Hey guys! Coming at you today with a new build of Shield Cat! There's a few things I'm gonna talk about here, so let's do it!

First, I've finally got Julie in the game. It took a while, but she's real and she's in there, and you can go talk to her! The minecart minigame is also in now, so you can go check that out too.

Secondly, the Playtest build has been removed! If you were using the Playtest build and wish to join the Demo Beta, please contact me! People with the retail version of the game don't need to do this. It's only for Playtesters!

Next, I removed the Steam Leaderboard functionality from the game for numerous reasons that are too extensive to cover here (but mainly have to do with cheaters.) I believe it'll be better for the game in the long run, though.

Finally, this build should be feature complete in terms of collectibles. You should be able to do everything except find Parker and ride the trains. This means that you should be able to get 100% in every stage. If you're not able to, let me know!

As always, I have the full patch notes below:

[h3] ===== IMPORTANT =====[/h3]

• Areas have been moved some to make for better map placement and make it easier to figure out where you are and where you need to go.
  
• New rooms have been added to bridge the gap between the areas, which additional collectibles. If you had 100% in any area, chances are you won't have it anymore.
  
• This also means that markers you've placed on the map will be slightly misaligned from the previous version, but should still be relatively nearby to where you placed them.
  
• This change was made to make the game easier to play, traverse, and understand. I apologize for the inconvenience it creates in terms of collectibles, but it'll be better in the long run.
  

• With this version, the Playtest build is no longer available! If you were using the Playtest build and wish to join the Demo Beta, please contact me via the Discord chatroom.
  
• You can't get 100% achievements or stages in this build, sorry! Please bear with me as I work toward the demo build.
  
• Speaking of achievements, you *may* get achievements for stuff you did previously if you load up an older save with this build. This is because the game checks what you've done before to see if it owes you achievements. It will give you the new achievements when you load up your existing game all at once. Don't worry! This is intended behavior.
  
• All screens should now have custom colors assigned when using the Retro shaders (so no default green.) If you find a screen that still uses the default green, please let me know.
  

• Julie is in the game now! You can find her in the Abandoned Mines...
  
• Even though you can't get 100% of the new achievements yet, you *should* be able to get 100% stage completion on all 6 stages. If you're not able to, please let me know!
  

• The Forest Path is finished! Please check it out!
  
• New Achievements have been added! However, not all of them are obtainable yet. I appreciate your patience!
  
• The Minecart Minigame is finished. Please check it out!
  
• When scrolling on the menu, the menu will now make a special tone when it wraps from top to bottom or bottom to top.
  
• When scrolling on the menu, holding an input will now cause it to scroll in that direction without wrapping. You can then press the button again to make it wrap around.
  
• A new option has been added to the Accessibility menu that disables color highlighting during dialogue.
  
• Skyler will now give you a Cat Coin if you get a high enough score in the Mailbox Minigame. (The game will not retroactively give you this coin as it does with some other stuff, so you'll have to go back and get it yourself. Sorry!)
  

• The map screen (and minimap) now respond to the Alternate Colors accessibility option, and will use colors that should be easier to see.
  
• The icon of the equipped ability will now show beside it's menu entry in the pause menu.
  
• More elements of the game have been adjusted to work with the "Skip Cutscenes" option. For example, O'Fox will now go right into the shop buy/sell dialogue, rather than talk a lot.
  
• Marcus' Adventure now has proper timer graphics rather than placeholder ones.
  
• More UI elements have been improved upon.
  
• The Fish Scale collect animation has been improved some and now makes it more obvious when you've collected one.
  

• The Combo time will now last a little longer depending on how high your combo multiplier is, making it easier to carry a combo between different enemies the more you keep it going.
  
• Made some changes to how the vibration feedback feels.
  
• Changed the colors of Lance's health and magic meter when the Alternate Colors mode is enabled to be better visible.
  
• Removed the "Drop" option from the "Items" menu, as there really isn't a need for it.
  
• Stuff in the "Items" menu you can't actually use are now grayed out to indicate you can't use them.
  
• Changed text on the sign by the first Shield Toss puzzle in the village to make it more clear what you need to do there.
  
• The books that are in Lance's house have changed. Now, they give more insight on the controls and information you need at the beginning of the game.
  
• The books that were in Lance's house previous have been moved to the library.
  
• Upon first entering the Lignum Village, if you go left (toward the post office and Abandoned Mines) instead of going right to check on Parker, the game will now gently nudge you in the right direction.
  
• This won't happen if you have the speedrun option "Skip Cutscenes" enabled, or if you've talked to Mr. Railway in a previous build, or if you've already visited the Abandoned Mines in a previous build.
  
• Ability icons have been changed to be full color, rather than just using the purple/gold look, to make them easier to distinguish from one another.
  
• Leaderboards have been removed from the game.
  
• Since Leaderboards were removed, and the anti-cheat functionality was solely to prevent leaderboard cheating, the anti-cheat functionality has also been removed.
  
• Pots with Fish Scales in them now have sparklies so you know they've got something cool going on.
  
• Renamed save location names to be shorter and more clear.
  
• The Rusty Trinket's sale price has been increased from 400 to 1000.
  

• Fixed some issues with the graphics on the super map.
  
• Fixed a bug where the minecart minigame started in the wrong spot, leading to obstacle timing inconsistencies.
  
• Gamemaker update fixed a bug where the update check wouldn't work in Linux (due to issues with http_get.) Now the Linux version can check for updates too.
  
• Fixed a bug where the mouse cursor wouldn't show the little grabby arrows that indicate you can resize the window when it would be perfectly fine for you to do so.
  
• Fixed a bug where pressing the map button during a dialogue sequence would open the map immediately after the dialogue sequence was over (and sometimes even when it wasn't over.)
  
• Fixed a bug where a room in the Autumn Grove was being shown when it shouldn't have been.
  
• Fixed a bug where Lance could end up infinitely falling and appearing out of bounds due to the game not setting his safe respawn location correctly.
  
• Fixed a bug where Lance wouldn't do the right animation when walking into cave entrances.
  
• Fixed a bug where music wouldn't resume after getting a game over and being revived with a Willow Cookie.
  
• Fixed a bug where you could start a conversation again with an NPC after they initialize a screen transition (Marcus' Adventure beginning, Roxy putting you across the gate to the Autumn Grove.)
  
• Fixed a related bug where the player could move Lance around during a transition to another area. Now, the player has to stay put as intended.
  
• Fixed a bug where the River Challenge would give you the achievement for completing it while getting all stars but regardless of if you did it in the time limit or not.
  
• Fixed some bugs with the map renderer drawing exits that didn't exist. (Fortunately there were no screens in which the bug occurred in any prior build.)
  
• Fixed a bug where enemies could lose health even if they were blocking Lance's attack. Now they will not take any damage (as intended.)
  
• Fixed a bug where dialogue would sometimes show the speaker label in the wrong spot.
  
• Fixed a bug where opening the Notes Pane would sometimes swap Lance's active ability.
  
• Fixed a bug where opening and closing the Notes Pane during dialogue would cause some objects to reactivate that shouldn't be activated during dialogue.
  
• Fixed a bug with some garbage graphics showing while looking at the leaderboards. (Of course, I removed this object now, so I guess it doesn't matter.)
  
• Fixed missing vibrations from the input mapping menu and message box popup menu (only happens when enhanced rumble is enabled.)
  
• Fixed a bug where certain NPC objects and triggers would get their hitboxes set to the wrong sizes after being in a dialogue sequence.
  
• Fixed a bug where walking over some triggers would cause Lance to momentarily pause and reflect on his life for a single frame.
  
• The game will now attempt to automatically resize windows who's precalculated sizes don't quite fit the actual dialogue. What this means is that dialogue box text should no longer escape the window.
  
• Fixed a bug with the fullscreen message prompts where pressing the Cancel button would do the same thing as pressing Ok.
  
• Fixed some spots where it appeared Lance would swim on land when he shouldn't.
  
• Fixed a bug where sometimes the collectible totals would become desynced and display incorrect numbers.
  
• Hopefully finally fixed the bug where map completion would show over 100% sometimes.
  
• Fixed a bug where you could, in certain situations, allow Lance to enter stage transition triggers by pressing the dive button even though you aren't actually in the water.
  

• NPCs don't really react to the state change after beating Julie as I would like them yet. It's something I'm gonna work out before the next build hopefully, and definitely before the demo.