Beta

This should be the final substantial update before merging the outstanding beta changes into the standard release. You can opt into these changes from the Betas section of the game's properties in your Steam library. I expect I may have a few fixes or tweaks to make before the merge to standard, but there are no significant to-do items remaining on my beta list.

Sorry, again, for such a prolonged beta period; there is a lot in here that is sorely missing from the standard release, and I hope to correct that soon. Thank you for your continued support and patience ːtotcordialː!

What's New?

This is mostly a bunch of adjustments to the codex and other UI elements, but there are also (mostly) minor cosmetic changes to several characters, floors, and effects. Most notably, the Mangler and Conflagrator construct minions have been renamed and redesigned; they are now the "Jacked Hammer" and "Fryborg," respectively. I wanted the names to fall in line with the portmanteaus or wordplay of other construct names (like T-Wrecker or Dobermech), and I wanted their visual design to feel more distinctive than just "robotic human." "Mangler" always felt kind of generic, and "Conflagrator" was an awkward mouthful.

There are some bug fixes, too, and the biggest one is a longstanding matching glitch, where you could kind of scramble the mouse around really fast and get the game to swap tiles mid-move. I guess you could sort of cheat this way, but it wasn't very controllable; it was just sloppy that it was possible, and now it should be resolved.

Changelog

Changes:

• Characters now have a subtle outline in the codex
  
• Codex has a new cover, which appears when it is dismissed from the screen
  
• Several characters received coloration fixes or improvements, some new accessories (cultists, pirate-types, deep ones, and bards, for sure--probably others)
  
• Something like a net 100 new names/honorifics were added
  
• Performance improvements, so hopefully the game can continue to run on toasters
  
• Renames and makeovers for the Mangler and Conflagrator
  
• Some characters probably received small stat tweaks, but I'll call out the Forest Spirit for a swap to a caster type unit with a corruption debuff
  
• The fog on the surface should now share assets with the same effect on other floors--it's a different style from before
  
• Smoke particles are less stylized than before; the old particles have felt out-of-place for some time, and I finally swapped them out
  
• When a controller is in use, the cursor is no longer rendered until the mouse is used
  

Fixes:

• Corrected a matching glitch where the grabbed tile could swap mid-move
  
• Clicking grayed entries in codex should go to their unlock page
  
• Floor previews were conflicting with the hoard cover at the bottom of the dungeon
  
• Corrupted character coloration/corruption drip were no longer applying correctly
  
• Corrections to XBox controller mapping
  
• Navigating character cards with a controller encountered multiple nuisances