Hello everyone, hope you guys are doing well. I come today with some big news. First, INX finally reached it's 1.1 version, with hundred of fixes, big and small, most notably the end of the dreaded slowdown that plagued the game since its launched, as well as several other improvements, new achievements, leaderboards, and visual adjustments.
As for the other big news, I took the decision to make the game free, no strings attached, both here on Steam and also in
itch.io, where you can also make a donation. Making this game free was always an intention, and a year before launch I seriously considered releasing it as a freeware title, since it uses so much Creative Commons and public domain artwork and music. My hope is that it would inspire people in the same manner free indie games from the 00's inspired me to become a game developer. Making it commercial, in retrospect, limited its reach and appeal, as it always as an art project as much as a true-blue arcade game. The transition to free will be live as soon as Steam allows it (should not take longer than next week), and i'll give a further notice when it happens.
I understand some players might be bothered with this, specially the ones that bought it on the last sale ; because of that, I am going to give keys for my next game, a Breakout-inspired arcade game called
Things That Bounce and Explode, to be released on Steam early next year to everyone that feels that way. You can sign your email and username
on this form here if you are interested.
Also of note, Steam Cards won't be available anymore; the only way to free games to give them is through extra transactions, so I am considering selling a making-off e-book in the future, which would include some of the short fiction I wrote for the game too; I am too fond of the little stories in the Steam cards to consign them to oblivion (selling the soundtrack is no option though, considering I don't own the rights to any of the game songs).
Now, onto the patch notes; but before that, I also have to apologize for not including the TATE mode I promised before. Due to how the game was coded, turning the screen vertical broke several sections of the game, the menus, how weapons and enemies worked, and much more; a vertical disposition would also need to recode almost the totality of the game, something that would not be feasible for me as of right now. This was a very large project, started in 2013 and is still going on today, so changes like that can be far more laborious than they seems.
On to the fixes:
Updates
-New Achievements: added achievements for each of the 3 secret endings, as well as a previously cancelled achievement for seeing all of the final midboss attack forms.
-New Steam Scoreboards: added a new section of Steam Boards for the Full Loop Mode; this came with a cleanup of previous scores, but highscores should be uploaded as soon as players play any run again.
-You can now have up to six lives on Easy difficulty.
-You can now pause and quit during the Epilogue.
-You can now toggle blinking bullets to aid visibility on the Options Menu.
Bugs
-No more slowdown. Really.
-Fixed several bugs regarding achievements not unlocking, including Vanguard, Sage, Wanderlust, Elevation Through Self-Destruction, One With the Universe and Tchurunarublaze. All achievements should be working properly now.
-Fixed a rare bug that made Venus in Furs second form not appear.
-Enemies on the fall section in stage 3-1 now leave the screen properly
-Fixed movement trails on most enemies not displaying properly
-Several smaller fixes to visuals and gameplay.
I would like to thank all players for supporting the game, even with all its bugs and technical instability. INX is still a pretty special project for me, and I don't see myself quitting support anytime in the near future. As usual, feedback is very much appreciated.
