It's been a crazy few weeks, huh? SAGE 2023 came and went, I met a lot of cool people during the event, and it's almost overwhelming just how many people checked out BUDD this year. Not only does it have 780 Downloads so far across both SFGHQ and Itch, and not only is it the best rated game of SAGE 2023, but it's now the third highest rated game on SFGHQ of ALL TIME. I still can't even believe it??

I started this as a quick hotfix, but eventually worked more and more quality of life changes in over the last week. A lot of these things are either thanks to direct feedback from reviews, or little things I noticed watching streamers play. I'm very thankful for everyone that either recorded or streamed a playthrough of the game, as it's been invaluable getting this feedback in realtime.

With that out of the way, I have some patch notes ready. Buckle up, because there's a lot.

Moveset

• Made it so you can slowly inch towards and away from enemies when using the shield
  • You can't turn when shield walking, so watch your back!
• Ray's charged beam will now be redirected by prism blocks.
• If you're using the double tap input to dash, your dash will now continue as long as you're holding the direction you used to activate that dash.
• The double tap input should be more reliable now, as it uses Input's built in double tap function to check.
• Holding down on a ladder won't make you grab it if you're already on the ground.

Mechanics

• Removed the restriction where you can't warp to your ship inside a facility, instead you can only warp to your ship after you've repaired your ship.
• Once your ship is repaired, you can return to your ship at any time from the pause menu.
• Falling into pits will now make you respawn at invisible checkpoints placed nearby. (Let me know if I need to tweak the positions of these!)
• Hearts and Batteries will spawn more often at 1 HP.
• Made Eris' regular sword attack slightly longer.
• Boxer's punch hitbox now lasts the entire duration of the attack, giving him more range.
• Boxer's charged punch now has a new animation.
• Ray's laser does 2 more damage per hit now, and can kill weaker enemies more reliably.
• If an enemy knocks you into a slime pit and you're still invincible, you will now only take one damage overall.
• Reflected barrels always damage enemies.
• You now regain BUDD energy faster when you have less than 1 unit full.
• Attacks now recover slightly more BUDD energy.
• Guarding enemy attacks now recovers slightly more BUDD energy.
• Reduced shield knockback for Eris very slightly.
• Reduced shield knockback for enemies very slightly.
• Added a glow effect to reflected projectiles.
• Made the shield a bit smaller horizontally, so hopefully it's harder to block things from behind.
• Reduced the amount of hitstop higher damage attacks add.

UI

• You can now choose controller button icons in Input Settings > Controller Setup. (Thanks for adding this to Input, Juju!)
• Added a "Return to Ship" button to the pause menu. During Satellite Missions, this will return you to the station you started the mission from.
• Reworked the ship menu so you no longer have to enter and exit the ship multiple times to both save and leave the planet.
• Level up messages will now show the input of any ability learned.
• Revamped the Move List menu to better match the rest of the ingame menus.
• Added Move List entries for Dashing and Floor Hopping.
• The Guard move list entry has been updated to mention shield walking.
• The Move list now lists each individual BUDD ability.
• The Move List now prioritizes unlocked moves at the top.
• The current planet's completion percentage is shown in the pause menu map.
• Updated the credits with some more cool people.
• Added new art to the gallery.
• Added default settings button to each options submenu.
• Added added dividers for various menus.
• Added a screen effect to the ship's star map.

Level Design

• Added a brand new arrangement of Barrel Canyon's BGM, done by none other than philRaco himself.
• Stone blocks now have event flags, and will stay destroyed.
• Removed the second power switch in the Verdeo citadel. (This was a leftover from a puzzle that didn't make the cut, and really just annoyed players that pressed it on impulse)
• Made the vines in Verdeo more visible.
• Fixed the floor in Mecha Dragoon's arena being pass-through
• Moved Mecha Dragoon's boss trigger closer to the entrance of the room
• Fixed a typo with one of the colony signs (Thanks VAdaPEGA :V)
• Adjusted the position of the first enemy in Habitat, so you don't have to stop, wait for it to teleport, and then kill it (I really need a name for these things)
• Removed the Fusey at that part with the bouncing barrels in Ludicrous World
• Adjusted the Fusedropper positions in Ludicrous World, so you should be able to kill them more reliably
• Made the Skull Jar Yorb animation faster

Enemies

• Made it harder to pass through enemies that you're currently attacking
• Made Mecha Dragoon's fireballs fall slightly slower
• Lowered Boney M.'s HP (A single sword combo or a single pogo should take them out)
• Fuseys don't take as long to detonate
• Fuseys take longer to accelerate
• Fuseys' jump is slightly lower

Dialogue

• Rewrote various signs to acknowledge changes in the mechanics
• Fixed a few dialogue typos (like Rhea calling the coast attack "deadful")

Technical

• Updated Input extension to version 6.0.5
• The game now checks for background controller input
• Modified the save format to not rely on Game Maker's internal room IDs. (Existing saves still work just fine, you'll just respawn at the planet's landing site when reloading your save)
• Vsync is now disabled by default, because for some reason it makes older computers slow to a crawl. (This won't affect existing save files)
• Vsync is now properly set when starting the game.
• You can't access the debug menu in demo mode anymore :(
• Removed that spoilery thing. If you know, you know.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed being able to shield against drowning
• Projectiles that can't be reflected no longer have hitstop when you try
• Fixed being able to damage boost into the treetop lab without boxer and softlock yourself
• The third skull jar in Ludicrous World no longer respawns when you leave the room
• The objective counter is now properly hidden after clearing out the coast outpost
• Adjusted the ladder grab range, so now it should be harder to get stuck on a pixel you can't climb