Hi everyone, the updated demo just went up for Steam Next Fest. I have attached all the changes relevant to the demo build below. I have already received some submitted bug reports for the new build. So we will get on those ASAP. Thank you!
v0.0.6 Demo Update
Gameplay
Added tower tech trees with branching upgrade paths and module nodes
Utility cards now play directly from your hand for instant effects
Cards now have rarities
Added a tower-card upgrade option in the shop
Reset your tech tree at the shop to refund spent matter and respec
Cores no longer stack, each core is now a unique item
Shield is now a generated resource (removed the flat +20 shield at level start)
Enemies now scale smoothly with their mass instead of in discrete steps
Rewards are now granted after each level
The shop now appears after the Rewards screen
Added 3x speed mode
Added an opt-in run timer in Settings (off by default)
Hardened the save system with run-scoped wave checkpoints and auto-save
Content
New VEND-O-LAB themed shop
New enemy model and physics behavior
Fresh environment art and a visual polish pass across the whole game
Balance
Enemies move a little faster and pacing is tighter
The shop offers more variety instead of repeating towers you already own
Quality of Life
Reworked in-game HUD: new health and shield bars, BUILD/ATTACK phase indicator, and a wave info panel listing enemy types and sizes
New full-screen deck browser showing your draw, hand, and discard piles in one place
Cards in hand feel better: smaller at rest, hover to enlarge, smoother drag-to-play
New animation-speed setting: Normal, Fast, or Faster
Placement grid when picking up a tower so you can see exactly where it lands
Scroll to rotate a tower while placing it
Left-click and drag to reposition a placed tower
Added camera rotation in Campaign
Settings screen fully redesigned with clearer sections
Updated How to Play screen, plus an in-game tutorial tip on first tower placement
Tutorial videos back on the loading screen when heading into a level
Matter, energy, and shield read more clearly with color coding in UI and descriptions
Keyword highlighting in card descriptions with clearer card text
Increased size of the right-click tower radial menu
Continue button on the main menu quick-resumes your last run
Added a "Game Saved" indicator when progress is committed
Cooldown indicator toggle in Settings (on by default)
Bug reports now support annotated screenshots
Collection screen sortable by Rarity or Unlock Status
More context-aware cursors
Default graphics quality auto-detected on first launch
Wave-start announcement plays as a skippable transition
Added game-speed persistence setting
Patch Notes screen with full version history
Build size cut roughly in half; campaign levels optimized for performance
Localization
Four new languages: Italian, Thai, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Locale-specific CJK keyword matching, improved singular/plural across all 12 languages, and locale-aware uppercase styling
Bug Fixes
Fixed: You can no longer remove your last tower card
Fixed: UI stretching on ultrawide and other resolutions
Fixed: Quitting the moment you lose no longer dodges the defeat
Fixed: Escape opening the pause menu while a screen was closing
Fixed: Clicks slipping through menus and overlays into the game
Fixed: Soft-lock when resuming a save from the shop
Fixed: Tower move-to-full-refund exploit
Fixed: Rewards/Shop screen still showing on the last level of a region
Fixed: Hand-card cursor parallax leaking below the UI overlay
Fixed: Main menu Continue button showing the wrong checkpoint summary
Fixed: Cores bleeding between runs
Fixed: Rewards card disappearing on scene change
Fixed: Rewards screen auto-progressing when the shop was still needed
Fixed: Unable to buy cores or remove cards in the shop
Fixed: Rewards to Shop to Menu to Escape soft-lock
Fixed: Energy widget invisible on wave 1 of later levels
Fixed: Several crashes, save-migration data loss, and save corruption when deleting saves mid-game
Fixed: Game not pausing when the Steam overlay opens
Fixed: Duplicate and null cards when card-draw bonuses exceeded deck size
Fixed: Memory leaks on run-results and shop screens
Fixed: Clicks during scene transitions starting the wave
Fixed: VSync and frame-rate settings being overridden by the quality preset
Fixed: Unable to cancel a card mid-cast with mouse only
Smaller fixes: modal button highlighting, scroll-view hit area, missing cursor textures, pause-menu notifications, and navigation-button font