🚀 M5 – Major Systems, UI, and Polish Pass (v0.9.0)
Update 5 was a large milestone release focused on stabilizing core systems, improving presentation, and moving the game closer to a release-ready state. This update touched nearly every major area of the game, from UI and input to combat, audio, and achievements.
🎮 UI & Menus
Complete UI overhaul
New UI assets imported
Settings Window prefab rebuilt from the ground up
Menu layouts and visuals refined across the board
Added Credits scene
Multiple fixes to settings menu, scoreboard levels, and pause mechanics
Fixes to ground plane and map layer placements
🕹 Input & Controls
Continued work resolving issues with the new Input System
Improved input detection and device switching logic
Fixed navigation inconsistencies in menus
🧠 Gameplay Systems
Added a system for the GUI to track ammo counts on upgraded weapons
Implemented a slowdown effect UI
Enemy weapon logic moved to FixedUpdate for improved consistency
Enemy movement converted to physics-based behavior
Refined enemy spawn timings, speeds, and live-build inconsistencies
🔊 Audio Improvements
Major cleanup of player and enemy shooting audio
Refactored weapon logic to better support audio playback
Adjusted and rebalanced multiple audio files
Added a new music track for the Legal page
💥 Combat & Visual Effects
Explosion color, intensity, and impact improvements
New Player Shader with improved normals
Adjusted post-processing across multiple levels
🤖 Drone System
Began full Drone feature implementation
Added movement to drone projectiles
🏆 Achievements & Steam Integration
Refactored achievement events to remove legacy dependencies
Implemented achievement impulse channel for Steam updates
Hardened achievement manager configuration
First round of achievement testing completed
🧹 Cleanup & Stability
Multiple cleanup passes to reduce technical debt
Fixed spawning issues present only in live builds
Resolved a lighting rotation bug in Neon City
Package updates and dependency cleanup
Numerous small fixes discovered during extended debugging sessions
📦 Version
Version updated to 0.9.0