Hey all! Jon here with your May update! May brought us incredibly close to the demo finish line. Between locking in the core storyline, achieving massive performance optimizations, and polishing up the UI and mechanics, a lot of critical groundwork was laid.
Here is a look at what was built this month:
Performance Optimization
FPS Breakthrough: Hunted down and fixed a major resource drain. By cleaning up the video texture cache for Effekseer animations and disabling unnecessary provoke trail sprites that were rendering every frame, performance skyrocketed. Frame times were nearly cut in half, meaning smooth 60fps on modern rigs and massive improvements on older hardware. No more ghosting or lingering visual artifacts after skills, either!
Narrative Polish
Storyline Locked: The demo storyline is finished and locked in.
Visual Overhauls & UI Customization
Character Promo Cards: Finished creating new "realistic" portraits and official promo cards for the party.
Player Customization: Built a custom window color picker so players can set their UI to whatever aesthetic they want (from dark blue to lime green or hot pink, and more).
Glitch Aesthetics & UI: Added animated icon overlays (glowing, pulsing, shimmering effects to denote different item types) and implemented a slick new glitch-text effect for dialogue and the title screen.
Mechanics, Implants & Balancing
The Implant Shop is Open: Fully stocked the shop with purchasable upgrades like the Thermal Iris, Gorilla Muscle Weave, Memory Wipe Buffer, and EMP Discharge Palms.
Stats & Progression: Renamed "Perk Points" to "Augment Points."
Base Stats: Added talent-raising items and balanced base stats so every single party member has a distinct specialty (the 8/6 rule).
Combat Updates: We also implemented enemy level scaling and added Level 2 versions of our OC modes (Stoic, Warrior, Comrade, Healer).
I got so much done this month and I'm very happy with the progress I've been making! Thanks for reading and see you all next time!