New Demo Version!

Hey everyone,

a new version of the Divinoids demo has been released. The main course is a new lighting system that allows for dozens of effects and light sources, making the game pop especially at nighttime!

But that's not all; this version also adds over fifty individual changes, improvements and fixes to the game! Here are the full patch notes:

Changes

• Implemented an entirely new lighting system, adding light effects to many of the game's elements. This is a very extensive change across the entire game, but it looks most striking during dusk or night time.
• Added a new slider option that controls the intensity of the new light sources. It can be dialed all the way down to remove the effect for that genuine retro flavor, or all the way up to make them even more dazzling.
• Created an Accessibility Options menu, and moved several options from the Visual Options menu to it (including the aforementioned Light Intensity slider).
• The front part of shield generators' top ring now becomes translucent when a player is obscured by it (much like the foreground bridge pillars already did).
• Gun Jump module no longer attempts to shoot when the player jumps from solid ground, since the projectile would immediately collide with the terrain anyway.
• Pressing Start on a controller when the pause menu is open will now close it.

Balance

• Reduced impact of difficulty on enemy damage and shield advance speed.
• Removed cooldown from the pilot's sword attack.
• Planetary shield no longer retreats when the player dies and continues (it's not necessary anymore, since the shield no longer kills the player).
• The Petrifying Beam module now destroys enemy projectiles on contact.
• Ground shockwaves (from Rocket Hammer, Lethal Landing and Slam Drone modules) now juggle enemies further up, and at a straight up angle rather than up and back.
• Slightly reduced Rocket Hammer module knockback.

Aesthetics

• Completely redone clouds:
  • Clouds now move slowly over time at different speeds. During the Ice Storm hazard, they will move much faster.
  • There are now three separate cloud parallax layers, instead of just one.
  • Clouds further back are smaller than the ones closer to the camera.
  • To better support the above, several new cloud sprites have been added.
  • Internally, clouds are now rendered using particle systems, which should be considerably more efficient.



• At night, the palace-like building and the clock tower now have lit windows, and in the latter's case, a lit clock face.


• Reworked the planetary shield's visuals, including the addition of an hexagonal lattice pattern, as well as more vibrant colors that now include a yellow phase when the shield has covered half the planet.


• Improved Eset's large sprite during her Judgment cutscene.


• Improved Medusa' large face sprite during her Judgment cutscene.


• Improved Eset's shapeshift animation, adding new frames and tweaking the existing ones to make it clearer.


• Magnetic Blades module's visual effect is now larger and lighter in color. Its waves now alternate between red and blue.


• Divinoid pilots' sword animation is now smoother, with new wind up and recovery frames.


• The spaceship's shield-busting beam now causes explosions all along its path, and the smoke caused by it is now less transparent.


• Shield generators' turrets light up animation and lighting sound effects now match the timing of lightning being shot more accurately.


• Bridge shadows are now fainter when the bridge is intact, and gradually become more solid as the broken slabs fall down to the ground. Bridges over lava have even fainter shadows across the board.


• Improved dark filter when a Divinoid's Judgment is used.


• Improved particle visuals and screen shake when a Divinoid or reissue capsule lands.


• Afterimages now quickly but gradually fade into transparency instead of disappearing instantly.


• Afterimages now render further behind so that they don't obscure thruster fire.


• Terrifying Roar echo timing now ignores slowdown effects, like the one when the stage ends; this is consistent with all other echo effects.


• Minor fixes to a couple of Eset's alternate palettes.


• Moved "P1" indicators that point at pilots so that they don't overlap the pilot's sprite, especially during their sword animation.


• Moved [Final Boss] cutscene on certain resolutions like Switch so that the top is not cropped off.


• Slightly raised the camera for resolutions like Switch, so that the objectives indicator at the bottom does not obscure the action, particularly during city stages where the target icons (showing buildings) are taller than usual.


• Slightly increased delay between the Goliath tank exploding and the end of the stage, so that the explosion has time to complete its animation.


• Added a delay between a Battleship exploding and the end of the scene, so that the explosion can play out.


• Improved timing of the whiteout at the end of the planetary shield collapse.


• Very slightly hastened day cycle; days and nights now last for 28 map turns each, up from 30.


• Added screen shake and controller vibration when player capsules, modules or extra heart stations land on the map.


• Increased falling speed of rain during Lightning Storm hazard.


• Increased Medusa's voice pitch by 5%.


• Slightly increased Eset's voice volume.

Fixes

• Fixed issue that caused building types to "lock" in the first visited world and not change across the run. For example, starting at world 1 would cause only brick buildings to spawn for the whole run, preventing any glass buildings from appearing even in later worlds.
• Fixed enemies hit with the Terrifying Roar module while performing an action becoming immobile, even after the terrify state ended.
• Fixed issue during Ice Storm hazard that could freeze players and enemies for much longer than intended. A failsafe thawed players after 10 seconds (much longer than the intended 2 seconds), but the blue tint and ice crystals remained.
• Fixed Blizzard module's ice gust being invisible.
• Fixed issue that prevented Phoenix's feathers from stopping enemy projectiles.
• Fixed issue that caused certain projectiles to go through each other. For example, Eset's Ankhs and tank shells went straight through each other without either detonating.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Walker and Roller mechs' weapons to be incorrectly positioned and / or stop shooting, if the enemies were reused (spawned in earlier waves, destroyed, and spawned again in later waves).
• Fixed Medusa's sprite showing as a question mark on combo tutorials.
• Planetary shield no longer retreats once it fully covers the planet, even when cities or shield generators are destroyed. Although very rare, this could cause a softlock if the player was still within the shield when it retreated behind the planet's edge.
• Fixed the planetary shield sometimes being shown cut off in ultra widescreen resolutions, especially when collapsing or advancing beyond covering the whole planet.
• Fixed one of Eset's extra sarcophagi produced by the Multishot module to be displayed facing backwards.
• Fixed issue that caused elements like cars, traffic lights, street lights, billboards, etc. to be able to hit other such elements when destroyed. This was most noticeable with cars, which often caused a domino chain reaction.
• Wundarbot and Wundanius will no longer attempt to perform their upwards sword slash while jumping, which resulted in part of the animation playing in midair, then waiting until it landed to play the rest.
• Fixed Goliath tank turret beams not being tinted pink when the turret is mind-controlled by the player.
• Fixed some elements like tree stumps always rendering behind the player, even when some of them should be in front.
• [Final Boss] can no longer be moved during its ultimate attack by certain attacks like Eset's staff melee.
• Fixed stuttering when the camera is following the Divinoid deployment capsules from the spaceship to the map (both in the spaceship scene and the map scene).
• Fixed wrong Phoenix's Judgment ash visuals (position / color) for a split second after Phoenix dissipates.
• The sizzle effect where the spaceship's shield-busting beam meets the shield is now properly animated. Additionally it's now colored yellow instead of blue, since the shield is almost always yellow or red by then.
• Fixed animation and lightning shooting timing when a shield generator's turrets are mind-controlled.
• Removed a couple of extraneous pixels from the top of the sprite of the glass building that has a left-slanting roof.
• Fixed errors being logged when a shield generator was destroyed while it was burning.

As always, please reach us for feedback on the comments of this very announcement, or the Steam forums!