Hello. This update took some time for a number of reasons but mostly because of all the feedback I received lately. There’s more to come but I wanted to get an update out in time for Bullet Heaven Fest.

GUI work is slow and not the most exciting part of game development but it’s an important one. The main menus have gotten a bit overhaul to make navigation easier and faster. You can now start a game with just a couple of clicks. Gamepad navigation in particular has improved a lot. A new “retro font” has also been added but the “modern” version is still available if you prefer it.

The old tutorial was boring and quite easy to skip entirely. This has been replaced with a new training map which will be the default when starting the game (also for existing players until you select something else) and introduces the mechanics as you play.

These quality of life features have been highly requested and here they are now. There are arrows (with timer) pointing to mission locations on the screen. Level up is now manual by default so you can choose when to do it without interrupting your play. Both of these features can be turned on/off in the settings. Then there’s the run mode – the ability/energy bar can now also be consumed by running with a new key toggle.

Many more additions, changes and balance fixes have also been made. For more details check out the full changelog below. Hope you enjoy and stay tuned for more!

This festival starts today and includes a massive amount of games from this genre. Be sure to check it out (click the banner below)!

General

• New item: Spoon – Automatically consume health items when health is critical
• New power-ups for each of the main character attributes (STR, PER, END, CHA, INT, AGI, LUC)
• New menu UI and structure
• New map: Training Grounds (tutorial)
• New setting: Font style (Default: Retro)
• New setting: Arrow pointing to mission location (Default: On)
• New setting: Level up is automatic (Default: Off)
• New control function: Run mode – Use the ability/energy meter to move 50% faster
• Using the default ability (non-super mode) no longer consumes the full ability bar but half
• Added a brief invincibility period after using a character’s ability
• Added enemy death sounds
• Level up first screen offers now a character stat, weapon, item and consumables/gold (50%). The second screen are for weapon upgrades only
• Level up has more information on the choices
• Hotkey setting also allows selection for upgrades on level up with the number keys
• Large on-screen event messages are gone and moved over to the event log
• Added a heart icon next to player indicating low health
• Gold Ores give gold twice as fast
• Replaced the air alert warning effect with a simple arrow
• Information on how much player is healed is shown above player, also when the game is paused
• Enemy projectiles have an outline and darker smoke for better visibility
• Unlocking new characters does not grant bonus skulls anymore. Kills needed to unlock characters lowered from 2000 to 1000
• Church healing is cheaper initially but more expensive the more times used
• Mission changes: The radius is initially bigger but gets smaller over time, the 2s time limit for outside area has been raised to 5s but being outside doesn’t count for mission goal
• Mission maps change: Goals have been raised to make them more challenging
• Magnet item pull range reduced by ~15%
• Mission health reward reduced max health from +10 to +5
• Multi-Fire consumable no longer doubles the attack rate for weapons
• The first 3 minutes of the game are a bit easier on enemy amount and frequency
• End-game difficulty raised a bit
• Leaderboard shows the power-ups used in the run
• Added Hungary flag to leaderboards

Bugs

• Potential game crash when selling a weapon and selecting a consumable directly after
• Party members had some issues with staying and colliding with the boss arena area
• Weapon upgrade damage numbers were not reflecting the new large numbers e.g. +0.5 was displayed in some areas instead of 500
• Small graphical glitch when using melee primary weapon with auto-aim
• Mission rewards disappeared if opening character screen and coming back (but came back after doing it again)