Hey folks, I'm going to start trying to post these more regularly now that I'm headed into early access. It will mostly be an amalgam of odds & ends from the #toxicant channel on Discord and the devlog, so I would encourage you to follow those if you want things hot off the press.

Tutorial

Some of the feedback from the last beta was that the "on-boarding" was a bit challenging; there was a lot to learn, and not enough instruction. While I'm not a big fan of hand-holding in games, I certainly don't want the initial experience to be frustrating or confusing. To that end, I've added a simple tutorial area. It sets the tone (you spawn in a pitch black room at the bottom of mineshaft!) and introduces some of the basic concepts and controls. It may eventually also serve as a hub for some interesting things (shortcuts a la Spelunky? special buff items?), but nothing really set in stone yet.

Breakable Walls

I finally got around to adding something I had been planning for a long time: breakable walls! (The satisfaction of breaking walls in DOOM Eternal gave me the extra bit of motivation I needed!)

While it's a fairly small thing in the grand scheme of things, they really add a lot IMO. They'll be used to hide secret rooms more effectively, and create small shortcuts between areas. As well, they can only be broken with certain items, so they will encourage more exploration and resource management.

Shotgun

From the beginning I've been set on not having guns in TOXICANT. I stand by that, but I also recognize that it's a staple in this genre and I feel I would be doing fans a disservice by not including something. To that end, I've prototyped a basic shotgun. There's no guarantee this will be included in the main game, but I am contemplating a secondary mode--sort of like a dream sequence--that will be heavily action focused.

I welcome your thoughts!

P.S. I silently launched in early access on Itch a few days ago; good way to get your hands on a copy before everyone else! The tutorial area is in the current build, and breakable walls will likely be in the next. Shotgun TBD for now.