The Storytime Update

Gameplay changes

• Some people like lore in their games, so this update adds some. It's mostly optional and hidden. But if you're curious what's going on in this game, you can now find out.
• Added more goods to the shops.
• Added some extremely hard post-game stuff for the completionists.
• Improved input handling; you can press a key a little early (say, pressing “pick up item” a couple frames before you stop moving) and the game will do what you mean instead of ignoring the key press.

Changes to levels

1/3Moved a silicon crystal.
2/6Now teaches you that bombs kill mines. Added a save point.
2/7Added a one-way door.
2/9Fixed a design bug where the top area was missing a key, making it pointless to visit.
2/10Fixed a design bug where you could get the secret too easily using a box.
3/1More satisfying ending.
3/3Swapped out a yellow gun for a blue gun in one of the ending areas.
5/1Fixed a design bug where you could skip most of the level.
5/10Replaced this level.
6/5Cheeseproofed.
6/7Streamlined a bit. Cheeseproofed the ending.
7/7Replaced this level.
9/9Made the timing section a bit more forgiving.
10/10Moved the plasma ball to another level.

Options and UI

• Added some options:
  • Added volume controls.
  • Added an option to reset your saved progress.
  • Added an option to show an on-screeen timer when playing Level Pit levels.
  • Removed the "backgrounds" option.

• The game now shows you control hints on the first couple of levels.
• Made the "Recent Deaths" list in the Pit more readable.
• Improved gamepad navigation in the UI.
• Made the pause screen clearer, especially the options page.
• Nicer display of gamepad buttons on the control setup page.

Graphics and audio

• New and improved graphics for laser turrets, teleports, pits, grills, power generators, walls, the invincibility item and a couple of the enemies.
• A couple of new music tracks, and minor improvements to existing tracks.
• Added sound effects for the machine that turns grills on and off.
• Improved animation for colour doors and everything else that pops up and down.
• Improved the look of the lower resolution modes.
• Added Metal support on Mac (see “Mac-specific changes” below).
• Added antialiasing (MSAA) support to the DirectX (Windows) and Metal (Mac) renderers. If your graphics card supports this, you'll see an option for it on the Options screen.
• Added support for high resolution screens.
  • On Mac, this means you can play on a Retina display at full resolution.
  • On Windows, same deal except MS just calls these "high-DPI displays".

Bug fixes

• Overworld
  • Fixed a bug that caused your craft to spaz out for a frame or two at the end of paths.
  • Fixed a bug that made the starfield appear to move when the camera performed certain manoeuvres.

• Editor
  • Fixed a bug where the preview of your selected object at the bottom left would get lighter or darker as you moved the camera around.
  • Fixed a bug where using the delete tool would not auto-save your level like the other tools.
  • Fixed a bug where if you made a level with no player, then when the game added the player for you, if you had placed a mirror in that spot, then even though it would delete the mirror to put the player there, it would still act as if there were a mirror there.

• Graphics and UI
  • Fixed a bug where colour doors would sometimes have pixely artifacts around the edges of the top circle part.
  • Fixed a bug where the screen dimming effect on the pause and get-ready screens wouldn't always reach all the way to the edges of the screen.
  • Fixed a bug where the green teleport effect would display incorrectly rotated when using the DirectX renderer.
  • Fixed a bug in the Level Pit where level previews would load in reverse order.

Windows-specific changes

• Improved display of non-Latin characters in the Level Pit.
• Steam isn't supporting Windows 7 anymore, so I've bumped the minimum Windows version requirement to Windows 10. Blackshift itself doesn't care, so you can try your luck with older Windows if you want.

Mac-specific changes

• Added Metal support.
  • Metal is Apple's new graphics API, which is replacing OpenGL on Macs.
  • This is now the default, but you can still select OpenGL if you want.

• I've bumped the minimum MacOS requirement to 10.14. This is the oldest MacOS I can test on, and Steam is soon going to require 10.15+ anyway.