Leaderboard stability changes, hint message changes and a Call to Arms (v1.10)

The v1.10 update for Keep Defending contains some refinements to the game that improve the integration of Steam leaderboards on the level selection scene, as well as improvements to the hint/tutorial messages that are displayed in the game.

There's also a "Call to Arms" note at the bottom of this announcment (please read):

Leaderboard stability fixes

There are occasions when loading the level selection scene (usually when the game is first started) that the level leaderboards fail to load correctly or completely.

I've made some changes to the logic handling this in the background and this should hopefully be much more reliable (and efficient) than before, and better suited for handling potential edge cases.

Revised hint messages

Rather than showing hint (help) messages to the player as text locked to the player's viewpoint, I've transferred the majority of them to in-game objects which makes them easier to read, ensures they're always available, and is much less annoying (well, for me at least!).

There's a new banner positioned behind you in the level selection scene that contains a list of instructions for new players (replacing all of the hint messages shown in the level selection scene).

There's also a new level intro panel implemented which replaces the previous level name/info and "Shoot arrow to start" texts that were previously locked to the player's viewpoint.

There are still a few of the old hint messages remaining to remind players what they need to do next, but as a whole the hint messages are much less visible in the game.

Other changes

- I've removed the ambient sound effect for soul orbs as they were overbearing the other game effects (especially in levels where multiple orbs may be rising at any given time).
- Improved the logic controlling how the Main Campaign Completed achievement is unlocked.
- I've also unlocked the Early Access achievement for players that can complete all other achievements first (so they can register 100% achievements for the game, even though they didn't take part in Early Access).
- The Unity version has been updated to the latest release in its branch (5.5).

Call to Arms - The quest for a Steam rating

In a bid to try and get the game a Steam rating score I would like to request as many players as possible to please leave a review for the game in Steam as it still hasn't reached the goal of 10 (Steam purchased) reviews a couple of months after release!

I genuinely hope everyone has enjoyed playing the game and it's great to see so many scores registered in the leaderboards for each of the 10 levels available. However, very few people are leaving reviews so Keep Defending is receiving zero exposure on Steam.

If you've experienced problems with the game, or simply don't like it - please let me know in the discussion groups and I'll try to remedy whatever the issue may be.

Otherwise please help support the game (and its developer!) by taking a minute to post a review and hopefully we can get Keep Defending an official Steam rating!

Thanks for reading and of course supporting and playing Keep Defending!