Overgrowth Beta 6 - The Final Beta!

We have now released our final beta version! This version features the new story mode, and is feature-complete -- we just need a couple weeks of final testing before we exit beta and release Overgrowth 1.0. At that point we will continue to support Overgrowth, using the 1.x version scheme, while exploring ideas of what to make next! Here is a video showing what's new in the final beta:

The features highlighted in the above video are just a (very short) summary of all the changes. You can find the full change log in this document.

Gameplay

• Added new finalized Overgrowth story mode
• Added improved difficulty select menu
• Added "Continue" option to reopen current story mode level
• Several improvements to the integrated combat and parkour tutorial in the Overgrowth story
• Added lethal spike object that impales both player and enemies
• Tweaks to make Dogs, Cats, Wolves, and Rats more distinct
• Several improvements to weapon throwing, weapon handling, and pulling weapons from enemy's bodies
• Gave player more buffs and wider reaction windows in easier modes (even more than Beta 5)
• Made enemies react to victory in more interesting ways
• Made enemies no longer able to counter after ragdoll block or block while rolling (fewer unfair blocks)

Settings

• Added brightness slider
• Can now tweak difficulty in settings menu
• Player invulnerability now in debug menu, invisibility on B key (if editor and debug keys enabled)
• Added campaign progress unlock cheat to debug menu

Graphics/Sound

• Added depth of field effect to dialogues
• Improved blending between multiple audio tracks to reduce or eliminate crackling
• Added true fullscreen and windowed-fullscreen video options
• Added screen transitions to level start, win, and dialogues
• Added unique animation for choking out a rat (with a lift)
• Improved text display on lower resolutions, and made it easier to read
• Improved dialogue prompt symbols (? and !) above character's heads
• Fixed some graphics glitches (skipping char shadows, water reflection in splitscreen)

Editor/Modding

• Improved mod upload and download UI (better progress indicator/error message display)
• Improvements to many error messages, and fewer crashes when mods are broken (XML files wrong, files missing, etc)
• Some housekeeping on spawner menu
• Can now control direction and speed of animated water froth decal (better moving water)
• Made some improvements to collision painting reliability and behavior
• Fixed problem with editor not being able to ragdoll a character (CTRL+K now works again)
• Improvements to "mod campaign" system to make it easier to use
• Added ability to specify dialogue color/sounds on a per-character basis, instead of per-line
• Added "scared" flag to cats
• Several scripting improvements

Performance

• Fixed several asset allocation/deallocation issues to improve memory usage (and some crashes)
• Added more assets to the preload.xml file, so fewer assets are loaded while playing levels
• Made blood surface textures stay resident so they don't thrash memory as much
• Minor improvements to level loading speed
• Improved rendering performance for detail objects, shadows, water splashes
• Improved CPU usage a little bit for collision detection

Other/Bugfixes

• Fixed slow-mo not working and music playback issues in non-expert difficulty levels (less than 100% game speed)
• Fixed some problems with characters appearing to float, falling through world, animating when dead
• Made click to respawn prompt go away when not in Overgrowth story
• Fixed several less common crash bugs

New Overgrowth story

• Big gameplay tweaks to almost all levels, concentrated in beginning and end of story
• Finalized story, dialogues, character names, level titles. Added ending
• Added many ambient sounds, improved music (more silence, distinct victory stings, layered music in levels)
• Updated thumbnails and loading screen images

Lugaru story

• Added ending
• Slight tweaks in a few places (improved shadows slightly, added more dialogue prompt ! symbols, etc)

These are just a few of the changes in this beta; you can find the full change log here.

Thanks as always for all the support! See you guys in Discord and the forums.

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Also, feel free to support us by purchasing Overgrowth!