Welcome back Star Knights!

I'm excited to announce that the Survive & Score update is finally available in the beta stage for anyone who wants to play and test the new content. Since this is still in beta, there will be bugs and balance issues that will need to be fixed.

If you are interested in playing the new update, but don't know how to access the beta branch, check out this link here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2462090/view/7374170303759278373

Here are the main additions that are available as part of this beta update:

• Scoring System: Add a way for players to earn a score that rewards skillful gameplay, giving players another goal to strive for besides just beating a run. Killing enemies adds to a kill streak which makes subsequent kills worth more points. However, taking damage resets the killstreak which makes killing enemies and avoiding damage equally important to getting a high score.
• Leaderboards: Both a personal leaderboard to keep track of personal bests and good runs, as well as an online leaderboard to compete against other players for the highest score.
• Endless mode: Includes an option to keep playing, even after winning a run, and gives players a chance to see just how far their build can go against ever increasing difficulty. Attachment upgrades also continue endlessly, allowing for continuous improvements.
• Curses: In Endless mode, rather than gaining relics, the player now gains curses. Each curse has its own unique ability to make the game harder such as taking damage when collecting credits or adding more enemies to each wave.

Feedback

I 100% welcome any and all feedback, but there are a few things I am looking for in particular.

• How does the scoring system feel? is it satisfying, does the kill streak system make sense?
• Is the leaderboard system intuitive? What additions would you want to see to the leaderboards?
• Do the endless attachments work as a good way to spend credits to continuously improving your build while not outpacing the difficulty increases of endless mode?
• Do the Curses work as a good way to incorporate player choice into increasing difficulty, as well as providing unique ways to make the game harder besides enemy stat increases.
• Endless mode should feel like a fun addition, and not a way to make the game keep dragging on. For that reason, each New Game Plus should feel like significant change and provide a steep difficulty increase. The difficulty of each New Game Plus should be something like this:
• Barely winning a run: New Game + should destroy you
• Handily winning a run: May be able to beat New Game +
• Broken Build and skilled: May be able to beat New Game +2
• If anyone can beat New Game +3 you deserve some sort of award

Note: If I do make changes to the scoring system, I will most likely reset the leaderboard before releasing the update, to make sure everyone is on the same playing field. I may also need to reset the leaderboard during beta testing in case I make changes to how the leaderboard works.

And of course, if you are interested in testing and want to provide feedback or report bugs, make sure to join the Star Knight discord!

Patch Notes

I'll end this announcement with a patch notes of changes since the most recent devlog:

Added

[*]16 Curses
[*]Finish run button
[*]Brutal rule changes at New Game Plus 2 and 3
[*]Game auto pauses if alt-tabbed
[*]Game no longer interactable if game not in focus

Changed

[*]Endless mode unlocked at Void Crystal 7

• To not overwhelm new players
• To allow for balancing Endless Mode for higher difficulties

[*]Relic reroll increases with each reroll
[*]Minor UI improvements in settings menu
[*]Minor UI improvements to Codex
[*]4th Area boss

• Boss health increased slightly
• Shield heal amount: 500 -> 750
• Shield goes away if Warships are destroyed

Fixed

[*]Endless upgrades multiplying when continuing a run
[*]Cursor disappearing after pause when choosing an item
[*]Skipping relic choice by pressing enter
[*]Issues when no name is inputted to the leaderboard
[*]Enhanced Engines Relic now increases speed at the correct amount
[*]Asteroid health now scales with New Game Plus
[*]Added correct relic shaders in End State
[*]Enemy contact damage is affected by damage multiplier
[*]Thruster sprite in transition animation correctly scales to screen size
[*]AOE speed affected by screen size
[*]Sizing issues of some text/buttons on different resolutions
[*]Online leaderboard now appears even if player has not uploaded a score