Major update v0.5a is here, we have Fur!

It gives me great joy to announce this update, which adds many new quality of life features and bug fixes to Gettin' Squirrely bringing it closer to the original concept design.

This update includes new tutorial stages, an options menu to adjust video, audio, and camera control preferences, many visual and mechanics improvements, as well as a customize menu where you can choose your squirrel's fur color and adjust the length of their fur to your liking!

Many other new mechanics and features have been added too - like the ability to run using your controller's X/Square button or keyboard's Shift key.

Updates

New Features

• New Fur system to support squirrel and dog fur, including customization menu
  

• New Options menu providing support for:
  • change resolution, windowed and full-screen modes
  • enable V-Sync
  • adjust Sound FX level
  • adjust Music Level
  • adjust camera invert of both X and Y axes
• Persistence for Unlocked Stages and Cosmetics - New stages are now unlocked as you complete previous stages, and progress is saved when stages are completed. This also includes options preferences and tutorial progress, so you don't have to see the same tutorials repeatedly.
• Entirely rebuilt the menu system, improved compatibility with the input guidelines for Steam Deck
• New tutorial system
  

• New Game Mode and Stage Selection screen
  

• New Objective System and Info Screen - each stage begins by listing its own rules and conditions. The player's performance for the stage will be rated by 1 to 3 stars, players must get at least one star to unlock the next stage. This will allow adding additional rewards to stages when achieving 3 star ratings in the future (I want to provide further customization and cosmetic rewards for 2 and 3 star scores). (The future plan is to add a short overview of your objectives as a reminder in the pause screen or in the HUD in the future)
  
• Support for stage intro animations, and a countdown at the start of stages
• New wind system, including support for visual wisps in the air
• New Guidance System - helps the player by pointing the way toward their stash, or whatever the current objective is
  
• New Jump Mechanic - jumping now is fully charged immediately after landing for a short time, allowing for faster movement. A running jump does not have a charge and is executed as soon as you press the jump button while running.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the squirrel would ping-pong back and forth between ground and climbable object in specific situations
• Fixed a bug where some nuts were stuck floating in the air
• Fixed a bug where the Exit Game button and the Restart Stage button would intermittently encounter an error and not close the game
• Fixed a level design issue on the Backyard 1 stage where a player could jump from the roof and be stuck on the wrong side of the fence and unable to return to the yard. Alleviated by adding a space under some fence areas that can be walked under. This stage is slated to be completely reworked in the next update.
• Fixed UI navigation issues where elements were not selected when a menu was opened, this was preventing players using a gamepad from continuing 

Known Issues

• Stage: Backyard
  • Drainpipe climbing collision mesh is still very buggy. A new system for climbing through tunnels is currently in design.
  • A collision issue makes it possible to jump onto the top of the fence from some tree branches, but not be able to move off of the fence in some cases
  • Currently, the drainpipe has been removed, but will be added back in once these bugs are resolved.
• Stage: The Stump 1
  • Collision issues on the stump's roots can make it difficult to move in some directions
  • The area behind the stump is a bit too small so the camera can get cramped, player must rotate the camera or wait for the camera follow to catch up. I've redesigned this stage to be a bit more spacious to help alleviate this.
• Options menu - cannot currently navigate between the Graphics and Controls options tabs with a controller, this will be mapped to controller bumper buttons in the future.
• Dog's hair deforms and appears as detached from the body during its run animation. This is due to the mesh topology being very low poly count, the mesh needs to be cleaned up and re-worked.
• Vulkan & OpenGL (Linux): Fur appears more dense on Windows compared to Linux when set to the same value
• Intermittently when selecting stages from the stage select screen the stage is loaded out of context and does not fully start up, requiring player to quit the game. I believe this is now resolved, but if it does happen to you, let me know!
• The customization menu options "cancel" button does not currently work on a mouse click, but does work when controller's cancel button is pressed. Suspect this is a mouse raycast issue that will be resolved in the next update.
• Sometimes returning to the main menu and attempting to customize your squirrel a second time, the menu does not appear.