v0.3.4 Patch notes - Polishing

With my current focus being on the story mode, it's easy to forget that the game is out, even if it's in Early Access. That's why I took this weekend to fix some outstanding issues with the game as well as do some polishing such as improving performance, size and art quality. One thing I tackled this weekend, and think will pay off in the long run is proper Steam integration. It took some tries, but the game now features it's first set of achievements. They're all related to gathering heroes in the sandbox, but many more will come especially with the story mode. This now opens up the door for things such as Cloud saves, Trading cards and rewards. Since they're non-critical to the completion of the game I'll tackle them when I need a rest from doing other things. I'm also quite pleased with the lighting in this build. More so than previous versions where you could see artificats and oddly placed shadows. Things aren't strangely tinted in blue/green anymore either. Here are the full notes. GENERAL * Added Steam Achievements - Collect all classic heroes in the sandbox - Collect both "Dark Night" heroes - Collect both "Rising Sun" heroes * Updated lighting - Improved shadow quality - More consistent light distribution * Updated water bodies - Easier to reuse - Improved visuals - Performance still needs to be properly evaulated * Added dampening to all physics items in the game to make them feel less floaty * If only one power is equipped, the opposite hand will now use the same texture * Deleted a large number of unused assets * Projectiles no longer interact with invisible collision boxes/spheres THE WITCH * Fixed several issues related to physics and collisions * Reworked aura particles * Added a dark trail to affected object * Added a hit effect * Changed item launch sound effect * Added an impact marker where the launched item hits WHIRLWIND * Fixed an issue where hovering would occur even close to the ground * Fixed an issue that would cause landing to take the player underground SHIELD MAIDEN * Updated shield material * Adjusted hand color PROFESSOR HEX * Removed hand aura * Converted all spells to use the new projectile system * Knockback spell now properly pushes enemies * Slightly increased Blast spell damage * Fixed an issue where the Blast spell was hitting enemies multiple times ALLOY * Projectiles no longer interfere with movement abilities As you can see a big focus of this update was getting the new projectiles to behave as well as or better than the previous ones. There's currently an issue with the way projectiles are pooled, and it's something I'll look at in the next update. Since I started this project with no idea on how to 3D model, texture or create particle effects, I bought a lot of assets online. Some are still in the game, and I'm slowly phasing them out in favor of custom art. After a huge purge of such assets, the file size of the game is now more than 100MB lower than before. That's almost 25% less space for a version that's got a lot of new assets in it. For this patch I spent quite a while figuring out what I wanted to do with The Witch (Telekinesis). Her power didn't really feel impactful to use, despite it's high damage potential. Now after having a few new particle, decal and sound effects added and all the old ones changed, she feels much more like the dark, ominous presence she was meant to be. Some work was put into an official site for the game, and I'll be sure to link it here as soon as it's live, for now you'll have to settle with the Facebook page. I've also been making progress on the story of course, mostly in the form of comicbook panels, which will be used as cinematics between missions. I certainly have my work cut out for me, but with the support I've gotten I so far I can't help but feel optimistic. Unless I keep playing Splatoon 2 this much of course..