Hi there!

Firstly, a heartfelt thanks to anyone and everyone who've given my little game even the slightest bit of attention, but especially to those of you who have played it and given me valuable feedback. This is the first video game I've ever made after all, and while I don't expect it to be the most stellar thing on the platform, I do at least want to hold it to a certain level of quality.

And with that in mind, today the first patch of Reaper Run goes live. For those of you who care to read, let's delve into some specifics! (And for those of you who don't, thanks again! Just download the new zip file and replace the old file contents with the new, your save data will carry over!)

ADDRESSED ISSUES:

--Under certain circumstances, player combat  controls can lock up and prevent any action other than movement

This was brought to my attention from a player via Reddit, and was the biggest reason for this update. Not exactly a good thing to have a game meant for people to play when sometimes they can't really play it, right? That said, I am my own QA team, what with being a solo developer and all, and I wasn't able to replicate the issue personally. But fret not! I was still able to identify several potential points in my code where the problem might occur, and the game's attack management system has been updated. There should be no change to the feel of the game, but the new system *should* prevent the controls from becoming unexpectedly unresponsive.

--It is possible to become stuck in the "Special Bravado Attack" animation

Another, somewhat rarer, game-breaking bug - the unlockable special attack you can give Calli sometimes just...doesn't want to do what it's supposed to do. When activated, you're supposed to fly off the edge of the screen before returning to Calli's starting position, damaging everything in your path. Or, if you encounter this bug, you could...just not move at all. Which is, needless to say, a bit of a problem, particularly considering Calli needs to fly a certain distance for the game to reset her (and also the player sitting there immobile and invulnerable for eternity isn't exactly engaging gameplay). Once again I was unable to personally get this to happen, but the aforementioned adjustments to the attack input system should let Calli fly free. Also I was provided a rather amusing clip of it happening, of which I can share a small snippet with you all.

--First boss difficulty

The first boss a player can encounter during a run was shipped with a rather unforgiving attack pattern, and it looks like the window for dodging its first attack pattern was a little too tight. The boss' tentacle smash attack is now significantly more spread out, allowing for easier dodging.

--Menu text elements visibility

This wasn't something I'd received any complaints about, but I did realize that while my own eyesight is generally pretty good, not everyone out there will necessarily be able to read some of the smaller text elements on the various submenus on the title screen. With this update, all of the offending text should have drastically improved visibility.

Aaaand that's all folks! With any luck, both of the possible soft locks have been nipped in the bud, and the game should be just a wee bit more accessible. Thanks for reading, thanks for playing fellow Deadbeats!