Update 0.4.0a

Ahoy!

It's been almost two months, but time has been sailing! I've been hard at work, and am excited to be releasing another big update!

Before I get into the gritty details about what is contained in version 0.4.0a, I want to talk a little bit about the timeline that I am envisioning for release. My goal is to be ready to enter Early Access on Steam by October! From a feature perspective, the only major features I've yet to add is the ability to select a unique Captain for each run, and the front end for the achievement system (back end is done!). Once that is done, all development will become content focused, meaning new attacks, new ships, new levels, new enemies, new captains, new achievements, etc. The next update will include some new content, as well as the aforementioned new features, and should result in a completed demo of the game. This free web based itch version of the game will serve as the demo, and no new content updates will be released until the Steam Early Access Release. Once the Early Access period ends, I'll likely offer the game for sale on itch as well.

I will be looking for pre-early access beta testers, so if you are interested feel free to sign up for my mailing list to be notified when registration for this will open up.

Now without further ramblings, here's the booty contained in this update:

New Features:

• Overhauled the enemy spawner logic to create more flexibility for improved level design potential.
• Redesigned the entirety of level one enemy progression.
• Added treasure chests which drop from minibosses/bosses which drop upgrades and gold. There are multiple rarities of chests that can drop from minibosses and guaranteed rare chest drops from merchants/bosses.
• Added off-screen indicators to notify you when a chest or merchant ship exists outside of your field of view.
• Added the ability for max HP of an enemy to be scaled based on player level (used for minibosses and boss)
• Added Merchant ship miniboss to the game, which flees from the player, but drops rare high value chests when destroyed.
• Added the Orca enemy to the game.
• Added the Orca miniboss to the game.
• Changed the head-only sharks into minibosses.
• Added Sea King enemy to the game.
• Added Spiky Sea King Enemy to the game.
• Added a final boss to level one, The Warship.
• Increased the max level of all attacks to level 9.
• Added invincibility frames so that you can only take a max of 4 hits per second.
• Added fire particles that display when a ship is on fire.
• Added the ability to pause the game via Spacebar.
• Added Drummer Boy ability which increases ship speed.
• Converted enemies to the new "attack" logic.
• Made coins and health barrels smaller.
• Update coin graphics and animated them.
• Added logic so that non-ship enemies will face the direction they are moving.
• Added an explosion animation for mines.
• Built new internal manager for SFX to greatly reduce memory performance.
• Added logic to limit the total number of projectile based attackers to prevent impossible bullet hell's as well as memory overloads.
• Rebalanced attacks after adding additional levels.
• Re-added the Pirate Lord skill to the game, you can now recruit surrendered ships again.
• Made enemy cannon balls solid red instead of flashing.
• Made ship select background blank so it would be easier to see.
• Updated level 1 soundtrack to new pirate themed track, produced by TheMedisin. It's just a rough draft, but we want to see how it vibes in game.
• Changed the sfx for taking damage.
• Reduced health barrel spawn rate and increased healing value by 10.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where dynadingies would sometimes stop seeking enemies and spin endlessly in a circle.
• Fixed issue with allied ships not attacking.
• Fixed issues with sharks randomly freezing up and not moving.
• Fixed mines showing over the top of ships instead of underneath,
• Fixed issue where some enemy spawners were within the view of the camera.

Edit:

I noticed a couple of small issues right after uploading so I addressed them with a small quick patch:

• Fixed Game Over background sprite missing.
• Fixed Game Over Continue Button sprite missing.