Update: v0.8E

Hi everyone!

Development has slowed down on Polymino, as I recently got a new job. This does unfortunately mean that updates will slow down for the rest of the game's development. However, Polymino has come a long way, and I'm determined see it through!

I'm very excited about version 0.8, as it features some very important fixes and new content I've been dying to release!

New Content

• added two new projectile types: "Wave" and "Beams"

• added a new debris effect: "Split"

• added the song from the Steam trailer, "Flurry", to the game

• overhauled an existing song ("Defibrillator")

• removed the song "WTF" (name says it all, honestly)

Quality of Life

• added a setting to autosave replays

• the replay selection menu includes the duration of the replay

• added an option to show player names in-game during online matches and replays

• the difficulty selection screen for local Junk Attack games has received the same UI enhancements as its multiplayer counterpart

• lobbies are sorted in descending order of creation time in the tournament dashboard

• when creating a game lobby for a tournament, only the room code is copied to the clipboard by default, instead of the room code and Steam URL

• it's now possible to give names to each game lobby created for a tournament

Performance

• significantly improved rendering performance throughout the game (in testing I got a roughly 25% improvement in frame rate)

• drastically improved the rendering performance of the menus

• optimized OpenGL shaders

• optimized in-game text chat display

• fixed display and performance issues with scrolling menus introduced in v0.8D

Online Improvements

• you can now modify more game rules in online games, and a summary of the rules is shown in the lobby

• the rules from your most recent online game will persist and be automatically re-applied to the next lobby you host

• sound effects and visual animations (screen shake, screen flash, etc) are now all synced for online games

• changed the way peer connections are handled to prevent issues when disconnecting and reconnecting to the same player

• the game accounts for accepting invites to game or tournament lobbies while already in a game or tournament lobby (or both), choosing to leave or stay in existing lobbies where appropriate

• for non-fatal, online-specific errors, the game will return to the main menu instead of panicking (crashing to desktop)

• internal game timer is now set properly when joining an ongoing game as a spectator

• fixed tracking of each player's wins in multiplayer lobbies

• reduced the amount of logs output during online matches

• fixed bug in how feed messages were displayed in the tournament dashboard

• display player names in text chat with slightly different color when they don't have a profile color

• fixed highlighting the host correctly in the multiplayer lobby menu

Other Changes and Fixes

• deleted unused particle textures

• fixed the dimensions of some menu items

• fixed a menu where Steam usernames with special characters rendered incorrectly

• the game difficulty can no longer increase during intermissions in Gauntlet mode

• fixed a bug where it was possible to attempt to open a replay after deleting it

• added some detection for corrupted replays

• prevented replay file names from starting or ending with a space

• log reader menu handles special characters correctly now

• increased the rumble effect when quick-droping or having junk forcefully added to your board

• the default speed for Junk Attack has been increased from 5 to 10