Hello, I'm here to bring v2026.4.5, the next update to Sunrise, and a very major one at that, considering the game is finally out on Steam, but first:
Sunrise for 30% off!
Sunrise is on sale for 30% off of its normal price until June 8, so grab a copy while you can at 30% of the price!
Okay, now for the changelog:
Additions (features):
The HUD: The Heads-Up Display / HUD is now in working condition, featuring a counter for level time, which can hit a maximum of 10 minutes unless in the Editor to which it's disabled, your score, and the amount of bits you've collected! It also shows score combos when they occur in the top-right too! The Pause Menu is also now available, by pressing [ESC]
Editor's Setup Mode: The Editor's previously "Coming Soon" setup screen is now available. From here, you can rename your level and pick a level theme for the terrain system (updated and mentioned below) to interact with.
High-Contrast Backgrounds Option: Enabling this new option will lower the brightness of the in-game backgrounds which can be useful for the visually impaired.
Photosensitive Mode: Flashing visuals in-game will be lowered, slowed, or removed entirely if enabled in the options!
Spawn Location Movement: You can now move the Spawn Location in your level using on-screen arrows!
Out of Bounds Mode: In the Editor, you can now move the camera out of bounds without being allowed to place tiles or shapes!
Reset Camera Option: The first of many manual camera controls coming soon: an option that resets the camera's position and zoom level to their default starting values.
Content Warning at Boot: When the game first begins, you will see a content warning of what to expect from this game. Note that all mentioned content is not currently featured in-game, but will be included at a later date. This can be disabled in the Options
Steam Workshop Support: You can now upload and download levels directly from the Steam Workshop and either play them normally or load them into the Sunrise Editor!
Casual Mode: Casual Mode is available! Taking damage will prevent you from losing bits, how fun! You can still die though, we're working on something for that one however...
Results Screen: Want to see how awful you did after a level? Now you can! This only applies whenever not in the Editor, however; when completing a level, you can see how much score, bits, and time bonuses you get alongside the rank for your level and applause. Hopefully.
Additions (gameplay):
Springpads: Springpads are a new level object that can boost you in a cardinal direction. You can place them in the Editor to which they are double the size of a normal level tile (64x64), and you can also press R to switch the direction your vertical or horizontal springpad is facing. There are normal springpads and super springpads, of which super springpads are colored and will boost you twice as much.
Boost Orbs: Boost Orbs are small yellow orbs that can only slightly boost you upwards compared to the springpads.
Enemies + Spawners: You can kill people now!...that sounds wrong, but they spawn in via Spawners and try to kill you first, so it's valid.
Bit Collection Sounds + their pitch increasing based on how many you collect in a row and applying score combos when maxed out
Dash's Updated Moveset: The controls have changed and [ENTER] no longer makes you jump. [A] is to Jump, with a double jump ability tagged on, whilst [S] is a mid-air dash.
After-Image: When Dash's speed is high enough, a randomly colored after-image will appear behind Dash.
Level Backgrounds: Alongside Level Themes (previously mentioned), they have their own automatically scrolling backgrounds!
Additions (technical):
Online Services: We're internally testing online capabilities with custom server support! More information on this is coming soon...
Player Debug HUD: If enabled in the options, the bottom right corner of your screen when playing a level will contain debugging information about the Player object's variables
Show Collision Tags Option: You can now enable the visibility of the debugging collision tags for tiles and terrain
Revamped Terrain System: The Terrain system has been revamped. Internally titled "TerrainV2", this uses big chunks of block and nine-slice sprites instead of individual objects, which eliminates the lag of filling in large areas with terrain, but eliminates backwards compatibility with v2026.4.4 created levels
Steam Achievements Support: You can unlock achievements! Currently, there's 23 and only few of those are unlockable due to them actually being in the game.
Faster Fade Transitions + "Perlin Noise" Transition: Fade transitions are being condensed down into one object instead of multiple, alongside a new transition between screens using Perlin Noise, which is calculated on the GPU.
Tweaks & Changes:
Added smooth movement to the Volume Bar whenever scrolling to change the Master Volume
Removed the diagonal lines from the Main Menu's background
Changed the UI Highlight sound yet again
Lowered the opacity of the FPS counter if enabled
Added more minor Editor UI sounds when placing tiles or drawing shapes
The Editor's default background was edited to be slightly darker, alongside a small accent frame around the borders of the level, showing which is in and out of bounds.
Changed the colors on the toasts to the color palette of Dash (red-violet, yellow-orange, and dark-sky blue)
LOTS of very minor sprite touch-ups and small redraws (notable examples including: Dash's player sprites, the Spawn Location, etc.)
Replaced the clock ticking in the Editor with ocean-like ambience
Swapped the arrow button functionality for moving the spawn location to simply clicking and dragging
Updated Version Number (v2026.4.4 -> v2026.4.5)
Replaced most of the UI sounds once again
Replaced most "Toasts" in the Editor with the newer and much more expandable / verbose "Notifications"
Merged the "Save Level As" and "Save Level" Editor buttons into one button
Bug Fixes:
Fixed a bug involving opening a level without saving the previous one and the collision tags from the previous level still being present
Fixed the legacy title sequence's animation occasionally flashing fallback images as a result of not pre-loading the frames
Fixed a bug related to the Objects Palette in the Editor extending off-screen with the wrong dimensions when in Fullscreen
Fixed a bug where room changes would reset the cursor to the wrong sprite
Fixed various Editor bugs related to incorrect offsets with the cursor
Fixed a bug where you could enter the Setup view in the Editor whilst playtesting a level
Fixed a bug where the notifications would move towards the wrong locations instead of sticking to the top right of the screen
Fixed a bug where during the Pre-Game Over screen sequence, you can quit playtesting and cause even more bugs
Fixed a bug where you could press the "Run Level" button in the Project dropdown whilst already playtesting your level and potentially corrupt your save file
Fixed a bug related to the previous one listed where you could press "Run Level" twice or more times during the fade transition
Fixed a crash where spamming the "Next" and "Previous" buttons in the Options would crash the game due to an uninitialized, yet completely unused variable
Removals:
Removed the "Help" dropdown added in v0.3.1 alongside the non-functional "Report a Bug" button and other links.
Not exactly removed, but hid the Chapter 1 Cutscene demo present in previous versions, as time constraints left it heavily unfinished.
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