Version 0.2!

Sssup!

The 2nd wave of development has come to an end! This update changes how the whole game plays -- level generation has been completely overhauled, most items have been tweaked for balance, tons of bugs have been ironed out, menus have been improved and added, and your run history is now saved permanently, so you can reminisce on that time you beat the game while your inventory spelled out the word "musties". Also, because these changes tend toward making the game more coherent + survivable, a new difficulty setting adds an interesting twist.

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Here's the highlights from the changelog:

• level generation + entity spawns overhauled - shorter, better, more varied levels
• enemies always drop consonants, but vowels are rarer
• difficulty settings: EASY is default; NORMAL requires WORD MODE to use stairs
• can only kill boss in WORD MODE
• optional tutorial prompts introduce player to various game concepts as they play
• dictionary menu: see if a word is in the game's dictionary

• compendium menu: review which items you've seen and identified

• new help menu

• new history menu

• clearer item menus with more detailed information
• many bug fixes
• click to examine things
• enemies won't act on the first turn they see a path to you, even if you're not in WORD MODE
• stats are capped at +6
• confirms for various significant actions
• balance changes to most items

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And here's the whole thing:

Big Features

• long term save tracks all your previous runs
• history screen gives an overview of your previous runs
• dictionary menu: see if a word is in the game's dictionary
• compendium menu: review which items you've seen and identified
• level generation overhaul
• shorter levels (mostly) with more variety
• mazes and snakestone incorporated into level generation
• new entity spawning algorithm
• vaults make more sense
• tutorial introduces player to various game concepts
• new help menu with multiple pretty pages
• difficulty setting: EASY is default; NORMAL requires WORD MODE to use stairs

Bug Fixes

• game doesn't crash when you spit the drill segment
• the wrinkled segment doesn't disrupt identification
• you can use (x) indexes while mousing over
• ? and > work on int'l keyboards
• vowels won't spawn under player
• can't use any consumables on the boss
• fix floor counter
• extra turn no longer passes after wrinkled segment is used
• word mode is updated after certain items are used
• hooked segment won't cause enemies to intersect your tail
• fix typo in movement control diagram
• certain items don't cause error during victory
• wrinkled segment in first few turns doesn't break the game
• can't die multiple times in one turn
• hungry segment won't break the game if it overflows your inventory
• CHOKE status effect prevents you from spitting instead of doing nothing at all
• can spit a wrinkled segment into snakestone
• turn saves always clear when a game is over
• menu for ordering pickups doesn't prevent item identification, etc

Quality of Life

• temporary buffs say "temporarily" in inventory
• dynamic numbers in item descriptions are highlighted with the relevant stat color
• all durations are shown in item descriptions
• controls are shown by default for your first 10 games
• click to examine anything
• end-of-run word list only shows unique words
• confirm when starting new game while old game exists
• confirm when waiting while inside enemy intent/field-of-movement
• confirm when you enter combat
• setting to disable that last confirm
• add turn counter
• inventory menus have left/right scrolling indicators

Gameplay

• both item-identification effects are on one item
• can only kill boss in WORD MODE
• enemies won't act on the first turn they see you, even if you're not in WORD MODE
• stats are capped at +6
• enemies always drop consonants, but vowels are rarer
• many consumables affected by MIND have smaller base durations and get a smaller stat modifier
• stat bonuses are always applied to an item prior to its consumption