1694058318
+ Pressing controller platform specific home button now opens Steam overlay

1687284070

* Fixed ladders in time stage still pulling the player upward while time power is active

1683681346

+ Added stage difficulty descriptors to level select

* Optimised collision detection for honey blob enemies
* Fixed an issue where the player could still be knocked off the ladder while using the shield power (thanks maildisposal)
* Slightly increased horizontal range for grabbing ladders

1681872169

* Fixed flicker effect from taking damage not working under certain circumstances due to using the wrong main loop cycle
* Moved the first spawn of fire stage spawn to the left and replaced original location with some magic restoration drops
* Camera horizontal position can no longer be incorrect on first load of fire stage due to new first respawn location
* Maximised window screen mode will now force and maintain aspect ratio

1682478714

+ Added code check for when save manager first wakes

* Changed save data delete text from "delete" to "reset"

1681204565

+

* Fixed some enemies misbehaving in final stage to missing tile flags

- Removed some uneeded tile flags from the final stage
- Replaced some unreachable spikes in the final stage with water to fix some enemy behaviour appearence
- Removed misplaced solid tile in final stage
- Remove a badly placed stone time at the first spawn in nature stage

Just shy of 3 months of Early Access, I am proud of have Powers of Hex as a fully release game along side my previous game, Thibalryn.

It may have been a while since you last played, so I suggest you check out the music for each stage and try beating a boss you previous had not reached.

For achievements to retroactively unlock, either acquire a new magic power, an upgrade or just die to anything.

---

Special thanks to:

AmethystDragon10: Some early testing and feedback. Someone to talk to on occasion.

VertPlaysGames: Early video coverage on their Youtube channel. Supportive and great to talk to.

tinahacks: Very friendly Twitch speedrunner who gave me the confidence to continue making games after Thibalryn.

1680672262

+ Added title screen tune
+ Added level select ambience sound

* Stage music now starts 5 seconds sooner
* Music now only attempts to play on stage scenes and title scene

Unless some final changes are made, this is the same version as what will be published as the full release.

The final stage is now available to be played!
For those who actually already have obtained all 6 powers, just load up your game as normal and the final stage will be there for you instead of the normal stages.

1680158978

+ Added tile layout for final boss room
+ Finished layout of final stage
+ Boss projectile speed is now modified slightly be the bosses movement direction
+ Added error catchment code to boss projectile spawning
+ Modified boss behavior settings for final boss
+ Added light shadow palette data
+ Added music for final stage
+ Added Steam Achievements
+ [REDACTED]

* Batched a few spikes in final stage into single areas
* Increased distance at which orbiting embers can be active when off screen in final stage
* Increased partitioned object (de)activation areas
* Refactored function for boss spawning projectile
* Changed which palettes are used for the final boss encounter
* Changed what palette data is used for the final boss encounter
* Level selection theme for final stage unlocked updated
* Level selection screen no longer returns to normal once final stage is unlocked
* Remastered all music to 16-bit to remove noise and other artifacts
* Changed game win sprite colour data
* Game win now changed to specific palette data
* Game win sprite now changed to use the same sprite for the alternative sprite
* [REDACTED]

- Fixed empty update function call for shadow boss projectile
- [REDACTED]

1679645698

+ [CURRENTLY INACCESSIBLE] Final stage death screen now shows '?' lives too
+ [CURRENTLY INACCESSIBLE] Lots more work done on final stage
+ Created shadow variant of bomb box enemy
+ Drop spider tile flags updated to include "solid special 1" and "special 1"
+ Crawler tile flags updated to include "solid special 1" and "special 1"
+ Leaper tile flags updated to include "special 1"
+ IceBlock entities are now tagged as such
+ [CURRENTLY INACCESSIBLE] Added final super secret upgrade potion
+ Pickups will now perform collision detection against more types of solid tiles
+ [CURRENTLY INACCESSIBLE] Added object activation partitioning to final stage to improve performance

* Fixed bomb box enemies from treating any child as a bomb
* Fixed attaching to a ladder overriding ducking
* Tile flags for bomb box enemy is now a common variable
* Tile flags for drop spider enemy is now a common variable
* Tile flags for drop crawler enemy is now a common variable
* Tile flags for leaper enemy is now a common variable
* Tile flags for pickups is now a common variable
* Fixed electric attack attaching to sunflowers and doing so indefinitely
* Slightly increased the size of the spinning spitter hitbox
* Modified the animation timing of spinning spitter to match shooting on both "rotations"
* Upgrade potion values are now use an enum
* Applying magic cost can now be enforced

- Sunflowers are no longer tagged as Enemy

Apologies for this mistake. Keeping as promised, no save files were harmed in this incident.

1678853635

+ [CURRENTLY INACCESSIBLE] Added magic refill pickup to start of final stage

* Casual difficulty is now treated as the default fallback for starting lives
* Fixed dev mode not granting infinite lives and magic refills on non-PC platforms
* Fixed dev code not checking for matching byte, resulting in generating infinite lives and magic refills for normal gameplay

1678764177

+ Added missing animation to game over screen

* Fixed respawn markers not rendering

1678424442

+ Added copy of palette addresses to be used for reversion after colour cycling
+ [CURRENTLY DISABLED] Access to final stage is now accessible from the level selection screen when all powers are acquired
+ Difficulty options on title screen now flash while selected
+ [CURRENTLY DISABLED] Added extra sprite for display on final boss pickup popup
+ [CURRENTLY DISABLED] Started adding shadow stage content

* Adjusted horizontal alignment of '?' glyph
* Developer mode now activates only on [redacted]
* Developer mode usage is now tracked in the save file rather than play session
* Developer mode usage is now technically possible on non-PC platforms
* Fixed an issue where colour cycling and flipping would not halt when a new scene is loaded
* Updated the graphics used for the level select scene
* [CURRENTLY DISABLED] Replaced final pickup power with actual art
* Purging saved data now returns to the title screen, instead of the level select scene
* Adjusted respawn marker transform offset and sprite to fix PoT fraction alignment in editor
* Fixed a single missing spike collision box in ice stage
* Fixed an issue where dive sweep enemies could not be frozen
* Fixed an issue where dive sweep enemies could persist after death

1677731574

+ Added Cloud Saving support

* Fixed missing preprocessor directive for conditional compilation of platform specific screen options menu elements
* Balanced all music to approximately the same volume level

1677217044

+ Added respawn location marker
+ Music now fades out when loading
+ Music now fades out on game over
+ Added music to electric stage

* Fixed copyright and version text on title screen using the wrong colour
* Fixed title screen projectile not moving to selected difficulty y position
* Fixed an null reference when music fade out routine was executing
* Music fade duration can now be set when routine is called
* Updated Unity Engine to 2020.3.45f1
* Fixed first load scene still trying to run title script

For this patch I have added the selector for those who wish to experiment with a different difficulty level. Normal is what you'd have been playing before, with the changes being simple like take less/more damage or more complicated like less/more saw blades in the metal stage.

If you have already started a game, you can still change your difficulty settings at any time by just returning to the main menu.

There was also a small issue where some potions in the ice stage would magically transform a different effect when loading another stage. This is now resolved and will automatically be corrected when you start playing with this update. There is no need to recollect any potions.

There is now a new music track added to the ice stage.

1676622337

+ Added background panel to first load scene
+ Text elements can now use any palette
+ Added difficulty selector to title screen
+ Added music to ice stage

* Fixed loading some of the wrong type of potions from save data
* Fixed title screen class naming from "first load" to "title screen"
* Adjusted title screen background layer ordering
* Timer text in time stage now uses player colour palette
* Fixed sprite palette 0 on title screen actually using sprite palette 1

- Removed obsolete title screen copy from first load scene
- Replaced press start text on title screen

music tracks have been written and implemented. Along with the an actual title on the title screen.

The metal stage has also had some changes to help make it easier to understand and to reach the boss.

Note: due to the changes of how volume is adjusted, previous players may experience volume louder than they had previously set. Just open the options menu while playing and move the appropriate volume slider left.

1675388685

+ Changing effect volume now plays a sample effect
+ Added code to play music for scenes
+ Added linear fade in and out for music
+ Added music for time stage
+ Added music for nature stage
+ Added some missing, guarding collision tiles in metal stage
+ Added more health refills to metal stage
+ Added title text to title screen
+ Added full palette loading to title screen

* Volume sliders mapping to actual volume remapped
* Default volume levels changed for new save data
* Updated Unity from 2020.3.43 to 2020.3.44
* Swapped a magic refill for a health refill in metal stage
* Increased height of some ladders in metal stage
* Sawblade sprites changed to have a skull printed on them
* Fixed scripting define symbol platform dependency
* Moved position of press start text on title screen

- Removed obsolete death zones under metal stage
- Removed excess collision tiles from metal stage

A lot of tweaks to ease off on the difficulty of both the metal and time stages.

Here is the full list of changes:

1674105984

+ Added small ice block object variant
+ Previous sawblade spawning will cease when respawning at further checkpoints in metal stage
+ Difficulty setting now controls spawning of the first 2 sawblades in metal stage
+ Added kill area to out of bounds right of the first area of time stage
+ Added guarding spikes to right of ladder in second area of time stage
+ Added guarding spike to the top over the gap between second and third area of time stage
+ Added extra guarding solid tiles to top of the second area of time stage

* Fixed an issue where the eye pucks in the time stage could be killed
* Eye pucks now use small ice block when frozen
* Moved an eye puck to the left a bit in the final area of the time stage
* Fixed camera lock for first spawn area of time stage being off by 1 tile
* Added an extra column of tiles on the right of the first spawn area in time stage
* Tiny, horizontal camera jerk no longer occurs for first spawn area of time stage
* Sawblades in metal stage now use small ice block when frozen
* Spawn trigger for third sawblade in metal stage moved to past the first ladder
* Adjusted position for multiple crawlers in time stage
* Fixed magic icon in hud using the wrong palette on player spawn
* Fixed magic bars and icon in hud prefab using the wrong material
* Fixed boss bars in hud prefab using the wrong material
* Fixed health icon in hud changing to wrong material when changing to basic magic type

- Eye puck sprite height halved
- Eye puck size decreased
- Eye puck collision size decreased
- Every eye puck position lowered
- Removed a spike from the final area of the time stage
- Removed 6th sawblade spawn from metal stage
- Second sawblade will no longer spawn on normal difficulty in metal stage
- First and second sawblades will no longer spawn on casual difficulty in metal stage
- Removed left over yokai tiles from outside the boss room on time stage
- Removed some crawlers from the first area of time stage
- Removed excess tiles from above first area of time stage

Apologies for the issue with collected potions now applying the upgrade after the stage. This has now been address and there is no need to go collect those potions again, as the save file did still record that you grabbed them.

Here is the change log for this patch:

1674017986

+ Extended the length of a vine in the beginning of the nature stage
+ Added extra vine in the beginning of the nature stage to make shooting the first spinning spitter easier

* Fixed a critical issue where health and magic upgrades were not being applied to player stats on a new stage

- Removed left over collision tile on path to potion in the nature stage
- Removed a troublesome dropper spider from the beginning of the nature stage
- Spinning Spitters now have less health

1673320533

* Calls to calculate main camera's orthographic size now use a cached result

1673874234

+ Added "return to title" option menu button
+ Added copyright text to title screen
+ Added spawn time overides with new fast spawn feature
+ Added new fast spawn sound effect assets
+ Respawning will now happen roughly twice as fast

* Adjusted option menu arrow decoration positions
* Moved title screen UI to the actual title screen scene

- Removed leftover test debug message logging from Audio Manager
- Title screen scene no longer uses custom loading manager features

steamhappy Welcome to the Early Access, Beta build of Powers of Hex! steamhappy

I am excited to find out what everyone things, both good and bad. All feedback is good feedback.

Here are the latest changed that were implemented for this first public release build:

1671770535

+ Conveyor belts now freeze with time
+ Fixed missing background tile in ice stage
+ Fixed missing honey top tile in nature stage
+ Fixed some missing tile graphics in the time stage
+ Level select now starts the player in a pseudo-random position
+ Added cheat code for developer testing only

* Fixed narrow gap in nature stage
* Updated level select to start player in middle of 3 selections, with no default
* Changed dead zone override to be per axis and per polarity
* Swapped select and start button functionality for controllers
* Yokai blocks now reset on player spawn
* Fixed and issue where the state and timing of yokai blocks would become incorrect
* Fixed controller disconnect not checking if game already paused
* Reduced height of select menu
* Fixed game over screen script still being in an active state when the player first spawns
* Fixed first player spawn not playing sound effect
* Critical health beep now only randomises variant on spawn

- Removed a corner spike in the ice stage