Hi there!

Thanks for your patience! I'm happy to bring you a new update for JanKen POP! today!

I've been working on improving the animations for this version. I'm still having some trouble getting the physics of certain elements to look and feel right, but I think the results turned out pretty well overall! There's still room for improvement, of course, but I'm happy with how things are coming along.

You may have already noticed this, but the backgrounds for the game stages are AI-generated. I want to be completely honest about this, especially since AI art is such a controversial topic. My intention is to eventually replace them with animated looping backgrounds, which I think would make the game look much better. However, right now I don't have the skills to create those myself, nor the budget to hire an artist to do them for me. For the time being, this is the solution I've gone with, but I'd like to improve it in the future.

Anyway, let's take a look at what's new!

> What's new in this version?

New character: Mila

There's a new character to unlock! Mila, who becomes available after beating Level 2.

New game mode: Alternate

The new Alternate mode has been added! In this mode, the blocks rotate in alternating directions, making it much harder to set up long combos. You'll have to think more carefully about your moves and adapt to the changing directions if you want to get the best score.

New clothing unlock mode: Score

Until now, the main way to unlock clothing was the classic mode, where you had to break a certain number of blocks to remove each piece of clothing.

Now there's a new one: Score mode! Instead of focusing on the total number of blocks destroyed, you'll need to reach specific combo score to unlock the clothing. This gives you another way to play and adds a different kind of challenge.

New "Look" mode

Once you've beaten both game modes for a character, you'll unlock Look mode. This lets you check out the different clothing pieces that character has available, making it easier to see the outfits you've unlocked and explore the different combinations.

It'll receive an overhaul in future releases.

New and improved Helper system

After beating a level, the blocks you've destroyed will now be added to your accumulated total. You can then spend those blocks to purchase Helpers, which can give you a hand when a match gets difficult.

I've also added new Helpers, and each one requires a different number of destroyed blocks to use. This should give you more options when deciding how to spend your accumulated blocks and help you get out of some tricky situations.

Mouse support for menus

You can now navigate the menus using the mouse!

The original idea was to make the game playable using only the keyboard, but I'm considering adding touchscreen support in the future so people can play on mobile devices as well. Before I can do that, though, I need to figure out and address some potential performance issues.

For now, the game still doesn't support touchscreen controls, but it's something I'd like to look into later on.

> Things that are still a work in progress

Not everything made it into this version, so here's a quick look at what I'm still working on.

Better difficulty balancing

I'm still not completely satisfied with the game's difficulty balance. Sometimes the game feels too easy, while other times it can become frustratingly difficult.

Finding the right balance is taking longer than I expected, but it's something I want to get right. I'd like the game to be challenging without feeling unfair, so I'll keep tweaking things as development continues.

Performance testing

So far, most of my performance tests have been done on mid-to-high-end PCs. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to test the game on lower-end computers, so I don't have a clear picture of how well it performs on less powerful hardware.

If you're playing on an older or less powerful PC and notice any performance issues, please let me know! That kind of feedback would be really helpful.

"Interact" mode

I'll be completely honest about this one: the delay with the Interact mode is entirely my fault. I was hoping to have it ready for this update, but unfortunately, I couldn't get it done in time.

I initially thought it would be a good idea to build it the same way I did in That Pervert, by exporting the animations frame by frame and manipulating them directly inside Construct. However, after making some progress, I realized this wasn't the most efficient approach. These animations ended up taking up almost half of the game's total file size, which was much more than I expected.

Because of that, I decided to rework the entire system to use the original Spine animation files directly instead. This should not only make the animations look better, but also significantly reduce the game's file size.

Unfortunately, this means I need more time to get everything working properly. I know some of you were probably looking forward to this feature in the current update, and I'm sorry I couldn't deliver it as planned. I could have avoided this delay if I'd chosen a better approach from the beginning, but at least I've figured out a more efficient way to handle things going forward.

I'll keep working on it, and hopefully, I'll be able to share it with you in a future update.

> I'd love to hear your feedback!

Finally, I'd really appreciate it if you could share your thoughts on JanKen POP!

Are you enjoying the game so far? Is there anything you'd like me to add, change, or remove? Are there any mechanics you particularly like or dislike?

I'd also like to know what kind of games you'd prefer me to focus on in the future. Do you enjoy projects like JanKen POP!, which take longer to develop and receive updates over time, or would you rather see more small games, quick projects, and simpler minigames that can be released more frequently?

There's no right or wrong answer here. I just want to get a better idea of what you guys enjoy so I can take your feedback into account when deciding what to work on next.

Thanks again for your patience and support! It really means a lot, and I hope you enjoy this new version of JanKen POP!

> Game links

Gold-tier patrons: HERE

Silver-tier patrons: HERE (This version does not have all the features mentioned above.)

Public demo soon!

Have fun!

-Hayabusa