Good morning, everyone! 

Very excited to push this update out after almost giving up on the project entirely last month!! 

I had the 0.6.0 update ready to push out about a month ago, then a problem with the exported version not working, and a series of game-breaking bugs that took another month to solve... incredibly frustrating that the main one took just a single click to resolve after I realised what it was. 

Special thanks to a bunch of people on the Godot Subreddit for the guidance! I don't think I could have fixed it by myself.

Anyway... it's been almost 2 months  now since you last heard from me so this will be a pretty substantial change! See below for details and and let me know what you think of the new changes! :)

Changes: 

• New Guardian Cards: I added a new unique card for each guardian, and I also fixed a bug that caused enemy status effect animations to halt the turn order.
  
• New OathWrought Starter Relic: This relic grants stances from the last card played, switching stances to add a layer of strategic depth to the order in which you play cards. I'll keep the original as a potential easier option for a starting relic as this one is a little more complicated to work with for newer players. Basically the last card you play each turn switches between a defensive stance and an offensive one, and playing alternate stances in a row grants access to a powerful exalted status that provides heavier bonuses! Some balancing will likely be done on this new relic as it could be very powerful in combination with some other relics and cards.
  
  
  
• Artwork Updates: I’ve added alpha card artwork and prep v4 render artwork, plus I’ve updated the Oathwrought animation sprites to higher quality.
  
  
  
• Visual Tweaks: Enhanced the fog shader for dynamic backgrounds and updated the main theme to correct previous issues.
• Placeholder Logo: To make it easier to identify non-custom resources, I've added placeholder logos. This should help you quickly spot what’s temporary, I hope to replace most of the more prominent ones over the next month or so.
  
  
  

• Character Select Update: The character select screen has received a facelift, and I’ve begun laying the groundwork for meta progressio
  
  
  
• Biomes Tweaks: I’ve made some adjustments to the biomes to enhance their eerie atmosphere. You might notice some new visual effects
  that really bring the darkness to life! (this is mainly prep-work for the full release of the game
• Clue Responses: I removed the "draw 1 Black card" from the description in clue responses to enhance immersion in the game.
  
  
  
• Reworked Map Option Script: I’ve cleaned up the script for the map options, which not only looks better but also fixed a pesky display error.
• Map Animation Sprites: The missing map animation sprites have been added back in, so you can enjoy the full visual experience.
  
  
  
• Save Game for Meta Progression: The save game feature for meta progression has been updated, which lays the groundwork for meta progression to be added to the game. I've started a few features already, but this will be a substantial bit of work. I plan on completing this after the demo has been polished to a decent standard. 
• Added Links to Main Menu: You can now find links to Steam, itch.io, and Discord right in the main menu for easy access.
  
• Preparing for Godot 4.5: I’m getting ready to move to Godot 4.5, which will bring some great enhancements to the game.
• Tooltips Added: Ensured visibility of player/enemy card ATK and DEF, with tooltips for played cards for better clarity.
• Map UI Tweaks: I've made some adjustments to the map interface to enhance your navigation experience. It should feel smoother and more intuitive!
• Updated Shaders: The visual experience has been improved with updated shaders. The main post-processing shader has had a huge change, ive removed the pixelisation for better readability and added HSV adjustments and glow effects. This will allow me to tweak visuals in code easily, which I may use for challenging boss encounters, status effects etc in future.
• Battle UI & Pause Menu: I've refined the battle UI and pause menu for better usability during those intense moments.
• Event/Clue Scenes: Minor updates have been made to event and clue scenes to enhance storytelling.
• Upgraded Main theme & Corrected issues with theme change
• Added glyphify func to tooltips (shows glyph icons from Reference global instead of ATK, DEF etc) 
• Sped up entrance animation for Clues scene buttons 
• Updated card tooltip visuals 
• Updated battle hazards pane 
  
• Updated Treasure scene - reward screen, choose one text, update clickable chest animation
  
  
  
• Updated Shop UI
• Updated CardUI - replaced painted style card UI with panels built in godot, should allow greated customisation in code later, and using shaders should be able to replicated painted style later if need be. 
  
• Enemy title now has a proper container & is hidden on battle activation phase, then shown again at end of activation
  
• Adjusted card rewards scene & card tooltip pop up
• Updated Battle Ui to use containers. Should work better on all device sizes as containers scale to screen size dynmically. Moved player's played_cards to a container on the left side of the screen to keep them out of the way of the battle animations. Prepped area to add enemy cards to right side of screen later

Bugfixes: 

• Files Reimported: I’ve reimported several files to improve the game's performance and fix some pesky bugs. This should help in making your gameplay smoother and more enjoyable
• Map Battle Spaces: I fixed an issue where battle spaces were incorrectly shown as red. Now, they should display correctly.
• Player Deck Updates: There was a card addition issue to the player deck, but I’ve updated the script with safety measures to ensure a seamless experience.
• Enemy Cards: Enemy cards are now displaying the correct values, and relics are deactivated correctly before removal, ensuring a fair fight!
• Corrupted Path Issue: The issue with corrupted path event incorrectly displaying upcoming floors has been fixed. 
• Fixed Links for Cards and Statuses: I’ve made sure that all the links for cards and statuses are now functioning perfectly. 
• Map Background Image: I fixed an issue where the map background image wouldn’t show if there was only one option available. 
• Locked Escape Button: To enhance gameplay, the escape button is now locked during non-player turns. This should help maintain the flow of the game.
• File Paths Converted to Snake_Case: I’ve gone through and converted all the file paths to snake_case. This was a massive piece of work and broke my project in so many ways! I made the mistake of using a bash script to do this for me automatically, but a problem between git and godot caused a major break of all my games scenes and resources. Fixing this manually in godot was a major pain, I will never make this mistake again :') I lost about 2 weeks of time just fixing this issue.
• Fixed Broken Dependencies and Duplicate Files: I tackled some broken dependencies and got rid of duplicate files in Godot. This should improve the game’s stability and performance.
  Resolved Mismatched .tres Files: I sorted out those mismatched .tres files that were causing some issues.
  Readded Missing Icons and Resources
  Card Visuals Fix: Resolved an issue with the 'rite_of_impact' setting that was causing failures in the enemy system during export. This was the major issue for this last patch. Im not sure why but I set the card_visuals to have a card resource variable 
• Debug Code: Added a few debug scriptsto solve the enemy export issue and made some preload fixes for asset references.
• Updated Animations: Verified that both player and enemy animations are functioning correctly.
• Tooltip Fixes: I fixed some pesky tooltips that weren't displaying correctly, so you can now get the info you need without any hiccups.
• Minor Scene and Card Fixes: I’ve also taken care of some minor fixes in scenes and cards to ensure everything runs smoothly.
• Fixed enemy attacks not passing turn - string was missing from base enemy attack card

Balancing:

• Enemy Behavior Adjustments: All enemies have had their AI tweaked a bit. They should feel more challenging and unpredictable, which adds to the excitement of the card-based combat.
• Enemy Adjustments: Blighthawk is now the first enemy you’ll encounter, and I’ve streamlined the enemy AI by deleting old action nodes.
• Starting Decks for Enemies: All enemies now have starting decks stored as their own resource. This will let me update each enemy more easily, and tweak each deck's balancing and unique elements later.
• Blood Sacrifice Event Odds: Adjusted the odds from 50% to a more balanced 5%.

I’m really excited about these changes and can’t wait for you to try them out! Have you had a chance to dive back into the game yet? Let me know what you think!

If you’re interested in wishlisting Hunter's Hand, head over to my Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3640270/Hunters_Hand/

Happy gaming!

BW,
Dan