Today I checked Steamworks for the first time since I made the game free. Previously, I saw that the median playtime was really low at just a few minutes, so I assumed no one ever really made it that far in the game and all my efforts on later parts of the game (which are the best parts imo) went to waste. I looked a little closer today and saw that there's actually a good few of you with a couple of hours as shown in the screenshot below:
I also saw that there was a steam community created when I published the game's store page and that there's a lot of people who had some of the game's most difficult achievements. Basically wow people actually played my game, so thanks. I'd really like to get some feedback and get in touch with people who got somewhat far in the game especially in the following areas:

• Final boss, true ending, or other late game sections.
• BUGS! Soft locks especially. There was a major one that I missed before the free update.
• How did you find the game? What made you decide to play it?
• Any other questions or feedback or literally anything about the game. Tear the game to shreds if you have to. That played a big part in motivating me to update the game.

Turns out I gotta jump through a couple more hoops than I thought to make this free. In the meantime, it's $0.99 USD. Patch Notes:

• Made some buttons in the main menu clickable, whilst they weren't before
• Fixed parry ability not granting
• Made minor dialogue changes
• Prevented freezing when changing music tracks in Oblivion Arcade
• Improved bouncer npc logic, allowing multiple skins to be used to enter the mall.
• Oblivion Arcade will now remember what track you were listening to before dying.
• Prevented objects in Oblivion from being placed too close to the start
• Fixed a bug that caused the player to get stuck in latchboxes when falling out of them
• Mouse now hides when you get past the main menu and returns when you et back.
• User can now press escape or start to go back a screen in the main menu.
• Fixed lava movement in Oblivion
• Prevented tutorial message from persisting in the main game.
• Made minor changes to palace and loredump levels for clarity and lower difficulty
• Fixed face wipe booth
• Fixed sideways one-way platforms

Starting January 1st, 2025, Squigley will become free on steam. As a thanks for anyone who bought the game or owns the game via keys, I put an achievement in the game that will be granted upon logging in from now until the next patch that'll make the game free. I know this isn't much, but I owe anyone who supported me and this game a sincere thank you. Expect another patch coming soon, here are some bugs fixed in this one:

• Erase Save Data buttons are now clickable just like the other buttons in the main menu.
• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to obtain the parry ability.
• Mall bouncer now accepts the "gruggey" skin alongside the eyebrow skin
• Fixed stuttering when skipping music tracks in oblivion arcade.
• Oblivion arcade will now remember what song you were listening to before you died and start it over upon the next life.
• Blocks in oblivion will no longer spawn too close to the origin (spawn) so the player will have some breathing room. This applies to both the arcade mode and the section at the end of the game.
• Fixed fastfalling bug when using latchboxes that caused the player to get stuck while the fast fall animation plays.
• Mouse cursor is now invisible during normal gameplay.

Over the past two weeks since launch, I've received a fair amount of feedback about how confusing the early parts of the game are. So much so, that many players had given up. As a developer, I spent 99% of my time outside of the starting area, so it hurts to see players missing out on all the good stuff.
Here are the patch notes for version 1.1: + The tutorial from the demo has been added back into the game with a few minor tweaks. My goal when developing the starting area was to have the level design be intuitive enough to where it didn't need any text to tell the player what to do. You can still play this way as the demo-tutorial is completely optional, but I already made the tutorial for the demo, so why not add it back in for players who might need the extra help? + Added some extra "hints" to the early stages in the overworld tutorial for extra clarity. Once you complete the overworld's tutorial, you land on a platform a little over to the left of the starting platform. I was playing a bit of a balancing game by trying not to make it so apparent that you can skip the tutorial by going immediately to the left from the start, but in doing so players became frustrated that there was no checkpoint after the tutorial. Now, the post-tutorial platform is larger and has a sign pointing towards the origin (spawn). + Changed readability of fonts in textboxes and HUD. An outline has been added to all areas using the poppkorn font. I meant to only make this change to certain areas where the text overlaps the environment, but the way Unity's font assets and materials works is a little strange, so it applied to everything. Fuck it, though. It looks better anyways. + Fixed dialogue at first checkpoint. Previously at the first checkpoint, the message would say that the shopkeeper is to your right. It has now been updated to correctly say that it is to your left. I am a dumbass. + Changed menu text to show game version. The text that once said "created by Jay Hawkins" in the corner of the main menu now shows the game's version instead. The corner text was added before the splash-screen at the start, so I figured it was now redundant. Anyways, that's the update. I hope this game punches you in the *&$% a little less now than it did before. Again, this update was made respective to player feedback, which I will continue to be receptive towards. If you want to give your honest thoughts, feel free to email me at jayhawkinsdev@gmail.com. (It'll also help if you put feedback or something similar somewhere in the subject line).