v 0.8.0 new difficulty setup, experience mode, new font, performance update

Whenever I am to update a demo I get nervous.

With preview builds I just playtest the game for a bit and upload the build. The audience for preview builds is limited and they do expect bugs and glitches.

The public releases are a bit different. And when I plan 2 days for that, they turn into 3 or 4. Because "oh, there's this thing to fix", "this should be different" and so on. I keep a few weeks margin close to the planned release date just for that. Because I will be playing the game then and changing stuff.

It's all those small things. Sometimes bugs, sometimes just stuff that could be improved. A description here and there. Removing hostiles from a certain spot to allow to have a look and figure out where to go. Changing the size of the level. Changing when music is triggered. Making tips stand out by making other parts of the HUD transparent.

A ton of very small things. None actually breaking the game but most having an impact on how the player may experience it.

And there are still bugs. Some that were in the game for a very long time and until recently I noticed them.

It's never "everything works flawlessly and it is ready to go". It's more like "I think I should stop now, release it and focus on the next steps".

And recently the public updates I release are kind of big deals. This one has performance fixes and - the most important feature - new game mode. All to make it smoother to get into "Tea For God".

The update is released, now I should check bug reports, fix them. While working on new content.

List of changes:

• new game/difficulty setup:
  • there are now three game modes: experience (new), standard rules, advanced rules
    • experience rules have linear levels, almost no gameplay systems, start at outer rim, there are no upgrades
    • standard rules are former arcade mode
    • advanced rules are former roguelite mode
  • "what happens when you fail" added that makes it possible to play run-based standard rules (simpler roguelite mode)
    • respawn at spot
    • restart at the last checkpoint
    • restart whole run all over
• added information about room-scale movement that shows after no movement registered or on joystick stick input detected
• when tips are displayed, all other HUD elements are transparent and dimmer
• faster game startup (including precompiled shader caches)
• reorganised chapter names again (train station is now the ending part of "Outer Rim" (I))
• added "Confined in the Air" chapter (III) (preview only)
• new active EXMs:
  • insight EXM - that might be used to learn about devices and robots
  • distractor - makes all nearby hostile characters forget about the player
  • energy manual dispatcher - allows for transfering energy to health or main storages or rebalancing
  • plasma blast - damages enemies around and confuses them
• new passive EXMs:
  • fast charger - to speed up energy transfer for weapons
  • super health storage - main and backup storage work as one storage
  • elevator master - visible elevators operate only for the player
  • damage rewire - increases inflicted and received damage
• for advanced rules, the very first upgrade machine now allows to get all already unlocked EXMs (prioritises not unlocked)
• all explosions now confuse enemies
• added options to disable voiceovers
• new fonts, new door directions, UI uses larger resolution
• minor shader improvements (no sharp lights on Quest, adjusted voxel based details)
• added lights to some of the objects (energy quantums, charger's reactor core)
• changes to light propagation (it extends further but ends when doors face away)
• new shield effect (using hex instead of squares + noisy transparency on Quest)
• added dust particles going up to "floors"
• changed scourer's AI - lurks and moves away from its enemy to use its ricocheting projectiles by shooting from behind a corner
• added decorations on walls
• changed how items are spawned - there are now less items in the level but more may fall out of certain enemies
• increased variety of inaccessible rooms
• fixes for generating corridors (gaps, reversed surfaces)
• fixes for AI and AI spawning
• fixes for elevators (that could move without the player onboard)
• fixed certain robots missing their parts (handles on back etc)
• optimisations