Steam Next Fest is coming to an end and it was a blast seeing so many people test the game and enjoying it. As of writing this post, over 380 players have tested the demo since last sunday, doing nearly 1.9k runs and clearing 8.9k waves (73% of which were perfect clears). Out of all those runs, exactly 100 went past Wave 20. I was also quite surprised to see Wave 25 getting beaten with user PahiChannel being the first (and so far only one) to get past it with the current highest score in the leaderboards. I received lots of positive feedbacks as well as a number of issues and bug reports throughout the week which will help me improve the game. The demo will not only remain available after Next Fest but is also getting an update fixing some of the bugs that were spotted as well as bringing an improved Leaderboard menu which now includes Artifacts as well as a few minor QoL improvements. You can find the full list of changes further below. Now, the main issues that were raised about the game/demo were that there's too few content right now & that the collections menu was quite unclear. Adding new balls & artifacts to give the game more strategical depth and a better replayibility will be my focus for the next few weeks. I've already got a few fun new balls and artifacts planned & designed that only need to get implemented in the game. The collection menu will also get a full overhaul along the way as it is very basic in its current state, but will get expanded as it won't be just picking balls/artifacts but also unlock new ones and I'll try to make things there a lot more clearer. Next major update to the demo will come in early November for the upcoming Bullet Heaven Fest, then the full game is planned to release on November 30.

Version a14 Changelog

Gameplay

• Fixed Random Balls' 2nd Chance losing their Random component upon running out of lives.
• Shortened and thinned the trails of Splitting Ball's children. This should make these small balls stand out a bit less & make it easier to spot other balls amidst the mess.

Leaderboards

• Leaderboards received a major overhaul and now include Artifacts.
• Balls column has been renamed Build.
• Hovering/Navigating to an entry in the leaderboard will now expand the entry and show the artifacts next to the balls. Runs that were made before tuesday's small update will only show a "+" there as artifacts weren't saved along scores at the time.
• Leaderboard Lines now have alternating background colors.
• Your own entry in the leaderboard is now showcased in blue rather than being in italic. This makes it easier to spot yourself.
• Fixed a bug where your score would be sent several times at once to the server, leading to the score being ignored by the server.
• Fixed Names with non Latin characters not showing up properly in Leaderboards.

Other Menus & UIs

• Score Gain from Perfect Clears & Extra Score upgrades is now shown as a "+XXX" next to the score.
• Score text 'growth' animation is now more emphasized on big score changes (like perfect clears & extra score upgrades).
• Perfect Clear & Reinforced Waves texts are slightly bigger.
• Fixed Menus' Tabs (such as in Leaderboards or Settings) not working correctly when interacted with mouse.