060921 Shield Cat Build (Patreon)

Howdy! Coming at you today with a nice build of Shield Cat on a nice day. Highlights of this build include a completely traversable Lignum Stage 1, as well as fixes and improvements to the retro shaders (as well as to drawing routines in general.) A number of other gameplay improvements have been made as well. Please check the patch notes for all the details!

BETA ACCESS

• If you haven't already, go to the Shield Cat's entry in Steam, open the properties, and enable the Beta Testing for [post_demo] or you can't see the newest stuff. Let me know if you need any help!
• If you don't have a key already, please message me! All legacy patrons can now get a key for as long as they continue to be a patron.

 ===== NEW =====

• Lignum Woods Stage 1 is now completely traverseable! Check it out!
• The Retro 2 Preset (that makes it look like an old time handheld game) now has an "Automatic" mode by default, which will cause the game to change to different color palettes automatically depending on what screen you're on. Feel free to enable it and check it out!
• Another type of vase has been added that is guaranteed to always drop fish.

 ===== IMPROVED =====

• Lighting has been improved by now using a higher resolution texture.
• Collectibles are now more visible in darker areas.
• Health fish now have a white border around them to make them more visible and bring them in line with other collectibles.
• Improved the CRT Blur filter to not be so dark and allow the play field to be more visible.
• Improved the Retro 2 Palette-based shader to not make the game unplayable when using it.
• Enemies will now reset their position and state when leaving the screen and then coming back.

 ===== CHANGED =====

• Color blending on some screens has been adjusted.
• Perimeter blur is now enabled in the preset video settings by default (due to the change in how it works.)
• The "Pretty" video preset has been removed (as Perimeter blur is now enabled by default.)
• The default video preset is now "High" but will not be applied if you've ever played the game before (You'll have to change it yourself.)
• Big vases will no longer respawn once destroyed.

 ===== BUG FIXES =====

• Fixed issue where game would fail to show the error message for plugging in gamepads it didn't recognize.
• Fixed a bug where the game would perform versioning for players who have never played Shield Cat before.
• Fixed a bug where the game would not wait to display an on-screen message during the intro sequence before playing the sequence.
• Fixed an issue where the menu didn't properly blur the game view behind it when opened.
• Fixed a bug where pausing the game would cause issues with the extending bridge if you were on the same screen as it.
• Willow now has save points properly set up (technically not a bug, just something I didn't do for the last build as there weren't enough of her in the game yet.)
• Fixed a bug with how Lance's health was drawn.
• Fixed an issue where the screen would have a slight flicker under specific graphics configurations (none of the preset ones.)
• Fixed a bug where vases would spawn health fish at Lance's position instead of the vase's position.
• Fixed a bug where a bird could spawn in Lance's house.
• Fixed a bug where the game could softlock when stepping into a new stage (very rare.)
• Fixed text drawing of the build date and copyright on the title screen.
• Fixed UI being absolutely massive on lower graphics settings.
• (Linux) Fixed a bug where the river challenge wouldn't draw sprites in the correct position.

 ===== KNOWN BUGS =====

• The exact scale you've collected can change between builds if the stage was updated and more scales were added.
• Stages will show that there are 0 Cat Coins in the stage to collect, even if there are more.
• LANCE Letters cannot be collected.

Thank you!

Thank you to the following Patrons and to everyone who makes this possible (dont see your name here? message me!)

Shadow8t4, BeepSterr, BenTheDragon, Bizarre Machinist , David Wolfpaw, Caliburn Absolute, Chris Badger, Clover Arizona, DimSumthing, Cloud Hop, Fao, FaultBat, Flake, FoxyDude, Nutalie Frost, Gri, Goronhead, Holly 'Frinkel' Lotor, JD Laclede , Jyrki, LanceCharge, Katie Durmeter, Kaylex Deer , Hulex Fox, Kirbizard, Kaypar, Trash, LF, LexiTheTT, Lorxus, Luna, Luna Moona the Little Kahuna , Durk Vash, phantomsqueaks, Markus Joseph Kitsinger , Marlyn, Maxine Red, Mello the Ferret, Midori, Nenekiri Bookwyrm, Axel Husky , NovaSquirrel, Ripp_, Cam D'Arcy, SUSHiCLAWS, Saxxon Fox, Scylla-Leeezard , Ansel Geisel, Spyduck, Susan Tolias, Tabby Cromarty, Accalia, Vivee, William 'Kenku' Swiftfoot, Kazy, meerm, megaRammy, raine