Steven the Sperm News

Whew, it's been an busy 10ish days for STS updates! I'm back with yet another save data update, and I know at this point you might want someone to save you from the save data updating, but I promise this is the last one, and it helps enable something pretty cool... that being Linux support! Read on:

• Linux support using the Proton Compatibility Layer! This requires yet another save data update, so much like last time, existing players will see another popup informing them that their save data has been updated. Proton didn't like the way data was saved in the previous versions, so it couldn't read it properly, leading to a plethora of issues. With this update, data should work between both Windows and Linux, and don't worry - whether you run this update on either platform, and whether or not you've run the game during 2.1.0, your data will be properly carried over.
• Fixed an oversight where the Options menu didn't load the user's choice on disabling the dash meter fill sound.
• A short delay has been added to changing the "Select" control option after changing a previous control option. This is to prevent the select button from firing off again as its set.
  

As you can see, I managed to get a few little bits of usability updates in there as well, so everybody wins. Hope you Linux users will enjoy being able to explore the majestic and epic world of Steven the Sperm! Everybody else... well, you've already been experiencing peak gaming, so you may continue on as usual kings/queens/spermatozoons. 👑

Another update so soon? Yep. Insert sex joke about a "refractory period" here. Consider this the "save data" update, but also the "apology" update, as you'll see.



[h2]Major Changes:[/h2]

• Moved Save Data location. Note that players who've played the game before this version will see a popup when starting the game, informing them that their data has been moved. The old location was in a "Save Data" folder in the game's directory, which could cause access issues for certain machines and prevents muliple user profiles for the same PC, so it's been moved to %Appdata%/PJSim/Steven the Sperm.
  
• Steam Cloud support has been added! Implementing it was actually pretty easy... better late than never. Just goes to show you, always actually try to do things before deciding they're too hard.
  

[h2]Minor Changes:[/h2]

• Aspect ratio is now kept in fullscreen mode. I have no idea why I didn't fix this earlier, seeing as how the main monitor I use here at college is 16:10, and I'd always noticed how it looks bad all stretched out in fullscreen lol... but hey, it's fixed now!
  
• Changed the name of the "Windowed Resolution" option to "Window Size". The game's resolution is 720p and the options only change the way it displays, not the actual internal resolution, so this rename makes that a little more clear.
  

Here's to yet another leap that makes STS even better! It's always super satisfying to make updates like this. Hope you get the same satisfaction playing the game!

Did you know that there's no limit to how long sperm can be stored when frozen, as long as it's properly stored inside liquid nitrogen? Well, while I don't think liquid nitrogen has anything to do with it, Steven the Sperm is still here for a 2023 update!

• You can now disable the sound that plays when the dash meter is filled (the slurping noise). Change it under "Options", "Gameplay", and "Dash Meter Fill Sound".
  
• Stage 3: Fixed enemies not spawning under certain conditions, and removed a loose mobile spermicide that was stuck in a wall.
• Stage 4: Fixed enemies not spawning under certain conditions.
• Grammar correction for dialogue in the opening story cutscene and a possible ending.
• Updated copyright dates & #MadeWithFusion logo.

Hope you all have been enjoying STS! Feel free to make some comments and community posts if such a thing comes across your mind. I've been busy with college as usual so I haven't had much time to get other projects off the ground, but I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on any future games, as well as updates for this one. See ya!

It takes 6 months to develop a baby, but it took about a year of on-and-off work to bring you this update, so that must mean it's twice as good as an actual human child! …or maybe that's not a good way to phrase it, but you get the picture.

But yep, you saw the title - Steven the Sperm has now reached version 2.0! Lots of games don't even reach that point! I bet you're wondering what this means - well without further ado, I present you with:



[h2]Major Changes[/h2]

• ENGINE UPDATE! Steven the Sperm now uses the Clickteam Fusion 2.5+ engine! My greater experience with this engine allows me to bring you all the updates listed below, as well as provide better performance (both from an engine standpoint and a personal optimization one), and a RIDICULOUSLY smaller install size:
  
  
  
  1.3.8 Full = 762 MB -> 2.0 Full = 88 MB (About 88% smaller!)
  1.x Demo V6 = 305 MB -> 2.0 Demo = 24 MB (About 92% smaller!)
• CUSTOMIZABLE CONTROLS! If the default arrow key/WASD or Xbox controls aren't to your liking, now you can change them! It's also worth noting that the Xbox controls will let you enable a left-handed/'southpaw' layout which uses the right stick for moving and the d-pad as buttons. Check out the section on the revamped options screen.
  
• TIGHTENED MOVEMENT! In 1.x, there was a slight delay between rotating and actually moving in that direction - this was especially noticeable while dashing, creating a sort of unruly 'swinging' effect. In this new update, rotating will now instantly change the direction of your velocity, making movement much more precise, predictable, and smooth. Veteran players may have to slightly readjust their muscle memory, but new players will have a much easier time learning to control Steven.
  
• INGAME ACHIEVEMENT TRACKING! Getting an achievement will now create an in-game popup with the title, description, and reward. There's also a new achievement screen which will help you figure out which achievements have been unlocked for your save file, and what the requirements are to unlock each. Much easier than having to open up the Steam overlay and remember which ones you've already unlocked, especially if you've already gotten all the achievements before.

[h2]Minor Overall Changes[/h2]

• Improved visuals in some areas. Some of the hand-drawn graphics in 1.x like the "Skip/Next" buttons and "Stage Complete!" text were particularly ugly and clashed with the rest of the game, so they've been replaced with nicer alternatives. The high score screen also no longer has a bunch of random crap flying around it, making it easier to read. Along with those, there's also other minor improvements like nicer quality backdrops on stages, fixes for some errors on a few of the story slides, re-drawings of a few red notification circles, and improved placement for buttons and text.
  
• Volume can be toggled with the + and - keys. No more fiddling with the volume mixer! The game starts out at max volume.
  
• Added the option to skip death animations. If you don't want to wait for death animations, you can turn them off in the Options menu. When you die, the stage will immediately reset.
  
• Next/Skip buttons can now use whatever you have set as the "Select" button (space or Z by default). In 1.x, they were set to either clicking or moving right... this sucked and was really confusing, so now you just use "Select" like every other game on Earth. The old methods still work though, so don't worry if you're used to it.
  
• Checkpoints can now be used in the stage select. Just note that they won't save if you quit the stage.
  
• When the boost meter is refilled, a sound will play. Helps for when you're in a high stakes situation and don't have time to look at the meter... which is all of the time. No more spamming the dash button hoping it'll work!
  
• Time requirements for medals have been adjusted. Times that ended on strange numbers like "1:26" are now more standard ("1:25" instead), except for the final stage where the time is based on an enemy.
  
• Improved cosmetic tracking. In 1.x, head and body cosmetics were basically just plastered over Steven with no care to actually follow his bodily movements when he swims. Now they do. Wahoo! I also added a cool new animation for when you die with some cosmetics you unlock from 100%ing the game, and the blue body cosmetic is a lighter shade so you can see Steven's face.
  

[h2]Feature & Stage Specific Changes[/h2]

• The High Score screen now plays a sound and highlights the entry when your score/time is on the board (or not), and two special songs can play depending on if you get a #1 score versus a #1 time. The former helps you know if you're even on the board, while the latter gives a nice little flavor.
  
• Enabling something will no longer change the pitch of the music. Keeping it vague to avoid spoilers. This might be the most controversial change of this update, but I felt that the downwards pitch shift in music created a tone that was more depressing than fun. I kept the shift on the Title Screen though, since it's funnier in the short time you're on it.
  
• Much improved Tutorial. Gone are the stupid pacer test bells and screen overlay with confusing, multi-sectioned button prompts and slow-mo until you fulfill them. Now the tutorial is actually understandable and doesn't destroy the pace. Buttons for both keyboard and controller are shown comprehensibly, and the explanations on how to play are better. The tutorial also now explains what the white cells do.
  
• Various small improvements for Stage 5. Added back the checkpoint, zoomed in the camera just a little more, and completely changed the challenge when you enable a feature.
  
• Huge Improvements on the final stage. Added back a little intro section from an early beta that ties it in nicely with the previous level. Most importantly, the physics for the stage's enemy and their phases have been tweaked to be more fair and less glitchy, helping balance the more random elements of the stage to make it more enjoyable yet still challenging. Also, the hidden help mode that was available if you failed too many times has been removed, so now you have to actually play the game. As for the other help you can unlock, the timer will now pause when it appears, so you don't have to worry about losing any time from it.
  
• Changed what happens in 5 Challenges when something is enabled. Again, no spoilers. It's really cool and something I was only able to do (within my skill level) with the game engine switch, so make sure to check it out when you're able to.
  

So, those are the changes with the 2.0 update! I think they go a long way in making the game feel much more complete. There were a few things in 1.x that I thought were bad or flat out unacceptable, so I'm extremely proud to bring all the changes above.

It's shocking to think that Steven the Sperm came out all the way back in 2018. Believe it or not, while the whole "about a year of on-and-off work to bring you this update" thing I wrote at the beginning is true, this 2.0 update actually dates back in concept to late 2019 - so technically it took about three years for this update to come to fruition! I had a basic engine port back in 2019, but it wasn't until last year that I decided to focus in on making 2.0 happen and add in all the stages and things. I've been extremely busy with college, and since I'm only one person with no budget to hire programmers and artists and etc, making games is a very difficult and time consuming process for me. But I'm happy to finally have this update out - yes I could've been working on other things, but STS really needed this facelift and I'm happier to have a better product as my first that I can provide everybody.

I sincerely hope everybody has fun with this new update! Be sure to let me know of any glitches or bugs I may have missed. And a huge thanks to everybody who has ever, or will ever play! We're coming up on four years of STS, woohoo!

This is a somewhat serious and important announcement, but it does spoil/hint at something coming in the future, so:



But for the rest of you... hi. Let me get straight to the point:

Support for macOS will be dropped for future versions of Steven the Sperm from here on out.

"Why?", you may ask. Well - and this part of the spoiler I was referring to - there's going to be some engine changes to STS that will provide great benefits to the game. The problem is that this engine, unlike the Unity engine STS has used so far, doesn't natively support macOS. So, it came down to this - is it worth making the game better for Windows only, or keep it the same for both platforms? In the end, I chose the former - I figured that if I could make the game better for the large majority of players, it would be worth switching the engine (as well as because of my other personal gripes against Unity that made me want to get off it, but I won't get into that here).

Theoretically, I COULD support macOS at a basic level with an extension for the engine, but it wouldn't support the engine's Steamworks integration which is Windows only, meaning that Mac players wouldn't be able to get achievements on their actual Steam account, and that just sucks. And either way, the update won't transfer over your save data due to the engine differences, so you might as well just move over operating systems.

It doesn't really matter much anyways, since the amount of people who play STS on Mac are extremely few - I'm pretty sure only like 5 people have played it in the past year - and I honestly doubt that any of those individuals don't also have a Windows installation somewhere where they could just play the game instead, whether it be something like a Windows virtual machine, or a Windows Bootcamp partition. Mac is notoriously bad for supporting old apps, whether it be the whole stupid no-more-32-bit-apps decision (which is dumb even more so if you're like me and have an Intel Macbook with an x86 processor that can't downgrade to any 32-bit supporting version :|), and numerous other stuff with OpenGL being depreciated and etc. Any Mac installation of Steam is basically just "invalid sign simulator" with all the games you can't play, so I highly doubt anybody will notice if Steven the Sperm doesn't support it. Meanwhile, Linux users can just easily play the game on Proton.

So yeah, that's what's going on. See you all again soon, and feel free to leave any comments if you have something to say about this.