Playtest Update v0.3.0 — The Arena Is Ready

PLAYTEST UPDATE v0.3.0

The latest OVERHEAT PROTOCOL Playtest build is now live.

This update focuses on making the current PC experience clearer, more reliable, and more satisfying to play. It improves progression, combat feedback, settings, save safety, localization, and general stability.

ADDED

• English, Turkish, and Simplified Chinese localization across the main player-facing interface, cards, HUD, Settings, and Game Over screen.
• Expanded PC Settings with editable slider values and a dedicated Keyboard & Mouse controls page.
• Live Crosshair Preview with size, gap, thickness, opacity, color, center dot, dynamic spread, and maximum spread controls.
• Crosshair Test Actions for previewing dynamic spread and hit confirmation directly inside Settings.
• Animated Wave Announcements with clearer Wave Incoming and Wave Clear presentation, timing, sound, and voice support.
• Localized Send Feedback button on the Game Over screen, opening the feedback form that matches the selected game language.
• Steam Cloud support for portable player preferences, including language, bindings, crosshair profiles, audio, screen shake, and control settings.
• Save Integrity Protection with checksum validation, rotating local backups, automatic recovery, and preservation of damaged files for diagnosis.
• DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 launch support for Windows.

CHANGED

• Redesigned and refined the Main Menu, Settings, Credits, Crosshair controls, Level Up cards, and general PC interface readability.
• Improved normal stat-card drafting to discourage recently repeated cards and card families.
• Special milestone drafts now show only their intended category. If fewer than three valid special cards exist, the game presents fewer choices instead of inserting an unrelated stat card.
• Improved card effect spacing so percentages, values, and labels are easier to read.
• Reworked Adaptive Enemy Pressure so it adjusts spawn pacing only. It can create a short recovery window or reduce downtime during a strong run, but it cannot secretly change enemy stats or population limits.
• Improved authored wave progression for enemy durability and contact damage while keeping movement speed under strict control.
• Improved Lightning, Explosion, Shatter, precision-hit, enemy-death, and elemental-projectile presentation.
• Temporarily disabled the unfinished Active Ability system while its future progression structure is redesigned.
• Temporarily removed unfinished rebind, gamepad, Steam Deck, monitor-selection, and online Data controls from the supported PC Playtest interface.
• Disabled gameplay telemetry until its server, privacy, retention, and tester-consent systems are ready. This Playtest build does not record or upload run telemetry.
• Updated third-party asset attributions and prepared the Credits screen for future community contributors.

FIXED

• Fixed Escape-key conflicts between gameplay pause, resume, and Settings navigation.
• Fixed a Settings interaction that could accidentally trigger Quit.
• Fixed startup and Main Menu cursor visibility and lock state.
• Fixed special card drafts mixing elemental choices with unrelated stat cards.
• Fixed Level Up effect labels appearing too close to their values.
• Fixed authored wave difficulty values not being applied correctly to spawned enemies.
• Fixed the Game Over survival timer separator becoming difficult to see during longer runs.
• Fixed save recovery so a valid backup or interrupted temporary save repairs the active profile automatically.
• Reduced recurring Settings log noise and cleaned up the validated Windows player-build path.

STORE PAGE

• Replaced outdated screenshots with captures from the current game build.
• Rewrote the store description around the gameplay currently available in the Playtest.
• Added localized store descriptions and gameplay clips in English, Turkish, and Simplified Chinese.
• Updated the listed languages, Steam Cloud support, and 64-bit Windows application information.

Thank you for helping us test OVERHEAT PROTOCOL. Your feedback directly helps us decide what to improve next.