SPUD CUSTOMS 1.4.0 - THE STATE ISSUE UPDATE
Officers, this is our biggest update since launch. 1.4.0 rebuilds the look of the entire checkpoint, gives every minigame real hand-made art, overhauls the dialogue and audio experience, and upgrades the game to a new engine version for better stability across the board. Grab your stamp - there's a lot to process.
✦ A NEW LOOK: THE "STATE ISSUE" IDENTITY
- Full UI redesign: The HUD, shift summaries, and menu chrome have been rebuilt around a cohesive "State Issue" visual identity - bureaucratic, oppressive, and readable at a glance.
- Booth-palette consistency: Dialogue panels, the history overlay, and in-game screens now share one unified color language instead of clashing styles.
- Portrait motion: Character portraits now move and react during dialogue for a more alive booth.
✦ STEAM DECK & CONTROLLER SUPPORT
- Steam Deck support: The game now detects Steam Deck and Big Picture mode and starts in controller mode automatically.
- On-screen keyboard: Steam's on-screen keyboard pops up for text fields (feedback form, Twitch channel) on Deck and Big Picture.
- Steam Rich Presence: Your friends can now see which shift you're working from your Steam status.
- Overlay-aware pausing: The game auto-pauses while the Steam overlay is open and restores your previous state when it closes.
- Shipped a Steam Input action manifest for proper controller configuration out of the box.
✦ MINIGAMES OVERHAUL
Every inspection minigame has been rebuilt with real artwork replacing the old placeholder graphics:
- Code Breaker: A CRT terminal frame, textured keypad, color-coded feedback pips, and a vault lock that cracks open on success.
- Fingerprint Match: Eight real fingerprint cards on a clipboard reference board, with clear check/X pick indicators.
- Document Scanner: A proper desk and SPUD ENTRY VISA document with five hidden elements (seals, signatures, barcode) to reveal under a UV flashlight cursor.
- Stamp Sorting: A customs desk with wooden APPROVED / DENIED bins and eight stamped-paper documents.
- Border Chase: A scrolling conveyor belt and scanner frame overlay.
- New Terminal minigame frame plus SUCCESS / TIME UP splash art with satisfying pop animations.
- Widescreen minigames: All minigame viewports converted from 4:3 to 16:9 to match the new artwork, with sprite and readability polish across the board.
✦ DIALOGUE & NARRATIVE
- Character chatter voices: Characters now vocalize as their text reveals, matched per-character with a generic fallback.
- Dialogue pacing options: Set text speed (Slow / Normal / Fast / Instant) and toggle auto-advance in the Game options tab. Your choice is saved and applied at startup.
- Terminal dialogue style: A diegetic amber-CRT dialogue style for in-world screens.
- History overlay restyle: Review past dialogue in a themed leather-and-brass panel with proper multi-language font support.
- Fixed 13 broken audio paths in narrative timelines so scenes play their intended sound.
- Literary easter eggs: New dialogue, ration labeling, and passport names nod to the dystopian classics that inspired the game - keep an eye out for a certain quid pro quo. Fully translated into all supported languages.
- Story pacing: The Ministry's Root Reserve denial broadcast now airs in shift 5 instead of shift 2, landing where the story earns it.
- Restyled the dialogue Skip button to match the History button.
✦ AUDIO
- Full audio remaster: Every sound in the game has been normalized to a consistent -5 dBFS true-peak loudness standard. No more jarring volume jumps between music, effects, and dialogue.
✦ QUALITY OF LIFE & PROGRESSION
- Daily leaderboards are now created automatically so you always have a fresh board to compete on.
- Paper-card feedback: Points and citations now arrive as styled paper cards, and the central alert banner is a proper stamped paper notice - no more floating debug-style text.
- Clearer game modes: Score Attack and Daily Shift menus are easier to read, and the Score Attack date now displays correctly.
- Better loading screens: Larger text plus gameplay tips while you wait.
- The rules pamphlet scrollbar is now actually usable.
- Open citations are automatically filed to the trash when a shift ends, so they no longer linger under the shift summary.
- Improved tutorial flow and retired the outdated lever tutorial.
- Session playtime tracking and day-one retention improvements.
- Localized the end-of-demo upsell panel and dozens of new UI strings across all supported languages.
✦ ACCESSIBILITY & LOCALIZATION
- New dialogue pacing and auto-advance options localized in all 29 languages.
- 13+ new interface strings (skip button, minigame feedback, evidence controls, round counters) translated across all 31 locale files.
- The evidence-destruction minigame is now fully localized.
- Accessibility color tests updated for the new UI palette.
✦ STABILITY & BUG FIXES
- Engine upgrade: Spud Customs now runs on Godot 4.7 with the matching GodotSteam 4.7 template, improving overall stability.
- Steam startup crashes: Fixed a class of errors where the game called Steam features before Steam had finished initializing, which could spam errors (or crash) when the Steam client was present but not fully logged in.
- Scene-transition crashes: Fixed crashes and hangs that could occur when starting dialogue or changing scenes mid-shift, including footprint-pool and border-runner cleanup errors.
- Fixed missing stamp sound-effect errors during stamping.
- Fixed Dialogic parse errors introduced by the engine upgrade.
- Fixed overlapping notifications: missile alerts no longer cover violation reveals, quota milestone popups no longer stack on each other, and point cards stagger into a readable column.
- Fixed menu button hover and focus states that had poor contrast, plus assorted HUD overlap issues.
- Fixed a crash in shift-failure tracking when striking out.
- Fixed leftover debug hotkeys (F6-F8) interfering during gameplay shifts.
- Reduced background error-report noise from benign engine warnings.
✦ UNDER THE HOOD
- Completed a full migration of the automated test suite to GdUnit4 (684 tests) for faster, more reliable release checks.
- Refreshed crash-reporting so build versions are tracked correctly going forward.
Thank you, as always, for playing Spud Customs and for the feedback that shaped this update. Papers ready, officer - the line is waiting.
- Lost Rabbit Digital