Gem Defender: Soyjak Survivors update for 1 March 2024

Update 2 is out! Enjoy five new worlds (alongside reworks of the old worlds), eight new weapons, tons of polishing, and an adventure with our friend Isac Leon!

New Content

Levels

• Five new stages
• Library
• Hollow Earth
• Bugopolis
• Entrance to Soytham
• Soytham City
• New skins unlockable for each level
• 4 new cutscenes in-game

Eight new weapons:

• Blade of Soyterra - Devastating melee attack!
• Mindbeams - Destructive piercing laser attack!
• Green Arrow - Recharging protective shield!
• Bobr - Genetically-modified attack squad
• Pacifier MK2 - Deadly burst-fire shooter!
• Soyarang - Skillfully kills haters with a returning projectile
• Soygirl - A skilled crime-fighter and an ally of Isac
• Isac Supreme - All stats up!
• Exclusive weapon variants on certain levels

Quality of Life

Control

• The player now has full control of where they would like to aim using the mouse, however autoaim becomes active when not targeting an area.
• Full controller support
• Additional support for UI navigation using keyboard

Boss Replay

• Now when reaching a boss you will have the ability to start at the fight from the menu, even if you have not cleared the level yet.
• All of the experience collectable from the level will be given on starting, and you will be able to choose all the upgrades you would’ve been able to get from the level.
• Legacy save files have been converted, every cleared level (except Diphenhydramine) allows you to replay the boss.
• Props in the scene now fade once a boss fight begins

Gameplay Changes

Boss Fights

• Boss fights are much more dynamic, taking up the entirety of the stage. This allows for you to move around freely during the fight.
• The camera is still in a similar positions as before, but it has an animation for zooming out and getting the boss in-frame
• Bosses will now start exclusive short enemy waves in order to defend themselves, during which they cannot be hurt
• Overall, bosses are much more in-tune with the gameplay in levels
• To compensate, bosses have been adjusted overall, including many gaining more health and stronger attacks.
• Certain bosses are more affected by others
• Each boss now plays a unique sound on their fight beginning

Polishing

• Added obstacles/big props that block enemy shots on contact.
• Custom level border for levels 2, 3, & 10
• Much better parity in art-style for props
• Props now have more consistency with the colors of their respective levels

Waves

• ‘Level events’ may happen at certain wave intervals.
• These are shown similarly to the way the ‘Wave X’ is shown
• Minor changes to the feedback for clearing a wave

UI/UX Changes

Completely overhauled main HUD

• Brand new layout and features
• Revamped design
• Improved distinction between health and experience
• New features to track both current level and wave progress

New Visual Feedback

• Enemies now have a spawn animation if spawned on-screen
• Several enemies now vary in size
• Enemies now bleed more when hit
• Additional Feedback for defeating bosses
• New particles for collecting both experience and health
• Effects when both clearing waves and choosing upgrades

Audio Updates

• Attack sounds for most existing and new weapons
• Improved audio consistency per-level
• Fixed the Asoylum using its unmastered track rather than its mastered one
• Audio fades out before a VS. screen plays
• Boss music continues where it left off before a VS. screen

Graphic Updates

• New graphics for upgrade screen
• New healthbar types for enemies
• Remade several assets for Level Selector screen
• Significantly improved compression for all videos ingame
• Fixed all UI scaling issues present on non-widescreen aspect ratios
• Updated a large amount of sprites for consistency with levels & style, including a large amount of props and enemy attacks

Balancing

Weapon Pools

• Most levels have around 7 items, including the starter weapon
• Certain levels have exclusive weapons available
• Shorter/gimmick levels tend to have less weapons
• All Items achievement now only needs all the items in the current pool
• Frootville achievement is now harder to get on certain levels than others

Enemies

• Enemy spawns locations are weighed off player actions, making for much more dynamic and exciting gameplay
• Much more variety in enemy movement, with many old enemies gaining new movement types
• Bugs
• Each stage now has a limit on how many bugs can be around at once
• This is not dependent on bug rarity, and only counts for bugs currently in the stage
• Certain levels have vastly reduced bug spawns or even none at all

Weapon Changes

• More consistent growth per-upgrade for Apple, Coaltrop, Sproke Shooter, Keyed Lime, Lemon and Fauxgems
• Coaltrop Damage Buff
• Fauxgems Damage Buff
• Sproke Shooter
• Increased move speed
• Renamed from ‘Spokerino’ to ‘Sproke Shooter’
• Increased Pearshooter projectile speed during boss fights

Level-Specific Changes

• Shortened wave count & increased enemy variety on levels 1, 2, 4, and 5.
• Improved set dressing, post-processing, and ambiance in all levels
• Added props and obstacles to all levels
• Added pre-boss waves & cutscenes for levels 7 and Ϫ

Diphenhydramine Changes

• If time before hunting is over half depleted, it will deplete at a much faster rate (when hiding)
• If time before hunting is under half depleted, it will refill at an increased rate (when hiding)
• If the boss initiates a hunt, you can quickly hide to save yourself, however this only works if you are fast enough
• Hunt times are significantly decreased, making the boss much more aggressive
• Boss speed has been decreased to compensate for lower player speed
• Boss will instantly initiate a hunt if the player wanders too far from the stage
• New waves and much more variety in waves, includes more aggressive enemies which surface later in the level
• Extended wave interval to compensate, allowing for some downtime between waves
• Revamped hiding spot layout
• New obstacles in the level to make traversing it more interesting
• Decreased level size & hiding spot sizes
• Game pauses when collecting a note
• Current hunt time is cleared when collecting a note
• Notes now have their own display on the hud, rather than revealing all note spawn locations using tinted rocks on the map
• New feedback for a hunt beginning
• Reverb in level
• Improved attack vignette significantly
• New map icons, generally improved map UI
• Changed order of note graphics slightly, and two notes have changed sprites
• Player arrow is now much more subtle
• A new secret ending… Explore the level and find out!

Bug Fixes

• Item collection popup no longer blocks player clicking
• Fixed a bug where time while the game while pause would not contribute to the achievements for time spent in-game
• Fixed several bugs involving pausing at weird times
• Fixed only the post-processing button matching the currently equipped skin
• Fixed upgrade screen breaking if gaining 2 levels at the same time
• Vastly reduced the amount of times a single enemy will take longer to reach the player (this used to make certain waves last longer than they should’ve)
• Fixed player color resetting when taking damage while hiding
• Several optimizations to game code
• Countdowns to next wave now display increased times correctly
• Fixed hide screen not showing in Diphenhydramine
• Fixed memory leak in cutscenes
• Fixed a bug where custom forcefield colors would not be shown
• Fixed screenshake breaking when being fed NaN inputs
• Several optimizations to boss attacks
• Game will no longer enter an infinite loop when depleting an item pool to less than three items
• Significant improvements to code structure