Features

• Control (zone 5 - 2) gets an art pass
  
• Convection (zone 5 - 3) gets an art pass and is no longer full of red jelly cubes (sorry, jelly cube fans)
  
• Rocket Fidos, Fetcher Fidos and Jumbo Fidos got a texture pass
  
• Updated Stage Select preview art
  
• When the S+ indicator is enabled, Auto Restart can be toggled on and off via the pause menu (under Options)
  
• Forfeiting a Daily Drive now requires a confirmation step
  

Fixes

• Improved the way audio is loaded, should result in lower overall memory usage and slightly better load times in some cases
  
• minor Venom animation related improvements
  
• fixed issue where some enemies could trigger their shutdown sfx several times
  

Features

• Venom (zone 4 boss) has had a complete art overhaul
  
• Medulla (zone 5 boss) has pre and post battle text dialogue added
  
• Justice (zone 3 boss) drones now tilt in the direction of movement and leave trails, similar to Helo
  
• Venom has been added to Boss Rush
  
• Audio volumes can now be changed mid game via the pause menu
  
• Higher contrast bullets added for the Assault, Seeker and Spreadshot player weapons
  
• Added a few context based play tips to the Battery Depleted screen
  
• Various texture and material improvements
  

Fixes

• fixed the transitions in Boss Rush
  

Features

• Assembly (zone 4 - 1) stage art
  
• Relay (zone 4 - 2) also gets stage art
  
• Medulla (zone 5 boss) has an in-game voice
  
• Minor Medulla balance changes. Due to this and one of the bug fixes, her leaderboard has been reset
  
• Shiitake has her own Stage Clear animation, so now all the androids have unique Stage Clear anims!
  
• on beating Medulla, you have the option of returning to Stage Select, replaying the stage or rolling credits - this is not how the game will end, but it's a step closer!
  
• added a logo sequence to improve startup responsiveness
  
• the battery shows the text "COLLECT" above it for the first five times it appears. After this it goes back to how it was. Unless you miss a battery, then it totally reminds you again
  
• Tutorial tweaks
  
• Zone 1 skybox upressed
  
• continued sound effect iteration
  

Fixes

• fixed game breaking multiplayer bug that under specific circumstances could cause the spawn system to lock up and be a total jerk about spawning new enemies
  
• fixed a game breaking bug in the Medulla battle that was occurring on specific hardware configurations
  
• fixed bug/exploit where a well placed Shutdown would leave one of Medulla's sub-units in a state of increased damage for the entire phase
  
• fixed cosmetic issue where guns were left floating or sticking out of things on Stage Clear
  
• resolved an issue with the AI. They can now be combined with the First Person EX Mode
  

Features

• Added Y Invert for First Person mode - it is found in Game Settings
  
• Collider (zone 5 - 4) has intro and outro text dialogue and a music adjustment
  
• Aubergine was given a Stage Clear animation
  
• Zone 5 skybox added
  
• Infinity Drive / Daily Drive skybox added
  
• Zone 5 boss Medulla has had tuning adjustments to her final phase
  

Fixes

• fixed issue where Keyboard and Mouse did not return the cursor on stage end in First Person mode
  
• fixed an issue with Aubergine that was causing boss battle restarts to trigger the wrong music
  
• fixed the discrepancy in Collider where "largest enemy chain" could be reported as larger than "enemies defeated"
  
• corrected typos in the Codex and Boss Dialogues
  
• changed the rotation controls in mouse and keyboard Codex model view to point in the right direction
  
• fixed the squished looking joypad button on Jukebox and Sound Test
  
• fixed the crossfading when playing multiple tracks in the Jukebox
  
• many small fixes
  

Features

• new Title music
  
• new Credits music
  
• Zone 4 boss Venom has intro and outro text dialogue. You may want to replay him to follow the story!
  
• new level Collider (zone 5 - 4) introducing a mysterious sub-boss!
  
• new whitebox Final Boss - Medulla
  
• Rebalanced Control (zone 5 - 2) - as a result, its leaderboard have been reset
  
• new game mechanic - credits. Earn them by playing to unlock bonus stuff
  
• new feature Codex - as you progress through the game, unlock entries on characters, enemies and world that Cactus is set in
  
• new feature EX Options - use credits to purchase cool and/or strange extra gameplay modes
  
• new feature Jukebox
  
• new feature Sound Test
  
• audio cues added for full weapon cooldown and when you can't swap to your secondary weapon due to overheat
  
• bosses blink their lights when they talk
  
• Tutorial refinements
  

Fixes

• fixed an issue that was disabling HDR if you set graphics settings to Custom - has a noticeable impact on bloom
  
• improved responsiveness of Daily Drive stage clear leaderboards and trimmed the opening timing
  
• fixed interface issues related to Character Select and Unlock screens
  
• handled a case where Steam Overlay could cause the game to stay paused
  
• Starch's Micromissiles take in account target size
  
• Spectres (teleporting enemies) no longer leave thin vertical lines behind if you kill them during a teleport
  
• Leaderboard joypad buttons no longer slightly squished (seriously, this was bugging me so much)
  
• many smaller tweaks and fixes
  

Why has AAC been 'Pre-Alpha' until now?

What's next?

Features/changes

• new game mode - Daily Drive
  
• More generous battery rules in Infinity Drive / Boss Rush - more chance of receiving a battery immediately before a boss and bosses will now always drop a battery on defeat
  
• Justice now charges his plasma field meaning there is a brief window between getting too close to him and taking damage. However he now also uses his plasma field while deploying laser fences and capture spheres
  
• Leaderboards - you can now scroll through your friends list (funny story! When I was writing this feature I didn't have over 15 friends who'd played the game)
  
• Stage Select leaderboards - friends list will frame your score if you're not in the top 5
  
• Dogs that drag you around will break their link if you can break line of sight
  

Fixes

• Fixed geometry in Relay where players could end up outside the level
  
• Fixed issue where Venom would teleport to the middle of the stage when shutdown under certain circumstances
  
• Reworked the chain system to remove an ambiguous case where chaining a boss together with an element worth no points would result in a multikill bonus - the rule that both enemies involved must be worth points should now be consistently enforced across all characters/weapons
  
• Venom has a better collision volume during his final phase, resulting in more accurate railgun hits
  
• Android Select doesn't imply you can add another character if you return to it in 4 player mode
  
• (Maybe?) fixed the issue with guns ending up in the wrong spot on Stage Clear ... if anyone spots it in the latest build, let us know!
  

• fixed an issue on Transit where flying enemies dropped powerups in the air/walls
  
• fixed the SSAO menu item, can now select High when pushing right
  
• reduced Wasp attack radius
  
• reduced Vespula's Wasp spawn radius
  
• Shiitake's mines have had their deadzone restored, Railgun's hitsweep narrowed
  
• Increased enemy visual response on high damage single hits
  

Features/changes

• Transit has received an art pass, Zone 3 no longer has whitebox stages!
  
• Venom has spoken dialogue during his battle
  
• Infinity Drive has had a tuning pass to improve consistency around boss fights and in multiplayer.
  
• Infinity Drive high scores are now driven by Layer Reached, with the score itself only used as a tie breaker. Due to these changes the Infinity Drive leaderboards have been reset.
  
• Coral now has a Stage Clear animation
  
• Shiitake's mines have received a small damage reduction
  
• Lemon's rockets have received a small damage increase
  
• Holly's seeker has received a small damage increase at higher levels
  
• Video Settings menu has been expanded to allow finer control. Effects like bloom, reflections and image processing can now be toggled on and off directly.
  
• SSAO re-added with three levels of quality
  
• Colour correction added
  
• FXAA anti-aliasing added (off by default)
  

Fixes

• Reworked spawn system - dissolving robots should no longer pop out of existence during heavy action
  
• Wasps apply damage correctly - previously they were slightly inconsistent
  
• Vespula now summons wasps in a pretty, non-arbitrary pattern
  
• Fixed Shiitake's railgun not hitting Venom's arms when you were super close
  

Known Issues

• When starting the game with "-popupwindow" in order to play in full screen windowed mode (in Windows) you will not be able to set the game to fullscreen mode, but the options menu does not reflect this
  
• Native Dual Shock 3 support in OSX is busted. It is possible to work around it using a control remapper that makes the DS3 to emulate an xbox pad or similar, and we are working on a proper fix
  
• Shadows are missing on certain integrated videocards under Linux
  
• Native Steam Controller support still coming soon
  
• Aubergine's singularity effect looks different on Linux. Functionality is fine, it's just distorting the screen in the wrong direction. Been tricky to figure out...
  

Fixes

• Justice - fixed an issue that occasionally allowed Justice to get stuck 'unkillable' when certain weapons took the last hitpoint while shutdown
  
• Justice - fixed the Head Throw state so he can be defeated during his throw and so all weapons will attack properly
  
• Fixed a case where S+ auto restart could trigger after a successful S+ stage clear
  
• playing Infinity Drive or Boss Rush won't reset your last position on the Stage Select anymore
  
• updated the application icon :)
  

Tweaks

• Justice - the point his lightning attack is measured from is more consistent now
  
• Boss minions are visible as outlines through the bosses themselves
  
• S+ auto-restart triggers immediately on Battery Depletion
  
• minor adjustment to the way Propeller Mines measure their distance between themselves and their target
  

Features/changes

• New Stage Select System - the next zone is locked until the boss is defeated, leaderboard and rank information is displayed in world
  
• Cloud Save support - progress and game settings are shared across your Steam profile
  
• Remastered music
  
• Improved Venom camera behaviour during Phase 3 and 7
  
• Cool new logo featuring space-age 3D effects!
  

Fixes

• Fixed an issue with Peanut's drill attack targetting enemies it wasn't meant to
  
• Fixed an issue with Peanut's drill attack getting caught on certain types of geometry
  
• Fixed some places where Peanut's molten magma and Shiitake's propeller mines would float in the air after the ground they were on vanished
  
• Fixed an issue where missiles would impact missing ground
  
• Changed the way Venom's score was being applied during his string turret phases which will have an impact on highest theoretical score. As a result, Venom's leaderboard has been reset
  
• Cleaned up some code related to Vespula. As a precaution, Vespula's leaderboard has been reset
  
• Streamlined menu flow in a couple of places
  
• Actually fixed the Wasps Getting Stuck bug. No really, I mean it this time
  

Known Issues

• When starting the game with "-popupwindow" in order to play in full screen windowed mode (in Windows) you will not be able to set the game to fullscreen mode, but the options menu does not reflect this
  
• Native Dual Shock 3 support in OSX is busted. It is possible to work around it using a control remapper that makes the DS3 to emulate an xbox pad or similar, and we are working on a proper fix
  
• Shadows are missing on certain integrated videocards under Linux
  
• Native Steam Controller support still coming soon
  
• Aubergine's singularity effect looks different on Linux. Functionality is fine, it's just distorting the screen in the wrong direction. Been tricky to figure out...