The Battle of Aurinoxia News

Greetings Pilots,

I've pushed a bunch of updates to the "testing" branch for version 0.4.0, including some new features and improvements based on your feedback. See beta opt-in instructions at bottom. These changes will go live on the main branch after a few days of testing.

Dive in and explore the latest changes:

[h2]Audio Improvements[/h2]

• New Sound Effects: Added new sound effects to provide more variety to enemy projectiles and other gameplay sounds.
  

[h2]New Gameplay Actions[/h2]

• M-BOMB and SHELL Actions: Introduced new M-BOMB and SHELL actions.
  
• Controller/Keyboard Configuration: Updated configuration pages to support new inputs for M-BOMB and SHELL. All customized controller/keyboard mappings have been reset to defaults due to these additions (please reconfigure as needed).
  
• 1UP Power Up: Added and distributed 1UP power-ups throughout the stages.
  

[h2]Gameplay Enhancements[/h2]

• Backend and HUD Improvements: Upgrades to the shield logic and better display of shield updates on the HUD.
  
• Weapon Buffs: Weapon buffs at the start of a stage now occur more quickly.
  
• Weapon Upgrade Path: Adjusted the weapon upgrade path to provide more granularity.
  

[h2]Stage Updates[/h2]

• Stage 2 Enhancements: Plentiful and stronger mines have been added to intensify the challenge.
  
• Stage 1 Enhancements: Gunship turrets now more aggressively target the player ship.
  

[h2]Balance Adjustments[/h2]

• Enemy Ship Health: Rebalanced the health of various enemy ships—some are now stronger, while others are weaker.
  
• Elite Ship Fire Rates: Improved fire rates for Elite class ships to make them less overpowering against players.
  
• Galactic Guardian Health: Reduced the health of Galactic Guardian enemies by approximately 5%.
  

[h2]Other Tweaks and Additions[/h2]

• Controller Disconnect Handling: The game now pauses when a controller disconnect is detected during a stage.
  
• Dynamic Enemy Health: Added dynamic enemy health to introduce more variety in enemy spawns. This will become more apparent in upcoming stages.
  
• Upgrade Path Checks: Added logic to support consistent upgrade paths throughout stages.
  
• Nuke Power Up Adjustments: Nukes now spawn at the top of the screen and move downward, instead of spawning and waiting in random corners. Additionally, the lifetime and fadeout time of nuke power-ups have been doubled for longer hoarding.
  

[h2]Debug and Settings Enhancements[/h2]

• Debug Overlay: Added weapon strength, max weapon strength, shield power, and total play time seconds to the debug overlay (F3). Total play time resets at stage select or when starting a new arcade play.
  
• Window Pause Option: Added an option in the Misc. settings menu to toggle window pause when losing focus.
  

I hope you enjoy these updates and enhancements! As always, I look forward to your feedback and continue to appreciate your support as we develop The Battle of Aurinoxia.

Cheers!

-- John

[h3]How to Enable the Testing Branch[/h3]
To enable Beta Version:

1. Open the Steam client.
   
2. Go to the "Library" tab and right-click on the game.
   
3. Select "Properties" from the context menu.
   
4. In the Properties window, navigate to the "Betas" tab.
   
5. Use the drop-down menu to select the desired beta version and close the window.
   

Steam should then download and update the game automatically. If not, follow these steps to force the download and update:

Verifying the Integrity of Installed Files:

1. Open the Steam client.
   
2. Go to the "Library" tab and right-click on the game.
   
3. Select "Properties" from the context menu.
   
4. In the Properties window, go to the "Local Files" tab.
   
5. Click "Verify integrity of game files" and wait for the process to complete.
   

Updating the default branch with recent weapon systems improvements.

0.3.0

• All weapon upgrades acquired during a stage now carry over to the start of the next stage.
  
• Removed random chance affecting weapon loss when taking damage. Loss is now determined solely by shield strength. Higher shields means lower chance of loss.
  
• Improved power-up spawn logic to better track current ship systems status (weapons, shields, bombs) and to grant power ups more/less often accordingly.
  
• Reworked base laser power and how weapon upgrades affect it. Monitoring laser power will now be less important.
  
• Removed WPN+1 power up, as it doesn't serve much purpose after reworking base laser power.
  
• Refactored WPN power bar to display weapon upgrade progression instead of base laser power (blue bar at bottom left of HUD).
  
• Added new "nuke" power-up that spawns rarely, and deals a large amount of damage to visible enemies when collected.
  
• Rebalanced stages 1-3 to accommodate power up and weapons changes.
  
• Rebalanced weapons damage multipliers when upgrading weapons: base laser damage is lower, but upgrade multipliers have increased.
  
• Increased Life Bonus awards during "Stage Clear" performance evaluations based on difficulty level.
  
• Increased Enemy Engagement awards during "Stage Clear" performance evaluations based on difficulty level.
  
• New additions to StageScript to support mechanics for upcoming Stage 4.
  
• Added new debug stats overlay to display enemy hit points in real time (F2).
  
• Bug Fix: player and enemy lasers properly despawn when exiting the screen area.
  
• Bug Fix: hazard counter now displaying correctly in debug menu (F3).
  
• Bug Fix: Fixed some animations that were starting playback on the wrong frame.
  

Greetings Pilots,

I'm excited to roll out update v0.3.0 to the "testing" branch, packed with several additions and improvements based on your feedback. See beta opt-in instructions at bottom.

Here's a detailed look at what’s new:

[h2]Weapon and Power-Up Enhancements[/h2]

• Persistent Weapon Upgrades: All weapon upgrades you acquire during a stage now carry over to the start of the next stage. No more resetting your hard-earned power-ups!
  
• Shield-Dependent Weapon Loss: I've removed the random chance affecting weapon loss when taking damage. Now, the likelihood of weapon loss is solely determined by your shield strength. Higher shields mean a lower chance of losing your weapons.
  
• Improved Power-Up Spawns: Power-up spawn logic has been improved to better track the status of your ship systems (weapons, shields, bombs). Power-ups will now spawn more or less often depending on your current needs.
  
• Base Laser Power Rework: I've reworked the base laser power and how weapon upgrades affect it. Monitoring laser power is now less crucial, allowing you to focus on other aspects of combat.
  
• WPN+1 Power-Up Removed: With the rework of base laser power, the WPN+1 power-up no longer serves a significant purpose and has been removed.
  
• WPN Power Bar Update: The WPN power bar now displays weapon upgrade progression instead of base laser power, keeping you informed about your upgrade status (blue bar at the bottom left of the HUD).
  
• New "Nuke" Power-Up: A rare but powerful addition, the "nuke" power-up deals massive damage to all visible enemies when collected.
  

[h2]Balancing and Performance[/h2]

• Stage Rebalancing: Stages 1-3 have been rebalanced to accommodate the changes to power-ups and weapons.
  
• Weapon Damage Rebalance: I've adjusted the weapons damage multipliers. Base laser damage is lower, but upgrade multipliers are increased, making weapon upgrades more impactful.
  
• Increased Performance Awards: Life Bonus and Enemy Engagement awards during "Stage Clear" performance evaluations have been increased based on the difficulty level.
  

[h2]New Mechanics and Debugging Tools[/h2]

• StageScript Additions: New additions to StageScript to support exciting mechanics for the upcoming Stage 4.
  
• Debug Stats Overlay: A new debug stats overlay has been added to display enemy hit points in real-time. Toggle with F2.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes:[/h2]

• Player and enemy lasers now properly despawn when exiting the screen area.
  
• Hazard counter now displays correctly in the debug menu (F3).
  
• Fixed several animations that were starting playback on the wrong frame.
  

I'm committed to continuously improving The Battle of Aurinoxia based on your feedback. Dive in, explore the new changes, and let me know your thoughts! If everything looks good, I'll push these changes to the default branch in a few days.

Good luck out there Squadron Leaders!

-- John


[h3]How to Enable the Testing Branch[/h3]

To enable Beta Version:

1. Open the Steam client.
   
2. Go to the "Library" tab and right-click on the game.
   
3. Select "Properties" from the context menu.
   
4. In the Properties window, navigate to the "Betas" tab.
   
5. Use the drop-down menu to select the desired beta version and close the window.
   

Steam should then download and update the game automatically. If not, follow these steps to force the download and update:

Verifying the Integrity of Installed Files:

1. Open the Steam client.
   
2. Go to the "Library" tab and right-click on the game.
   
3. Select "Properties" from the context menu.
   
4. In the Properties window, go to the "Local Files" tab.
   
5. Click "Verify integrity of game files" and wait for the process to complete.
   

Welcome to the briefing, Pilots!

Now that Early Access is officially on, I wanted to share a bit of a Roadmap with everyone.
My goal is to share more details of what I'm planning for the game, what's currently in-progress,
and to give the community the opportunity to weigh in with feedback and ideas. Expect updates to
come every few weeks, possibly more often, depending on how things are moving along. This post is a
big dump of info, but going forward, I'll try to keep them shorter :)

The following 3 sections lay out my basic battle plan:

[h2]Main Story Development[/h2]

• Design for Stages 4-6
  
  1. New enemy types, mechanics, and stage bosses
     
  2. Story and Design
     
  3. Music
     
  4. Sound FX (Bosses, weapons, etc.)
     
  5. Testing, testing, testing
     
• Add new secondary weapon types (bombs and other kabooms)
  
• Add new ammo upgrades
  
• Add new Steam Stats and Achievements
  
• Update artwork for Steam Achievements
  
• Development for Stages 7-9
  
• Development for Stages 10-??
  

[h2]Enhancements after Main Story[/h2]

• Random Skirmishes play mode: Randomly generated skirmishes from selected options
  
• Additional Leaderboards: Most kills, ???, your suggestions here.
  

[h2]Stretch Goals / Long-term Maybes[/h2]

• Custom Stage Design Support
  

So let's dive into a these sections a bit more. The "Main Story Development" list is pretty straightforward. This is basically: finish the game. I'm personally committed to doing most, if not all of the things in this list. I intend to release each stage in groups of 2-3, making early versions of them available in a testing branch as I go. Stages are the time intensive work: making new art, new enemies, recording sound effects and music (yes, Interface Type Seven is also my project). Each stage usually takes a few weeks of experimenting and testing just to get a feel for how playable and fun it is. As I reach that point, I'll probably share it in the testing branch to get some feedback. After that, creating the music/fx, getting the boss dynamics right, and constantly rebalancing as I test each difficulty level, takes another couple of weeks. I'm currently working on Stage 4.

Once I have the next batch of stages (4-6) ready, I plan to take a pause from jamming on that to work out some new weapons upgrades and do some polish on things like Achievement artwork. This gives me time to observe how the new stages are being received, and allows the creative juices to replenish.

Work on Stages 7-9 and 10-?? will follow. I don't know exactly how many stages there will be, as I don't know the end of the story yet. I originally figured around a dozen total stages, but I'm not sure. I'd also like to have a few surprises and Easter Eggs.

Once the main story list is knocked out, that's when I'll start looking more closely at the "Enhancements after Main Story" section. I think the "Random Skirmishes" idea would introduce a fun, infinitely replayable aspect to the game. I'm not committing to anything that ends up on this list. When and if I do, it won't be until after I've delivered the full story experience.

Lastly, in the "Stretch/Maybes" list, I've got the biggest non-commitment of all: Opening up support for custom stages. I spent a lot of upfront time creating a specialized syntax for stage design. I call it "StageScript", and it is how I build out the stages today. I'm constantly tweaking and improving it, and I think it's pretty fun to create stages with. By the time I'm done with the game, it should be fairly easy to open up the testing features I've developed to the community. I really just need to document it, provide some examples, and publish a directory to drop StageScript files into. Additional work would be to create some kind of interface to load them from inside the game, ala the "Stage Select" menu. Another consideration would be integrating it all with Steam Workshop and dealing with moderating shared stages, as well as building out that interface. That sounds like a fair bit of work, so I'm not sure.

[h2]In Conclusion[/h2]
That wraps up my goals as they stand today. Of course, this is all impacted by unforseens: your feedback and killer suggestions, as well as supporting any bugs and issues. Also not highlighted, are iterative improvements I'll work in as I go. Things like UI polish, tweaks to stages for balancing, new menus, etc.

[h2]How Changes are Published[/h2]
I'll throw a few notes about how I plan to release updates:

• Bug fixes will always take priority. I'll test them and push them out to the default branch ASAP.
  
• Stage development will trickle in as I feel each one is ready to share. These will get pushed to the "testing" beta branch. Be sure to opt-in to get the earliest access to these. I'll announce those as I go, and include the instructions for how to get at the testing beta branch(es). New features will also go here: things like UI upgrades, new achievements, etc. Once these features are ready and thoroughly tested, they will make their way to the default branch.
  
• Experiments and Ideas have their own "experiments" beta branch. I suggest opting into this if you're really interested in testing out new features, or if you want to help sort out bugs. I don't recommend keeping this branch active, because it will likely break game play from time to time. By participating in this branch, you may have to clear out local configurations and cache now and then.
  

For reference, the game version is always included in 2 spots: on the main menu in the bottom right corner, and in the Debug Menu (F3) when playing a stage. When I post updates about new versions, I'll include it in the post with a summary list of changes. It should look something like: V0.2.10.1-EARLY_ACCESS

If you read this far, awesome, thanks for your interest!

Cheers,

John

Alright Pilots, let's go!

I've pushed the button, and The Battle of Aurinoxia is now available for Early Access on Steam!

About the Game: The Battle of Aurinoxia is a retro space shoot 'em up featuring pixel art graphics, unique enemies, tough bosses, and an original synthesizer soundtrack. As one of the first pilots in the system, your mission is to lead the counteroffensive against alien aggressors and defend The Alliance.

What’s Included in Early Access:

• 3 playable stages with unique bosses and enemies
  
• 5 difficulty levels for replayability
  
• Leaderboards to showcase community high scores across each difficulty
  
• Initial set of stats and achievements (placeholder artwork for achievement badges while we work on designs)
  
• Full Xbox controller and keyboard support
  
• Custom soundtrack by Interface Type Seven
  

Upcoming Features Planned:

• Additional stages and story elements
  
• New enemy types and bosses
  
• Skirmish mode for one-off battles
  
• Regular updates and bug fixes based on community feedback
  

Get Involved in the Community: Your feedback is crucial! Connect with us on the Steam forums and Discord to share your thoughts and suggestions. We want to involve the community in the development process, gather feedback, and enhance the game with your input. Early Access allows us to share our progress and make improvements based on real player experiences.

Get ready to embark on this epic space adventure. The battle begins now!

Happy gaming,

John