We just released the 1.5.0 patch. The goal of this patch is to provide players with a smoother experience in general, particularly for those playing with a controller or on Steam Deck. We also made some light modifications to the game's third act that align more closely with our original vision, including a new animation panel leading into the credit roll. Here's a more detailed breakdown:
General improvements:
- Settings and menu buttons across the game now provide more visual feedback to better distinguish when a button is in focus.
- We addressed a bug that was preventing "expert mode" from persisting between saves. For those unfamiliar, this setting removes many signposts throughout the game. We also hid some additional signposts while in expert mode that are meant for casual players.
- Several pieces of background artwork have been cleaned up and further detailed.
- Some pieces of dialogue have been edited or removed for clarity, brevity and style, with an eye towards a more seamless, focused, and consistent reading experience.
- Players can now cancel out of nearly all "look" dialogues by right clicking or pressing the East controller button. This reduces the need to "click through" non-essential dialogue if the player isn’t interested or has already visited the dialogue node.
- The drone icons in the Shield puzzle map, previously red squares, have been replaced with animated sprites.
- At several points, UI sound effects would drop due to a bug in our audio controller, particularly noticeable in the rocket environment. This is fixed.
- Many bugs and edge cases across the game have been addressed. We hope that we've fixed nearly all softlocks.
Controller improvements:
- Players should notice a dramatic improvement in behavior when selecting elements within a scene using the directional pad.
- Any players using a controller on a widescreen display will have likely experienced a bug in which the virtual mouse cursor was offset by some number of pixels. This is now fixed.
- The boat controls in the puppetshow and lake sequences are tighter. The collision screenshake has been reduced. The boat drifts less and is generally easier to control.
- If using a controller, players are now prompted to view the "input diagram" before first entering gameplay following the game’s intro. This diagram gives an overview of various helper buttons, such as the ability to quickly select and cycle through pieces of the GUI.
- We discovered many edge cases in which the controller mode was not properly registered after certain sequences, and the player would momentarily lose the ability to use the directional pad and helper buttons. These edge cases have been addressed.
- There are many other small improvements that should make playing the game with a controller more satisfying.
Third act modifications (light spoilers ahead):
- We've made a few adjustments to the final act of the game, doing our best to keep these changes subtle and non-invasive. One addition is a brief animation panel preceding the credits, something we originally hoped to include before release but ran out of time. We’ve also edited and extended the final dialogue that leads into this animation.
- There's a dialogue choice provided to the player earlier in the third act that we felt the game should acknowledge. It now conditionally impacts a separate piece of dialogue that can be accessed in the "Delirious Dream" sequence prior to the game’s ending.
As always, thank you to everyone who has reported bugs and shared feedback.
With gratitude,
Geography of Robots
