Tutorial 1.0 Finished

Finished all the stages of the tutorial, 7 of them total. Going through these voice guided stages should familiarize players with the different weapons and equipment before jumping into a game. The stages and the tracking dart are using voice lines from the Creator Tier of ElevenLabs, meaning the creator of the voice gets paid every time I use it for a voice line; When I generate it, listen to it, change it and listen to it again, the creator gets paid per character generated, even if I don't use it in After Hours. You can read more about this program on the ElevenLabs documentation page.

I will be looking to replace these voice lines with an indie voice actor when possible. Using ElevenLabs makes it easy for a solo dev to make voice lines, edit, change, and reiterate them quickly, all while paying the original creator still.

I hope you understand, and thank you for playing After Hours! I look forward to seeing you in the Arena :)

Tutorial Update

1.0

9 May 2026

Voice Guided Tutorial stages 1-7.
1 - Pistol
2 - Laser Beam
3 - Tracking Dart
4 - Bolt Grenade
5 - Portal Gun
6 - Force Field Utility
7 - Blackout Utility
-Escape now opens the menu. Added a "Quit After Hours" button.
-Better UI for Tags / Lives the player has. HUD updated showing regeneration progress and "Stay Out Of Combat" hint. Will iterate more visually pleasing updates to this throughout the patches.
-Sound effect now plays when a player has regenerated a tag.
-New Achievement needed for the secret in game unlock - completing the tutorial.

-Holding TAB no longer reduces performance, thank you for the feedback. It also hides your crosshair.
-Enemy bots sometimes get stuck on opposite sides of a wall, staring at each other and not moving. I hope to fix that with this patch.
-Burst mode on the pistol fires a little quicker, but has more spread.
-Tag regeneration improved. You should start regenerating tags after being out of combat for 5 seconds. This involves being shot, or using a damaging weapon. Players can use Force Fields, Lights Out, Tracking Darts, and Portal Guns without triggering a regeneration timer reset.
-Spectator mode improved. Shows a spectator overlay, and forces late joiners into spectator mode until the round ends.
-Lobby screen got another overhaul and condensed options. Audio/Mouse sensitivity options, crosshair size and color selection, and player color selection.
-Another pass on enemy AI. No longer uses Lights Out utility to prevent confusion or spam by bots. Combat from them should start to feel better and bots should start looking for cover more often. Pathfinding is still being worked on.
-"Glow Strip Leaking" after getting shot now stops after 3.5 seconds until regenerating a tag.
-Portals extend from the middle of deploying making it more visually appealing.

-Secret unlock display buggy in lobby, should transition smoothly now.
-Music should play through heavy sound usage now.
-Returning to lobby after match shouldn't switch host anymore, and beginning another match shouldn't get stuck at 10 second countdown anymore.
-Grenade no longer displays shadows from your arms/hands.
-Stage 1 tutorial no longer freezes player after tagging out enemy bot. This was jarring and didn't have the intended effect. The bot now superpowers and tags you out anyway.

-Glow Strips leaking until tag regenerated. Only leaks for 3.5 seconds now.

-Portals can still be placed on edges of maps and teleport the player outside of the map
-Portals can be placed on physics objects then frozen in place when that physics object is moved
-Portals don't hold a "recreational 1:1" of shooting/aiming through the portal. It follows some basic logic and will be improved in the future so you shoot at what you see.
-Sometimes the force field breaks and floats in mid air when tagged out while using it.
-The Beam Cannon and Bolt Grenades can produce too much sound and overwrite other sounds happening. Looking into this currently.
-Some graffiti sprays are cut off on the edges of walls/doorways or between floors/ceilings. Looking to improve placement as well.
-Regenerating a tag is not displayed very well right now and I am currently working on improving the regeneration system by adding stations the player can be at that regenerate your tags.
-The early arena maps are mediocre, lighting doesn't match the default map and performance is even worse. Working on improving the other maps as well. There will be different versions of maps I will be working on. Darker, foggy, outdoors. Look forward to it :)

people

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