Hey - Dev Here,

We could say that the demo update is a proper baby—it's been nine months since the last one! This time we have to show a few things. The biggest changes are the UI overhaul and the new dialogues. Let us know what you think about it and if you enjoy chatting with the Waifus. So let's take a look at the big and small changes. BIG:

• Added a new dialogue ui with big character graphics.
• Replaced the old, linear dialogues with new interactive ones.
• Overhauled the visuals for the entire UI.

smol:

• A few more environment objects (like rocks with stardust) are now throwable.
• Improved render performance.
• Intro splash screen can be skipped.
• Consecutive Waifu Rescues now require stamina, to prevent an exploit that made Poneh virtually immortal in every level with a Waifu.
• Level buttons are moved to the top of the map room.

Fixes:

• Changing resolutions should work way better now.
• Changing displays is much more reliable now.
• Fixed wrong background parallax scrolling on some resolutions.
• Fixed an issue where digging to escape narrow situations wasn't possible when Poneh had no stamina.
• Fixed strange tooltip positioning on some resolutions.
• Fixed a bug where the camera wouldn’t properly scroll after changing the resolution.
• Fixed some rare physics issues with creeps (the small monsters) when spawned inside monsters or walls.
• Fixed an exploit that allowed invalid item placement after swapping an item.
• Fixed an issue where a game couldn’t be loaded if an item was left in the crafting input slot.
• Fixed a bug that prevented leaving a level if a player collected three item loot pickups.
• Fixed an issue where the title image moved when changing resolution.

What comes next? Right now we’re upgrading our input middleware to support more controllers beyond just Xbox. This will also give us a baseline to display the right input for the Steam Deck. However, we still have to do a lot of work before the game runs well on Steam Deck. Right now our render pipeline is really stressy on it and playing Waifu drains the battery fast. Next up, we’ll be replacing the item management in the house with a classic menu. The designs are done, and work on it will start right after we finish the input update. Luckily all the functionality for inventory management is already in place. We just need to move it from the house into the UI. Let's hope it’s as easy as it sounds. So - With the demo update out, we should be able to return to our usual news schedule. The past few weeks were a lot of fun for us, but the radio silence wasn't much fun for you. Let us know if the update was worth it. That's all—Have fun and hopefully we see each other in the comment section or on Discord.