Update 0.1.2.0: In-Game Guide, Clickable Function Docs & Smoother UI

Hello Coders,

This update focuses on making the coding side of the game easier to learn, faster to navigate, and smoother to use. The biggest addition is the new in-game Guide panel, giving players a dedicated place to read campaign topics, examples, and useful explanations without leaving the game.

The code editor has also been improved with Ctrl/Cmd-hover and Ctrl/Cmd-click wiki links, new robot and random APIs, better loading screens, smoother scrolling, improved display handling, and a large pass on UI polish across menus, settings, editor windows, and gameplay panels.

Major Additions

New In-Game Guide Panel

• Added a full Guide panel for campaign topics, examples, and learning material.
• Guide topics now track read/unread state, making it easier to spot new information.
• The Guide can be opened from the app dock and behaves like the other utility windows.
• Camera and pause menu behavior now properly account for the Guide window, so it blocks input when needed and stays within the usable screen area.

Clickable Function Wiki Links in the Code Editor

• Recognized functions and symbols in the code editor can now show wiki-style links while holding Ctrl or Cmd.
• Ctrl/Cmd-clicking supported symbols opens the related Function Wiki entry directly.
• Added visible link underlines for currently visible lines, plus improved hover cursor feedback.
• The HUD now reuses the existing Function Wiki window when possible instead of creating duplicate windows.

New Code APIs and Documentation

• Added conveyor and docking station robot helpers:
  • robot.is_on_conveyor()
  • robot.get_conveyor_direction()
  • robot.get_docking_station()

• Added supported builtin helpers including debug, isinstance, hasattr, getattr, and setattr.
• Added random module support, including random(), randint(), randrange(), choice(), choices(), shuffle(), sample(), uniform(), and seed().
• Updated code completion, Function Wiki data, unlock visibility, and documentation for the new helpers.

Gameplay & Feel Improvements

• Scripts now wait for automated transport to finish after movement, including conveyors, jump pads, and bomb blasts. This prevents code execution from racing ahead while the robot is still being moved by the level.
• Enabled physics interpolation for smoother movement.
• Reset robot body interpolation after teleporting, snapping, launching, spawning, or returning to spawn to reduce visual artifacts.
• Added a camera intro when loading into levels, giving level starts a smoother presentation.
• The HUD timer now starts after the level-start delay instead of immediately during initialization.
• Objective entrance animations were preserved while removing unnecessary startup animations from HUD resource cards.
• Disabled the debug grid by default for cleaner normal gameplay.

Code Editor, Dock & Window Improvements

• Added a dedicated Code Editor entry to the app dock.
• When no editor window is open, the dock now shows a clear “Open Code Editor” action.
• Code editor windows are now clamped to the visible viewport and capped at 80% of the screen size.
• Dragging, resizing, un-minimizing, and resolution changes now keep the editor reachable and fully onscreen.
• Added a keyboard icon entry to the icon registry for the editor dock item.

Creator / Workshop / Editor Improvements

• Sandbox playtests now correctly unlock functions during testing, matching the intended playtest behavior.
• Updated the playtest function unlock test coverage for both normal playtests and sandbox stages.
• Workshop, settings, start menu, and background UI scenes now use the new script-driven 3D menu background system.
• Workshop and editor-related scrolling now benefits from the new smooth scrolling system.

UI / Quality of Life

Smoother Loading Screens

• Added rotating loading hints with fade transitions.
• Refined the loading screen layout, overlay, panel styling, and progress behavior.
• Progress now smooths more deliberately near completion and snaps cleanly to 100%.
• Loading UI is now placed on a dedicated high-layer canvas so it stays on top correctly.

Smoother Menus and Panels

• Replaced many standard scroll containers with smooth scrolling containers across menus, the HUD, Function Wiki, app dock, settings, Workshop browser, and related panels.
• Added horizontal scrolling and pan clamping to the function and upgrade trees.
• Reduced overscroll so large node trees stay easier to navigate.
• Buttons now release focus after mouse release, preventing clicked buttons from staying visually focused.

Settings, Resolution, and Display Improvements

• Added a UI Scale option with content scaling support.
• Improved exclusive fullscreen switching to reduce flicker and race-condition issues.
• Improved resolution application and content scale handling when changing display modes.
• Sanitized render scale settings so invalid values are clamped safely.
• FSR render scale options are now limited to valid ranges and the settings UI updates based on the selected upscaler.
• Robot picker model previews now resize more safely and inherit render quality settings more consistently.
• Added a 5120x2880 fallback resolution.

Visual Polish and Menu Presentation

• Added a new 3D menu background system with lighting, orbiting camera movement, fade transitions, and geometry caching.
• Reworked settings screen styling, spacing, panel sizing, tab visuals, and responsive layout behavior.
• Replaced inline emoji glyphs with a centralized texture-based icon registry for cleaner and more consistent UI presentation.
• Added a large set of 3D icon assets for use across the interface.
• Function Wiki content now uses styled boxes for descriptions, tips, parameters, return values, battery info, and related functions.
• The active profile badge now shows last played information on a cleaner new line.

Privacy and Startup Flow

• Added a one-time-per-session privacy/data disclaimer overlay on the start menu for diagnostic and crash reporting information.
• Improved start menu profile details with creation time and last played stage formatting.
• Start menu navigation now routes active profiles into the Level Selector.
• Added a Level Selector button to the pause menu.

Fixes & Polish

• Fixed mouse input getting stuck after changing dropdown settings.
• Cleared smooth scroll drag state after UI scale changes to prevent stuck scrolling.
• Improved app focus handling so embedded popup windows no longer incorrectly trigger focus-loss audio behavior.
• Improved exclusive fullscreen transition reliability with deferred multi-frame application and stale transition cancellation.
• Removed duplicate HUD button search/debug logging.
• Removed level selector profile progress text from the header for a cleaner layout.
• Cleaned up level selector editor metadata.
• Updated version metadata for 0.1.2.0.

Closing Note

This update is mainly about usability: better learning tools, faster documentation access, cleaner editor behavior, smoother menus, and fewer rough edges when changing settings or moving between screens.

Thanks for playing, testing, and sending feedback. The next steps will continue building on the coding, automation, and level flow experience.