Tl;dr Reworked characters, new tutorial & controls screen, new run settings, updated game over, achievements test, stats test, new music, added player progression, pickup range added to movement coins, bugs, and misc polish

[h2]Note from Aarimous[/h2]
Wow, we are now about 2 weeks away from early access launch and I've more or less got all the early access features added. This patch adds a bunch of those features and reworked systems to the demo. My goals with these changes were to smooth out the player game loop and gameplay interactions (more details in the patch notes). Over the next two weeks I'll be adding more characters, relics, and abilities to the game. Finally, I'll be doing a closed beta from Nov 1st - Nov 5th. Email me (aarimous@gmail.com) if you are interested in the beta.
Cheers,
Aarimous
[h2]Detailed Notes[/h2]

• Character Rework
  
  
  
  • Updated Art, I've updated all the character's art so they now have a blue and red color scheme as well as clearer direction. My goal was to make them visually distinct from the other gameplay elements and give them a cohesive style.
    
  • Reworked character select screen. Player will now choose a character (based on player progression) at the start of each run. Each character a defined starting ability. This removes the RNG base starting conditions from the game. I found the old system to be fairly restrictive from a design perspective, this change will allow me to create unique characters that have more powerful and synergistic effects.
    
  • Characts are now slowly unlocked as the player plays the game and gains progression XP
    
  
  
• New Tutorial & Controls Screens
  
  
  
  • Update these screens to now each have one screen making it cleaner and easier to understand
    
  • Added these screens to the pause menu
    
  
  
• New Run Settings
  
  
  
  • Added a run settings screen that appears before each new run
    
  • Added a slider that will allow the player to change the game speed. Various speeds will grant progression XP bonuses and slow speeds will disable achievements
    
  • Eventually more settings will be added, but right now this is a good enough screen. I'm hoping the XP bonuses will push players to play on the faster speeds, but I also want to allow for slower play for those who want it.
    
  
  
• Player Progression and Updated Game Over Screen
  
  
  
  • Added player progression with persistence so the player can unlock more complex character and relics
    
  • Chess Survivors has no meta-progression, but I want the player to feel like they are making progress each run. This system will do that as well as allowing me to have "tutorial" characters and more complex characters as they play the game more.
    
  • Updated the game over screen to show XP gained and any new unlocks
    
  
  
• Steam Achievements and Gameplay Stats
  
  
  
  • Added simple steam "test" achievement to ensure this works
    
  • Added gameplay stats tracking for game balance. There is also a setting to turn off gameplay data. Note: no personal data is being collected
    
  
  
• Miscellaneous and Bugs
  
  
  
  • New music added to menu and game loop
    
  • Added settings screen to main menu and pause screen
    
  • Added "Join Discord" button
    
  • Added Bug Report button
    
  • Movement coins and Potions now get picked up in same range as XP gems. My goal here was to make movement coins easier to grab as before they were cumbersome
    
  • Show "new" on relics and character the player has never seen
    
  • Updated loot/relics screens to have cleaner UI
    
  • Update controller support for various screens
    
  • Minor game optimizations to reduce/remove any lag spikes
    
  • A ton of bug fixes that I can't even remember