Just Keep Running News

More upgrades, dyslexia-friendly fonts, and other small but cool additions, that’s what this is all about!

We’re still working hard currently on T-1000, but soon enough we’ll be getting back in the Writer’s Room to start working on Chapter 3 and, perhaps, maybe even Chapter 4… 😉

[h2]Key Changes[/h2]
[h3]MORE UPGRADES[/h3]

• Running Speed: Adds +10% to the player's running speed.
  

“Running Speed” Upgrade Showcase

• Enemy Vision Cone: Makes enemy vision cones +10% more narrow per level.
  

“Enemy Vision Cone” Upgrade Showcase

[h3]ACCESSIBILITY SETTING: Dyslexia-Friendly Font[/h3]
Dyslexia-friendly Font Showcase

This is an accessibility setting that modifies Notes and other applicable game text to use a font that is designed to be more readable to players with dyslexia. This can be applied to multiple other sections of the game, and if anyone wants to give us any feedback for how we can utilize this setting, let us know! 😀

[h3]GRADE REQUIREMENTS[/h3]
Showcase of Grade Requirement UI

If you’ve beaten a level, you can now see what Level Time you need to beat to get a specific grade. Good stuff.

And finally… perhaps the biggest and most requested change of them all…
[h2]KEYCODE PANELS NOW HAVE A “CLEAR” BUTTON![/h2]
*Significant Change. Just because I know a "little bit" of English doesn't mean I'm fluent in it.

[2.2.0] - 2024-02-17

ADDED

• “Running Speed” Upgrade added: Adds +10% to the player's running speed.
  
• “Enemy Vision Cone” Upgrade added: Makes enemy vision cones +10% more narrow per level.
  
• “Dyslexia-Friendly Font” setting added: Changes Notes and other applicable game text to use a font that is designed to be more readable to players with dyslexia.
  
• Grade Requirements added to Level Selection: If you’ve beaten a level, you can now see what Level Time you need to beat to get a specific grade.
  
• “Clear” button added to Keycode Panels.
  
• Added a small indicator next to the “Upgrades” button on the Main Menu when new Upgrade Points are available.
  

FIXED

• 1-1 Stage 4: Button springs were incorrectly configured, causing buttons to get potentially stuck in the activated position even when not interacting with anything physical. (Shoutouts to CGDannyB and Chris_RV2 for finding this potential bug during our Dev Talk, check it out by the way!)
  
• Lasers phasing through objects that are right in front of them.
  

KNOWN ISSUES

• Playing a level for the first time on the Steam build might result in slow loading times. We’re looking into potential solutions for them.
  
• Playing the game with a Switch Pro controller may lead to issues controlling the player's character. This is seemingly an issue with the Unity Input System, and sadly out of our control.
  
• Playing the game with a Dualshock 4 controller or on Steam Deck while having a keyboard connected may lead to issues involving controlling the game with the Keyboard. This is also seemingly an issue with the Unity Input System, which is beyond our control.
  

Changelog formatting is partly based on Keep a Changelog (https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/). Version numbers are formatted as such…

[h3]MAJOR.MINOR.HOTFIX[/h3]

• Major releases usually include extensive visual & technological additions, like new campaign chapters and/or major new features, or overhauls of significant systems that might invalidate older game versions, such as save files.
  
• Minor releases include visual & technological additions and changes that are significant but likely do not include anything that may invalidate older versions of the game.
  
• Hotfix releases mostly include quality-of-life changes or fixes to other bugs and issues.
  

Today mostly focuses on 1-1, replacing the previous Climbing and Wallrunning tutorial stages with a single stage that should hopefully teach both mechanics in a much better way. It also mostly includes changes to settings and the Main Menu UI.

[h2]Key Changes[/h2]

• 1-1 Update: Stages 3 and 4 replaced with a single stage that should better teach new players how to Climb and Wallrun!
  

• New Controller Sensitivity settings
  

• Refreshed Campaign/Level Selection Menu, and more!
  

[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]
[2.1.0] - 2024-01-24

ADDED

• Added Gold Star to Campaigns in the Main Menu to indicate if you’ve gotten a Golden rating on every level.
  
• Added Controller Sensitivity Settings.
  

CHANGED

1-1
• Replaced Stages 3 (Climbing tutorial) & 4 (Wallrunning tutorial) with a new stage that should (hopefully) be better at teaching new players how to Wallrun and Climb.
• This level update will outdate previous times and grades on 1-1. This is indicated in the Campaign & Level Grade as “INVALID” or “X”, and you will have to replay the level to get a new grade. This will NOT hinder your ability to play any other levels in the campaign.

• Chapter headers added to Speedrun Mode: Level splits will be grouped into chapters, and condensed down to a single Chapter split if the player beats a level in another chapter.
  
• Refreshed parts of the Campaign/Level Selection menu’s UI.
  
• Resorted Upgrades.
  

FIXED

• Players getting stuck when standing on office chairs.
  
• Not being able to back out of menus with Escape Key/B Button/Circle Button in the Main Menu after playing the game and exiting back to the Main Menu.
  

KNOWN ISSUES

• Update download sizes are pretty big on Steam. This is because of how we compress the game. Future updates from now on should be more relaxed.
  
• Playing the game with a Switch Pro controller may lead to issues controlling the player's character. This is seemingly an issue with the Unity Input System, and sadly out of our control.
  
• Playing the game with a Dualshock 4 controller or on Steam Deck while having a keyboard connected may lead to issues involving controlling the game with the Keyboard. This is also seemingly an issue with the Unity Input System, which is beyond our control.
  

Changelog formatting is partly based on Keep a Changelog (https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/). Version numbers are formatted as such…
MAJOR.MINOR.HOTFIX

• Major releases usually include extensive visual & technological additions, like new campaign chapters and/or major new features, or overhauls of significant systems that might invalidate older game versions, such as save files.
• Minor releases include visual & technological additions and changes that are significant but likely do not include anything that may invalidate older versions of the game.
• Hotfix releases mostly include quality-of-life changes or fixes to other bugs and issues.

Today’s patch mostly contains fixes and optimizations that make navigating menus and playing the game on Controllers more efficient and smooth. And more changes and improvements are coming soon with future updates!

[h2]Key Changes[/h2]

• New Controller Bindings: Look, Respawn, Restart Level, Hard Restart
  
• Improvements to Main/Pause Menu navigation
  

• Added a lil beard and hat to the Danny doodle :)
  

Click the heart to learn more about the initiative.

Here’s a quick reminder about the I.M.I.Self Hope Initiative!

The I.M.I.Self Hope Initiative is our way of giving back to those in need. Starting January 5th, every other month on the Friday of the first week, we plan to give back 20% of our net income to a humanitarian charity of our choice.

The first charity we’re planning on giving to is Anera, which is currently providing hot meals, hygiene kits, cleaning services, psychological support, and health clinics in Gaza and the West Bank, whose civilians are being actively displaced and killed in the Israel-Hamas war.

We will make announcements whenever we donate and if any changes are made to the initiative. You can read more about the initiative and check our donation reports here!

[2.0.1] - 2023-12-28

ADDED

• Allowed for rebinding “Look” on controllers.
  
• Added bindings for Respawning and Restarting levels to the controller. These are also rebindable.
  
• Snapping to selected UI options now occurs in the Upgrade & Campaign Selection menus.
  

CHANGED
1-2:

• On stage 5, changed turret ranges to allow players to peek down into the stage area.
  

2-2:

• By request, added beard and hat to Danny Secret Doodle.
  

Improvements to the Upgrades menu:

• Made navigation with arrow keys/navigation buttons easier.
  
• Made button highlights more clear and distinct.
  
• Fixed not being able to interact with the menu when the selected upgrade/downgrade button becomes deactivated.
  

• Updated navigation in Main Menu & Pause Menu.
  
• Pressing Escape / B / Circle etc. in the Main/Pause Menu can be used to quickly exit sub-menus.
  

FIXED

• Fixed not being able to interact with the binding menu with the controller in the Pause menu.
  
• Fixed Interact still being the default binding in-game even when a player rebound it.
  
• Snapping to selected UI options occurs when holding down the arrow keys/navigation buttons instead of only snapping once and not following.
  

KNOWN ISSUES

• Update download sizes are pretty big on Steam. This is because of how we compress the game, and we will (hopefully) have made some changes that will make download sizes and in-game performance better.
  
• Playing the game with a Switch Pro controller may lead to issues controlling the player's character. This is seemingly an issue with the Unity Input System, and sadly out of our control.
  
• Playing the game with a Dualshock 4 controller connected may lead to issues involving controlling the game with the Keyboard. This is also seemingly an issue with the Unity Input System, which is beyond our control.
  
• When playing the game on Steam Deck while having a keyboard connected, some may experience issues moving the player. Like all other known issues above, this most likely has something to do with the Unity Input System. (S/O to someone using the feedback form to inform us about this issue!)
  

Changelog formatting is partly based on Keep a Changelog. Version numbers are formatted as such…
MAJOR.MINOR.HOTFIX

• Major releases usually include extensive visual & technological additions, like new campaign chapters and/or major new features, or overhauls of significant systems that might invalidate older game versions, such as save files.
  
• Minor releases include visual & technological additions and changes that are significant but likely do not include anything that may invalidate older versions of the game.
  
• Hotfix releases mostly include quality-of-life changes or fixes to other bugs and issues.
  

Chapters 1 & 2 of Just Keep Running are now available for you all to play as a demo! Scroll down if y’all want more details about the game and what changes we’ve made (compared to 1.4.4, which wasn't available on Steam).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2684400/Just_Keep_Running/



This update brings you a brand new Chapter in the Main Campaign, and a total of 5 NEW LEVELS, one of which isn’t part of the main campaign.

Spinnin’ Security Bot

You’ll come across new obstacles like Lasers and Disintegration Panels, and there’s a brand new enemy as well, the Security Bots.

Changes to Level 1-1

We’ve reworked the 1-1 tutorials to be (hopefully) much better at teaching the game’s mechanics. We’ve also reworked and optimized Story Messages, the Pick-Up system, enemy detection, and vision cones, and we’ve also squashed A LOT of bugs.

Vision Cone added to Roof Turrets and Security Bots

And we’ll keep on updating and adding more to the game in Early 2024 thanks to a lot of useful feedback we’ve gotten from our playtesters. Thanks by the way to everyone who playtested Chapter 2! The ones who I know have given us great feedback and engaged with the game the most have been credited wherever possible.😀

You will hopefully soon be able to download and stream the Chapter 2 soundtrack sometime in January 2024!



Click the heart to learn more about the initiative.

We also want to remind you all that we recently announced the I.M.I.Self Hope Initiative!

The I.M.I.Self Hope Initiative is our way of giving back to those in need. Starting January 5th, every other month on the Friday of the first week, we plan to give back 20% of our net income to a humanitarian charity of our choice.

The first charity we’re planning on giving to is Anera, which is currently providing hot meals, hygiene kits, cleaning services, psychological support, and health clinics in Gaza and the West Bank, whose civilians are being actively displaced and killed in the Israel-Hamas war.

We will make announcements whenever we donate and if any changes are made to the initiative. You can read more about the initiative and check our donation reports here!


[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]
[2.0.0] - 2023-12-21

ADDED

• NEW CAMPAIGN: Chapter 2: Six Feet Under
  
• 2-1: Extreme Testing Scenarios
• 2-2: New Age Technology
• 2-3: The Pincer Movement
• 2-4: Elevator Pitch
  
  
• NEW MISCELLANEOUS LEVEL
  
• ML-2: Test Scene_Chapter 2
  
  
• NEW Enemy Type Added: Security Bots
  
• NEW Obstacles Added
  
• Laser Emitter
  
• Disintegration Panel
  
• Added setting to adjust the size of Story Messages.
  
• Added camera shake to 1-3 explosion scene.
  
• Added Vision Cone to Roof Turrets.
  

CHANGED

• 1-1
  Reworked Stage 4 so that new players have to learn how to properly wallrun to beat it
  Stage 4 tutorials reworked to explain better how to Wallrun (S/O to Robin for assisting heavily here!)
  Reworked Stage 5 to make it easier for newer players to beat
  Renamed “Prison Food” object to “Food Tray”
  
  
• 1-2
  Modified “cursedmax.jpg” secret due to copyright concerns
  
  
• 1-4
  Adjusted door to be in the same orientation as it is in 2-1
  
  
• Story Messages adjusted to be smaller than before, and now zoom towards the screen rather than away.
  
• The “Sandbox” level’s soundtrack now uses the extended version found on the official soundtrack release.
  
• The “Sandbox” level now has Keypads that can be used to practice typing in code combinations.
  
• Alarm Lights' sounds are now more occluded and have a smaller range.
  
• Adjustments and optimizations made to FMOD. There should be fewer audio issues and delays.
  
• Optimized Pick-up/Interaction System: It should now be easier to interact with smaller objects, especially in movement, and small picked-up objects snap back to the player if they are stuck and too far away.
  
• Controller sensitivity is higher. A separate slider for Controller sensitivity is coming soon.
  

REMOVED

• Social logos were removed and replaced with text to avoid trademark infringement.
  

FIXED

• 1-1: Fixed typo when Panthera talks with the player for the first time in their cell.
  
• 1-4: Fixed lighting issues in Elevator
  
• Fixed Camera Bobbing taking Y velocity into account, making for example the camera bob when moving upwards in the 1-4 elevator
  
• Fixed Dynamic FOV being turned off at launch no matter if the “Dynamic FOV” setting is enabled.
  
• Fixed the material of footstep sounds not changing back to ground material if nudging into a prop or object with a different material than the ground.
  
• Fixed health points not displaying properly when having upgrades on until the player got damaged.
  
• Prevented players from taking damage shortly after respawning, which can occur when a player gets hit by a bullet shortly during or after respawning.
  
• Fixed the Crosshair pickup indicator not disappearing when tapping a keycard into a Keycard Reader.
  
• Fixed not being able to properly exit the rebind menu with the Escape key while the game is paused, causing the rebind UI to be open even when the game is unpaused.
  
• Fixed motion blur toggle being oddly positioned in the Pause menu’s settings.
  
• Fixed being unable to interact with the Main Menu using a controller until a button is highlighted by clicking it with the mouse.
  
• (Hopefully) fixed issues involving Fullscreen and Resolution settings.
  

KNOWN ISSUES

• Due to changes in how save files are encrypted, older save files will be incompatible with future game versions. This means that if you’ve played older versions of JKR before, you’ll have to start from scratch. This should hopefully not occur from now on, as this change was to allow for proper Steam Cloud support in the future.
  
• Some may experience performance issues on 2-3. This is mainly due to it being a larger level and potential audio/lighting optimization issues. We’ve tried to and are still trying to optimize the game as much as possible, so let us know if you run into any issues!
  
• Playing the game with a Switch Pro controller may lead to issues controlling the player's character. This is seemingly an issue with the Unity Input System, and sadly out of our control.
  
• Playing the game with a Dualshock 4 controller connected may lead to issues involving controlling the game with the Keyboard. This is also seemingly an issue with the Unity Input System, which is out of our control.
  

Changelog formatting is partly based on Keep a Changelog. Version numbers are formatted as such…
MAJOR.MINOR.HOTFIX

Major releases usually include extensive visual & technological additions, like new campaign chapters and/or major new features, or overhauls of significant systems that might invalidate older game versions, such as save files.
Minor releases include visual & technological additions and changes that are significant but likely do not include anything that may invalidate older versions of the game.
Hotfix releases mostly include quality-of-life changes or fixes to other bugs and issues.

And we have some pretty nutty announcements coming, including an initiative we’re launching. Keep reading…

[h2]🤍🤝🖤I.M.I.Self Hope Initiative[/h2]


Click the heart to learn more about the initiative.

This is something we’ve wanted to launch for a while. And now that the season of giving is here, it felt appropriate to announce this during the Winter Sale!

The I.M.I.Self Hope Initiative is our way of giving back to those in need. Starting January 5th, every other month on the Friday of the first week, we plan to give back 20% of our net income to a humanitarian charity of our choice.

The first charity we’re planning on giving to is Anera, which is currently providing hot meals, hygiene kits, cleaning services, psychological support, and health clinics in Gaza and the West Bank, whose civilians are being actively displaced and killed in the Israel-Hamas war.

We will make announcements whenever we donate and if any changes are made to the initiative. You can read more about the initiative and check our donation reports here!


[h2]🏆Indie of The Year - 6 HOURS LEFT TO VOTE![/h2]
We Need YOUR Votes to Win IndieDB’s Indie of The Year Awards! If you haven’t voted for us yet, please do so!

1. Click this link to go to IndieDB.
   
2. Scroll down until you find Just Keep Running. You’ll find us in the Platformer section.
   
3. Click the big red “VOTE” button and BOOM, You’re done!
   

No sign-up is required, and it only takes a single click. So, please go in and give us a vote. It’d mean a lot to us! 😁




In the meantime, make sure to Wishlist Just Keep Running! This will help get the game shown to more people on the platform. You can click the button below to add the game to your wishlist!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2684400/Just_Keep_Running/