Demo update, Indie Live showcase, News

Hello, squad!

After a couple of quieter months, I'm happy to be back with some news and a small update.
Due to personal reasons, I had to reschedule content drops for the demo, as well as for the full release, but this was only the calm before the storm. I decided to break up a bigger update into multiple ones, so you can access the new stuff quicker, as they get implemented. (The features and changes that are already tested.)

So jump into the game and bring the storm of bullets with these updates today:

• Dash invincibility is now the default.
  
• Performance boost: Changed how enemies handle their animations, now having many enemies on screen at once shouldn't be as heavy on the fps.
  
• [Based on feedback]: The drones of the final boss now follow their paths more smoothly, so if the boss gets knocked around by the player, its drones don't accelerate immidiately and are less likely to bump into the player.
  
• Increased health and damage numbers to reduce floating point number rounding when displaying the amount of damage dealt and taken.
  
• Changed the Pre-loading implant to include drones in the possible random starting units for the full squad.
  
• Reduced the amount of XP needed for the first level up.
  
• Separated pause button from menu back button, now players can configure these key bindings separately.
  
• [Based on feedback]: Made small texts more readable in the menus.
  
• Fixed a bug with the "Resume game when window gains focus" option: it was possible for the game to continue when a submenu was still open.
  
• [Based on feedback]: Made visual changes to the implants tab to make it more clear which implants are unavailable / available for unlock / unlocked / in use.
  
• Added an option to adjust the size of the applied status effect names above enemies.
  
• Added an explanation for the Braincharge Cell and made it unlock after the first run.
  
• Pressing the back / exit button in the main menu now brings up the exit options.
  
• Placed the start button on the setup screen to a place more easily reachable when using a controller.
  
• Added notification about unlocking a new objective on the end screen after a successful run.
  
• Rebalanced the starting health (and speed) of characters, and the starting health of holo-soldiers.
  
• Disabled XP collection after killing the final boss, which could lead to unpredictable behavior.
  
• Added a notification under the timer for when the final boss has spawned.
  
• [Based on feedback]: Made the number of maximum weapon mod slots text more visible.
  

More changes and quality of life features are in the works, some of which are requested by the community. So stay tuned!



I'm excited to inform that the aforementioned change in the plans also includes skipping Early Access for the game. Instead, the free demo will get content that was originally planned for the Early Access version, and there will be a closed beta as well, nearing launch.
The full release of NeuroSquad will come at some point this year.

I will send out invitations to the private beta (when the full game is done) to people on the game's Discord server.

I understand why many people are cautious with Early Access titles and would rather buy fleshed out games at 1.0 release. I'm also more comfortable with releasing a game that fully represents the initial vision, with all the content that I have in mind. This way more people can play the game (in demo form) without having to pay anything, generating more feedback, so I can make the game hopefully as good as it can be.

If you'd like to help with that, consider joining the official Discord, and drop your suggestions there:





Also excited to share that NeuroSquad is part of this year's Indie Live Expo event, which starts today (May 20) at 3:00 AM PDT / 6:00 AM EDT / 12:00 PM CEST.
If you're always on the lookout for indie games, you might want to check out the live stream here:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Happy slaying!