The Gunforged demo has been updated with MASSIVE changes! It's been over a year since the previous demo so a lot of development has been done. This new demo contains a lot of big changes that address many of your comments from the previous demo. If you've already tried Gunforged I'd encourage you to give it another shot to see how much it has improved. If you're new to Gunforged, I hope the demo earns your wishlist! Please leave your feedback here after you play, so I can address any feedback items prior to the release: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2258480/discussions/0/4632610585628969943/ This demo is representative of the final game - meaning that no major changes are going to be made to the fundamental systems and gameplay between now and release. However, there will be tons of new content available in the final game that will not be present in the demo. Gunforged is on track to release at the end of January. Your demo progress will be saved and carried over to the full game, so stockpile some gold and unlock your guns and runes! Thank you all for your support. Here's a changelog of the most notable changes:

New and Overhauled Mechanics

• Guns are now much more customizable.
  • Players are presented with 3 gun parts after every wave and can freely swap around weapon configurations during the wave intermission.
  • Gun parts can now generate with rune slots.
  • Gun parts can now be rerolled for a minor gold cost.
• Runes have been introduced.
  • Runes provide behaviors that can increase your gun's damage, add status effects, and alter how the gun behaves.
  • Runes can be freely swapped in and out of guns based on the number of available rune slots.
• The player now has a rune inventory that allows storage of runes during the run.
• Runes can be sold at the upgrade table.
• Random encounters will now no longer appear if you are ineligible to use them. For instance, the shop will not appear if you don't have enough gold.
• Enemy projectiles are no longer deleted on enemy death.
• Runs now consist of 20 waves in a single arena. A boss will appear at the 10th and 20th waves.
  • For the demo, the Dungeon arena is the only arena available. 2 new arenas of increasing difficulty will be present in the full release.
  • Each arena will contain its own unique set of monsters and bosses.
• Gun parts are now weighted, meaning some parts will be more common than others.
• Loot tables throughout the game are now biased to make runes and passives that complement your build more common.

New Content

• The main menu has been removed and replaced with an interactive hub area.
• There is a permanent progression system implemented. This is not available in the demo, but you can open up the upgrade tree and see what awaits you in the full version of the game.
• Added a new attack to the Rat King boss.
• Added a new boss, the Lowrider Spider.
• Added a new enemy type to the Dungeon, the Bomber.
• After defeating the boss on the 20th wave, a victory chest appears which can be destroyed for gold.
• The fire status now leaves a patch of burning ground when enemies die.
• Gun parts have been tweaked and rebalanced across the board.
• The shop encounter now has runes for sale in addition to gun parts.
• New runes:
  • Critical Strike: 5% chance for bullets to deal double damage.
  • Shock Grenade: 5% chance to throw a shock grenade while shooting. Deals 25% DPS and applies shock status.
  • Totem: 5% chance to summon a totem on hit that damages enemies for 50% weapon DPS.
  • Magma: 5% chance to launch magma that deals 75% weapon DPS when hitting burning targets.
• New and reworked passives:
  • Secret Service: Gain 1 body guard that intercepts damage.
  • Combustion: Creates a large explosion when fire is applied to an oiled enemy, dealing 20% DPS of your weakest gun. Consumes all oil stacks. 4 second cooldown.
  • Blazing trails: Create a trail of fire on dash dealing 25% DPS of your weakest gun.
  • Loot goblin: Summons a goblin that will loot on your behalf.
  • I "Saw" That: Spawns spinning saws on dash, dealing 10% DPS of your weakest gun and rapidly applying bleed and oil. 3 second cooldown.
  • Grease Ball: Adds 1 stack of oil to nearby enemies every 3 seconds.
  • Surgeon: Heal 1 health after each wave if you take exactly 1 damage during the wave.
  • Tag, You're It!: Increase movement speed by 25% over 5 seconds. Dashing resets the bonus.
• New guns:
  • Bubble Gun: shoots bubbles.
  • Cow gun: shoots milk bottles.

Visuals & UI

• All weapons now have appropriate bullet impact effects and muzzle flash effects.
• Runes have unique icons.
• The UI throughout the game has been overhauled to look and feel more thematically in line with the game.
• Gun part comparison stats have been greatly improved.
• Players are no longer locked into certain screens. All screens and upgrade moments can be exited and returned to.
• Key rebinding is now supported.
• There is a new level select screen.
• The heal indicator has been greatly improved.
• There are new death and post-victory screens which show stats for the run and the amount of gold looted.
• Guns and runes are now viewable in the hub area, but need to be unlocked first by encountering them during a run.
  • Newly unlocked items are shown as a toast notification in-game.
• Improved the visuals of the health and stamina resources.
• Boss health bar visuals have been improved.
• Gameplay statistics are now tracked and viewable in the hub area.

Audio

• Added a music track for the hub area.
• Added and updated a variety of SFX throughout the game.
• There is a new audio indicator for when magazine is depleted.

Technical

• Controller support has been removed and will not be present at release.
• Shader precompiling is now more reliable. In-game stutters and hitching should be greatly reduced.
• Gunforged now uses the Vulkan renderer by default. Players with older hardware can continue to use the OpenGL renderer (the option will be presented to you when clicking "Play" from Steam).