Hi everyone! I'll cut to the chase:
As you may have seen, I've been working on the game's final major update for a while now. Release is still quite far away, as there's much more to do than I initially expected. In the refactor hotfix you may have seen the "mid July" estimate, which obviously didn't work out. Most of the hold up ended up being technical difficulties in making the game's final boss. I'm happy to say that the boss is now finished, and is easily the most fleshed out and interesting boss in the game. It's a spectacle, and a huge step up in quality! I hope you'll look forward to it!
I've learned my mistake from last time and I won't be giving a new release estimate, not even a rough one. It'll be finished when it's finished, and I find it much more important to focus on quality rather over rushing a deadline. Still, there's a few more cool things I can show off now ahead of time!
Main Menu Visual Overhaul!
Likely the first thing you'd notice in the new update! The main menu currently has a flat grey background, which is very readable but always felt too generic. Given the established OS aesthetic of most of the menu buttons, the following background felt like a natural upgrade!
Obviously this is still kind of a mix of different OS aesthetics, but I think this still looks a lot better! Some existing UI doesn't fit this style (though still looks fine enough) and I'm honestly unsure if I'll get around to overhauling it all, but I at least wanted to be cohesive with a lot of the major/recent stuff.
Dialogue!
Dialogue was something long overdue for this game, as previously only the lore and bios really gave context to what's happening story-wise. It just felt pretty disjointed. I've teased dialogue boxes in the past on social media, but figured I should show this here too!
If only Pandoria would get her attack indicator outta the dang box!!
Dresses!
A little upgrade to the cosmetics! Alternate dresses already existed for the seasonal outfits, but I had a friend request some more early-game options. I wanted to add some more cosmetic stuff in this update anyway, so this felt like an appropriate update to the shop. As usual, these are all obtained with ingame points and can't be bought with real money. Here's a peek at some:
(As shown in the above image, big ups to Rice & Iko for letting me reference one of their outfit designs for the Hijinks set! https://x.com/ikoiko_ho/status/1770715873357029778 )
Several QOL/Player Requested Features!
Such as being able to unlock bullet patterns in practice, switch your hitbox to be on your cursor instead of Brace (the player character), among some other things!
Closing Notes
That's all I wanted to show for now, but this certainly isn't everything planned or even currently finished! Prime example: there's still an entire post-game secret boss fight that's almost finished, but I've excluded here as to not spoil the fun. And new bullet patterns. On top of a lot of general polish, bug fixes, etc. A lot still left to do as well.
Overall progress has been relatively slow, but consistent nowadays. I've started working on this update at around April this year, and trust me, I want it to be out as much as anyone else. It's been arduous wrangling with my old spaghetti code; this entire game was built from the ground up without a proper roadmap, and that development method has led to an agonizing amount tech debt and reworks.
Once again, no estimates on a release date due to the sheer amount of work required. What's important is that I'm working on this update consistently, and I figured I'd showcase some of what I've been up to here! Thanks for reading to this point, and for being patient with me.
If you want to reach me privately about any bugs, suggestions, etc., you can still find me on twitter ( https://twitter.com/Dracoraz ) or send an email to [email protected] ! Oh, and also bluesky is a thing now too ( https://bsky.app/profile/dracoraz.bsky.social )