Hello everyone! It's the Next Fest already, amazing how time flies! With it, as promised, we've released the updated Astra: Fading Stars demo (v0.3.0) to properly celebrate the event. First, we want to thank you all for your feedback, support and play-testing, we've come a long way since the original 0.1.x versions and it wouldn't have been possible without you! We also want to welcome all the new players and encourage everyone, who's already played any of the previous versions, to checkout out this update too as it finally includes story elements! Now, without further ado - here are the patch notes for v0.3.0:

• Main story line is now integrated in the demo. You'll get to know things from Celina's (the main character) background, the villains of the game your role and your main purpose in the game.
• NPC character providing optional hints and advise during your journey in the Astral Cave.
• Cutscene from an area further in the game with a very strong story connection - no spoilers here!
• One time tutorial scene on movement, fighting and jumps when playing the game for the first time - we may change this to be always playable when starting a new game (skipable of course) in a future patch.
• Improved map navigation and clarity. The space layout is now more intuitive and easier to navigate.
• Clearer available actions and interactions.
• Graphics enhancements.
• Music enhancements.
• As always, a couple of bug fixes, including the one where in some rare cases the player would get a smaller hitbox and step further into the ground when changing scenes while ducking.

That's all for now, we hope you are as excited as we're for the full release of the game! Thank you all again and enjoy the Next Fest! See you around ~~ The Dimension Omega team

Hello everyone! Those of you who're on the beta will have already noticed this but... for everyone else, we got some exciting news!

Attack range update!

The attack range... The attack range... The attack range got doubled! The main pain point we've received from everyone's feedback has now been fixed and -we must admit- the combat feels a lot nicer now.

The rest

Now... to the rest of the changes of version 0.2.x. The most notable differences you'll notice if you've tried our previous version from last year are:

• Rearranged and removed some cave areas making navigation easier, signs are now also located in the cave that will provide a rough direction to the way out!
• Reduced the difficulty of the battles given this is only the first area of the game
• Introduced a simpler first flying enemy and removed the ranged attacker
• Improved animations and graphics
• Visual hints in areas where players can get stuck for a long time
• Minor bug fixes

In brief, this release makes the cave feel more like a first game area than a middle one providing an easier transition to the game for the players. We've still got a long way ahead of us (spoiler - NPCs coming next with tips, hints and story references!). Kilo has also started a devblog on the game, a highly recommended watch for anyone who wants a sneak peak into the past & future of the game: https://youtu.be/_PpGneaJRRA All in all, it has been a large release addressing the main pain points from your feedback. Many thanks on that!!! See you around ~~ The Dimension Omega team

The patch version 0.1.4 for the demo is a small patch release following 0.1.3. In this patch we polished the boss' animations and fixed some small rendering issues.

• Canis Ugraal's tentacle attack and react to Astra Call parry animations are now consistent with the other.
• Fixed an issue where the defeated Canis Ugraal would sometimes appear duplicated for a few seconds after the last attack.
• Fixed the position of some hanging grass that looked like it was floating in the boss room's left area.
• Fix for Greek language users: The upgrade prompt in the upgrade menu no longer hides the amount needed for the upgrade.

Thanks for playing!

Patch version 0.1.3 for the demo is here! A significant demo release with lots of updates including map updates, reduced touch damage, a simplified Astra Call, in-game tutorials, working upgrades and more! First of all, huge thanks to you all for playing our demo and for all the feedback you provided us, it is really helpful! We tried to integrate most of it along with our planned updates and hope you'll enjoy this updated demo release! So, without further ado, here's the list of changes from 0.1.2:

Map Updates

• New shortcuts can now be opened to significantly reduce the distance from checkpoints.
• Extra area after the final boss battle providing a small peak of the next region. The demo play-through ends as soon as the player reaches this area.
• Small room introducing a new, unique entity.
• New travel areas creating branching paths in the cave.

Gameplay Updates

• Astra Call can no longer be charged. Giving the option to charge Astra Call from the start was overwhelming and confusing for a lot of players as it wasn't really needed anywhere in the demo. Astra Call will now work on the ground the same way it works on air.
• Touch damage is now reduced to 1 star fragment for all enemies. Touching enemies when they are not attacking will no longer damage the player as much as an attack would. The purpose of touch damage is more to create a safe distance between the player and the enemies than it is to damage the player.
• Falling stones now cause less damage.
• Astra currency can now be used for updates. This makes Astra currency useful in the demo and gives players the chance to make the game easier to beat.
• Added a couple of in game tutorials. One explaining how Astra Call can be used to parry enemy attacks, another on how to climb down from thin platforms and one for upgrades. Those can be turned off from the new "Game Settings" tab for players who prefer not having them.
• Using Astra Call on floating stone lights will now spawn a small amount of Astra. This interaction was purely graphical before with no gameplay purpose causing confusion on whether something was supposed to happen at the point of the interaction or elsewhere.
• Added prompt to the elevator activators as they were easily missed.
• When visiting a region for the first time, a banner with the region's name will now appear.
• Attacking Plasmators now gives them a small knockback.
• New mechanic - use items to unlock doors.
• New mechanic - you can now offer Astra at a place if you want ;)
• New mechanic - you can now inspect places of interest.
• New mechanic - you can now break bubbles and receive 1 Astra for each!

Fixes

• Fixed a point where a player could get stuck between a platform and a wall.
• Fixed damage particles not appearing when hitting some plasma entities.
• Dark Crawler's defeated form's size is now consistent with the initial size of the Crawler.
• Defeating the boss wasn't spawning any Astra.
• Bug fix for wide screen players: Fixed the viewport of the 2nd choice door room which limited the visible width to 1920px.

Other

• The version is now visible on the bottom left side of the Start Menu.
• Software licenses (Godot's/etc) are now available in Credits.

Thanks again to everyone for playing and providing us with feedback!

Patch version 0.1.2 for the demo is here! In this patch we mitigated some of the design challenges a lot of players met which increased the difficulty while not really contributing to the challenge we aim to provide.

• Removed two from the six stars from the Star Memo Puzzle at the beginning of the game.
• Moved "Crimson Feather" artifact after the hidden tentacles platforming challenge to be visible from outside the challenge.
• Removed the Dark Crawler between the tentacles from the first room the shooters appear.
• Moved the ceiling tentacles a bit up in the platforming challenge after the plasma enemies trap to interfere less with the player's jump. Also, removed the Dark Crawler before the shooter in the same scene.
• Increased the attack activation range of some tentacles on the right hand side of the great statue room to make jump timing possible.
• Removed the falling stone from the downwards platforming challenge as the platform bellow should be a safe place to time the next jump. Also, decreased the amount/difficulty of the randomly generated enemies immediately after and adjusted the position of some tentacles interfering with the player's jump.
• In the scene bouncing mushrooms first ever appear, the ground door is now closed when re-entering the scene with the door challenge passed as a lot of times the player would fall unintentionally.
• Bug fix for wide screen users - In the cinematic where the astral weapon is acquired the black overlay should now cover the whole screen independently of its size.

Thanks for playing!