Hi everyone,

We’ve been working on multiple enhancements and new features for you, over the past couple of months:

New Hub

• Now almost double the size with far more polish than its predecessor.
  
• Added a plethora of decorations and new tiles.
  
• Added difficulty select station.
  

Better Level Generation:

• Level rooms are connected in an even more varied network, joining in a more labyrinth-like fashion.
  
• Tuned down the probability of large pits.
  
• Rebuilt the method of random tile graphic selection, to be much less repetitive.
  
• Chests are more spread out, with higher reward chests more likely to occur in dangerous detours.
  
• Grotto tiles have a cleaner generation pattern:
  

Graphics:

• New background objects, including these stained glass windows:
  
  
• Various U.I. improvements including an updated confirmation dialog box.
  
• New terrain tiles including those in the picture above.
  
• Certain background objects can give off a glow when appropriate.
  
• Updated the sprites of some collectable runes.
  

Bug Fixes/Balance changes:

• Made the player's hitbox snap more accurately to the animations.
  
• Fixed colliders on the wooden platforms seen in the hub.
  
• Fixed diagnostic script printing to console continuously.
  
• Fixed a glitch where the first grotto level was sometimes too short.
  
• Tutorial Level 1 has been rebuilt
  
• The poison status effect now carries more of a punch.
  

And much more...

More updates/patches in February

See next announcement for full details.

Bushfire Appeal

The recent Australian bushfires have caused devastation to homes, wildlife, property, and human lives. This has been on a scale unprecedented since the 1970s.
As Australians, it grieves us to see the disaster hurt those around us.

In response to this, we will be donating all proceeds from sales to the bushfire relief:
from the 1st of January to the 5th 7th of February.
This includes the following charities:

• Victorian Country Fire Authority:
  https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/home
  
• Wildlife Victoria: Dedicated to protecting and rescuing wildlife during this crisis
  https://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/
  
• World Wildlife Fund: Environmental protection and animal rescue during the crisis
  https://www.worldwildlife.org/
  

To be transparent about what this means:

• All proceeds exclude taxes and Steam’s cut.
  
• The charities listed above, have ways to donate directly to them. This is much more efficient as they’re not subject to the fees that we are.
  
• If roguelites/platformers aren’t the type of game you enjoy at this stage than don’t buy (there are other ways of contributing to the appeal, for those interested).
  
• We receive proceeds from sales, one month after the end of January, though we will offset this with the previous month's sales in the meantime.
  
• If anything is unclear, please feel free to enquire either by email cognitiveforge@gmail.com or by posting a comment here.
  

Thank you!