Demo Overhaul (again)

Demo overhaul (again)

Hello everybody! Welcome to the second patch notes for From the Top!

So, last time the game did release in a bit of a rough state. Definitely better than the original original release, but still not quite a polished product. This time around, we’re focusing on rebalancing, bug squashing, and some much-needed QoL improvements!

One thing to note: this will probably be the last patch notes for the demo specifically (unless further game breaking bugs are discovered), as we shift focus toward adding more content into the base game rather than adjusting the demo.

Anyway, read away!

QoL Improvements

• Drag & Drop Feedback Dragging and dropping tops now shows where they’ll move during the hover, rather than waiting until the mouse button is released.

• Quick Launch Swap Moving a top to the first position (i.e., the launch position) can now be done by dropping it into the center of the screen.

• Select Border Fix The selection border around tops now correctly fits the UI element, rather than being oversized—especially important in the shop, drastically improving usability.

• Boss Stage Visuals The boss stage now has a cool new background effect! It looks very red.

• VFX Improvements Some VFX have been made more visible and impactful.

• Launch Speed Scaling Launch speed now scales with remaining health, you can’t just launch early before the countdown end anymore.

Balance Changes

Parts

• Princess

  • Upper force reduced: 1.4 → 1.2

  • Flame Princess has been too centralizing as a starter top. Its role as a strong attacker has been nerfed to align better with other options.

• Control

  • Recovery speed increased: 0.5 → 1

  • Control Wheel hasn’t had comparable win rates or usability. This buff should bring it in line while preserving its core weaknesses.

• Wheel

  • Now reduces stamina consumption by 20%

  • Despite being the stamina type blade, it lacked any sort of advantage. Now it does! cool and epic!

• STN30 → STN50

  • The flagship driver for stamina tops now has even more stamina!

  • Still weak to knock-offs, but now leans harder into its identity.

• CTN25 → CTN35

  • Same reasoning as STN

• Stone

  • Cooldown halved

  • Spawn animation duration increased

  • Pillars now come out more frequently, but more slowly. Less like parry shields, more like “build your nest.”

• Shield

  • Weight increased 3×

  • Shields can now tank hits more passively, letting you recover even if you fail to use your ability in time.

• Guard Ability

  • Weight increase reduced from 4× to 2×

  • Now has slight movement control while active!

  • This balances its buffed base weight with a more manageable guard effect.

Boss Balance

I love the concept of a final boss that’s hard to kill traditionally—but I don’t love that there’s only one easy method that trivializes it.

• Health reduced: 7 → 3

• Now fully upgraded:

  • 50 base stamina

  • Super heavy

  • Ability is active most of the time

• This makes each life feel more impactful and less like a grind.

• Vile

  • Added motion damping to its AoE. Reducing effectiveness of direct attacks while active.

  • Rewrote the math for its sucking effect (it was frame-rate dependent... oops).

Upgrade Balance Changes

After testing, one thing is clear: upgrades were overtuned for some parts (blade and ability) and almost useless for others (driver). You also can just endlessly upgrade, which is bad They also just cost too much if they weren't meant to be that strong.

• Blade Upgrade

  • Weight increase 0.2 → 0.05

  • This can literally invalidate type advantage if left uncheck

• Ability Upgrade

  • Ability recovery speed increase 50% -> 30%

• Driver Upgrade

  • stamina increase 5 → 10

  • Turns out high stamina isn’t the problem I thought it was.

• Every upgrade can only go up to 3 now

• Upgrade base cost $6 → $4

Tops

• Replace Storm interceptor with Ice Princess

  This is a bit of a weird one, but in simple terms I don't like how Flame princess is pretty much your only choice for attack type. Originally Interceptor was made as the second attack type in the demo, as sort of a defense-attack hybrid. Unfortunately, no matter what I try nothing quite feel as good as simply hitting your enemy really hard. so here's another top that can hit enemy hard.

Feature

• Meta Progression and save system!

  • Codex now tracks discovered tops.

  • Jack is now an unlockable character who can use any top in your Codex.

  • Progress is now saved between game sessions!

• Credits Credits Credits

  At long last, we now have a credits page! Thanks to everyone who made FTP possible. Whether directly on the team or through open-source or public domain work!

• Removed 'bonus $ earning modifier' on parts

  The idea for this one was to function as a mini passive benefit for having certain parts on your team. In effect nobody really notice this and it just overwhelms player further with unnecessary information. It has now been removed and gold earning has been increased to compensate.

• Encounters & Map

  • A new encounter! Sanctuary!

    I've been meaning to add a new encounter that functions as sort of a 'resting place' common to a lot of roguelikes. The new encounter sanctuary allows you to repair all your tops or revive one of your previously broken one. For free!

  • Fight Encounter Streamlining

    Fights now display a universal encounter icon, rather than describing each fight individually. This reduces visual clutter though at the cost of some player knowledge and decision-making clarity.

  • Removed Second Stage (Temporarily)

    For now, this second stage of the demo will be removed until further notice due to development constraint.

  • Streamlined Tutorial

    We're adjusting the length of the tutorial and streamlining it down to only the necessary part. This moves it inline with the removal of second stage

  • Upgrade Encounter Consolidation

    This effectively reduces the amount of randomness in map choices and give more flexibility when upgrading

  • Unified Shop

    Similar to Upgrades, combining both of the shop into one gives more flexibility while reducing randomness in player choice.

  • Fight Encounter dis-disambigousness

    Fights now also only display a universal encounter instead of describng each fight individually. Less clutter in exchange for less option and player knowledge

Bug Fixes

• Tutorial shop now shows correct starter tops instead of stage 3 ones.

• Multi-top enemies are now only defeated after all their tops are destroyed.

• Spike City (Relic) now actually works with Stone Fortress.

• You can’t swap tops during end-of-round to save them from destruction anymore.

• Enemy tops no longer spawn under the arena, instantly KOing themselves.