Hey all,
First, a massive thank you for every single review that's been left for Katanaut. They are incredibly valuable for a small game developer like myself, and I genuinely appreciate everyone who's taken the time to write one. If you haven't already, I would be very curious to hear what you think of the game <3
Since the major update and performance overhauls, the leaderboards have also completely exploded. Before the update, I was usually seeing around 50 to 100 players submitting runs. Since then, we're getting close to 10x that, which is honestly kind of unfathomable to me. Here's a quick look at how many players have completed Warp 0 through 4 so far, taken directly from the leaderboard submissions. The leaderboards will reset on the 31st, with rewards handed out then and a new season starting right after :)
Aside from that, today's update is a smaller patch before the weekend that pulls together a bunch of feedback I've seen through the game, socials, and other discussions over the last few days.
Thank you again for all of the support. I read everything that comes my way, and I'm always interested in hearing what you think and finding ways to make the game better :)
Core:
- The leaderboard achievement(No. Big. Deal.) now unlocks for a top 50 placement on any leaderboard instead of top 10. I underestimated how much participation there would be in the leaderboards after the major update, so getting top 10 on any of the leaderboards is much more challenging and a massive blocker for people hunting achievements.
- Chests, vending machines and claw machines now have a rare chance to drop a single boss orb. Hoping this will help with unlocking Katana skills.
- The Keeper's collection menu now fills in much faster when opened.
- Climber zombies now leave a red afterimage trail when they leap at you from walls and ceilings.
- The Katana's Exchange tab now works both ways: you can convert Boss orbs back into Void crystals.
- The minimap is now easier to read: it is clearer in the corner, sharper, more opaque, and 20% closer when enlarged, and drop-through platforms appear in their own gray shade.
- Gamepad: the Offhand Aiming Joystick setting now has a D-Pad option. With it selected the D-Pad aims everything the joystick would (guns, offhands, grappling hook, melee, skills, dashes and the crosshair), for anyone who rebinds movement to the D-Pad.
Balance:
- The Gravity Manipulation warp mutation that enemies in warp 1+ occasionally get(slowed you inside their aura) has been removed from the mutation pool for all enemies and bosses. I dont like it, and its overall not fun at all for a game that prioritizes crazy movement.
- Ninjato damage roughly doubled at low upgrade levels, tapering to about a 40% increase at max.
- Thornmaw (sewer elite) has been reworked to be fairer: its dash now has a longer, clearly telegraphed wind-up (red glow), is slower, no longer tracks you mid-dash, stops on walls, and has a real recovery window afterward. Its attacks also trigger from a shorter range and have a longer cooldown. Its leap is now a real jump that commits to a direction, arcs through the air, and lands facing the same way, with a red arc and impact box showing exactly where it will land during a longer wind-up. It will now also leap at you from range to close the gap, landing on your position rather than a fixed distance.
Bugs:
- Fixed the ammo bar running off the screen when you stack a lot of ammo syringes: ammo icons now wrap onto extra rows under the first one, and the cooldown tray moves down so it never sits on top of them.
- Fixed a big lag spike (worst on Steam Deck) when killing an echo during the Warp 3+ echoes event: its loot burst (gems, void crystals, items) now spawns spread across several frames instead of all in one frame.
- Fixed Avarice Engine's flying lasers dealing invisible damage. Hitboxes now match the beams exactly on every warp.
- Fixed the run time overlapping the "Cause of death" text on the death screen (seen on Steam Deck / larger text sizes).
- Fixed the run timer carrying over into the next run if you skipped ahead quickly during the ending after beating the Doctor.
- Slow Time no longer stays active through the final boss ending and into the next run.
- Fixed inconsistent minimap backgrounds in some rooms, including Level 3, while keeping unexplored areas hidden by fog of war.
- Fixed gamepad panning on the enlarged minimap so all directions work correctly.
- "Reset all controls" now also resets the Offhand Aiming Joystick option back to Left stick instead of leaving the menu showing the old choice.
- Sliding with a dedicated slide bind now stands you up when you release it, the same as releasing Down on the Down + Roll chord, instead of riding the slide out until it stops. A quick tap still gives a full slide. Dodge-rolling out of a slide started with the slide bind now works right away, the same as the Down + Roll slide.
- Iron Fang: Guard Style now triggers on the tap parry as well as on a blocked counter, matching its description. Counter Cascade's description now correctly says it resets the counter cooldown.
- Iron Fang: Steel Discipline's shove now also fires when you parry from the block stance, not just on the tap parry. Matador's description now says it needs the yellow attack warning.
- Iron Fang: Guard Style's shield is now visible: a steel bubble over your hearts and a shield sprite behind the player while it is up, and both of its cooldowns (shield, and green-tinted stamina refund) show in the cooldown tray.
Happy hunting! See you soon.
- Eugene | Solo dev