10,000 Copies Sold!

Wow! I am completely blown away by how well the game has been doing in such a short amount of time! In less than 2 months Neon Sundown has already sold over 10,000 copies. It's been such a wonderful experience getting to see everyone interact with the game and share their experiences with it. With the Black Market Update (v2.0) just on the horizon, I am very excited to see what the future holds for the game. The update has been coming together incredibly well and I'm very VERY excited to see everyone get their hands on it. It's practically a new game at this point, and adds a TON of new content and features that I felt were missing in the first iterations of the game. Beyond v2.0, I have plans for even more updates, but we'll talk about that when we get there!

A small look at what's to come

For those that have been paying close attention to GitHub commits or to the Discord server, this wont come as a surprise, but v2.0 is adding in 8 new ships! Below is a small look at 6 of them, all of which will be purchasable with power crystals in the black market. (so make sure to save up!)
Each new ship added in this update has a unique twist to it that makes it act differently from the ships you're used to. They no longer just have different stats, but also have passive abilities (ex. The ship in the top left, "Vanguard", deals more damage based on how fast it's moving. Or the ship on the bottom left, "Syren", that plants seed bombs that convert enemies to your side).

New modern interface

In addition to the ships, the interface is getting a new modern redesign. Here's a VERY EARLY look at the new arena selection screen, which now also has a search function (trust me, it's needed in this update)
Another improvement I'm making to the UI in this update is visual clarity. Many players suggested font changes as it was hard to read some lines of text, and I agree. Here's the new menu in v2.0!
I don't want to spoil much more than that, so I'll leave it there. But you can expect tons of new content in addition to what was mentioned above, including new arenas, cards, and other features such as challenges, arena chip modifiers, and music mods. Lots to look forward to!

When will v2.0 release?

As everyone knows, I am famously bad at hitting release dates. BUT, surprisingly, I am actually on track for my originally anticipated date. The black market update SHOULD be ready to roll out in 2-3 weeks on experimental, with the full release following shortly behind (probably another week tops). I hope you're all excited for the update as I am. It's going to be a game changer and I think will bring everything together quite well. Once again, thank you to everyone for 10,000 copies! It means the world to me to see everyone enjoying the game. It's been my dream to be a full-time indie developer, and the reception on Neon Sundown has enabled me to start pursuing that dream more seriously. So again, thank you thank you thank you! ~ Ben