Hello everyone. Today I'm reporting in with some news on development of update 1.2 for Neon Blight. The last update mainly featured bug fixes and system revamps. Back then I said I would be following up with more content updates, but for the past 2 years I've been dealing with chronic pain and mobility issues which has made these updates a low priority. but after slow and steady work I can finally show you what I've been slow cooking...

1.2 is a content and QOL update, introducing a brand new ui, new mechanics, revisited store and much more. Currently I am still working on some loose ends with the new store systems, and doing rounds of playtest.

The store gameplay has been revamped. Neon Blight had very bare-bones store gameplay. Most of your time was spent waiting around with no real goal. Now when you open your store you will have 3 minutes to sell your items! As customers come in you'll have to make sure to clean the dirty footprints they leave behind to avoid a bad rating.
The store rating has been changed to be a bit more tangible. You will now be receiving points from customers depending on the cleanliness, aesthetic of your store and quality of your items.

1 star: 0 - 249
2 stars : 250 - 749
3 stars: 750 - 2499:
4 stars: 2500 - 4999
5 stars: 5000 >

With this new rating system, some decoration items will now be unlockable as you improve your rating.

With this new update comes a new and improved buildmode, with 14 (and growing) new items to decorate with, you can make sure your store looks spiffy!

Upgrades have been reworked and a couple new ones have been added. This is mainly to improve the store progression, making the progression feel more rewarding.

A new way of making money is coming! Customers can give you a contract to find specific items. These contracts have a higher payout and can sometimes be under a time limit for an additional challenge.

This update introduces a couple changes to some items and how some weapons work. Some relics (items with effects) are now consumables with timed effects. For instance the Adrenaline shot is now a consumable. More of these items will be added in the future. Some weapons have a new reloading mechanic that allows inserting a bullet at a time. This is currently applied on the Bulldog shotgun and the new Gov'ner revolver.

The UI has gone through a massive refresh, with better gamepad navigation and a more stylistic HUD it feels snappy! This UI system uses a version of my PXLUI Framework[github.com] which is available on my github! With this new UI comes a hand drawn map of the Outer Border to represent the levels more correctly.

Initially I pitched the game to be released in EA, unfortunately that was turned down which resulted in a very bad 1.0 release. Update 1.1 fixed a lot of the issues present but it is always an ongoing battle, 1.2 introduces a bunch of QOL updates and bug/crash fixes. As a solo dev, keeping up with it all is extremely challenging, but I appreciate the patience.

Update 1.2 is purely a labor of love. Hundreds of hours have been poured into this update and I can't be more proud with what the game is becoming! With your support, I'd love to breath more life into this game.

Neon Blight was dealt a poor hand at launch, but it doesn't mean I'm folding.

Before I go I'd like to announce that I've been working on my second game for the past year.
I'll leave you with this: