It's been a long time since I've made an announcement here, so let me just start by saying hello! I'm GlerG, or at least that's my username on most platforms. I started working on this game back in July of 2021, and it's been quite a ride since then. After the last update I ended up taking a break, and then started a side project. That side project was supposed to take 6 days, and so naturally it took 6 months. During that time I had a lot of realizations about where things were headed. I really love this game, but if I wanted to release something I'm truly happy with then I'd have to start over. Starting over was definitely scary, and sometimes I still wonder if it was the right choice, but I when I started this project 2 years ago I was nowhere near as experienced as I am now. The code base of the game became unsustainable, and it was hard to keep adding new things on.
During all of this I formed a studio with a friend of mine. You can see a lot of his incredible art around the store page! We've been working together on a new version of Worm Slayer. With side projects and burnout it's been in a sort of "prototype limbo," but I believe that the pace will pick up soon.
So that leads to the unavoidable question: When will it come out? Well, to be honest I don't know when, but I do know that I'm way too stubborn to let this game go. It's become a part of my life, and when it comes to game development I've never been one to truly give up on something. Once this version of the game is "more finished" than the current demo version, we'll redo the whole store page and release a new demo.
I'm very excited for you all to see what's to come! And thank you for reading this far, it really means a lot.
Demo v1.1.2 the Controls & Readability Update
Demo v1.1.2 change log:
Added controller support
Settings changes
Reformatted the settings menu with tabs
Added customizable controls in the settings menu and removed the controls menu
Removed the map size setting
Removed the blood setting
Music changes
Whenever you aren't in an important room/in combat the music becomes calmer
Added 2 new alternate floor 1 songs
Added 1 new alternate floor 2 song
Menu changes
Redid the main menu art
Redid the beginning cutscene art
The main menu now has a day and night cycle
All menus can now also be used with a keyboard or controller
Readability improvements
Whenever you enter a new room or clear out a room of worms, some info will popup at the top middle of the screen
The entrances to statue rooms now have a blue-green glow
A red border now appears around the edges of the screen when you're below 10 health
The wand now has a white line pointing to the next point in the shape
All of the mage's items except for the lute now have a new particle when used
Added an effect to the center of statues circles for when you break a statue and can still break more
Exploding segments now rise to the surface faster to prevent them exploding before you can see them
Added particles to tent breaking
Quality of life changes
The longsword's lunge attack is now bound to double clicking
The door of the first room now only locks until the first time you complete the tutorial as a class
The tutorial for drawing a shape with the wand now only goes away after you've finished drawing a shape
The prompt telling you how to roll now only appears under very specific conditions
The longsword now deflects projectiles at the end of a fully charged lunge
Bug fixes
Fixed sound effects not playing when there are a lot playing already (this still can happen, but it should now be extremely rare and unnoticeable)
Fixed the frame cap not working
Fixed a crash caused by fire particles during lag spikes
Fixed mana spawning in the first room during the tutorial
Fixed the roll animation continuing to play if you enter a hole while rolling
Additional things that are only available for beta testers
Added 1 new alternate floor 3 song
Fixed selecting challenge mode switching your class to mage
Demo v1.1.1 the Rebalance Update
Demo v1.1.1 change log
Worm changes and additions
Different worm types now have their own art instead of a color tint
Added the laser segment
Added the healer segment
Added the agile worm
Added the cowardly worm
The dash worms now have effects for when they're going fast
Added a sound effect for when a worm is killed by poison
Statue changes
Changed the statue font to be more readable
Added the longest sword statue
The longersword statue no longer levels up the longsword
Ball and Chain now slows worms down by 0.75x instead of 0.9x
The vampire tooth necklace now can appear on all floors instead of just the first
Spiky now does 60 damage when hit instead of 30
Strength now gives 1.15x damage instead of 1.1x damage
Double Edged Sword now gives 1.25x damage instead of 1.15x damage and makes you take +35% damage instead of +30% damage
Haste now gives +15% movement speed instead of +10%
Nimble now gives +16% dodge chance instead of +12%
Item buff statues no longer appear if you don't have the item, or the item has already been buffed
The Rogue's throwing star ability and the wand's star spell now only shoot 1 projectile in statue rooms for better control
Changed the text for all item buff statues
Lightning can now be deflected
Added a button to the main menu and pause menu that sends you to a feedback form
Added an error log to the game's data folder
Journal changes
Added capital letters to journal entries and notes
Changed a lot of journal entries
Non-statue balance changes
The jar of beetles now releases all of it's beetles at once
Buffed the damage of the bow
Buffed the rogue's fire dash damage by 5 per level
Increased the hitbox sizes of beetles
Decreased the amount of invincibility frames beetles give by 50%
Changed shield recoil and made bashing regen stamina faster
Buffed the shield's damage
Buffed deflected projectile damage
Buffed the worm staff
Buffed the damage of the trap
Reduced the spread of the spellbook
The distance of the sword lunge now remains consistent between sword lengths
Increased the length of the longsword and gave it 2 more damage per level
Increased the size of the throwing star and longsword hitboxes
Changed the sound the stun bow makes when it stuns worms to make it less annoying
Other visual changes
Added a setting for pixel grid snapping size
Added a setting for rotation compression
Increased the visibility of the exit hole, rocks, and graves
Added a marker to the minimap for the exit hole
Added another effect to the hammer slam
Improved the pedestal swapping effects
Smaller tweaks
You can no longer exit the first room until you finish all of the controls, unless you have them turned off
Changed the time taken to activate the button prompts
Added sound effects for flipping pages in the journal
Improved the off-screen markers using a raycast to place it around the edge of the screen
Changed the hitbox shape of the square and star spell to slightly improve performance
Changed the shield tutorial text from "block" to "deflect" to be more clear
Changed the name of the "rage potion" to the "strength potion"
Music no longer fades out because it freezes the game until it finishes doing so
Optimized sound effects slightly
Bug fixes
Fixed the wand's spell drawing moving around with smooth or zone camera enabled
Fixed the axe segment not getting added to the journal when killed
Fixed getting hit every frame by non-deflectable projectiles while deflecting
Fixed being able to open multiple submenus in the pause menu
Fixed non-1x minimap sizes rendering wrong
Fixed weapons leveling up at the end of the demo
Fixed mage stun hitboxes being off center
Fixed spellbook bolt hitboxes being off center
Fixed worm orb particles and sprites being off center
NOTE: Some of these changes only effect beta testers because the demo has some content locked off
Preparing A Demo For May 2nd
Since the Steam Going Rogue festival was announced for May 2nd through May 9th it's been a scramble to fill in missing features and make a perfect demo for the event for all of you! And to keep you out of the dark on development here's a look at what's been done, and what is left to do.
What's done
The art of the player character has been redone in color
New content has been added such as new items and secret rooms you can find
A journal that catalogs the items you find and notes you've found from past adventurers
And finally way too many quality of life changes to list here
What's still to come
All of the GIFs and screenshots on the steam page will be redone to feature the new character art
Teaching the controls during gameplay because it sucks having to play through a tutorial just to get the main game.
Overhauling the end screen with new art and a display of the stats of your run,