This major update adds the last two stages of the game (including the final boss) bonus modes and content and many fixes and improvements. With this update we consider Assault Android Cactus to be at Alpha, an important milestone in development!
Features
- new Title music
- new Credits music
- Zone 4 boss Venom has intro and outro text dialogue. You may want to replay him to follow the story!
- new level Collider (zone 5 - 4) introducing a mysterious sub-boss!
- new whitebox Final Boss - Medulla
- Rebalanced Control (zone 5 - 2) - as a result, its leaderboard have been reset
- new game mechanic - credits. Earn them by playing to unlock bonus stuff
- new feature Codex - as you progress through the game, unlock entries on characters, enemies and world that Cactus is set in
- new feature EX Options - use credits to purchase cool and/or strange extra gameplay modes
- new feature Jukebox
- new feature Sound Test
- audio cues added for full weapon cooldown and when you can't swap to your secondary weapon due to overheat
- bosses blink their lights when they talk
- Tutorial refinements
Fixes
- fixed an issue that was disabling HDR if you set graphics settings to Custom - has a noticeable impact on bloom
- improved responsiveness of Daily Drive stage clear leaderboards and trimmed the opening timing
- fixed interface issues related to Character Select and Unlock screens
- handled a case where Steam Overlay could cause the game to stay paused
- Starch's Micromissiles take in account target size
- Spectres (teleporting enemies) no longer leave thin vertical lines behind if you kill them during a teleport
- Leaderboard joypad buttons no longer slightly squished (seriously, this was bugging me so much)
- many smaller tweaks and fixes
Whew! So this is a pretty big update, the two final levels of the game plus a bunch of new ways to explore the entire game.
To see a full breakdown of the EX Options, check our latest Blog Post!
Why has AAC been 'Pre-Alpha' until now?
We were getting this question a lot! - people questioned why we were 'pre-alpha' when large portions of the game seem close to complete. For many 'pre-alpha' seems synonymous with 'prototype' or 'broken'.
The simple answer is "Pre-Alpha" and "Alpha" can describe various stages of development but Alpha is "gameplay complete". For Assault Android Cactus to reach Alpha means all characters, levels, weapons, enemies are present and accounted for.
What's next?
Our next major milestone will be Beta. In the following updates we will be replacing placeholder art, adding missing animations and fleshing out story content and ex modes. Thankyou so much to everyone who as supported us so far and I hope you enjoy the ride as we head for the finish line!