Stella
The first DLC for hexceed is here! Introducing Stella, a whole additional world for hexceed bringing in 110 new puzzles for you to enjoy!
Check out the store page here
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1494330
Commendations Revamp and Hardmode!
Some of you may have noticed that when you complete a world, you may receive a small icon next to the milestone progress. That's because you completed a hidden challenge in that world! I realize that most people won't have seen this because they were VERY hard to achieve by accident. At launch, we had 3: completing the world in one session; without any fails; without using the clue button.
From your feedback, it seemed that you liked the idea of bringing additional challenges into the game. In addition to incorporating your suggestion of having an optional hardcore mode, we are revamping the commendations system!
Firstly, we have changed how hexceed calculates the unlocking of these awards. Previously, your progress was tracked as a single stat for the whole world. This was not ideal, as if you failed one of the conditions, you would have to restart the whole world from the beginning. As per the feedback from the community, we have changed this to a level by level based system. This means that you can replay a level to complete the challenge for that specific level. Then if you complete the challenge on all levels in a world, you unlock the award.
Secondly, we have added an additional two awards to collect, bringing the total to 5:
- Hardcore mode - Complete with hardcore mode enabled. More details on this new setting below.
- No clues used - Complete without using the clue button that pops up towards the end of some levels.
- No fails - Complete without a single mis-click.
- No highlights used - Complete without using a highlight. There is a new setting to disable highlighting to make this easier.
- Completed in one session - This award still behaves as before and will only appear if you start a world and complete it without closing the game.
Thirdly, to coincide with the new level by level progress tracking, we have added a few more features to the game to show you which levels still need to be completed for each commendation. Now, when you complete every level in a world, the infobox will show each award instead of the completion progress. You can click on each of these awards to show which levels you have completed with a challenge and which you have not. So you can easily go back and try them again. When all levels are completed for a challenge, the award will solidify, signifying that you have the commendation.
I would just like to say that all of the above is completely optional, designed for the hardcore players of the game who want more of a challenge. We still want to keep the focus of the game as relaxing as possible, and because of this, we won't be gatekeeping any Steam achievements with this commendation system.
hexceed v1.1 Patch Notes
New Features
- Stella World
- Commendations revamp - As described above.
- New "Hardcore Mode" option in the settings menu. - For you mad people who want the game to be more challenging! When enabled, there will be no safety net; if you make a mistake you will be reset back to the start of the level.
- New "Disable Negative SFX" option in the settings menu. - As suggested by the community, this setting was added so you don't get taken out of the relaxed momentum! When enabled, the sound effect that plays when you make a mistake will be replaced with the regular positive sound.
- New "Disable Clue" option in the settings menu. - You don't actually need the clue popup to complete the game! It is just a hint to the player that you may need to look at some of the gray spaces to continue. When this is enabled, the clue will never pop towards the end of a level.
- New "Disable Highlight" option in the settings menu. - Clicking on a hex usually reveals which hexes are in its influence. When enabled, the highlighter will no longer function! Leaving you to work it out yourself.
- New Settings Menu - Wooo, exciting right! In an attempt to make the settings menu a little less cluttered and confusing for people, it has now been changed to a tabbed approach, with four tabs: Audio; Controls; Game; Display.
Bug Fixes and Misc
- Fixed a bug where left-clicking and right-clicking at the same time would lock a hex.
- VSync is now enabled by default.
- The camera now can pan closer to the edges of each level. So players can keep hexes more central.
- You can now zoom out further.
- Reduced game size. (From approximately 3.7GB to 0.6GB)
- Changed the art for highlighting hexes. Instead of highlighting the hexes yellow, each hex is given a gray border. This should make it much more readable.
- Increased scroll speed for display dropdowns, settings menu, credits page, and intro screen.
- Added some more detail to the controls screen.
- You can no longer return to the main menu if your progress is being taken back after an incorrect click. This is to stop people from cheating their way through hardcore mode. (We know you would try it, don't lie).