Hey all! Bauske here.

Well... it's finally time! Micro Stream RPG releases Friday, May 16th at 12:00 pm EST! It's been a journey getting here, and as this is my first official game launch as an indie dev, I'm both incredibly excited and a bit nervous! Let's go over a couple things you can expect with this update and the release of the game.

First, why Early Access? Instead of waiting until I had all the dungeons added that I wanted for release, I decided to release Micro Stream RPG a little earlier to get it into the hands of more people. For starters, this helps me gauge how the game is going to run at a larger scale, which I'm crossing my fingers everything will go smoothly. Releasing as Early Access also gives me the opportunity to gather feedback from anyone who plays it. Feedback to how the game works, what people like and what they don't, etc. will have a big impact on how the game evolves going forward. I can't promise I can make every request come true, but if it's a possibility and something people want, you can be sure I'll strive to make it happen.

Second, what does this mean for the full release? I still plan on more dungeons, more enemies, more of everything. Those are all in the works. Currently the game features two main dungeons and a hold-over dungeon, and the next three dungeons are already being fleshed out and worked on. The biggest reason I hadn't worked on them before was all the coding and systems I had to put in place to get Micro Stream RPG working how I wanted. This build should mark the completion of all the main systems of the game, so now I'm free to work on additional content.

Third, there's something fun planned for the game as well. More information on that next Friday, May 23rd. If you purchase or play the game, keep an eye out for that!

I'm also planning on keeping in the Special Beta Badge until the game comes out of early access, so if you have yet to hit level 15 in the game, you've still got time to earn this limited-time badge!

But for now, let's see how everything goes! I'm gonna say it. I've never done this before, especially with an online, sorta-live-servicey-style game, so this is all pretty new territory to me. I have no idea what release is going to look like, what kind of scope to expect, what kind of issues we may encounter, but I promise I'm going to be doing my best to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible, and I ask for your patience if there are any hiccups along the way.

If you DO experience anything weird, any bugs, any crashes, anything that just seems odd, please let me know on the community boards, or by emailing me. The email address can be found on Micro Stream RPG's store page.

Okay with that all out of the way, let's get on to the changelog!

New features:

• Added in functionality for events. Keep an eye out for these in the future!
  
• Added in a short menu tutorial after the main tutorial to help introduce people on how to use the settings menu. This only appears the first time after the game is run and the main tutorial is finished.
  
• Adjusted the game's speed down to normal during when a player finishes a dungeon or earns a badge to help highlight that player's achievement. The game will return to the speed set in the settings after the event finishes.

Adjustments:

• Changed the wording in the menu from "Lock Abyss Entry" to "Dungeon Entry". This will hopefully make this function's purpose a little clearer.
  
• Added total healing done to statistics.
  
• Added in the badge sound effect when earning a normal dungeon badge.
  
• Added in some protections to hopefully keep the game window from being placed outside the monitor space during screen resolution changes. This may not be perfect due to the sheer amount of multiple monitor configurations, but this will hopefully help the game window to not get lost outside monitor space. If you do experience the game starting but cannot find the game window, just press CTRL + W to recenter the game window at any time.
  
• Spaced out the intro logo and the player badges at the beginning of each game so there's a little more space for the badges to breathe and be displayed.
  
• Disabled backup data and settings restoration. This initially was put in place when Micro Stream RPG hosted all its data, including player progression, locally on the streamer's PC to prevent accidental wiping of player data. Since everything is hosted online now, there's not a huge need for this. If I can find a way to make it work in the future, I will restore it.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed an issue where the wrong stage graphics would be displayed after running a connection test or replaying the tutorial from the Connection menu.
  
• Fixed an issue where exporting statistics (CTRL + L) and exporting log files (enter the log with CTRL + E and press CTRL + S) would not export properly or at all.
  
• Hopefully fixed an issue where sometimes when trying to refresh the streamer's chat authorization code the game would lock up and need to be restarted. If you experience the game regularly not connecting to chat or having to restart the game, please let me know.

V0.20.1 Changes:

• Added in some coding to prevent the game window from accepting keyboard commands when Micro Stream RPG is not in focus.

V0.20.2 Changes:

• Fixed an issue with the Rat King boss where the Rat Runt attacks were not timing properly.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Beehoof boss where the bee enemy sprites were not showing up properly.

V0.20.3 Changes:

• Updated the coded to prevent the window from going outside the monitor space again. Hopefully this will keep it from doing so in the future.
  
• Added in some attempted error logging in case any crashes happen in the future.
  
• Added in commands for the streamer and moderators to lock or unlock the game from receiving entries. These commands are "!lockrpg" and "!unlockrpg".

~Bauske

Hey all! Bauske here.

Last update I mentioned it "should" be the last update before release. That was the plan, but apparently with all the new Twitch integration coding, I messed some stuff up. Some of the beta testers were telling me they were having trouble connecting, or the Connection menu itself was soft-locking when trying to connect. Those are... not good things, and needed to be fixed before I could move forward. This update really shouldn't have taken as long as it did to do, but once again it involved a lot of back end programming and updating.

I also had a couple testers express some confusion on how to operate the menus in game, and understandably so. All the necessary sections are there, but they could be a lot clearer in how to use them. My plan was to have website/Discord documentation for all the menus and how to use them (and I still intend to do this), but having help outside the game isn't necessarily a helpful or good idea. Moving forward, I'm going to be trying to find ways to make the menus and options in game easier to navigate, and hopefully clear up as much confusion as I can. This will be a work in progress, and I'll be reaching out to current testers to get their feedback on what I can improve. Hopefully when the game launches, I'll be able to gather feedback from a wider selection of people, and that'll make it ever better.

That's about it for this update. Nothing really explicitly new, just a lot of back end and connection improvements. Hopefully this will be the last time I need to focus on this. Hopefully.

New features:

• Added dynamic pop ups in the Connection menu for error notifications.
  
• Implemented a Twitch username validation system to ensure handles used for Channel Names and Chat Usernames are valid, active Twitch handles. This new username check is present in both the Connection menu and the Tutorial.
  
• Added a PING response to Twitch chats so the game disconnects less frequently.

Adjustments:

• Changed some sound effects when choosing menu options.
  
• Simplified and reduced connection clutter from the in-game chat log. You can access the chat log at any time by pressing CTRL + E. Press CTRL + E again to close it.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed an issue with the Connection menu soft-locking the game when clicking the GET button.
  
• Fixed an issue where the game might not reconnect to chat after an OAuth token needs to be refreshed.

~Bauske