Demo Update: 0.25.4

Hi there! Next week, the Steam Deckbuilder festival is kicking off, so I've been working on a nice big demo update for you all to enjoy. This update contains pretty much all of the work on the game I've done since last November, so it's a bit of a big one. In other news, I've got a fancy new Trailer with a release date announcement coming out Monday, so be on the lookout for that. Get excited! Here's the full patch notes for the demo update:

Major Changes

• AddedTutorializationAdded a new system for learning the game - tutorial tooltips! These will pop up if you opt-in to them starting from your first run, and explain stuff as you interact with the UI.

• Gameplay: Liked item type preferences no longer multiplicatively scale your profit. Scaling of bonus cash is now additive instead of multiplicative. This should incentivize more small sales over single huge sales to one customer for huge profits exactly once via preference stacking. (This is still a very good strategy, but should be less likely to win the whole run for you if you really go crazy)

• Gameplay: Crafted items are now only temporary if both ingredients are temporary - this makes crafting with a mix of temporary and "real" items less punishing

• Gameplay: Using non-item cards to craft Trash no longer exhausts the non-item cards used

• Gameplay: Trash (or other items) crafted with non-item ingredients is now Temporary (this is usually a fallback anyway, so it should clog up your deck less often)

• Gameplay: You must now choose a side-quest after opening the side-quest menu to see the choices of quests. This should somewhat prevent "do not do x action" quest cheese without removing it as a gameplay option. Now, if you want to cheese these kind of quests, you need to delay choosing a quest until towards the end of the day. Maybe a weird sideways bit of gameplay, but I think its actually kinda fun.

• AdjustedGameplayReworked the cost curve for lineup size permits to be quite cheap until 3, then scale up a good deal faster to incentivize the first purchase, but make further purchases more of a stretch. Also, made the difficult version of the curve more forgiving.
• AddedGameplayAdded a number of instances of random effects to seeded RNG, to remove the incentive to save-scum to re-randomize stuff. Now, you can save-scum with knowledge of the future!

• Gameplay: Weekly rent now scales more slowly - the game should now be a bit more forgiving. You can always crank up the difficulty if you'd like a bit more of a challenge!

Balance & Quality of Life Changes

• AddedBalanceAdded some more items to the shopkeeper's starting daily inventory
• AddedBalanceAdded some more potions to the Potion Dealer's starting Daily Inventory

• Balance: Nerfed Luxury Cashbox (Provides 3 Markup per Uncommon Decoration - was 5)

• Balance: Shifted Convincing Sale to Uncommon (was Rare)

• Balance: Shifted Limited-Time Offer to Rare (was Uncommon)

• Balance: Made winning the Polished Heavy armor from the Armor Auction event a bit less likely to start

• Balance: Nerfed Hungry Peasant a bit. Hungry Peasant will now only experience Hunger if they've got less than 2 levels of Food preference

• Balance: Buffed Quartermaster. Quartermaster now has 3 patience (but will only Convince for Weapons on the first Weapon sold to him)

• Balance: Redesigned the Stubborn Mason. Now only loses 1 Patience on Rummage, and then Convinces Armor 1

• Balance: Alchemist now starts with 3 Patience (was 2)

• Balance: Fisherman now starts with 4 Patience (was 5)

• Balance: Rag Picker now starts with 4 Patience (was 5)

• Balance: Old Man now only loses 1 Patience when you play a non-item card. (was 2)

• Balance: Minor Adjustments to the Mason's potential cards for sale (-Bread +Adventuring Kit)

• Balance: Nerfed Heavy Armor Value. Now worth $125 (Was $200)

• Balance: The cost of the Restockable upgrade from the Supplier Arrives event now scales with how far along into a run you are, so that it costs more in later weeks

• Balance: Nerfed Town Crier a bit, now Convinces 1 per 6 Word of Mouth you have. (Was nominally 4, and bugged to be 3, haha)

• AdjustedBalanceReworked the Paper Lantern. Now gives 2 Temporary Markup instead of 1 Markup on activation

• QoL: Smile and Nod is no longer playable when a customer's next action is to leave the shop (this just had no effect, so this should prevent some feel bads)

• QoL: Welcome In is now only playable if your customer has at least as much patience as their starting patience, to prevent being able to play it for no effect (feels bad)

Art, Sound & UI Changes

• AddedArtAdded event art for the Forgotten Refuse, Supplier Arrives, Pie Eating Contest and Wizard of Lethe events. All placeholder art is gone now!
• AdjustedArtAdded an updated logo to the Main Menu and other spots where that logo was used (loading masks, etc)
• AddedArtAdded some new shop backgrounds that can appear when you specialize the decorations in your shop to match certain item types
• AdjustedArt/TextUpdated the Worn-In Floor decoration to be a Worn-In Carpet instead
• AddedSFXAdded SFX to all tactic cards when they're played

• Animation/SFX: Downsizing cards now fades them away and plays more SFX

• Animation/SFX: Customers now fade away when banned from your customer base and play some sfx

• Animation: Upgrading a card now animates them a little

• Compendium Sorting: Sorting by rarity, type, and locked/unlocked now also sorts each sub-set alphabetically, instead of randomly within their respective categories

• AdjustedUIImproved display of customer item types they get convinced to like in their text popups announcing that fact
• AddedUIWhen acquiring items/tactics/customers/decorations during a run, the animation of them being added to your deck(s) now pauses and shows you their card before animating them into their respective final location, so that you have a better chance to read what you just got.

• UI: Satisfying a customer's preferences now shows a popup text when you do so, to make it clearer what's happening.

• UI: Cleaned up some strange fuzzy borders on some card panels

• UI: Made the UI popup text for triggering a sales desk decoration a bit more noticable

• FixedUIFixed some odd spacing on tactic/motto labels on some card displays
• AdjustedUIImproved some positioning of added card popups in the main run scene

• UI: Controller users can now focus on the player avatar to see what their current status effects are

• UI: Acquired items cards purchased from customers no longer trigger the Acquired! popup, since I found this a bit annoying, game flow-wise

• UI: You can now hide the options when choosing side quests so you can see the shop floor a bit more clearly before making a choice.

• UI: Tactics/Mottos/Items can now preview their upgraded versions in card tooltip popups (such as in the compendium)

• UI: Made it clearer when difficulties are locked in the character select screen

• UI: Focus/hovering/using the start run button with a locked character/difficulty selected now pops up their lock reasoning tooltips

• UI: Decoration Cards now have small indicators below their titles of which type of shop they lend themself to for purposes of the shop background and shop type

• RemovedUIAdded some drop shadow to disabled buttons to make them appear more button-like

• UI: Decoration Cards now have small indicators below their titles of which type of shop they lend themself to for purposes of the shop background and shop type

• UI: Swapping active decorations now swaps them in-place in your list of inactive decorations, instead of sending them to the back of the list (this also cleans up a number of strange bugs related to swapping decorations)

• AddedUIAdded a display to the Decoration Inventory showing what kind of shop you're running, and how fancy it is (plain, humble, established, impressive, beautiful). This is based on how focused it is, and slightly based on how many decorations you have

• UI: The shop background now fades between backgrounds when the type of shop you're running changes

• AdjustedUIReworked the Customer Pool viewer to have 3 customers per row, so that you can actually read what they do there

• UI: Repositioned a few card popups in the supply shoppe and made them a bit bigger for easier reading at smaller resolutions

• AddedUIAdded a display of the total number of liked preferences of your customer base in the customer base viewer
• AdjustedUIIncreased the size of decoration card display in your decoration inventory, so you need to squint less.

• UI: Card popups in the market day room now disappear whenever you stop hovering/selecting the card you're inspecting

• UI: Polished some card borders a bit

• UI: Minor border touchups to the For Sale tab on customer cards

• AdjustedUIImproved card tooltip positioning in the Supply Shoppe

Controller Support Improvements

• AdjustedController InputImproved some focus neighbors in the supply shoppe to be more intuitive

• Controller Input: Swapped the inputs for buying items from customers and playing/selling items

• AdjustedController UIUpdated the topbar to allow the line length, word of mouth, and gold displays to be selectable with a controller.
• AdjustedController SupportImproved intuitiveness of the controller cursor's movement in the decoration inventory somewhat
• AddedController SupportAdded more ways for the controller cursor to escape back to the main play board in the market day scene
• AdjustedController SupportImproved the intuitiveness of a number of focus paths to get to selecting things in the top bar in a few scenes

Performance, Bugfixes, and Under-the-Hood Stuff

• Engine: Upgraded from Godot v4.4 to 4.6 - you should see some nice performance improvements alongside the upgrade!

• AdjustedPerformanceFurther improved load times when first opening the game, and also some VRAM savings here and there.

• Performance: Minor performance improvements to a couple load time spots

• Performance: Minor performance tweaks to the Compendium scene

• Performance: Capped the number of coin particles that get spawned when making item sales or rent payments to avoid spawning a GPU-crashing amount if you break the game and make a giganto-huge sale.

• Text: Prepared all text strings to eventually (hopefully) be localized to non-english languages - if you see some strange all-caps text, let me know!

• AdjustedTextImproved a number of tactic texts with better reminder icons and text colours for improved textual consistency

• Text: Clarified the effect on the Take Consignment tactic a bit.

• Text: Clarified the effect of Smile and Nod

• AddedTextAdded a missing space in the text of Recycle
• AddedTextAdded credits for new Steam assets and logo
• FixedBugfixFixed Bread not becoming restockable when upgraded
• FixedBugfixFixed Special Order and Business Tutor removing the upgrade from cards they got from your Inventory
• FixedBugfixFixed an incorrect profile name that could appear in rare cases on the main menu
• FixedBugfixFixed some misplaced text when unlocking everything via that option in profile settings
• FixedBugfixFixed some incorrect text for the tactics rewards tooltip in the Supply Shoppe
• FixedBugfixFixed some strange glitching with the paw cursor image
• FixedBugfixFixed continuing a run from the very first bonus event in a run starting the first day with no cards in hand
• FixedBugfixFixed restarting a run deleting your starting deck
• FixedBugfixFixed starting run bonus downsizing option removing 2 copies of the specified card instead of 1

• Bugfix: Getting two cards at once (such as via a sidequest fulfilled by purchasing an item from a customer) will show both of them to you at once now, instead of only one of them.

• FixedBugfixFixed debug texture appearing near some decorations
• FixedBugfixFixed item crafting not removing the ingredients from your daily inventory
• FixedBugfixProperly fixed the free card removal bonus starting event choice to not trigger the Downsize card removal logic
• FixedBugfixFixed Upgraded Elevator Pitch tactics not haggling for the proper amount
• FixedBugfixFixed Upgraded Enchanter's Intuition not granting the proper bonus value per armor in hand
• FixedBugfixFixed decorations that trigger on your turn's end not triggering when customers would leave the shop
• AddedBugfixFixed controller users being unable to confirm they acquired new cards in some cases
• FixedBugfixFixed some option button misalignment when accessing profile options during a run
• FixedBugfixFixed some animation syncing issues when changing scenes
• FixedBugfixFixed some loss of button focus issues for controller users when starting runs
• FixedBugfixFixed unlocked tactic and decoration choices in some events appearing as locked
• FixedBugfixFixed save data snapshotting failing to save deck data, allowing for exploits during events via save/quit after getting an event reward, but before exiting the event
• FixedBugfixFixed potential crash/greyscreen if you somehow continued an in-progress run multiple times at once, by preventing you from doing that.
• FixedBugfixFixed the calendar tutorial tooltip not being registered as "seen" when dismissed.
• FixedBugfixFixed some strange UI placement of the Return button in the Customer Base viewer
• FixedBugfixFixed the text on the Return button in the Customer Base viewer going missing sometimes
• FixedBugfixFixed acquired decorations and customers appearing very very small in some cases
• FixedBugfixFixed side-quests getting stuck as completed if the game is closed and reloaded after they're completed.
• FixedBugfixFixed some strange issues with loading market days causing the current customer to leave the shop if a sidequest had been completed
• FixedBugfixFixed sidequest rewards appearing as locked cards if they were cards you had unlocked in some cases
• FixedBugfixFixed Feedback Survey not actually generating an Item for you
• FixedBugfixFixed Market Research being playable if you've somehow run out of cards in both your inventory and discard for the day
• AddedBugfixAdded missing some loc strings
• FixedBugfixFixed unlocked tactics appearing locked in certain card pile views
• FixedBugfixFixed some customer actions being performable when they should not be (if they were chance-based instead of conditional actions)
• FixedBugfixFixed some overly loud SFX
• FixedBugfixFixed restarting a run after loading an in-progress run not setting the correct run difficulty (it would default to easy mode instead of your chosen difficulty)
• FixedBugfixFixed Super Potions gained via the Alchemist's Transmute action not displaying as Temporary as expected
• FixedBugfixFixed Rag Picker customer not actually paying triple for trash like he claimed he would
• FixedBugfixFixed cards in hand being interactable during the sale animation, allowing them to be played or sold during the sale animation of another card, which could cause all sorts of havoc and unxepected behaviour
• FixedBugfixFixed a related bug with controller inputs during a sale animation allowing cards in hand to be selected during an item sale
• FixedBugfixFixed some cases of sale price modifications displaying themselves too quickly for players to read
• FixedBugfixFixed pressing B on your controller in the supply shoppe removing all of your reward choices
• FixedBugfixFixed cases where the Hungry Peasant would forget how to litter
• FixedBugfixFixed some focus neighbor issues for controller users in the supply shoppe
• FixedBugfixFixed tax bills not taxing you as much as they said they would

• Bugfix: Additional customer action picking logic tweaks for the hungry peasant

• FixedBugfixFixed Secure Sconce not triggering when reloading an in-progress market day on the first turn
• FixedBugfixFixed some missing colour tags on Supply Line's text
• FixedBugfixFixed Gossip's SFX not playing correctly
• FixedBugfixFixed Recycle having a Food type, which could let you craft food items with it somehow
• FixedBugfixFixed customer status effect tooltips sliding underneath the player's hand sometimes
• FixedBugfixFixed adding types to Trash giving all Trash that type for the rest of your run
• FixedBugfixFixed a number of spots you could trigger scene transitions multiple times at once, which could cause all sorts of havoc
• FixedBugfixFixed a bug where upgrading Arms Dealing had no effect (and maybe a few other potential other tactics as well)
• FixedBugfixFixed some misc weirdness with a couple cards in the Compendium
• FixedBugfixFixed some strange controller behaviour related to analog triggers in the character select page
• FixedBugfixFixed some strange controller behaviour with tutorial tooltip popups in the customer pool viewer
• FixedBugfixFixed the Restock Button being usable during a customer's turn in some cases
• FixedBugfixFixed the card picker UI for some card effects and events not working with a controller
• AddedBugfixFixed the card acquired popup not restoring button focus after confirming you got something new in some cases
• FixedBugfixFixed not being able to get back to the supply shope with a controller if you opened up the decoration inventory in the supply shoppe

• Bugfix: Misc controller issues in the decoration inventory related to it becoming read only in some cases

• FixedBugfixFixed the controller's cursor going missing when leaving the decoration inventory in some cases
• FixedBugfixFixed some cases where closing the decoration inventory screen during a market day could start or restart the market day
• FixedBugfixFixed the Polished item status not disappearing when viewing downgraded versions of items
• FixedBugfixFixed controller cursor focus getting hidden under card pile viewers when closing card popups
• FixedBugfixFixed some customers in the Compendium showing some outdated stat values

• Bugfix: Decorations gained as quest rewards no longer auto-equip themselves, causing them to be in a strange phantom-state.

• FixedBugfixFixed Business Tutor spawning a second copy of your tutored card even if it wasn't upgraded
• FixedBugfixFixed the Supplier Arrives event having the purchase option not respect the actual cost of the upgrade
• FixedBugfixFixed some strange extra pixels in the art of Warrior's Torch

• Bugfix: Refactored some UI code in the decoration inventory screen that could cause multiple invisible decorations to spawn, causing all sorts of untold madness due to invisible furniture

• FixedBugfixFixed a number of UI quirks/annoyances in the decoration inventory (doubled up textures when dragging/dropping, strange pagination logic, etc.)

• Bugfix: Cleaned up a memory leak related to the decoration inventory creating unneeded copies of itself (what was I even thinking!)

• FixedBugfixFixed equipped decorations getting stuck equipped if you had no other decorations of the same type
• FixedBugfixFixed drag/dropping shelves being offset from your mouse cursor by a bunch vertically
• FixedBugfixFixed some decorations becoming invisible on failed drag and drop events
• FixedBugfixFixed changing decorations mid-market day and then undoing your changes not also resetting the return button
• FixedBugfixFixed controller input failing after closing the decoration inventory
• FixedBugfixFixed cancel ui actions with controllers always toggling the display of the decoration inventory open/closed
• FixedBugfixFixed View Upgrades button being visible when viewing a customer (customers can't be upgraded, for now...)
• FixedBugfixFixed a number of places you could lose cursor control when using a controller
• FixedBugfixFixed a case where cards could be come un-usable in your hand in a rare case related to speedy item sales
• FixedBugfixFixed a case where the redecorate screen could get stuck unable to be closed, due to some strange UI layering
• FixedBugfixFixed a harmless internal error related to purchasing items from customers
• FixedBugfixFixed some malformed text in the final part of the Business Seminar event
• FixedBugfixFixed some click-and-drag misplaced textures for shelving decorations
• AdjustedMiscAdded some improved steam achievement icons (they shouldn't appear in the game anywhere, but they're in dev project now)