers which are shaped like a coin. You can get them at a grocery store or many craft stores. You can also use chocolate chips. But I don’t recommend a regular bar of chocolate because it’ll melt very fast after taking it out of the fridge. – Toothpicks – Parchment paper or baking sheet – Small bowl or silicone cup – A bowl large enough for a small bowl to fit inside of – An image or design that you want to make!
Before you begin…
Any moisture will make the chocolate clumpy and unusable for this project. Wash your hands, but make sure not to get any water in your chocolate! If you want to color white chocolate, do not use water based food coloring. Instead, use colored melting wafers or powder or oil-based food coloring.
1a. If you have an image you want to draw that is on a flat surface, you can put parchment paper directly on top of it, tape down the corners, and move to Step 2. If you’re writing letters as a part of your design, make sure the letters are flipped for this method. If the material the image is on is not sturdy, slide a flat sturdy surface like a piece of cereal box or post card underneath.
I put a Behemoth magnet on top of sturdy paper and taped the parchment paper over it.
1b. If the image is too big, too small, or not on a flat surface, you can take a photo of the image and zoom in or out on your phone, or display it on a tablet or a monitor and trace it with a pencil. If words are part of your design, you don’t need to flip the letters for this method.
Then, put the parchment paper drawn side down on a flat sturdy surface like a piece of a cereal box or post card and tape the corners to it.
I used my phone to take a picture of my shirt, zoomed out and traced it over my phone.
2. Boil water and pour it in a larger bowl. You’ll need it immediately after Step 3.
3. Begin melting your dark brown chocolate. You’ll only need a couple of wafers for a small image, so if you’re microwaving chocolate, microwave it for 30 seconds or less. Be careful not to burn it, because once it’s burnt, it becomes clumped and unusable no matter what you do! You can also skip microwaving and go to step 4, but it may take much longer to melt chocolate.
4. Put a small bowl or silicone cup with your slightly melted chocolate in the larger bowl of hot water and stir chocolate until it’s smooth. Be very careful not to let water get in!
5. Dip the tip of a toothpick in chocolate, and trace the line on your parchment paper. As you can see, the line doesn’t have to be that smooth, so don’t worry if you mess up! Wait a few minutes, and scrape off your mistake with the tip of a clean toothpick, then trace the line again. If chocolate starts to get hard, change the hot water.
6. Once it’s done, carefully lift it with the parchment paper on top and place it in the fridge for a few minutes.
7. Melt white chocolate using the same method that you used for the dark brown chocolate. You’ll need enough white chocolate to cover the entire drawing, which will be a bit more than the dark brown chocolate, so melt chocolate wafers as needed.
8. Scoop the melted white chocolate with a spoon and gently put drops of it on over your dark chocolate drawing. Do not try smoothing out white chocolate once it’s on the drawing or you’ll end up smudging the dark brown chocolate lines!
9. Put the entire thing in the fridge again for a few minutes. Once the chocolate hardens, it should come off the parchment paper very easily. Keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it!
Once you get a hang of it, you can experiment with colored chocolate. The possibilities are endless and SO sweet. Hope you have fun making it!
