[ver.0.1.2-demo] 24/09/2023

Comment:

• Hello everyone! Ivebeen looking at how players have been enjoying the game so far and Icame up with a list of improvements that could help with most of thecommon issues Ive noticed players have been experiencing. Themost notable issue being the game struggling to convey to the userhow it is supposed to be played and the fact the player only has alimited amount of lives at their disposal. I also got toadd a gameplay feature that Ive been wanting to implement intothe game for a long while now! I hope you will enjoy thechanges to the game!

New Features:

• A new Rogue-litesubsystem called carryover items has been added to thegame.
  • The player can now preserveup to 5 items from their previous play-through intothe next one so long they were stored insidethe inventory storage box,the first 5 valid transferable items will be selected (this itemswill be marked with a blue tag on the top left side.)
  • The number of transferableitems varies based on the selected combat difficulty, with theminimum of 2 items on the King of Shades difficulty and themaximum allotted of 5 on the Normal difficulty.
  • The system is currentlyrestricted to healing items and ammunition and it will also includeweapons in the near future (puzzle items are still underconsideration.)
  • The global pool oftransferable items gets updated whenever the player completes aplay-through or reaches the game over state, the items can be foundon the inventory storage box from the start of the game.
• An interface context barhas been added at the bottom of the screen whenever the player isinteracting with any form of UI.
  • The context bar contains alist of the four most relevant inputs and their names for the givencontext, the input icons automatically update based on the currentinput device (keyboard & mouse or controller.)
  • The context bar is intendedto aid players to navigate the interfaces with added expandeddescriptions for each interaction.|
• Full overhaul of theplayer inventory screen:
  • Added health, staminaregen and mana status bars at the bottom of the interface, asand clock icon that functions as a vertical bar is alsoadded to represent the state of the speed boost buff.
  • Added usabilityvalidations for certain items (for example, blocking the playerfrom using a healing item when they are already at full health.)
  • Added an equippedstatus icon to the item that is currently equipped by theplayer.
  • The inventory screen doesntblink anymore whenever certain operations are performed, thisis both a visual and playability improvement since the inputcapturing could sometimes miss a player input in that split secondwhen the interface would reset.
  • Added a dark background tothe units display on item slots for improved readability.
  • Added a secondaryhighlight color (green) whenever the player is in the middle ofan inventory operation that involves a second item slot (swapping,combining or taking items out of the storage box.)
    • The player item slot thatwould contain the item about to be taken out from the storage boxis now highlighted for better readability.
  • The manual combineoperation (activated through the item action menu) now disablesall the items that the player cannot combine the selected item withand highlights those that can be combined.
    • The process of combiningitems aims to expand player agency and the discovery of newpossibilities, going through a trial and error process of clickingevery possible item wasnt part of the intended experience.
  • Merged all the confirmationinputs to complementeach other, for example the swap operation (Left Shift bydefault) used to be only finalized with the same input that startedit, now it is also possible to confirm the operation with mouse orthe dedicated confirm button, the same applies to all otheroperations like drag & drop with mouse.
  • You can now confirm itemactions by clicking the inventory slot instead of only beingable to press the respective item action button.
  • The swap and combineoperations are not meant to interact with the storage box,therefore its item slots will now disable themselves whenever theplayers starts any of these two operations.
  • The amount of units theplayer can transfer in or out of the storage box is now mousescroll-able without needing to hover the button during the process.
  • Updated the item descriptionfonts.
  • The life counter is now blueby default and turns red once the player has 0 extra lives (gameover on death.)

Adjustments:

• The support itemclassification has been added to the game with the intention ofbetter reflecting the purpose of certain items.
• All the recovery items havebeen rebalanced to heal a percentage of the current maximum healthpool and the modifier combination now also heals and permanentlyincreases the maximum player health pool.
• The SM solutions effect hasnow been transferred to the concentrated stamina solution (S2) andit now heals and increases the maximum stamina pool instead.
• The amount of damage meleeweapons apply is now affected by theplayer stamina, the furtherdown the stamina is from its starting point the lower the damagebecomes but the opposite applies as well, amplifying the maximumamount of stamina grants the player the opportunity of inflicting alot more damage than they would otherwise.
• A great amount of widgetsnow have proper framing and padding to better distinguishthem from one another.
• The life counter is nowdisplayed on the screen whenever the player respawnspost-death (shown in color red) or gains a new life (colorcoded blue.)
• Optimized theperformance of all the widgets in the game (Tick related.)
• Added descriptions forall the combat and puzzle difficulties when the player is on the newgame difficulty selection screen.
• The Controlssection in the settings menu has been restored, you can nowcustomize the games input mappings to your heartsdesire, it works the same way as it did before but with the additionthat the keyboard & mouse inputs are now represented with icons.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a rare bug that wouldcause the game to improperly load a previous save.
• Fixed an issue with the pausemenu input triggering in the main menu screen.
• Fixed a visual bug where theplayer animation pose could get stuck on the blocking state ifstunned by an enemy right after the melee weapon breaks.

Crash Fixes:

• Solved an issue where the gamecould crash while on the main menu screen on Linux systems.

Known Issues: