*Changes from v0.21.0-dev.1 to v0.23.0-dev.2*
Matchy left his wallet in Xanadu. His favourite photo of all his friends is inside. Unfortunately, so is his pilot’s license.
There’s only one sensible response: go back to flight school, earn a provisional licence, and launch a wildly overconfident rescue mission across the cosmos.
“Provisional? I know how to fly! I’m the best…”
“…now what was the button again?”
This update gives Matchy Star a new introduction, a much more helpful crew, and a substantial round of gameplay feedback, controller, and presentation fixes.
**Welcome to Flight School!**
- Replaced the old tutorial flow with a character-led opening, a hands-on flying exercise, and reactive free flight.
- Learn the central rule by doing it: move a Star one square, and your ship moves one square. Numbered pieces show exactly where to start and where to go.
- Practice making connected matches of three or more Stars. Straight lines aren’t required—any connected shape works!
- Learn how matches beneath the ship become fuel, why bigger matches help, and when enough fuel means it’s time for blastoff.
- Added a ship-arrival gate to Matchy’s big “I’m the best” moment. Fast readers can press Continue early, but the lesson waits for the ship to arrive.
- Added a clear Retry action when a practice flight runs out of fuel.
- Retired the legacy tutorial route, including reset paths that could resurrect old instructions or leave the board stranded.
**Meet your extremely patient flight crew.**
Matchy, Red, Zee, Era, and Stardust now appear in character moments, using large, animated portraits adapted from Matchy Gotchy Z.
- Red talks with waving arms and bouncing candy inside his domes.
- Zee’s eyes and glasses have corrected proportions and placement.
- Stardust has fading clouds and three floating spheres.
- Matchy brings expressions, enthusiasm, and a slightly inflated opinion of his piloting skills.
- Zippy introduces the fleet as additional trips become relevant. Introductions account for players skipping early levels, so Skippy and Bob still get a sensible entrance.
**Advice when you need it.**
The teaching continues after Flight School through contextual character moments, instead of a long stack of explanations before you can play.
- Red explains matches made behind the ship, matches ahead that need more fuel to reach, successful collections, and matches you move away before pickup.
- Improved handling of new actions while another message is visible, so old advice doesn’t drown out what just happened.
- Fixed stale behind-the-ship warnings resurfacing from an earlier match.
- Era explains the Zoot reward for finishing sooner.
- Zee introduces spending Zoot once Matchymart is fully visible, rather than talking over the win screen.
- Stardust explains rank increases and warns that skipping raises the difficulty.
- Added help for multiple trips and an advanced reminder about preparing matches for the next ship.
- Sun Token help appears when the tokens start glowing. A separate first-time caution helps you avoid spending one when you aren’t in danger.
- Important explanations pause the game with a centered character card, a shroud, and an acknowledgment button. Short tips can appear without stopping play.
**Better control of the controls.**
- Character Continue, OK, and Retry controls use the game’s standard button system.
- Character action buttons receive controller focus ahead of Options. Board cursor highlights disappear while those prompts own input.
- Acknowledgment popups prevent the board, shop, and map from retaining controller focus underneath them.
- Buttons require a fresh press. Holding the button while finishing a Star move no longer accidentally activates Settings or a newly focused character button.
- A held stick must return to neutral before navigating away from a newly focused character action.
- Fixed acknowledgment buttons disappearing with the underlying menu or rendering beneath the shroud.
- Corrected button placement and label sizing, including the tiny Continue label regression.
**Fairer feedback at the limit.**
- Corrected match-collection timing around Star movement, including matches formed beneath a waiting ship and incorrect collection of matches behind it.
- Kept ship movement coupled to Star movement while addressing collection timing.
- Refined move-queue feedback so “Too Fast” responds to the actual limit and can teach the first three qualifying occurrences outside Flight School.
- Suppressed “Too Fast” when the ship has one fuel or less remaining. That’s a last-chance rescue attempt, and Red should recognise the difference!
**A cleaner launch.**
- Added a dedicated Flight School button to the main menu alongside Start Game, Options, and Exit.
- Start Game remains disabled until Flight School has been completed once.
- Replaying Flight School resets character coaching triggers so you can experience the guidance again.
- Fixed the tutorial background flashing before its first message.
- Fixed match connectors leaking into map transitions.
- Smoothed route orbit presentation and the appearance of planet labels.
- Fixed Return to Galaxy briefly appearing at the wrong size and full opacity before its transition.
Your license may be provisional. Your mission is personal. Xanadu—and that wallet—are waiting.