The Big 1.0 is here for The Windzen Hero!

Big news! The Windzen Hero is finally complete!

So what was the hold up? The original Entertainment Hero had one final level and a rather underwhelming final battle against a big robot version of Hero. We set out to remake that final level and we found when we were done that we just had too many stage mechanics left behind. A second final stage was born!

When it came time to remake the final boss we knew we needed something more exciting than what we had so we abandoned the old boss and started from scratch. We were very happy with what we made but we realized to our dismay that the entire fight only took about a minute to clear, tops. That wouldn't do at all. We turned our attention back to the original game's finale and reimagined it.

The bottom line is that original game's singular final stage became two final stages and the sad one-phased final boss battle became a far greater two-phased final boss battle. We really hope you enjoy it and the other improvements that 1.0 brings!

Now what? Even with the game complete we still have a few changes and small improvements left to make that will be coming next week. New and better Library artwork will be coming in the next few days.

Here are the full patch notes:

-=-=-=- THE WINDZEN HERO Version 1.0-=-=-=-

• Added Direx Stage 1
• Added Direx Stage 2
• Added Final Boss Battle

GENERAL UPDATES -

• Added a screen to the pause function in every playable scene of the game after the title screen, with dialogue about the current stage and a looping video showing the original 'Entertainment Hero' version of the stage
• Changed up how lighting works allowing for deeper colors, more striking materials, softer shadows and better reflections
• Added each stage's theme to the level select maps that fade in and out as their portals are approached
• Serious adjustments to volume levels across the game
• Added a rotational effect to Hero's death particles
• Adjusted Hero's ladder climbing animations for much smoother transitions between climbing directions
• Hero can no longer shoot while on ladders. The stage design never calls for it and it was breaking animations under certain conditions
• Fixed the Air Land teleporter in the All-Stage Access Debug Map
• Added teleporters to the Direx Stages, the DirexBot Hall and the Final Battle to the All-Stage Access Debug Map
• Hero's entrance animation now has a sound effect attached to it
• The ladders across the game no longer use basic models and materials
• Fixed a bug that caused Hero's shots to occasionally activate their 'colliding' particle effects at spawn rather than on collision

INTRO STAGE -

• Platform Carriers and the Ceiling Cannon now have their sounds set to pause when the game pauses

METAL LAND -

• Pathed Gearblades have been made invulnerable as they were in Entertainment Hero but now stop briefly at two path points, making them more of timing puzzle than an enemy to destroy
• Added a visor to the Peak-a-Bot enemy
• Added battery gems to the Astronomer
• Added a new electric prong model to the GroundMagnets
• The stars in the background at the end of the stage no longer conflict with the whites of the Gearblade's eyes

AIR LAND -

• Raised the volume of the sound effects made by the disappearing blocks
• Replaced the decorations around the broken battery platform
• Added a cool glowing green power meter to the side of the broken battery contact
• Added interior mechanisms to the Rocket Launcher to give it a bit more life
• Added a red power source to the Multi-Hit Crystal Structure
• Added sound effects to the FigureHead boss fight
• Added sound effects to the Rocket Launcher
• Added damage-on-touch colliders and blocked shot effects to the BoomerOrb Cannon enemy
• The Figurehead boss had his animations improved

CRASH LAND -

• Added a stand for Console 2 so it isn't just floating on empty space
• Added cool electrified prongs to the Plasma Thrower
• Added a projector for the Direx emblem at the start of the stage
• Graphics from an easter egg from the original 'Entertainment Hero' have been removed from the background

BUBBLE LAND -

• Added "eyelids" to the Seeking Mine enemy
• The underwater ambience is now set to pause when the game pauses

HEAT LAND -

• The moving platforms at the end of the stage have all received a bump in movement speed
• Added much needed sound effects to the Lava Buckets
• Added visible detail to the background bolt so it can be seen rotating
• Lowered the volume of the ambient gear turning sounds
• Fixed an issue where too many sound effects playing at once could cause the music to temporarily cut in and out
• The rotation of the conveyor gears sound effects are now set to pause when the game pauses

QUICK LAND -

• Added turning screws to various block platforms to give the foreground a more energetic feel
• Added modeled position markers to Vanamo's gear shifter
• The Electrogron enemies in Quick Land no longer display the purple sprites from the Crash Land visual swap
• The final platform is no longer missing its details
• The stabbing spike plates now have a sound effect tied to their action
• The falling platforms now have a sound effect tied to their action

WOOD LAND -

• Oh boy. Wood Land has been completely overhauled. It's a brand new stage
• The Weather Conductor, the giant animatronic woman seen in the game's trailer, is now active
• The Weather Conductor changes the weather to make the stage more difficult the longer the player remains in the stage

FLASH LAND -

• The final Gate Orb is no longer missing its collection sound effect
• The second to last and the final Ghost Platforms now move at nearly double the original speed

KNOWN ISSUES -

• The timer that judges when to spawn the effect for a live bullet disappearing currently doesn't stop while the game is paused. This doesn't effect the lifespan of fired shots, just the visual effect spawning in earlier than it should when the game is unpaused.
• If you pause the game at any time that the camera is shaking it will continue to shake indefinitely moving in random directions. You can use this to see out of bounds if you want to. While we have no solution to this issue at present we didn't feel it was worth blocking out the entire screen while paused just to cover it up should the player meet the proper conditions to trigger it. Until we see it crash the game or cause a real problem it's on our backburner
• Similarly, pausing during the final battle's first phase offsets the camera a short distance. We've deduced that the cause is the short animation tied to the camera that happens towards the end of the battle. We have no solution currently but we don't feel it's causing enough trouble to get rid of the camera animation
• The Blade Flyer enemy still has some issues with respawning in Heat Land. It will likely be replaced with a complete rebuild in the future.

-=-=-=- ENTERTAINMENT HERO Version 1.1-=-=-=-
The original Entertainment Hero remains at Version 1.1 in this update