The Beta 4 update for Vibrant Venture is finally out!

The primary focus of this update is story and lore. One of the primary criticisms of the game we've received over the years is that the game's story is too simple and doesn't have enough depth. We wanted to focus on the gameplay first and foremost, but now that the game is in a more polished state, we're ready to start fleshing out the world and characters more!

Major Changes

First, there are three new major story cutscenes in the game. After collecting a Power Crystal, a short resonate cutscene will play, and the Crystal's Powers will offer you a glimpse into the past. These cutscenes offer insights into the origins of the Power Crystals and the characters in the game! This video shows one of these cutscenes in-game: [previewyoutube=bws6OxoKrRU;full][/previewyoutube] Another major feature we've added is Azura's Journal, something that has been requested for a long time. The Journal replaces the Help menu from previous versions and contains journal entries describing the world, characters, and creatures. It's written from Azura's perspective and features cute photos and doodles, and it's a fun way to learn more about the world of Vibrant Venture.
To fill in the journal, you'll need to defeat enemies and bosses, discover new worlds, and collect Power Crystals. Filling in the journal counts towards file completion, but it should be fairly easy to fill in during a regular playthrough and is mostly there to provide more lore and world-building.
We've also added a new level: 1-G (stylized 1- in-game). This is an enemy gauntlet level where the goal is to defeat all enemies within a time limit to earn Challenge Coins! While there's just one of these levels in the game right now, we plan to add more in the future, but we wanted to release just one gauntlet level for now and see how people like it before we commit to making more of them.
Two new upgrades have also been added: Lightweight and Ascender. Ascender increases your jump height, and Lightweight allows you to fall slower! These upgrades are pretty straightforward, but they are actually the first upgrades in the game that affect the player's movement. We've already found a few crazy skips with them, so I'm sure you'll find some interesting uses for them as well!
Trophies have now been added to Time Trials instead of Time Trials simply having one single time to beat. Bronze Trophies are easiest to obtain, Silver requires more effort, and Gold is the most challenging. We made an entire video about it here: [previewyoutube=myndQjV_wlE;full][/previewyoutube] When speaking to the Time Trial clock at the start of a level, you can now see the time required to earn each trophy.
A new Results Screen has also been added, showing your performance and a cute animation when you earn a trophy. We love details, so we made the characters' expressions, the music and the applause sound change depending on the trophy you earn!
You can also see the trophies you've earned in the World Map, which is a nice little touch.
Another new feature in Time Trials is the addition of Ghosts. Completing a Time Trial or beating your previous best now automatically records and saves your run as a ghost for future replays! And when you replay a previously completed Time Trial, a playback of your best performance will be shown as a ghost for you to compete and compare against. This feature makes replaying Time Trials much more fun, and it's a great way to learn from your previous runs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f0U3Y7JiKw Six new achievements have also been added! Most of them are related to getting all of the gold trophies in Time Trials, but there's a couple more - see the picture below:
We've also added new creatures and critters in several levels. Previously, we only had birds in 1-1, but now we've added squirrels, fireflies, worms, frogs, and turtles in various levels. These creatures are just for decoration and don't affect the gameplay, but they add a lot of life to the levels and make them feel more alive. Some of them also react to the player's presence and run away when you get close! [previewyoutube=EPXslK6r7ZI;full][/previewyoutube] In line with the lore and world-building focus, we've also updated the dialogue UI. Firstly, a speaker field has been added to the dialogue, which displays the current speaker's name and icon! This is a small detail, but it makes the dialogue feel more polished and the characters more distinct, which is a massive improvement from having no clue who's talking.
Also, there are now icons when a character is mentioned, which is another small detail that makes the dialogue feel more polished. For example, when someone mentions Pistachio, her icon will appear next to her name in the dialogue, and the name itself will be colored green to match her color scheme!

Miscellaneous Changes

Okay, so those were the major features we've added in this update. However, there's also a bunch of smaller features and improvements!! We added support for Sony PlayStation 5 DualSense and Nintendo Switch Pro controllers. Now, the controller icons will show up correctly when using either of these controllers instead of the generic Xbox icons. Also, the Steam Deck is now properly supported and allows text input through the on-screen keyboard on the console. So now, you can play the game on the go as well!
The control mapper has also received a major overhaul, now allowing you to remap every single button in the game, including the controller mouse used in the Level Builder and Pet Maker. Also, shortcuts in the Pet Maker can be remapped now, including support for modifier keys!
A new Challenge Level unlock cutscene has also been added in the World Map that plays when all Challenge Coins have been collected in the world! This way, you'll know when you've collected all the Challenge Coins in a world and unlocked the Challenge Level. Before, you would either have to check the level select screen or walk to the Challenge Level to see if it's unlocked, which was admittedly a bit annoying. [previewyoutube=lXZ2URDjM2g;full][/previewyoutube] We've also added a page switch animation to the shop. I don't know what else to say about this, but I like watching the items bounce onto the shelves. It's cute!
The Sir Stomps'a'lot now has a short wind-up animation with a delay when stomping. This was requested by a few people so you can see when Sir Stomps'a'lot is about to stomp instead of it happening instantly as soon as you enter the trigger. Not only that, but it also makes it possible to skip the stompers if you're fast enough, which is a great addition for speedrunners.
The enemies in the World 1 Map are also animated now! Before, they were just static sprites, but now they have some life to them. This was already the case for the enemies in World 2 and 3, but now World 1 has finally caught up and it looks much more lively now!
We've also made the game fully independent from Steamworks, allowing for offline play! Before, you would need to be online to access features like the Level Builder or Pet Maker because of the Steam Workshop integration, but now you can access them offline as well. The game icon has also been changed. Say goodbye to Generic Leafly Icon and hello to epic Violastro Icon!
1-Boss has also been updated with new backgrounds for both phases and new and overhauled lighting for both phases. Just look at how much better the arena in the first phase looks now!!
The level HUD has also received a visual overhaul! Before, it was actually stupidly inconsistent and some of the icons had bigger pixels than others, which was a bit of an eyesore. Now, they all have the same pixel ratio and look much more consistent and polished!
In addition, when you collect a Challenge Coin, a new animation will play in the Challenge Coin HUD, which makes it so much more satisfying to collect them. I'm a sucker for over-the-top animations, so I love this change. [previewyoutube=sjq3DDfZxZ8;full][/previewyoutube] The background for Challenge Levels has also been updated, and now looks much more polished and detailed!
But that's not all! The camera movement is much smoother now, and we also updated a bunch of sprites and graphics all over the game. Check out the new Stealth Lasers in this video, for example! [previewyoutube=kFac7jFDBHM;full][/previewyoutube] Alright, so that's all the major features and improvements we've made in this update. Whew! I didn't cover everything that was added and changed, but that was the most important stuff. Check out the changelog below for all of the details if you want to see everything that was added and changed! We're already working on the next update, and we have some really cool stuff planned, so stay tuned for that! The focus of the next update is 3-Boss, and we're planning to add some more lore in that update as well, which I'm really excited about. Please consider telling your friends about the game, and leaving a review if you've played it. It really helps us out a lot, and we appreciate it more than we can express. If you're interested in the game's development, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel for devlogs and updates, and follow us on Twitter and Discord for more frequent updates! We love hearing your thoughts and feedback, and it really helps us out a lot. Many of the features in this update were added because of your feedback, so keep it coming! Thank you so much for playing, until next time, take care! - Pattrigue

Changelog

• Added a new level: 1-G (stylized 1- in-game)
  • Gauntlet level: Defeat all enemies within a time limit to earn Challenge Coins
• Added three new major story cutscenes
  • Power Crystals now play a short resonate cutscene when collected
  • New story cutscenes play when a Power Crystal is collected
• Added Azura's Journal
  • Replaces the Help menu from previous versions
  • Contains journal entries describing the world, characters, creatures, and more from Azura's perspective
  • Features cute photos and doodles
  • Defeating enemies and bosses unlocks their journal entries
  • Discovering new worlds unlocks a journal entry for the given world
  • Filling in the journal counts towards file completion
• Added 2 new upgrades
  • Lightweight: Allows you to fall slower
  • Ascender: Increases your jump height
• Added Trophies to Time Trials
  • Bronze Trophies are easiest to obtain, Silver requires more effort, and Gold is the most challenging
  • Now features a new results screen for Time Trials, displaying performance, comparing times with previous bests, and showing earned trophies
  • Earned Trophies show up in the World Map
• Added Ghosts to Time Trials
  • Completing a Time Trial or beating your previous best now automatically records and saves your run as a ghost for future replays
  • Replaying a previously completed Time Trial now features a ghost of your best performance to race against
  • The new ghost system updates Tutorial Ghosts with physics-accurate animations, replacing hardcoded versions for improved accuracy
• Added 6 new achievements
  • 4 related to getting all gold trophies in Time Trials - 1 for getting all gold trophies in each world, and 1 for getting all gold trophies in the game
  • 1 for completing Azura's Journal
  • And a new secret achievement!
• Added new creatures and critters in several levels
  • Squirrels appear in 1-2 and 1-S
  • Fireflies illuminate 1-3
  • Worms and frogs inhabit the outdoors of 1-4
  • Turtles roam the beaches of 2-1 and 2-2
• Added support for more controllers and hardware
  • Added support for Steam Deck through Steam Input API
  • Added support for Sony PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers
  • Added support for Nintendo Switch Pro controllers
• Added icons to character mentions in Dialogue
• Added speaker fields for Dialogue, which displays current speaker's name and icon
• Added a new Challenge Level unlock cutscene in the World Map that plays when all Challenge Coins have been collected in the world
• Added a page switch animation to the shop
• Added a short wind-up animation with a delay to Sir Stomps'a'lot
• Added audio reverb effects in specific game areas, like the cave in 1-1
• Added animations to the enemies in the World 1 Map
• Added a new secret room in 2-4
• Added more dialogue for Hickory in the intro cutscene and Flint in the town
• Added a navigation cursor for menu use with controller or keyboard
• General usability and quality of life improvements
  • It is now possible to quickly restart Time Trials from the Pause Menu
  • Controller menu navigation is much more responsive and fluent now
  • The game is now fully independent from Steamworks, allowing for offline access to features such as the Pet Maker and Level Builder
  • Clicking "Return to Map", "Restart Level", or "Exit to Title Screen" in the Pause Menu now shows a prompt, preventing accidental progress loss
  • Disconnecting a controller now pauses the game
  • Improved lighting for clearer hazard visibility in levels, notably in 2-3
  • Improved decoration in the final section of 3-3 and the cave in 3-Bonus
  • 3-Bonus Maestro cheeseballs now have a trail and are brighter
• Updated 1-Boss
  • New backgrounds for both phases
  • New and overhauled lighting for both phases
• Updated the level HUD
  • Ability Icons, Character Wheel, Challenge Coin, Minigame and Time Trial HUDs have all been redrawn from scratch
  • New Challenge Coin collect animation for the Challenge Coin HUD
  • Pixel ratio is now consistent with all other UI in the game
• Updated Control Mapper
  • Pet Maker and controller mouse buttons are now player assignable
  • Features new icons for the category buttons
  • Overhauled design
  • Keyboard and gamepad navigation has been improved
  • Input polling prompt is now animated, automatically resizes, and features updated graphics
• Updated the skip cutscene prompt
  • Now requires a brief button hold to prevent accidental cutscene skips
• Updated visuals for several sprites
  • Minigame Buttons, the fallen tree in 1-4, tents, and the large tree in the Town have received visual enhancements
• Updated the temple interior in the town
• Updated the 2-Bonus opening area
• Updated the game icon
• Updated credits
• Updated sprites for static and pushable crates for clearer identification
• Updated the Totals UI layout
• Updated the Challenge Level background
• Updated Stealth Laser visuals and hitbox
• Improved the level camera
  • Horizontal and vertical tracking is now much smoother
  • Lookahead no longer jitters when moving fast
• Improved the 2-Boss intro cutscene
• Improved readability of dirt tiles in World 1
• Improved pt-BR localization support
• Improved secret tilemap usage in 2-3
• Fixed bugs