The Playtest Build (Patreon)

Howdy! Coming at you today with an announcement: Shield Cat now has Playtest builds! These are beta builds that allow the public to test Shield Cat in advance of the Chapter 1 Demo, and replaces using the Shield Cat Demo's beta branch. If you've been playing Shield Cat using the Demo Beta Branch, please read the next paragraph! However, if you're a patron with a Steam Key to Shield Cat, you can ignore the next paragraph!

Accessing Beta Builds

In order to access beta builds, navigate your computer's web browser to Shield Cat's Steam page, scroll down to "Shield Cat Playtest" and click on "Request Access." That's it! You're now in! If you don't have a Shield Cat key, you must do this to receive access to public testing!

Patch Notes

In preparation for this build, I've made a long list of changes, updates, and tweaks to Shield Cat. Please read below for all the details!

 ===== NEW =====

• Health upgrades have been implemented! You can now get one by defeating the mushroom boss.
• To this end, you can no longer re-fight the mushroom boss after you beat him (you'll have to try again on a new save file.)
• If you happen to leave the health upgrade behind, you can come back later and fetch it - it'll be waiting for you.
• New achievements have been added! You *should* get some of them if you already unlocked the requirements for them before playing this build. If not, let me know. Otherwise, you have to do what the achievement says to get them.
• The game now keeps track of various actions you take (how many times you fall into pits, how far you've traveled etc.) Currently these stats are not viewable (and may never be viewable) but at least it's keeping track of stuff now. If you have any suggestions, let me know!
• The game (naturally) can't keep track of stuff that happened before this feature was implemented, so don't expect the game to just magically know things that happened in the past.
• An additional stats menu has been added to see more of the stuff that the game keeps track of. A lot of this is just for fun!
• More buildings and NPCs have been added, check them out!

 ===== IMPROVED =====

• Lance will now bounce off the mushroom boss further if you hit it at the wrong time (for instance if it is hiding)
• The mushroom boss will no longer hide underground for an extended amount of time after powering up.
• The mushroom boss' speed has been lowered near the end of each phase (but increased near the beginning of the second phase.)
• Multiple enemies are now more likely to be struck by Lance during his spin attack due.
• "COMBO!" text has been improved considerably.
• Improvements have been made to the mushroom boss animations.
• Additional effects have been added to several collectibles to make them more attractive.
• The game can now show small messages at the top of the screen, but usually they're either debug or something bad is going on, so hopefully you don't see them!
• NPCs now have more unique voice samples to use (though they are mainly placeholders and I will improve them in time.)
• Additional sounds have been added to dialogue boxes when opening/closing.
• O'Fox's shop now has stuff all over the shelves. Take a look!
• Mushroom boss and minion's sprites have been improved.

 ===== CHANGED =====

• The combo multiplier has been reduced when hitting mushroom minions. You can still get the regular combo amount from the boss and keep that combo going, but it requires skill now.
• Enemy positioning has been adjusted (mainly affects harder difficulties.)
• Animation speed has been increased for the mushroom boss and minions during the second phase of the fight.
• The mushroom boss will not hide in the ground for as long during the second phase of the fight.
• Lighting has been adjusted in some areas to be better.
• Lance's health upgrades are now validated with the flag system, which unfortunately means that if you bought a bunch of health upgrades during the March demo, you're going to lose them. Sorry!
• The save format has been updated. As usual, the game will update your save file automatically, and you'll no longer be able to use it in old versions of Shield Cat.
• Achievements from the March 2021 demo have been removed. This may cause issues with older versions of the game, but hopefully not.
• The additional effects mentioned earlier cause the game to take a bit more GPU than it did before. If you're having trouble running the game when you didn't before, please let me know.

 ===== BUG FIXES =====

• Fixed some weird collision on the tables in the cafe.
• Fixed a bug where Lance would get repositioned onto land or a platform, even when he wasn't supposed to be (allowed you to walk over small gaps.)
• Evil Squirrels are now less likely to get caught up on collision and generally have had their movement improved/fixed.
• Fixed a bug where having the Tubular Twister's extended hit upgrade would work for any movetech ability (difficult to invoke as there's only 2 movetech abilities in the game currently, and one is in the water.)
• Fixed a bug where pausing the game while minions were coming out of the ground would cause them to never actually come out all the way.
• Fixed some issues with the mushroom boss animations.
• Fixed a bug where pausing the game while on a screen with no music would cause the game to not play music anymore.
• Fixed some objects drawing hitboxes that shouldn't be (when showing hitboxes is enabled.)
• Lance can no longer use weapons in the River Challenge building.
• Fixed menus being unusable when using certain color themes while also using the palette-based retro shader (now a color theme is enforced when using this setup.)
• The interior of buildings now quiet down the music properly.
• Fixed a bug where NPCs without dialogue can still show dialogue prompts/Lance tries to interact with them.

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone listed below as well as everyone who makes this possible!

@buny, Ahundred , Shadow8t4, Alicia Goranson, Aode (Lion), Barbara Fregia, BeepSterr, BenTheDragon, Bizarre Machinist , Better Days, David Wolfpaw, Caliburn Absolute, Cay , Clover Arizona, Vix-N, DimSumthing, Dizmus , Emoney Bromine, Cloud Hop, Fao, FaultBat, Flake, FoxyDude, Galuade, Gri, Goronhead, Holly 'Frinkel' Lotor, JD Laclede , Jack O'Connor, Jammy , Jyrki, Katie Durmeter, Kaylex Deer , Hulex Fox, Kirbizard, Klara, Trash, LF, LexiTheTT, Lorxus, Luna, Luna Moona the Little Kahuna , Durk Vash, phantomsqueaks, Mark Cope, Markus Joseph Kitsinger , Marlyn, Maxine Red, Mello the Ferret, Midori, Narg LeFlex, Nenekiri Bookwyrm, Axel Husky , NovaSquirrel, Pascal Schmidt, Philip Garzieri, Progamuffin, Cam D'Arcy, SUSHiCLAWS, Saxxon Fox, Scylla-Leeezard , Ansel Geisel, Sefris , Spyduck, Carlis A. Moore., Stitch The626th, Susan Tolias, Swirlate, Tabby Cromarty, Tala Cuthbert, Tarocco , Touku, DJ Otters, Vectrobe, Vivee, William 'Kenku' Swiftfoot, Xkeeper , erika, khr, meerm, megaRammy, raine, tanukisan , wulfy83, ☀️