Alien Video Game Scientist — patch notes and updates
Stored observation / content update:
Dated developer announcements recorded from Steam. Open the source for the complete update.
| Update | Date | Excerpt / source |
|---|---|---|
| Version 1.0 | 2025-06-27 | 1.0 might suggest this is the first release, but in fact the game has gone thru at least 10 public version bumps since going live on steam as early access. It should be rock-solid at this point. If it's on your wish-list now is the time to buy! This version bings small changes, the most visible being new fonts rather than the Arial knock-off that's the engine default up to now. |
| Rebinding! Now, is there anything else left to do? | 2025-05-26 | The final thing I've been wanting to add before leaving early access is a rebinding implementation. Now, it's done: gamepad buttons and keyboard buttons can be bound to actions like jump or set checkpoint. There's really no other excuse to keep this early access, but as it's a major feature change that touches multiple areas I'm going to hold off for a few days in case of bug reports. |
| fixed level 39 achievement and new lighting | 2025-05-06 | fix: level 39 achievement is now gettable (just finish the level). Experimenting with different lighting for the two "outside the game" levels to further delineate alien levels vs scientist levels (tutorial + science lab). Subtle, mostly just an excuse to experiment with softer lighting models. |
| Final build before leaving early access? | 2025-02-28 | The Game is nearly ready to leave early access. To my knowledge all levels are finished, all bugs squashed, and all achievements ready to be achieved. And... The Science Lab is no longer "under construction"! Consider this a dry run for leaving early access - one last chance to catch any problems before the full weight of Steam's player base is directed at the game on launch - at least for the 5 minutes or so that it will get top billing on the new release list (after which some other game will be even newer). |
| gamepad/keyboard glyphs added to built 0.9.5 | 2025-01-09 | change: instructions now use gamepad (or keyboard, as appropriate) icons when describing how to jump, set checkpoints, etc. Don't ask me how long it took to add that, but maybe ask Unity why the heck they don't provide such icons by default or easily importable??? Not all of us want to learn how to make our own custom font just for such a little thing. |
| Build 0.9.4, now with CREDITS! | 2024-12-17 | Now with achievements for all levels, and an even better retirement party. Other, unmentionable QOL changes too. PLUS! FULL CREDITS! I'M SO EXCITED! I mean, that's the real reason you play the game, right? The ultimate reward to all video games is watching the credit roll. And roll indeed it does now. |
| QOL updates for 12/08/24, build 0.9.3 | 2024-12-08 | achievements thru level 36 darken background for pause menu to make subtitles eas(ier) to read independent volume for FX and Music retirement party! |
| Epilogue finished and ready for the public | 2024-12-04 | The game has 32 (or 34 depending on how you count) regular levels, with a complete story ark told over that series of levels. After that, there's mostly just speed running challenges. BUT in order to provide some reward for the speed runners, there are 5 additional levels and a followup story line / grand conclusion that can only be unlocked by speed running. I call this the Epilogue. It is now finished and part of the game. Lucky, since the game releases tomorrow (Dec 4th). If you aren't into speed running but feel like you are missing out to not get to the epilogue, I feel you. But our speed running challenges are fairly mild, and more abou |
| Now with leaderboards | 2024-12-01 | Steam leaderboards have been added so you can compare you times (any % and 100%) against the global top 10. Which right now is just me, and in order to not make it too challenging, I've intentionally only submitted a few slower run times, for a few levels. At least that's my cover story. Check out the Science Lab level to see leaderboards for every level that you've finished. PS. the game is not *just* about speed running. It's an option. Seriously, go slow if you want. In fact, I'm torn about printing the best global times every time you finish a level. I don't want casual chillaxing players to feel like they aren't doing it right. I just wa |
| Quality of life changes, all over the place | 2024-11-27 | Improved keyboard bindings for gamepad haters several levels refined to make sure you learn a game mechanic rather than skipping around it improved subtitles - all narration subtitled, better display, etc narration now makes both music and FX get quiet so you can actually hear my PERLs** of wisdom. re-made start of level 9 so that you can't get stuck "improved" in-game feedback system, and now I'm advertising it so that everybody knows to begin the deluge of quick and easy feedback (gulp) mazes have slightly more clear tells so that wandering randomly is purely optional other things less easily described, or spoilers. Trust me. I'm not just m |
| Small fix, big effect? | 2024-11-22 | I've always been adamant that invert Y camera was the only way to play, so much so that I made it the default in my game. But of course I realize that I'm in the minority, so the very first thing you do in the tutorial is decide if you want to use invert Y or "normal" camera controls (shades of the first Halo, or Ratchet Deadlocked). A new player, however, discovered that this leads to a significant ambiguity for what it means to select "invert y" in the tutorial; does that mean invert the current controls? No, they are already inverted! So selecting Invert Y does nothing. Which in retrospect is definitely confusing to everybody but me, and m |
| Release delayed until after TG sale | 2024-11-19 | At the advice of Steam the game will go live a little later than expected, Dec 4th, rather than this week. The reason is boringly practical: the game will be hidden under the thanksgiving/late November sale and won't even be shown as a "new release" if I put it out now. So, we wait. But, if you just can't wait (I'm looking *just* at you, Carl), you can still back my kickstarter for a pre-release key reward. Meanwhlie, this will allow a little more fine-tuning of the achievement difficulty. |
| Nearing release! | 2024-11-14 | We've been crash free / bug free for over a month, and all but the final level are fully polished. I think it's almost time to release my baby into the world! Final tuning of the game is all that remains, Looking forward to seeing what achievements are easy and what are (too?) hard. |