Hello,
It's been a long time since I have updated the demo. I initially launched the demo for Combo Vectors at the beginning of 2026, in February 2026, and now, in August 2026 I would like to show you what I have been working on. I am sorry about the delay. I hope that this new version of the demo will show that work is still ongoing and progressing in a good direction.
One of the reasons for the lack of updates was due to the fact that I felt that the game was missing some core elements. I believe that this pause has helped me redesign some of the core logic behind the game, and has helped me to better follow and understand the identity of the game, as well as how to make the elements of the game fit together, either by adding new designs or changing the existing ones.
Before I begin, I would like to say that more updates are planned to come to the demo.
First of all, the way the radar lances work has been redesigned. In the previous version of the game, most of the abilities were activated by a chance percentage. So, each time the lance would hit an enemy there would be a chance for an ability to activate. After a lot of iteration, I have added a new way for the various upgrades and powers to take effect: in this new version, the game will keep track of all the times the lance detects an enemy, and now some abilities will activate after a certain amount of these detections. This gives players more control over when they choose to attack or dodge, as they can more easily plan these actions. Knowing that reinforcements will certainly arrive at the next lance detection will make, in my opinion, the flow of the game better. Some abilities will still have a percentage-based activation method, but I believe that having multiple systems is beneficial. And in addition to these two, there are some abilities that activate in a different manner than the ones previously described, but these abilities are not in the demo. They are still in testing.
More work has been done on the various effects and graphics of the game. I did my best to not overwhelm the screen with effects, because I am aware that you need to clearly see the Braille dots, as well as the bullets that are flying around. The most obvious addition is the trail that follows the pointer/player, and I think that this helps with keeping track of where the pointer/player is.
GIF showing the trail and the new score counter
Another big change is the redesign of the score GUI element. Because the score is placed in the right side of the screen, in a relatively small area, and scores can reach pretty high numbers, I had to change how the score is represented, without decreasing the font size. I hope that this solution is a welcome addition, especially because I think that it fits the overall theme of the game.
While on the subject of visuals, I made some changes to the noise shader that is applied to the screen. In the previous version, the game would start with this noise shader ON. After recording some footage I realized that this effect causes the file size of the recorded footage to be way too big. I really like this effect and I believe it adds a lot to the game feel, so removing it just didn't feel right. The compromise I reached is that, going forward, the game will start with this effect turned OFF, and a message will appear when this effect is turned on, advising players about the increased file size that will result if players record their playthroughs.
Audio is a big part of Combo Vectors, and I have added new music tracks. More work will be done in this area as well.
A lot of work has been done for the tutorial portion of the game, and now you can select between different sections that explain the different gameplay mechanics of the game.
Thank you for your patience and I hope you will enjoy this new version of Combo Vectors.
Like always, if you have any questions or feedback, please let me know.
cip