One of the most commonly requested features is equipment for minions. I've always wanted to do this as well, but was worried about the confusion between items and relics that apply to the snake, and ones that apply to minions. Why would only a snake be able to wear the boots (which we all know snakes do), but only minions can wear a helmet or carry a sword? I figured it might be less confusing to abstract things out a bit, so I took a page from auto-battlers and decided to lean into the games hunger theme with Minion Snacks!
To differentiate minion snacks from snake food, there are two important rules: 1) Snake food only appears during a level, and minion snacks only appear in stores. 2) Snake food is always savory (bread, hot dogs, etc) and minion food is always sweet (fruit and desserts). Again, as any herpetologists know, snakes love bread and the undead love sugar. Snacks can either give minions a permanent stat boost, a temporary boost, or apply a perk which have effects a bit like relics but on only one minion. A minion can only have one perk at a time, so giving it a new one will replace it.
To give minions even more love, I've added a "tail gunner" position to the snake. You can place a minion here and they'll anchor to the very tail end of the snake, so they can pick off any enemies aiming for a rear assault.
There are lots of other features today as well, mostly small balance stuff, but some extra polish of the snake movement. I've increased coyote time slightly, reduced the speed-up from chili peppers a bit, and added some extra animations to snake turning. Since a common complaint is that the grid-based movement results in a perceived input delay, I've added a leaning animation to the snake head so that you can immediately see that your input was accepted before the snake begins to turn.
Full patch notes for all the goodies:
Minion Snacks
Added snacks that can be purchased and given to a specific minion.
Snacks can provide permanent bonuses, temporary bonuses, or unique perks.
Minion stats, snack bonuses, and perks are now displayed throughout the store.
Snake Improvements
Added new turning animations and improved how the head and body overlap while moving.
Added optional tail-tracking camera behavior to help keep longer snakes visible.
Added settings for tail tracking and screen shake.
Improved eating animations for food and edible enemies.
Added support for assigning a dedicated minion to the tail.
Gameplay and Balance
Adjusted minion upgrades, multishot effects, items, traps, enemies, and room generation.
Improved shop placement and the distribution of elite and treasure rooms.
Split the ancient scroll ability into 2 levels.