[h2]New Graphics[/h2]



Pew Pew Puzzle Defense has gotten a much needed makeover, with 90% of the original graphics being replaced with new, custom-made sprites. I've also removed the borders that plagued the VS and big playing field modes. This means the size of everything has slightly increased to keep the same number of blocks per row.

[h2]Gameplay Changes[/h2]

Version 2.0 also includes several quality of life improvements and other adjustments:

• Incremental volume controls for the music and sound effects
  
• No coin penalty for selling a tower
  
• Coins stay on the screen much longer
  
• Your score is the highest coin amount accumulated, not your current number of coins
  
• Only two of each tower can be built on small fields (four on big fields)
  
• Blocks speed up at slightly slower rates overall
  
• Dropping clusters of blocks will slow down the block speed
  

Hello, everyone! This marks the first update after leaving Early Access back in February 2020. Yes, that is a very long wait. I've unfortunately been busy with several other projects. I did want to finally address a concern that many players have expressed with Pew Pew Puzzle Defense, though.

After much consideration, I've removed the requirement to rapidly press the X button (or spacebar) to fire the gun tower. You can now hold down the corresponding button or key, and the tower will auto-fire at a rate almost as fast as if you were button mashing. Button mashing will still give you a slight edge if you want, but the new auto-fire rate should suffice.

This update also adds the ability to use the right trigger on a gamepad to fire.

I'm pleased to announce that Pew Pew Puzzle Defense has been officially tested and approved for Remote Play on Phone! Make sure to use the official touch controls configuration, which allows you to switch between menu-friendly and gameplay-friendly action sets by pressing the Select button.

Remote Play is especially exciting for Pew Pew Puzzle Defense, because it facilitates local co-op for those who don't have a gamepad. One player can continue to use the keyboard on the main computer, and the second player can simulate a gamepad on their mobile device.

Pew Pew Puzzle Defense will move out of Early Access in the next few days, but Version 1.0 is already available to play. There's not a big difference between the last update and this one, except:

• Achievements are officially in the game now
  
• Hard and Big modes start out locked
  
• Tower fire rates and coin penalties have been adjusted
  

• Fixed bug where block health sometimes reset
  
• Normal and Hard mode now have the same block speed
  
• Fire towers are more useful (tower upgrades extend its reach)
  

v0.9.0 means we're really close to leaving Early Access and ready to start implementing Steam-specific features. This update includes, with a few caveats:

Cloud Saves
Game settings, achievement progress, and local high scores are all part of cloud saving.

Achievements
The achievements are currently in-game only in case we need to change some of them based on feedback. Your achievement progress is saved, though, so when achievements are officially added to Steam, it won't take much to unlock them.

Also note that, in the final version of the game, Hard Mode and Big Mode will be locked until a certain number of achievements are earned. For now, both options are still available to play without any prerequisites.

Here's the full list:



Leaderboards
Leaderboards can be accessed through the Community Hub and are broken up into eight sub-boards to represent each combination of the game: playing solo on normal mode with a normal playing field, playing co-op on hard mode with a big playing field, etc.

Keep in mind that leaderboards might need to be reset once the game leaves Early Access if any tweaks are made to the difficulty balance between now and then.

• Block colors have been improved.
  
• Blocks randomly have fruit in them that are worth more coins and will remove a black block when destroyed.
  
• In VS Mode, every two blocks that you drop creates a black block on your opponent's side.
  
• Paint/balloon tower upgrades have changed. Level 2 increases paint size. Level 3 auto-cycles through colors.
  

• Runs on Linux now (tested on Ubuntu 64-bit)
  
• Font quality has been improved
  
• More visual cues when player can't afford to build/upgrade
  
• Blocks display remaining health on impact (can be turned off as part of the "hint" setting)
  

• New coin graphic + coins stay on-screen longer
  
• Co-op mode starts with more money
  
• Big mode is slightly slower/easier
  
• Block damage is equalized across like colors
  
• Gun tower always auto-fires starting at Level 1
  
• More contextual hints for first-time players
  
• More sound effects
  
• Fixed various bugs with menus