Demo v0.9.21 Patch Notes

Hey all,

It's been a pretty wild 3 weeks since the last update. A pretty big streamer played the demo on their channel a couple of weeks ago, and since then, the response has been absolutely insane.

I want to thank the thousands of players who have found and played CoP since then, and an even bigger thank you to those who continue to reach out with bug reports, suggestions, feedback, and supportive messages. I really wasn't expecting anything even close to the kind of interest this weird hobby pinball game has received, and I was clearly unprepared for it.. I think I've responded to everybody who has been in touch so far - if I haven't, please reach out again and I'll get back to you ASAP.

I collate all the feedback I get into one big document, and I read it over and refer to it often. Recently, I've noticed a shift away from core gameplay feedback, with more and more input on the lack of flashing lights, moving parts, and general over-stimuli that real Pinball tables offer. I've been prioritizing core gameplay for a while and felt this was maybe a good time to have some fun—adding massive tentacles, spinny things, flashing lights, funky shaders - all the best parts of game development, and I've had an absolute blast doing it.

TL;DR: This update is almost all tactile/visual updates alongside a few bug fixes (although there are some gameplay changes coming in December). In no particular order, the changes are:

v0.9.21 Changes

Visuals & Gameplay Updates

• Bonus Tentacles now give one of 4 weighted chance rewards: +Damage, +Mana, +Mult, or a 'BONUS' letter progression.
• Bonus Tentacles now pop up far more often, but also disappear after a while if not hit. 
•  Animated Background Tentacles: These just wiggle around for now but will be more responsive in the future.
• Spinners: An array of clickity-clacking, score-giving goodness on both ramps. 
•  Updated Boss Bumper visuals. 
•  New Mission 3D surrounds, with flashing lights highlighting when it's part of a Ritual. 
•  New Particle FX that plays when a Ritual mission is completed. 
•  Flashing lights on all missions, blinking when a mission is part of a Ritual. 
•  Darkened Table background when the boss is active. 
•  Inverted light switch direction when pressing the flipper button. 
•  Extra Ball light now flashes quickly when available to trigger and stays lit once used. 
•  Reworked various mission lighting colours. 
• New tutorial text to provide clarity around the Mission/Ritual connection.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a certain bumper variant incorrectly reducing multiplier when hit.
• Fixed an issue where a ball could get stuck in the shop slot, soft-locking the game.
• Fixed ball getting stuck to the side blockers and requiring a nudge to get out.
• Fixed some Glyphs and Achievements not unlocking.
• Fixed the ball bumping slightly when rolling onto the paddle.
• Fixed vertical aspect camera positions.
• Fixed Linux & Steam Deck versions loading into the Tutorial even when a save game is active.
• Fixed the ball being able to fly off the Bonus table.

Hope you all enjoy the changes! There are still many known issues and things I'd like to fix but felt like this was as good a point as any to release an update for the Demo, I'll get another one out at some point in December. 

Happy Flipping, 

Kenny