Important: this update is currently on the beta branch only!
This is quite a significant update, but some things are not finalized, so it only goes into the beta branch on Steam for now.
Here are the major changes:
- Completely new Companion - this covers all the "non-game" part of the game, and it sets the stage for how the story will be delivered too.
- Full mouse, controller and keyboard support for the companion
- Dynamic color change based on level
- New tutorial - this is a video-based approach, vaguely inspired by Frostpunk.
- New levels/introduction to key concepts
- A read/unread flag for all of the tutorial entries
- Tutorial entries available for later viewing in the Companion
- Level start transitions - a "scanline" approach to fading the levels in that provides depth, while being very performance focused
- Performance improvements - some of this was for the new stuff, but lots of work went into performance. Timeline performance still needs addressing, but that's a bigger piece for a future update.
- Some UI/look changes and working towards eventual consistency and what buttons are and how they behave across the entire game.
- All music is now back into the game (currently just randomized, not location-specific)
- Lots of other small changes, including shadows/lighting improvements, bugfixes, etc.
Here's an example on how the "scanline" transition looks for the Asian location:
And a poorly compressed gif of the companion showing the perspective and color change:
