Hey all!

Alpha 8 is shaping up, and we're quite happy with the progress we've made so far. I've also made a lot of progress on the Level Builder! Let's talk about it.

Achievements

Alpha 8 will feature a ton of Steam Achievements to unlock! There will be many types of different achievements - some will be unlockable by simply completing levels in campaign mode while others will require a lot more thinking and exploring. Our plan is to add more achievements once the base game campaign mode is finished (like completionist achievements) so expect to see more in the future! And let us know if you have any ideas for achievements!

Where's Juniper?

Last year, we held a contest on our Discord server where participants had to create an original character, and the prize was a free Steam game, HD art of the character by Jur as well as that NPC being added to the game. The winner was Juniper created by the user ZeraZero; check out the artwork of her that Jur created below.
Over the past few weeks, we've been working on implementing Juniper into the game. Here's how she's going to work:

• You will be able to find Juniper somewhere in each of the main four levels in every world (for example 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, and 1-4 in World 1).
• Juniper will be well-hidden - it will take some serious effort to find her in most levels.
• Finding her rewards the player with some unique dialogue, and a painting of the level. It also counts towards the total completion of a save file.
• Finding her in all levels rewards you with a completion bonus (which you'll have to find out for yourself once the update is released!).

A few days ago, we asked the community on Discord to help find hiding spots for her in each of the levels. As of writing this, we just finished implementing those hiding spots a few hours ago, and we're really pleased with the result. If you're in our Discord server and posted your suggestions, thank you! There were some seriously good ones. The idea with this feature is to increase replay value and emphasize exploration. Juniper will also be easy to find in the first level of the game, increasing the odds of most players discovering her existence early on. In addition, the various stat UIs have also been updated to display whether you have found her in a level or not.

The Level Builder

As previously mentioned, I've also been making a lot of progress on the Level Builder. You can check out the devlog below for a detailed video in which I showcase what I've been working on, and talk about what I plan on adding next. [previewyoutube=B5h1lhcBhcU;full][/previewyoutube] I have also been working on advanced object editors that allow you to edit the unique properties of each object. These properties include things like movement speed, movement direction, attack range, waypoints, and much, much more. The video below shows a preview of the waypoint editor in action! [previewyoutube=oPgTVGvwm_w;full][/previewyoutube] The Level Builder is getting closer to a state where I feel comfortable hosting a public testing session. The plan is to grant players access to a build featuring the first version of the Level Builder to gather feedback and find bugs. This will take place after the release of Alpha 8, which, by the way, will be the final alpha update. That's right; after Alpha 8, the next update will be Beta 1! How exhilarating!

The rest

There's a handful of other features we've been working on for Alpha 8 that I feel are also worth mentioning.

• A new lighting system has been implemented, allowing us to add better lighting to many different areas in the game (which we've already been taking advantage of in levels like 1-3 and 2-3).
• Controllers will now vibrate when you take damage (I really don't know why I've only just gotten around to adding that, the game feels much more responsive now!).
• The Maestro's throwing behavior has been rewritten to use Newtonian physics rather than a quadratic equation solver which resulted in a strangely unpredictable and unnatural-looking arc. In layman's terms, this means the Maestro is slightly less annoying (but still annoying!).
• The next and near-final level in World 3 is going to be quite special, and we've made a great amount of progress on it, however, we do not have any previews to share just yet (stay tuned, because we might have soon!).

There's still a lot of work to be done on Alpha 8 before it's ready for release, but we've made a huge amount of progress during the last 5-6 weeks. However, progress will inevitably slow down for a few weeks from mid-May to mid-June due to exams. As such, the plan is to ship Alpha 8 sometime between July to September. Once we know exactly when the update will release, we will share this information with you. Thanks for reading! - Pattrigue