Enter the Chronosphere News

Thankyou to everyone who has been enjoying the Enter the Chronosphere playtest (especially those giving feedback in the discord!)

We'll be concluding our current open playtest on Monday 14th, next week.

We're going to be focused on getting the game ready for a new demo in the coming months, working on progression, narrative, adding more content and polishing some of the rougher edges from the playtest.

If you want to stay up to date with development updates, you can join the Discord or follow us on Steam for news!

Best wishes,
Effort Star



But... Please enjoy today's update with rad new lasers and other things.

[h3]🖼️ Art[/h3]

• Update beam weapon VFX.
  
• Fixed some sunken objects like pond surfaces showing outside the edge of the level.
  
• Belusect Soldier and Worker now shift into attack-anticipate animations a lot faster.
  

[h3]🤖 Tech[/h3]

• Prevent one instance of softlock when destroying AOEs.
  
• Support exhibition mode.
  

[h3]🔊 Audio[/h3]

• Add "restore" button in audio settings.
  
• Change toggle music button to F6.
  

[h3]✅ UI[/h3]

• Version number on the title screen now links to the changelog.
  
• Unified main menu button positions and updated their bindings.
  
• Removed a number of awkward transitions in the main menu, removed confirm to quit.
  
• Restored ammo use preview and added a pulse to the out of ammo state.
  
• Unified the two-part run summary UI, removing the legacy UI.
  

[h3]📚 Tutorialization[/h3]

• You can replay the tutorial via the options menu.
  
• The last tutorial step before exiting levels now remains on-screen.
  
• Replaced tutorial cows ?? with tutorial cowboys ??.
  

[h3]🗺️ Level Generation[/h3]

• Improved consistency of archway spawning.
  
• Fixed an issue which caused some areas to generate with invisible floor.
  
• Moved the spawning of wall columns from the ends to the middle.
  
• Distortions now generate in the current level immediately after selection.
  

[h3]🏓 Gameplay[/h3]

• Filth Zone now shows a poisoned vfx when poisoning projetiles.
  
• Reworked longbore draw attack to remove confusing melee.
  
• Removed Frenzy Musk from game.
  
• Automatically heal whenever max health increases.
  
• Remove delay before "Knife Wheel" starts firing.
  
• Fully reload guns with ammo buffs when entering a new level (Reported by @juh9870)
  

Check out the full changelog.



Just a reminder that we want to hear your feedback (good or bad) via Discord and Steam Discussions.

Whoops! Version 110 had a few bugs. Just pushed some fixes. 😅

[h3]✅ UI[/h3]

• Instability level bar now progresses across the entire instability range.
  

[h3]🏓 Gameplay[/h3]

• 
  Fix issue where enemies (e.g. "Infested Host" or any actor with "Rancher" mutation) could spawn mutated enemies. (Reported by @juh9870)
  
• 
  Fixed a bug where unstable enemies would sometimes take no damage from hits.
  

[h3]🖼️ Art[/h3]

• Temporarily disabled Drilldrone ragdoll while it calms down.
  

Just a reminder that we want to hear your feedback (good or bad) via Discord and Steam Discussions.

A monster of a changelog this time! We've got a new tutorial, ragdolls on death, new environments, a balancing pass. We also squashed a large number of bugs and added some QoL fixes. Anyway... Here's some highlights!

[h2]Changes[/h2]

[h3]🏓 Gameplay[/h3]

• Added a new tutorial!
  
• Thrown projectiles now fall into holes.
  
• Instability thresholds reworked: the enemies gain strength slower, but the instability level rises every time you pick an unstable option.
  
• Drawbacks have been disabled, for now. They will likely be reintroduced as part of a future curse mechanic.
  
• Submap weapon stations now offer more and better rewards.
  
• Rebalanced Molemines biome early game.
  
• Weapons are far less likely to get unsatisfying mods.
  
• Weapon stations now offer a choice of three weapons, and are consumed on use.
  
• Fix bug where player would heal to full health on every level change.
  

[h3]👜 Content[/h3]

• New bellusect gear: Horror Survival.
  
• New Molemines gear: Safety Standards.
  
• New enemy: the Mockery.
  

[h3]🎨 Art[/h3]

• Lots of new environment art.
  

[h3]🗺️ Level generation[/h3]

• Many esoteric fancy wizardry improvements to level generation.
  

[h3]✅ UI[/h3]

• Reworked basic weapon pickup UI.
  
• Spheres of different sizes are scaled in the world choice.
  
• Active world modifiers can be viewed in the pause menu.
  

[h3]💬 Community reports:[/h3]

• Fixed Next/Previous navigation sometimes requiring two inputs to perform (Reported by @uwumacaronitime)
  
• Fixed focus being lost in the controls options when a controller is not present (Reported by @uwumacaronitime)
  
• Fixed bug that caused move to not be able to be rebound to left-mouse (Reported by @piperdoe)
  
• Gaspack removed from game (Reported by @Basically Everyone)
  
• Reworked poison pools left on ground by all sources so touching multiple pools doesn't stack many instances of poison, a common cause of confusing player death. (Reported by @Camyron)
  
• Fixed an AI bug where clockworker, clockwork soldier, radgunnner and orb of porb would become unalerted if the player took cover. (Reported by @juh9870)
  
• Lever action shotgun now mentions that it reloads on move. (Reported by @uwumacaronitime)
  
• Added more detail to description of 'Singular' mod function. (Reported by @uwumacaronitime)
  
• Stinger unique mod now has no cooldown, but spawning a new gatling wasp will destroy the old one. (Reported by @juh9870)
  
• Fixed a bug where Torching would trigger on the other weapon. (Reported by @FriedPotatoChips)
  
• Ovipositor unique mod now spawns larva, instead of drones. This indirectly fixes a bug where Ovipositor would instantly destroy the fired drones. (Reported by @juh9870)
  
• Prevent projectiles spawning through walls (Reported by @swoopie., @praetorblue, @ohuscaredhuh)
  
• Tweak explosion indicators to make it clearer when you'll be hit. (Reported by @juh9870)
  
• Fix bug where player would spawn with no stabilizers when loading a save game. (Reported by @echo6533)
  

Check out the full changelog.



Just a reminder that we want to hear your feedback (good or bad) via Discord and Steam Discussions.

—Chronosphere Team

An unusually EXPLOSIVE update! With some cool new explosion effects from Talon. Explosions now look super cool, and also no longer penetrate walls.

We've also fixed some terrible bugs in the last version (no, you weren't mean to be full healing every floor 😅). We've improved the sphere choices with new UI and added more run modifiers and chronosphere sizes.


⚠️ If you haven't joined the playtest, sign up on our store page now to get access to the build!

[h3]🖼️ Art[/h3]
💥 New explosion VFX! 💥
Added Toxic landmark district for War Monkeys.
Added "Compound" light landmark district for War Monkeys.
Added "Bone Room" district for Bellusect.

[h3]🏓 Gameplay[/h3]
Fix bug where instability would increase when descending levels instead of ascending.
Fix bug where health was fully restored every time you enter a level.
Make game camera movement faster/tighter to prevent interaction buttons from drifting in the command phase.

[h3]✅ UI[/h3]
Tactic, passive, and abilities in the character select screen are displayed side-by-side.
More details have been added to the Chronosphere choice.
Fixed opening message and experience summaries not being centered in ultra-wide.
Control bindings in text refresh after being rebound (legacy UI retains old bindings but will be replaced in the long term).
Floor names are now always shown, instead of being shown with the instability bar.
Gadget HUD buttons have initial hex styling.

[h3]🗺️ Level Generation[/h3]
Added 2 larger experimental sphere sizes.
Chronospheres can generate with different modifiers!
Fixed an issue causing various floor obstacles to be rotated opposite to the intended direction.
Added support for generating multiple grid types per-floor! 🗺️
Optimised some parts of map generation to be far less expensive on larger floors.
Retuned all grid generation profiles to be more distinct and interesting, and added many new ones including 7 hybrid ones!
Increased the amount of larger spaces which appear by 20%.

[h3]🤖 Tech[/h3]
Improved performance by disabling physics decorations outside the camera view.
Save game automatically when you enter a new floor, and restore the saved game when reopening the game.

[h3]🔊 Audio[/h3]
Made changes to some Rexogenus Weapon SFX.

Check out the full changelog.



Just a reminder that we want to hear your feedback (good or bad) via Discord and Steam Discussions.

—Chronosphere Team

Hello again! We've got a new playtest update today. Last update we released a new final boss, this one focuses on difficulty ramp into the late game. Enemies have been buffed, and most excitingly some new enemies that appear in the later levels.

⚠️ If you haven't joined the playtest, sign up on our store page now to get access to the build!

[h3]🏓 Gameplay[/h3]

• Added five new enemies to the native chronosphere biome on floors 10, 11 and 12... Have fun! 😈
  
• Unstable enemies appear much more frequently as instability rises.
  
• Several enemy types in each biome (except Bellusect) have had their max HP increased.
  
• It's a bit harder to dodge projectiles.
  
• Clockwork Soldier, Clockworker and Radgunner now attack immediately on sight.
  
• Unionbreaker attack pattern is less capable of killing the player in a single turn...
  ...but he's been lifting heavy at the gym, and dreaming up new ways to annoy you.
  
• Removed mixed weapon chest from floor 1 of all spheres.
  
• The starting weapon is now based on which biome you land in when entering the first floor.
  
• You can go back to the equipment choice in the Customizer and Idealizer.
  
• Some mystery portal levels now have "scenarios" that trigger game events (more to come).
  

[h3]🖼️ Art[/h3]

• Added new visually themed areas in various biomes.
  
• New visual effects for enemies inside a distortion.
  
• Updates to pond visuals, and added new ponds.
  
• Improved final boss head and some arena details.
  
• Updated VFX and appearance of portals.
  
• Update native biome environment art.
  
• Ccid explosion VFX looks less like poison AoE.
  

[h3]🗺️ Level Generation[/h3]

• Simplified sphere generation to use a single biome for most of the sphere. More biome patterns to come in future.
  

[h3]🤖 Tech[/h3]

• Prevent bug where the game would get stuck in an aim state when input is pressed and released on the same frame.
  

[h3]🦋 Progression[/h3]

• Fixed Marcia's Berzerking tactic not being available.
  
• Fixed bug where character levels weren't marked as seen and rewards weren't displayed when expected.
  

Check out the full changelog.



Just a reminder that we want to hear your feedback (good or bad) via Discord and Steam Discussions.

—Chronosphere Team