Howdy! Coming at you today with a new Shield Cat build. This one has a wide number of new features, changes, and bug fixes! So, I recommend that you download it for the hottest Shield Cat experience. 

Major highlights in this version is that you can now step into the cave area! It's not complete, but you can get something that everyone wants in there... Also, if you don't like the music, there's now audio controls. Check them out and let me know if they work! There's also new video options if you've got an expensive GPU and want to put it to work.

Also, if you're  a Linux user, you'll be glad to know that this one actually has the Linux version in it again (I kinda goofed when uploading last time, sorry!)

As always, here are the changes from the previous version:

IMPORTANT!

• On previous builds of Shield Cat, VSync could default to OFF if you've never played the game before. Please be sure to check your settings and enable VSync! Otherwise you will experience vertical tearing and an overall subpar game experience.
• There is a potential condition where games played on this version will show the new Playtime clock by default during gameplay when using a save file from a previous version. Let me know if this happens to you (You can disable it in the menu.)

 ===== NEW =====

• The game now allows you to control audio levels. Available controls are for music, all sound effects, sounds that play when characters are talking, and the overall volume of the game's audio.
• The mouse cursor will now disappear if it stops moving for 1 second.
• The game now supports drawing scanlines, if you like that sort of thing. For best results, I recommend using Integer scaling. Note that if you have "Use HD Assets" turned off, or the game window is too small, no scanlines will be drawn.
• The game now also has an option to apply a CRT bend to the game view. Personally I feel it pairs nicely with the scanlines.
• There is also a function to apply a color overlay to the screen, furthering the ability to make it look like an old computer game.
• To really ramp up the "Vintage Computer Game" aesthetic, you can also lower the color depth. It goes in powers of 2, and you can put it *really* low if you want (I wouldn't advise it below 4 myself lmao)
• All of these post processing effects can be applied separately and combined together for a unique experience tailored to your preference!
• A new debug option has been added that allows you to reset all the Fish Scales you've collected in the room (if that's something you'd want to do.)
• There are now puzzles involving bumpers! I hope you can solve them!
• There's also arrows that shoot at Lance. Please be careful!
• These are in the new cave area! It's only partially exporable right now, but you can still check it out! A certain elusive collectable might be waiting for you...
• A new option has been added on the title screen as well as the options submenu during the game that will show you the Input Mappings of all connected input devices.
• This option is also presented whenever the game talks about actions that you can take, so you can review what inputs go to those mappings.
• However, you still have to edit gamepads.ini and keyboard.ini if you wish to change them.
• The game now allows you to choose which font you prefer. The default font (Cabin) and the font OpenDyslexic are the two included ones for now, though instructions are also included in the "fonts" subfolder if you wish to add your own.
• There's now an option to show your current playtime at the top of the screen, which can be useful for speedruns. It's part of the new "New Game Options" menu, as well as in the pause menu during gameplay.

 ===== IMPROVED =====

• The game now allows you to use a high quality blur. It looks very nice, but will use a *ton* of GPU. I relieve myself of all liability if your computer melts from using HD Blur at Extreme quality.
• Moved a Fish Scale that was too close to the edge of the area and difficult to collect (Please let me know if you see any more like this!)
• Shorelines where you can go from the land to the water are now designed to be easier to recognize.
• If Shield Cat is running in Windowed mode, and you resize it "close enough" to an exact multiple of it's base resolution of 640x360, the game will now just snap the window size to be that exact multiple. (If you're holding Shift, the game won't do this.)
• You can now use the Cancel button to unpause the game when on the main pause menu.
• Lance now makes little dust clouds whenever he does a backward skid.
• Whenever you break the current high score in Cosmic Defender, the High Score display will be replaced with your ongoing score.
• Play time is now more accurated counted based on the number of frames that has passed, rather than the amount of real-time seconds that have passed (which could cause inaccuracies.) Microtime has also been improved.
• Using "Escape" to open the Quit Game dialogue now properly pauses the game.

 ===== BUG FIXES =====

• Lance will no longer sometimes cast a shadow when he falls into a pit.
• Fixed an issue where VSync could default as "Off" if it had never been set before, or if you had never played Shield Cat before.
• Toggling VSync, changing the Antialiasing level, Blur levels, and certain other combinations of video config changes will no longer cause all grass to disappear.
• When Lance gets hit, it's no longer possible for him to slide into pits.
• The Linux version is actually the Linux version this time, and not just the Windows version with a different name on it. (Sorry!!)
• Improved the quality of the regular (non-high quality) blur.
• Fixed an issue where using High Quality blur would sometimes cause some flickering.
• Fixed an issue where Lance's falling/shield toss animation would play incorrectly during a screen transition.
• Made it so that, if Lance falls near the edge of the screen, the camera will no longer try to move him to the next area and then push him back to the previous area.
• Fixed a collision issue south of the Cosmic Defender game house, where the slope lets you walk up above the area on the bridge. You will no longer get stuck against an invisible wall there.
• Fixed an issue where the game would sometimes start at 640x360 regardless of what size it was when you last played.
• The UI will no longer show Lance having no health on the first frame that you step into a room.
• Fixed a stale reference where the UI would show Lance "losing" petals that you had in the previous save file when starting a new game after having played a saved game in the same session.
• Fixed an issue where the letters in Patron's names would not be spaced correctly when resizing the window.
• Fixed an issue where the horizontal slider's value was being improperly rounded to have a lower level of precision than what it is supposed to have.
• Fixed an issue where the game would not restore the saved Windowed mode size if you put it into Fullscreen, quit, and then started up the game again in Fullscreen, and then put it back into Windowed mode.
• Fixed an issue where playing Cosmic Defender and then going back to the regular game could cause the grass to no longer draw.
• Fixed an issue where pillars would mysteriously absorb all of Lance's speed.
• Fixed an issue where the camera would sometimes try to take off to Neptune after you finished reading dialogue.
• Fixed an issue with the indicator arrow on message boxes being the wrong size when the game view was at 3x scale (1080p screen.)
• Fixed an issue where Lance would leave the wrong kinds of footprints on certain kinds of grass.

 ===== Known Bugs =====

• Sometimes grass will cast a shadow on Lance, even after it has been cut.
• The Ability 2 Toggle currently doesn't work (for Lance's Shield.)
• If you played the previous build, some Fish Scales you collected will show up, and others that you haven't collected yet will show as collected. This is an issue with the way the game enumerates and assigns IDs to Fish Scales in the room, and can't be fixed.

A big thanks to the following patrons, as well as my other patrons and everyone who supports me!

Accalia, Shadow8t4, Caliburn Absolute, Chris Badger, David Wolfpaw, Spyduck, Fao, Flake, FoxyDude, Rix, Holly 'Frinkel' Lotor, Nutalie Frost, GamerRat (Jan), Gri, Goronhead, Holly Hoppet, Hulex Fox, Kirbizard, Trash, LF, LexiTheTT, Luna, Durk Vash, Markus Joseph Kitsinger , Marlyn, Mello the Ferret, Leon P, Nenekiri Bookwyrm, NovaSquirrel, Otarine, Cam D'Arcy, Saiai, Saxxon Fox, Ansel Geisel, Susan Tolias, Vivee, jay jorts, Kazy, keeri, megaRammy, raine, SUSHiCLAWS

Please stay tuned for the next update, where you'll be able to explore more of the cave (maybe, unless I have to issue an update after posting this because Cosmic Defender crashes the game again)