Asterogues News

Hi everyone- there’s a new update dropping right now!
Here’s a breakdown of what’s in the new update:

-New playable character Orion!
-New world- the Moon Base!
6 new room types to play with, and new expansions to shops!
Keys are a new mechanic that'll switch up how you play your run!

Difficulty- the game was frankly too hard, and has been rebalanced- a hard version of the game is still available with the hard mode toggle!

Runs improved- The worlds are shorter, and runs now include every world, so you can fight all of the planets in one run- or, you can take a detour!

Enemies- A rework of how enemies spawn, making things both easier and more fun. New enemies now available in various zones, and a new planet boss!

Items- New active item charge system that works off damage as well as kills, so now items feel more involved for boss fights- plus active items can be held in the inventory and swapped between! A rework of ice and poison to make them into fun item routes! A few new items, with another item drop around the corner!

General overall polish with ui, music, and cutscenes! Various bugfixes, improvements to different resolutions and hopefully performance!

Thanks everyone for your feedback over the past few months since EA dropped. I think the game has grown a million times better than it would have if I had worked privately up until full release- and I still have a lot more to add before the game is finished. As always, please share your feedback with me on Discord!
I hope you enjoy this new version of Asterogues!

Hi everyone!

We're excited to share that Asterogues is part of the Remote Play Together event on Steam!

Sync up with a friend and play games together while celebrating the Remote Play Together event from February 12th to the 19th. Check out the event page here to discover some other great couch co-op games you can play with friends anywhere!



Additionally, Asterogues will be 34% off through the event so now is a great time to dive in with a friend!

If you've already got the game, we would love to see your honest thoughts on the game with a Steam review and have you join our Discord community. Reviews can make a huge different for indie games and we love seeing what you think!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2083240/Asterogues/

Hi everyone! If you were thinking about getting the game, now is a great time to do so as we are part of the Steam Winter Sale through our publisher Freedom Games!

From December 21st until January 4th, the game will be on sale for 20% off!

Make sure to check out Freedom Games' Winter Sale 2023 page to pick up some great games to play over the holiday season. Whether you like to play alone or with friends, there are some great deals you won't want to miss out on!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2083240/Asterogues/

Hi all!

This patch is mostly focused on requested QOL changes with some new items too.
In other news, did you know we have a Wiki? We are currently in the process of adding to it- here’s the link if you want to visit or help fill it out: https://asterogues.wiki.gg/wiki/Asterogues_Wiki


[h3]Jupiter:[/h3]

• Fixed a bug with Jupiter crashing the game when he dies in certain situations
  

[h3]New Items:[/h3]
The tavern is getting some new options for its customers!

• Added the Star Sour, White Martian, Moonshine, Gravitini, Glimmerlet, Dark Matter Mix to drinks
  

Planet chests have a new item pool including some items that may have not shown up before.

• Added more items to the boss item pool that weren’t showing in runs due to their high tier - Big Stick, Burst Engine, Neptune’s Trident, Toy Blaster, Pheromone, Repeater

[h3]QOL Updates/Bugfixes:[/h3]
The inventory and UI has been improved. Still a work in progress that will continue to be improved, but here are the new additions:

• Pause when opening the inventory
  
• New aiming reticle
  
• You can now choose your game resolution in the settings menu (with mouse)
  
• Inventory works for all resolutions nicely (this might not apply to ultra wide resolutions)
  
• Inventory system shows temporary effects (such as drinks)
  
• Drinks now list the amount of rooms they last
  
• Inventory now shows all stats even if they are 0, so they can be read before buying items etc
  
• Cutscene bars work for all resolutions
  
• Fixed a spacing problem with active item's description
  
• When opening inventory on controller, automatically hovers first available item slot (works if the first item is passive, or a cursed hub item too)
  
• Removed the hover sprite recolor when selecting your run mode
  
• Bugfix: Fixed a navigation bug with cursed hub items on controller in the inventory
  

The graphics have been improved with new fx added to certain items. More to come!

• Bubble bullets resized to match pixel size of the game
  
• New attack animations for Asteroy, Frostar, Asterbomination, Cultrunt- some enemies now pause during their attack windup
  
• New landing warning animation for enemies and bounce on landing
  
• New graphics for Bullet Tech aiming effect and also now works for Void Bullets
  
• Star Ring has new effects when injured
  
• Overcharged Star new adds new electric trail effect to Homing bullets
  
• Each character has their own face sprite for the sidemap, as well as the death progress screen
  
• Explosive Bullets have a new explode effect
  

Chests and item drops have been improved a bit. In particular people were asking for an option for passive items in the first chest.

• First chest will offer at least one active and one passive item.
  
• Less active items can drop at a store
  
• You can click to select item in chest instead of using E
  
• Bugfix: Fixed a bug where rerolled items weren't affected by price decrease
  

An improvement to stop players dying after beating a boss.

• Players can’t take damage while the screen whites out (after boss fight)
  

To help players unlock new characters:

• Locked characters now have a locked sprite at the hub, with a hint towards their unlock method
  

[h3]Balance Updates:[/h3]

• Hydra is now immune for 0.4 seconds on leaving a host
  
• Hydra's infest range from 2.5 to 2.7
  
• Movement item class has changed- used to lower enemy movespeed- now increases player movespeed
  
• Cursed Hub Items now grant either +3% or +6% coins dropped as a beneficial passive
  
• Mars' challenger minibosses drop a heart on death each
  
• Planet Chests now drop hearts even if you took no/little damage
  
• Burning Sword- now grants burning after a kill combo with new fire fx
  
• Electro Prod- now applies lightning every 3rd melee attack with new electric fx
  
• Leafblower now blows less powerfully but has a different, more consistent conversion of bullets to hit opponents
  
• Corrosion Point has a bigger hit area (0.001->0.3 radius) and new animation
  
• Astro Suit now also has a 20% chance to block bullets as well as extreme fire and ice resistance
  
• Repeater reload chance increased from 20 to 30%. Also updated text to clarify it has the same chance to double-use pickups
  
• Changed Headsplitter to a new effect: take +1 damage when hit, heal 3 HP at the end of this effect
  
• Cultrunt bullet now does 6 damage to enemies instead of 2 when Pluto fires it
  
• Sickle and Bouncing Bullets can be recaught after they bounce (by Pluto, Void)
  
• Crates now have a slightly higher chance of dropping an unusual Heart (1/5 to 1/4)
  
• Sandworms now create bullets that don’t go through obstacles
  
• Dronewalker laser now creates bullets at its tip
  
• Raiderunts (on Jupiter) are a bit slower (2.5movespeed -> 2.2) and fire a bit slower (7 -> 6.5)
  
• Neptune's bubble bullets explode into less bullets (50->40)
  

Thanks everyone who’s been playing and reporting bugs as well as leaving suggestions. This is the last big QOL patch before moving on to new content! The best place to talk to me is on the Asterogues Discord.


Known issues:

• Can’t change resolution with controller
  
• Resolution may not display the correct starting resolution and may not save between sessions
  
• Can’t reach discord/twitter etc buttons on the main screen with controller
  
• Music can be turned off during a bossfight by pausing as it fades in
  
• Some music tracks can end up playing over each other
  

Mark

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/2083240/Asterogues/

Hi everyone- This patch is broken into two parts- there’s a retweak of playable characters and run difficulty overall, and then a sizable amount of QOL changes + bugfixes. Most of these are reported from Discord and Steam forums!

In other news, did you know we have a Wiki? We are currently in the process of adding to it- here’s the link if you want to visit or help fill it out: Asterogues Official Wiki

[h3]Balancing:[/h3]
The main goal for balance changes is to make the game more fun rather than to make all the characters equally strong. The idea behind nerfs is to remove situations where the character is so strong that it no longer interacts with the game.

Pluto is getting some changes to feel more fair. He gets punished heavily for getting hit and some players feel like he doesn’t catch every bullet in his orbit. Pluto only catches bullets that spend enough time near him, so it was possible for fast bullets to quickly pass through without being caught in orbit.

• Pluto only drops half of orbiting bullets when hit.
  
• Pluto orbit mechanics updated to catch bullets that pass through orbit range too quickly.
  

Void is going to do slightly less damage while also having a slightly tighter cone, just so it's slightly less destructive in basic rooms and also can hit bosses a tiny bit better.

• Void pulse cone angle reduced by 20%.
  
• Void bullet damage from 1.8 to 1.6.
  
• Void boss hp reduction multiplier from 0.7x to 0.85x (bosses have more hp vs void).
  

Hydra is going to shred bosses a bit less quickly while also having to get a tiny bit closer to infest enemies. In the last patch Hydra’s damage was boosted by crits being fixed on it, so this evens it out. Hydra also got a new method of recovering shields when fighting bosses but was taking little to no damage in return, so this was fixed.

• Hydra boss hp reduction multiplier from 0.65x to 0.9x (bosses have more hp vs hydra).
  
• Hydra infest range from 3 to 2.6 (break range remains the same).
  
• Hydra now takes the right amount of damage from bosses.
  

Braniac was trivializing his own mechanics when finding certain items that changed his bullets, so these items are going to be less effective on him.

• Braniac now has a 15% proc chance for bullet-changing items (Bouncy Bullets, Goldeneye etc.) and a 3% proc chance on Space Freezer.
  
• Laser Lasso no longer drops for Braniac.
  

The strongest enemies are getting a slight tweak to be more manageable.

• Frostar only fires one bomb at a time.
  
• Helmetrunts don’t jump all the time, and walk for a little bit between jumps.
  
• Harder minibosses now drop less/no additional enemies when they spawn.
  
• Phobos and Mars shields now have 8HP and can be destroyed.
  

Freeze was leaving the player without much to do when freezing the source of bullets, so you can now melee frozen enemies for big damage. Freeze might be damage-tweaked later since it now works fine against planets.

• Frozen enemies now take 4x melee damage.
  

Sun Amulet radius increased from 5.8 to 6.8.

[h3]Controller Updates:[/h3]
Controller auto-aim has been updated to choose between nearby enemies better, and also comes with a strength slider in the settings menu. It will now also track jumping enemies or enemies with a displaced hitbox (such as enemies with a jetpack) better.

Window Settings:

• Cursor now can’t leave the game window when the game is unpaused.
  
• Game doesn’t continue to play while not focused on the window.
  

[h3]Other QOL:[/h3]

• Hearts and Starshards should now always drop inside the room when dropped by a miniboss outside of a room.
  
• Bosses no longer attack after being defeated or before finishing dialogue.
  
• Small enemies no longer drop after bosses are defeated or before finished dialogue (Hydra).
  
• During the escort mission, players will go to the areas where they need to complete the quest instead of random zones.
  
• When fighting Jupiter, camera no longer follows Jupiter awkwardly.
  
• When you enter a portal, bullets get cleared (should mean not getting hit in the next room from slow moving bullets).
  
• 3000 coins achievement has been dropped to 2500- something more manageable after coin drops were reduced.
  

[h3]Bug Fixing:[/h3]

• Hearts can no longer be grabbed by two players at the same time.
  
• Fixed music overlap/incorrect music in later zones after boss fights.
  
• Fixed Mars visual error on freeze.
  
• Lil Favor rocket should now wait until bosses finish their dialogue.
  
• Sheriff should no longer create chains after death.
  
• Settings sliders will no longer show the wrong value on start.
  
• Frozen planets now take damage correctly.
  
• Fixed Jupiter shaking the screen after death.
  
• Fixed main menu disappearing when using Escape button from the settings menu.
  

[h3]Clarity and Visuals:[/h3]

• Rock obstacles no longer appear on the end screen when completing a run.
  
• Added missing Sheriff death explosion.
  
• Black bars no longer should cover dialogue in widescreen.
  
• Planet introduction bar should now strength to fit widescreen.
  
• Pets no longer listed as active items when appearing in chests.
  
• Fixed missing indicator on sub-menus (“Would you like to quit current run?”).
  
• Fixed text shadow error on sub-menu (“Would you like to quit current run?”).
  

I’m trying to make sure I see all the suggestions wherever they’re posted, but the best place to talk directly to me and either report bugs or give suggestions is the Discord! I am starting to work on new zones so it's a great time to suggest new enemies and items!

Mark

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