Hello there!

Kickstarter prep continues!

We're charging ahead with Kickstarter prep. All $ numbers are locked in, and I'm actually trying to set up a referral program right now so folks without much cash but lots of enthusiasm have a path to higher rewards like creating a character. More when that program is totally sorted!

Wanna get in there first while the Early Bird rewards are still up for grabs? Click below to stay notified!

Aaaand some demo work...

Why no patches since I dropped the initial Lore Update almost a month ago now? Mainly, the Kickstarter work has been incredibly demanding and high-priority. I created 103 custom assets for the Kickstarter page, not to mention about 45k words of page copy (which I admittedly had to heavily edit down... 😅). I've had a huge demo to-do list in terms of quality-of-life stuff for ages, but as usual, lack of time to do everything means de-prioritizing certain stuff. (I mean, I've been literally waiting almost a year at this point to add more bosses to the game and that's the main thing I've wanted since Day 1. I'm patient!) If you ever want to see what's up, I have been doing a TON of art streaming for Kickstarter preview stuff on the community Discord!

I'm planning on making an update on Kickstarter launch day (March 16th March 16th!!) that will add the exciting new opening cutscene to the game, and even more bugfixing and polish. And then after that... is it possible I have some exciting content to drop mid-campaign...? 👀

0.1.07b patch notes:

• Level design & AI
  • You now "pick up" the Scry ability moments after starting the game, rather than having it from the get-go. This gives a chance to draw your attention to it and give you the controls. Unfortunately, communication about the lore system was lacking on first release - I watched a Let's Play where someone had no idea about it and didn't touch it the entire time - and that required some attention.
  • Adjusted how you access one star in the Ruins. It's in the same place but has the vaguest veneer of a puzzle now, vs kind of just being given to you before.
  • Ruins Hound AI tweaked. It's still fast and aggressive, but is a little more of a "bullfight" enemy (as originally intended) where you can't really outrun it but can easily side-step it. Less constantly underfoot dealing touch damage.
  • Ruins Ghoul now has a short pause after its leap attack before continuing to chase you. It's much more manageable, but still very difficult to avoid without the Dash (as intended - it's much, much easier to dodge with the Dash now). It should also be a lot easier to Scry!
  • Made it easier to traverse the Ruins once you had done so at least once (added a shortcut).
  • Trying some new visuals out in the Ducklands. It might be Too Much right now; just testing some colour.
• Golf minigame:
  • Golf has been moved into the Ducklands, as a semi-permanent location. I'll move it deeper into the Ducklands eventually, but this is just making it a bit more accessible right now and trying to shore up the emptiness of those few Ducklands tiles (I only dropped it in the Ruins to give something to 'find' out there back when that update released).
  • Fixed a bug where you could dash while being moved around by the course change and softlock.
  • It should no longer be possible to pay Gamenut and then walk away before having been 'locked in' to play and losing your bits.
  • If you pay for golf once, you won't have to pay again to retry. (You will in the full game - but I'm less worried about that for the demo!)
  • Wait, if golf moved, what's out in the ruins now?
• Misc bugs:
  • The game now has an autosave after you clear the initial wand challenge. I'm not going to be making autosaves common, but that was a specific pain point in LPs.
  • "Wand bug" properly fixed. It took, uh, six tries, but you no longer keep your wand when you collect it, die, and respawn. Sorry, speedrunners! not really sorry
    
  • Fixed some objects being unscryable.
  • Worked on a "flickering" problem in the UI sidebar for some users. Should be fixed now. We'll see.
    
  • Fixed some bugs related to music cue timing - now, if your computer has no audio output, the "got item" music events still recognize when the music is over and will give you the prompt to exit.
  • Fixed a bug where the regular background music wouldn't restart after a 'got item/ability' event.
  • Added a few SFX here and there.
• Some invisible behind-the-scenes architecture stuff adjusted that's going to let me do a lot of very cool visual effects... in the future.
  
• Some other teeny tiny stuff ;)