REVO News

[p]Featuring weapon refinements, improved Steam Deck support, and various bug fixes, this turned out to be a surprisingly big update, but it also did take from April through December due to greatly reduced hours in development. Please don't take that as a sign of REVO being less important or updates coming to a close. There are a ton of plans to refine and possibly expand the game, as well as further bug fixes and any reasonable optimizations that can be managed.[/p][p][/p][h2]Steam Deck Support[/h2][p]One of the more subtle improvements that provides a lot of potential value is the proper integration of the Steamworks API. This was already present in REVO, but it turns out that somewhere along the line I fumbled the libraries specific to Linux, which by extension affects Steam Deck.[/p][p][/p][p]Once I resolved this, both Steam Deck and Steam for Linux versions of REVO now properly integrates with the Steam client, which I think will help when Steam finally decides to tag REVO as verified playable on Steam Deck. (It already plays well on Steam Deck, but the game needs more attention before I think Valve will pay it much attention.)[/p][p][/p][h2]Beam Weapon Changes[/h2][p]Both the regular Beam and Super Beam have been upgraded in different ways. Many of the top players pointed out how the Super Beam was just too costly to include in their loadout and many people seem to like the Beam but were also not terribly impressed.[/p][p][/p][p]I've upgraded the Beam, now calling it the Sweeper Beam (better names are welcome!), to play more like a low grade Super Beam. It's actually very powerful and also costs a little less than before, so you can unleash a lot of damage.[/p][p][/p][p]The biggest overhaul to gameplay is how the Super Beam was redesigned. It's still the same blistering OP attack you've unleashed before to great effect, but now it comes with a much reduced ammo cost as well as a cooldown. You'll also find that it is no longer on the weapon grid under Focused attack but under Devices. Yes, you can equip two beam type weapons in one loadout![/p][p][/p][h2]Bugs & Space Friends[/h2][p]Many bugs were fixed, thanks to the help of some awesome players who reached out for support and to share their opinions. You, too, can help with improvements to REVO! Submit a support ticket, post to the forum, and join the Discord. I'm in there most days to talk games and share what I'm working on, including both REVO and some exciting new things. Come be part of the Cosmic Misfit Studio future and our stellar community of space friends.[/p][p][/p][p]Please enjoy this Merry & Bright update and give the gift of REVO to all your space arcade loving friends during the deepest discount this game has ever seen while the Steam Winter Sale lasts![/p][p][/p][p]Ho ho ho!
— Cosmic Misfit Drew[/p][p][/p][h2]Full Change List[/h2]

• [p]Fixed a bug where Restart Level would instead exit to the title screen.[/p]
  • [p]Thanks, Peves![/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where quitting to desktop during a campaign run would cause the next time the game starts up to skip the title screen and continue.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where Exit Level or Restart Level would fail to display the correct ship count after the scene reloads.[/p]
• [p]Cosmic Egg event is now extended through Easter Monday.[/p]
  • [p]You're welcome, Peves. (:[/p]
• [p]Supply boosts are now announced with an on screen message.[/p]
• [p]Blackout device recharge completion is announced with a message and recharge progress is shown as a percentage alongside the meter.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where an empty save file was possible and would prevent proper startup.[/p]
  • [p]Thanks so much to Ac3ofDr4gons![/p]
• [p]Steam Deck and Steam for Linux now properly integrates Steamworks API.[/p]
  • [p]Special thanks to Cheese for Linux insights.[/p]
  • [p]Special thanks also to Ac3ofDr4gons for frequent testing.[/p]
• [p]Super Beam redesigned:[/p]
  • [p]This weapon has been recategorized as a Device weapon instead of a Focused weapon. Your saved loadout may have changed as a result.[/p]
  • [p]It now has a cooldown and requires far less ammo.[/p]
• [p]Sweeper Beam adjusted:[/p]
  • [p]Renamed from Beam to Sweeper Beam so that I don't have to call it "Basic Beam" or "Lite Beam" to differentiate it from the Super Beam.[/p]
  • [p]This weapon sustains 4x longer, so you can sweep the screen.[/p]
  • [p]It costs less, too, so go nuts![/p]
• [p]Ice Asteroids restored when found broken during development.[/p]
• [p]Space Xmas light border now supports ultrawide displays.[/p]
• [p]FPS is now capped:[/p]
  • [p]Defaults to 240 Hz to avoid going faster than that which can waste resources leading in some cases to system crashes.[/p]
  • [p]Can be reduced to 30, 60, or 120 Hz via command line argument (-fps30, -fps60, -fps120) if desired.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug where the Device recharge sound would get stuck in a loop during the game's ending sequence.[/p]
• [p]Special Thanks portion of credits has been updated.[/p]
• [p]Blackout Device name has now been simplified to Blackout.[/p]

This update is not huge but its timing is important as it brings an extension to a special event more people deserve to experience. It does include one very promising work-in-progress feature upgrade for those trophy hunters among you.

Summary:

• Glitch Day is now Glitch Week!
  
• Kill count stats now save long term!
  
• Action screenshots can be taken while paused.
  
• Display support has been refined.
  

[h2]Glitch Event Extended![/h2]

Have you heard of Glitch Day? In the past, it was a fleeting, single-day event each year where things got turned a bit on their head. To help more people discover and enjoy the madness, the special day has been extended this year into a week-long event.

You can now enjoy this special challenge mode through Sunday, April 6. It will be a wacky time in REVO! Is it even playable? Give it a try and let me and other players know about your glitchy experience. Dive into our friendly space community to lurk or share.

[h2]Kill Counts Saved[/h2]

Way back on March 14, 2024, the update included a partial new feature where the game would track the number of kills you made for each type of enemy. Sadly, even though it would show your numbers on the new Game Stats screen, it also warned that it would not save them. The ability to save that data was going to require a bit more work.

The plan was to continue that work right away, but it clearly took a long while for development to get back around to this feature. Finally, though, the save file has been expanded to include all of your kill counts! They will accumulate indefinitely, so go ahead and rack up thousands of Swarmer kills.

One day, this will enable an in-game achievement system. There are no achievements in place yet, but with the game now tracking some combat statistics, with other types of numbers to be added later, a lot of the groundwork is in place. And achievements will be for all players, no matter where you got the game or play the game.

If you're excited about achievements, you can join that discussion already in progress on Steam or elsewhere to share your thoughts with the rest of the community.

[h2]Screenshot Mode Begun[/h2]

Did you ever want to capture the perfect action snapshot in a game? REVO has some pretty good explosions and weapon patterns from time to time, but it's been difficult to get those mid-action shots without moving your hands away from the controls.

While it's not a perfect solution, you can now pause the game mid-action and use the newly added Take Screenshot option in the pause menu to quickly capture a gameplay view. It generates a PNG file in a screenshots folder right next to where your save files and log files live.

There are plans to expand on this feature to allow even better control over your view of the action, but for now this will perform the basic task of helping you capture the action while paused.

If you nab a good image with this feature (or even with your own method), please share it with me and other REVO players in the community on Steam or elsewhere!

[h2]Title Screen Refined[/h2]

There were some bad layout situations that came to my attention which plagued displays sporting a 16:10 aspect ratio. Menus and other on screen info were crowding or overlapping one another.

In this update, the title screen has been greatly improved. Not only do 16:9 and 16:10 displays look very consistent, but ultra wide displays will enjoy a little extra breathing room thanks to some responsive layout choices. Plus I corrected which Play button will auto select as the title displays for those of you that have unlocked additional game modes.

More user interface improvements are planned for future updates. This is just a quick refinement.

Enjoy gameplay upgrades and quality of life fixes during the spooky season and beyond. The main focus this round was removing some pain points for new and experienced players alike. Hopefully, you'll have an all around more exciting and fun time!

Summary:

• Better display support for wide and standard screens plus audio fixes.
  
• Much more engaging asteroids, drone boss, and some heavy enemies.
  

[h3]Ultra Wide Support & Layout Fixes[/h3]
Removed side bars for full panoramic view and adjusted UI layouts for a consistent look across various display ratios. In the process, the support ship dashboard HUD also got a cleaner layout to avoid overlapping items. Looks better on 16:9, 16:10, and 21:9 ratio displays.

[h3]Boss Upgrade[/h3]
The boss with attack drones now use the attack drones repeatedly throughout the battle, and it is more resilient against the Blackout Device. This might be the best boss fight in the game now! Hopefully, you'll enjoy a more engaging combat experience.



[h3]Audio Fixes[/h3]
All menu sounds are now affected by the Sound FX volume slider, plus the strange bug causing menu sounds during battle was fixed. This annoyance is gone and you have a bit more control over the balance of what you hear.

[h3]Asteroid Behavior[/h3]
To reduce frustrating deaths, asteroids no longer blast apart as aggressively, but are now a more interesting challenge and possible utility. Witness chain reactions as one fragment destroys a neighboring asteroid. Asteroids are now more manageable and fun.



[h3]Heavy Enemy Vulnerability[/h3]
Too ease up the grind, especially for first time players in the first level, those side armored heavy gunships are now prevented from fully closing their impenetrable outer armor. It might still take some skill, but you can deal damage at all times against these oversized tanks.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1662790/REVO/

While testing the Halloween event, something went terribly wrong: for some strange reason, the game would hang on the Loading screen. Fortunately, it was an easy fix and there is even now a feature that will prevent the infinite loading process in favor of just closing the game application to desktop.

In the future, it would be nice to display a friendly message to players about the specific issue the game detects, but for now, this is a simple way to avoid trapping you in the game.

To summarize, the game failed to load during the Spooktober event because of a missing object reference that snuck in during a recent update, and that bug is now squashed and things are back to normal.

Enjoy some Spooky REVO all through October!

Invite all your friends to the party at 50% off this weekend only!

Also enjoy all of the big updates to the graphics, gameplay, and more.