Hey there!
We've been hard at work on ARTIUS at our little hideout, and development has been moving so quickly that the public demo has had a hard time keeping up. To give everyone a better taste of the project, we've put together a new demo update focused on quality-of-life improvements, gameplay polish, and making the experience more welcoming for newcomers.
There are still a few major features we want to bring over from our main development branch, including our brand-new health system, which we've been showing off on social media, and Guga's completely revamped moveset. These additions require a bit more work to integrate into the demo, as we want to make sure they fit the experience and meet the same level of polish as the rest of the game.
Changelog
Level Design & Pacing
Shortened Brilliant Club Act 3 to improve pacing.
Simplified several confusing layouts, including the sandcastle section in Duck Lagoon Act 1.
Improved the readability and visibility of obstacles and interactables, such as valves.
Gameplay & Mechanics
Improved slide fences.
Refined the Gym Runner mechanic with tighter behavior.
Prevented Gym Runners from activating while the player is already Turboing at high speed.
Added and improved a tutorial explaining loops for players new to momentum platformers.
Added an upward arrow prompt when interacting with NPCs.
Reduced the number of Articles spawned from item boxes and Rainbow Circle-related content.
Rebalanced the Turbo system. Walking alone no longer builds Turbo.
Character Updates
Ported Pierre's updated animation sprites.
Added updated rolling and roll-smear visuals.
Visuals & VFX
Improved player trail and Article collection effects.
Updated Turbo trail visuals and related footstep effects.
Reduced excessive visual effects in several situations, including brick breaks and René's note explosions.
Improved Fire effects to better communicate hazards.
Updated Cave Wall VFX tinting for visual consistency.
UI & Menus
Added several quality-of-life improvements across the menus.
Added new menu icons and improved layout and spacing.
Added language icons.
Language selection is now only available from the Main Menu.
Localized the Hold to Skip prompt.
Improved popup visuals and behavior.
Renamed Arcade Mode to Adventure Mode.
Removed player damage from the Main Menu.
Updated "Clube Brilhante" references to "Clube Brilliant" where appropriate.
Bug Fixes
Fixed room name text overlap and fade issues.
Fixed spacing problems in the Options menu.
Fixed issues affecting the Hippie Thrower.
Fixed Rufus' behavior underwater.
Performance & Debug
Cleaned up several debug-only behaviors to ensure debug hotkeys remain exclusive to DEBUG builds.
Improved performance in multiple areas, including Circle Reveal masking, Brilliant Club Act 2 runback sections, and Brilliant Club Act 3 Cave Wall rendering.