Hi folks, Steve from Noisy Head here.
We're bringing the Beyond the Long Night demo back to Steam for Going Rogue fest (May 2nd - 9th)! The game has been completely rebalanced for faster, more exciting combat, more satisfying visual effects and some more combat QOL fixes. There's never been a better time to check the demo out!
We'll also be live streaming the new demo directly on our Steam page from 12PM PT (8PM BST) on Monday May 2nd. It's the perfect time to come hang out with us and ask any questions you may have. I'll be chatting about how the game is designed, what our thought processes are when we create new rooms, how we approach things like music and sound design, as well as any other interesting bits and bobs we find along the way. Should be really fun, so do pop down and say hello!
Have fun with the new changes!
Patch Notes
New Features
- Player main weapon has been rebalanced to be much faster paced. Enemies have been rebalanced to reflect this change, both through health and speed. Superpowers now take slightly more hits to fully charge.
- New player animation system - animations are now smoother and more responsive.
- Many visual improvements on projectiles, explosions, enemy damage and death.
- Monument art updated, along with a new sequence added when selecting a stone.
- Enemy projectiles are now standardised and colour coded (based on any additional effects) across all enemies. Bee and Dart Trap projectiles are now much more noticable.
- The following Upgrades have been tweaked:
- “Reflective Superpowers” and “Dodge Parry” - parried projectiles will now fire straight at the enemy target, making them much more likely to hit!
- “Dodge Damage” now uses a small amount of auto aim to pick an enemy target when they are close. The chosen enemy target is shown via a small additional crosshair.
- Dodge Damage now begins to charge immediately, and moves the player's dodge to when they release the dodge button.
- Superdodge no longer auto triggers dodge attack when Superdodge is level 2 or above.
- Superdodge will still trigger immediately if dodge attack is also upgraded.
- “Turbulence” now increases the player fire rate by a lot! The “wonky bullet” effect ramps up much slower on successive upgrades.
- The cows now moo!
Bugs/Polish
- Crosshair now animates when the player shoots.
- Dart Traps have been subtly lightened to make them more noticeable.
- Spikes now animate with a “sheen” effect.
- Fixed an idle animation where the player would lose their hat for a couple of frames.
- Fixed a small bit of grass that was the wrong tile in one of the forest rooms.
- Removed some spikes in one of the Dart Trap puzzle rooms, creating an upper alternative path.
- Added sounds for parrying bullets.
- In game clock now pauses if the player is in a menu that pauses the game.
- Rendering and UI optimisations.
- Fixed bug where Journal entries wouldn't save if the player exited to desktop in the end game screen
- Increased time player input is blocked when entering the shop (to avoid accidentally buying an item if spamming skip through a conversation)
- Fixed player bullets still spawning if the player performed an action that cancelled their shot (such as dodging or switching to a torch)
- Added a very subtle camera shake when the player shoots their primary weapon
- Swapped some lanterns that were on the floor with wooden candle holders
- Fixed bug where camera wouldn't zoom out smoothly after a conversation
- Tweaked camera panning and zooming to make it smoother
- Fixed bug where vignette effect would snap to the maximum value when zooming out of a conversation early
- Camera will now always stay in the range of the room when zooming in
- Tweaks to the monument stone item spawn sequence
- Conversations with characters are disabled for a short period of time after finishing a conversation (to avoid the player entering a new conversation immediately if spamming skip through the dialogue)
- When a Superpower's charge is cancelled (e.g. when taking damage), don't immediately trigger the Superpower. Instead we reset the charge back to full.
- Shiny stones now auto travel to the player if they spawn in a room with them after a save.
- Fixed shield audio hanging over into the main menu if the player left the game with a shield active
- Doubled the invincibility timer after taking a hit
- Fixed aim reticule moving across the screen after dialogue
- In "Lap of Honour", make sure to spawn a buddy if the player had one last run
- Visual tweaks to player bullets
- Visual tweaks to slow down bullets