Starlight: Eye of the Storm cover
Starlight: Eye of the Storm screenshot
Steam
Genre: Indie

Starlight: Eye of the Storm

Quickfix v1.07.4 Released

v1.07.4 Bugfix Patch



- Fixed an issue with the Custom Ship Editor where the selected sprite does NOT appear. While this is just a cosmetic issue, it does hinder the player from placing turrets, hit boxes and engines.

Closing stream for SHMUP Fest
Let's go once more! This time most of the bugs should have been fixed by now!

Starlight: Eye of the Storm - Prerecorded Steam Remote Play Streams
Let's have a brief look at the previously recorded broadcasts before we head into the new one!

Quickfix v1.07.3

Quickfix v1.07.3 Urgent



This is an urgent fix made only when certain potential game breaking bugs are discovered.

Bug Fixes



1) Fixed the bug where if you are in the middle of a duel with the AI and you get killed and the game goes into game over countdown and then you continue, the AI will no longer duel you. This has since been fixed.

2) Fixed the Death Beam not hitting enemies across the screen. The collider length was incorrect and has been fixed.

Conclusion



Won't be touching the project for the next 2-3 days. Celebrating my birthday today so I'll kindly take a 1-day off doing absolutely nothing. Thanks for your support and please enjoy the game!!

v1.07.2 - Playing Starlight with new weapons! Part 2
We're going to demonstrate the newest weapons on a game of Arcade mode at Expert difficulty.

Quickfix v1.07.2

Quickfix Patch



Fixed several issues all around the game. Some assets were improved slightly.

Changes



  1. Improved Enemy Laser Laser Bolt graphic
  2. Balanced Microwave Burst damage across all 3 levels. Compensated with higher rate of fire and perpetual hits until it dissipates. Previously, the burst will terminate prematurely after 5-10 hits.
  3. Balanced the speed of projectiles multiplied under HARD and EXPERT difficulty. This is to align with the vision that the slowest bullets should have a minimum speed and the fastest bullets should still be avoidable within human reaction time.
  4. EXPERT difficulty now deals only 5x damage instead of 10x. It's slightly more forgiving now; just barely.
  5. Improved the graphic for Plasma Cannon Level 1 in the weapons shop
  6. Lowered the alpha of EMP Cannon impact. This is due to the fact that when each projectile lands multiple hits, it can cause the impact effect to saturate and paint the entire target white; blocking sight and therefore affecting gameplay.
  7. Improved the in-game graphic for Disintegrator Blade 3 - so that it looks softer than a hard 2D sprite.
  8. All Disintegrator Blades will have its reload cooldown HALVED. That means you can fire more frequently.

    • Level 1 will now have 12% chance of disintegration for enemies with lesser than 30% HP
    • Level 2 will now have 15% chance of disintegration for enemies with lesser than 40% HP
    • Level 3 will now have 18% chance of disintegration for enemies with lesser than 50% HP


Bug Fixes



  1. Added a hard fix to Arcade Mission 8's healer ships. This is a very hard bug to reproduce and we hope this would have fixed it.
  2. Corrected spelling mistakes in the Campaign mission description. Proof-read it once more to confirm that it's correct.
  3. Fixed a regression bug with shaders that causes 3D planets and 3D asteroids to render incorrectly. This is a cosmetic fix and doesn't affect gameplay.

Starlight: Eye Of The Storm - Dev playing with friends
We tested quite a few game modes...

1) Survival - Expert
2) Duel
3) Campaign - Normal, 2 missions only though

ENJOY the chaos!!

Starlight is now 64-bits with v1.06 patch released!

Patch v1.06



As promised, we've been working on fixing the game's reported bugs and some new ones that were discovered along the way.

This patch focuses on 3 things in general:

1) Major game breaking bugs fixed
2) 64-bits adopted
3) New adjustments to difficulty levels

New Features



None. Switching to 64-bits isn't a new feature but a necessary step for the future. For 32-bits players, it's still possible to play the old build via

Library -> Starlight: Eye of the Storm -> Properties -> Beta -> sl32 - Starlight 32-bits

Once selected, you should be able to persist with the current 32-bits build though the bugs in it aren't fixed.

Changes



64-bits


With the game now in 64-bits only, there'll be additional memory required. The minimum memory requirements is still set at 4GB but recommended at 8GB.

Graphics


For graphics, we now fully support 4K and with it, it means there'll be more VRAM used due to the additional render targets and frame buffers required to be in 4K resolution which takes 4x more memory than 1080p. Therefore, if you wish to play in 4K, the game may take up to 2GB of VRAM by virtue of the sheer amount of memory required for render targets.

Difficulty


We've recognized that our intended game experience for our players is to be able to use natural skills and reaction time to play without the need to upgrade weapons though it's highly recommended that you do. Having the right fighter build is always essential to a satisfying gameplay experience.

As such, here're the changes:
1) HARD difficulty - enemy hp goes up by 25%, player dmg unchanged, enemy bullets travel up to 2x faster capped at speed of 40 units.

2) HARDEST difficulty (aka bullet hell) - enemy hp goes DOWN by 25%, player dmg unchanged, enemy bullets travel up to 3x faster capped at speed of 60 units. Players automatically regenerate special power bar when vulnerable.

Chessy Guard


This has been an in-built feature to prevent enemy units except bosses, from firing right on top of you, killing you instantly. A slight change is made that this only works if you're VULNERABLE. That means if you're executing your special powers, enemy ships will continue to fire on top of you since that might be what you're after.

HP Adjustments



- Voiceless Pirate Damaged Frigate now only has 2/3 of the original HP. This adjustment was made as a result of a feedback that the frigate is too spongey.

Bug Fixes



  • Fixed a bug where the joystick cannot press any buttons assigned to Special Powers control.
  • Fixed a bug where the joystick upon connection or disconnection will cause the game to crash.
  • Fixed a bug where the player's controls displayed in the options menu isn't updated when you change a key/joystick bind.
  • Fixed a bug where certain sprites may blink occasionally. This is not fully fixed though and further fixes may apply in the future.
  • Fixed a bug where the player can fire even after death automatically.
  • Fixed a bug where the Frigates in Arcade Stage 6 isn't moving properly
  • Fixed a bug in Arcade Stage 6 where NSAU 3D ships do not display shield distortion despite getting hit.
  • Fixed a bug where if the Shadow Map is too large, the GPU might thrash (not crash) when rendering it in 4K. Now there'll be a limit on how large the shadow map will be despite LOD settings. This is a prevention against causing the game to be unplayable.
  • Fixed a bug when fighting the secret boss, after destroying it the players do not get invulnerable and get in fact, die and get a game over instead.
  • Fixed a bug where some ships despawn without any reason
  • Fixed a bug where ships spawned, especially the 1st ship, do not fire anything
  • Fixed a bug in options menu where "Apply" and "Discard" doesn't work if it's opened under Campaign Overview Map.
  • Fixed certain sequence in Campaign Mission 4 that isn't correct.
  • Fixed a bug in the Weapons Shop that if you upgrade directly without going into the items, and then move your cursor up/down/left/right the upgrade widgets are left dangling.
  • Fixed a bug where the game crashes/no longer starts after selecting Windows Mode ON and MSAA to anything but NONE. Yes, the game doesn't start even after -resetconfig is used.
  • Fixed a bug in Weapon Shop during a weapon upgrade, the upgraded weapon will fire from the top-left tip of the screen once.
  • Fixed a bug where the controls can remain frozen after completing Survival Mode.
  • Fixed a bug where 4K players will boundaries representing 3D objects off alignment. It isn't an issue until that invisible boundary kills the player. Therefore it's now fixed.


Conclusion



We endeavour to give our players a FUNCTIONING game to play at the very least. Sure, the game may not appeal to everyone but for our customers, we'll always be there listening and fixing issues you've voiced out to ensure that your fun isn't interrupted.

The game will still have outstanding bugs to be fixed over time. Some bugs weren't discovered simply because we do NOT have the hardware for it.

What's next?



We'll reflect the 64-bit changes on the Demo first. This is to ensure that Demo players have the correct impression of the game and get to play as bug free as possible.
[UPDATE] The demo is now in v1.06 64-bits executable.

Next, we'll be adding a few weapons , a few new canon fighters and at least 1-2 new special powers.

After that, we'll embark on the Boss Rush DLC (free) as promised.

In the end



Your gaming experience is what really matters. If you wish to report a bug or suggestion, you're more than welcome to do so. You can also join our discord here: Join Starlight Discord to interact with us directly.


We'll now take a short break till next month (February 2023) due to Lunar New Year celebrations and will be back with a bang!

Till then, we hope you'll have fun with the new patch and its updated HARDEST difficulty and we'll be back to serve you needs!

Regards,
Jeremy

Happy New Year and v1.06 updates!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



We hope 2022 has been a great year for everyone. It's 2023 now and we're still working on the patch. This announcement is to share some of the progress updates.

Changes



Difficulties has been revamped.

Easiest, Easy and Normal difficulties remain the same.

Player damage will no longer be nerfed on higher difficulties.

Hard difficulty will require a bit more skill and slightly more grinding to kill enemies. However, the main change is that now enemies will deal 2.5x more damage and enemy bullets now travel TWICE as fast in all aspects (acceleration and speed).

HARDEST/Bullet Hell difficulty is totally revamped. Enemies will now spawn with only 75% hp but their bullets will now deal 10x more damage and will travel 3x faster in all aspects. On top of that players' special powers will be auto regenerated over time and killing enemies will top up the power bar regardless of amount. (that means some enemies will straight up give you 1 or more power bars immediately)

There're exceptions however; enemy bullets travelling upwards as well as enemy projectiles will retain their original speed.

Why Change?



The initial difficulty was incremental towards being harder to kill and therefore swarming the screen with more bullets. However, that wasn't the original design and it DID felt lazy to us.

The purpose of the higher difficulties is to challenge your reaction time, avoidance skills and still being able to counter-fire with or without drift abilities. Bullets will now 99% of the time kill you with just 1 shot for Bullet Hell difficulty. So it's not about having the screen full of bullets but rather bullets being far more lethal and faster.

Progress



We've fixed up to 13 serious bugs so far. Some of them are seriously serious - if not game breaking such as missing ships or ships that spawned but got despawned without any reasons.

Full details will be revealed when the patch is released.

On top of that, the entire Arcade mode has been tested; twice on its default resolution of 1080p in 144Hz. We'll be moving onto doing testing in Campaign and Survival mode next.

4k testing will be broadcasted here - https://www.twitch.tv/jeremylee80 - follow this account to get informed on when we'll be doing the 4K test runs!

So what's wrong with 4K? Apparently, sprites tend to blink a lot more in 4K for some reason that is unknown to us. We suspect it has something to do with the way sprites are rendered because this doesn't seem to occur to 3d particles (ie, Standard Mass Driver cannons fired by 3D UNC Frigates in Stage 1 Arcade).

Conclusion



With the exception of New Year's Day holiday, we've been working non-stop on the patch. Each test run is extremely tiring since I'll need to pick out graphical glitches, bugs and at the same time avoiding bullets and balancing the new difficulty. But we'll do our best to get the patch to you as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience! We're definitely getting there!

Regards,
Jeremy

Merry Christmas!! And updates on the upcoming patch v1.06
Greetings pilots!

First of all, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy Holidays ahead! We'll just like to provide some official updates on what's going on and why there seems to be a radio silence over the last few months.

Patch v1.06



We've been working on verifying and fixing bugs that was caused when StridesLib shifted from 32-bits to 64-bits. Apparently, there're quite a few issues - some totally unexpected - cropped up during the upgrade. A 64-bits adoption is but a necessary step towards the future and was decided when we thought v1.05b was stable enough. Apparently not.

Therefore, v1.06 will be 64-bits ONLY. Based on our checks, most of us has moved onto 64-bits platform already and should NOT pose a major problem.

Current Progress



We're currently finishing up on verifying Arcade Mode and will be going into Campaign Mode asap. v1.06 will not introduce any new game modes YET.

Our focus will be to first fix all the bugs reported and ensure that you guys have a playable game to play!

What's next?



We'll be canonizing a few new fighter designs, bringing the total selectable fighters from 3 to 6. We'll also be introducing at least 1 new special power for now.

After that's done, we'll formally start working on the Boss Rush mode. Trust me, there'll be quite a few Boss Rush modes.

What about 32-bits users?



We'll include a legacy "beta" mode to preserve v1.05b. The bugs reported will still be there unfortunately but there're workarounds - though joystick will not be usable for Campaign Mode. We wished there's a way for refunds to work - you could still request for it and see it Steam would approve.

Conclusion



This is just an update on what we've been working on. As soon as the patch is released, we'll accompany the patch release with patch notes.

Also, going into 64-bits meant that there's a much larger code footprint. Which in turn, meant that RAM usage will be higher, though no more than 2x than it is now. A machine with 4GB of RAM should still be sufficient to run this game without any issues.

We hope that'll assuage some of the concerns - some were posted on the discussions which we're grateful for!

Looking forward to the v1.06!!

Regards,
Jeremy
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