Wow, it's been nearly a full year since I finished Moth to the Moon! Do you remember when I left vague promises of adding in some extra content to polish up the game in the future? I certainly hope you didn't think I had forgotten! After many, many twists and turns, Moth to the Moon is finally receiving some much-needed support with version 1.6! I've put together a brief trailer for the game that shows off some of the new content along with the rest of the gameplay, but I'll also talk about what's new to the scene in the rest of this post.

I am very excited to announce that Moth to the Moon now has some in-game MUSIC composed by my brother Looogs! The title and menus are now rocking the game's amazing new theme (which you can also hear in the trailer video), and another track will play alongside the game's ending! In addition, the menu sound effects have been totally redone, featuring some crisp and clean tones. This new audio should hopefully offer a good taste of what's to come in the future; we're still in the process of developing more tracks for the rest of the game's screens and revamping the rest of the sound effects, and I hope to be able to gradually roll out more audio to everyone in future small updates.

Audio isn't the only big new feature in this new version. Some of you might remember that placeholder "???" option that's been hanging around on the play game menu ever since the game's beginnings... and I am happy to announce that it has finally been given a new purpose! I have expanded upon the level theme that was exclusively used in the final boss's stage to be able to apply it to standard stages, and to make it more special, it even features reskinned enemies to match the alien aesthetic! Five additional stages on a mysterious, uncharted planet await your arrival in a new level select screen that unlocks after the first encounter with the story's antagonist in the main scenario.

Several parts of the game have been cleaned up with this update, too. I went digging through the code and fixed a few bugs and errors that have somehow managed to stick it out all this time, including a crazy glitch that made it possible for nearly any enemy in the game to turn into one of the game's last bosses and instantly fail the stage. Aside from all the fixes, I also went through and modified some of the game's most difficult boss encounters. The minigame on floor 40 now has a more descriptive hint to help push players in the right direction to solve it, and the true final boss of the game, a very difficult foe indeed, has been made a little more lenient with some added delay to all of its attacks.

This devlog is getting pretty lengthy, so I'll try to keep my concluding thoughts brief. I've always been very happy with how Moth to the Moon turned out since I had finished it, so I'm especially glad to be able to revisit my favorite project and dust it up to make it feel more presentable! I now feel like I'm ready to get a little more public with the game, and I am currently contemplating submitting it to GDWC 2022. Of course, this isn't the end, as I hope to add on to the game's soundtrack and audio in the future, but I now believe that the rest of the game is in a great place with the other changes that I was able to make after taking a lengthy breather from this project and reviewing it with a fresh perspective. Thank you all for keeping up with Moth to the Moon, and I hope you all enjoy the new content!

== VERSION 1.6 CHANGES ==

• For the first time ever, Moth to the Moon now has music!! Two original music tracks, one for the title and menus and one for the ending, have been specially composed for the game. Further music is currently under development and will hopefully be added in future updates.
• Alongside the new music, brand new menu sound effects have replaced the old sounds! This is the other part of the ongoing effort to completely overhaul the game audio, with more new sound effects also in the works.
• An additional level theme that was once exclusively used for the final boss has been totally fleshed out with a new background and reskinned enemies and has been added to the stage editor. It can be unlocked for your own use after finishing floor 48...
• ...and in addition, five brand new stages using this level theme have been added to the game! They are able to be accessed from the second option on the play game menu, which now unlocks after floor 24 has been completed for the first time. Be careful; these new stages lack hints altogether and involve some underutilized techniques!
• The final boss has been slowed down across the board and now idles for a longer period of time in between all attacks.
• The ending now progresses automatically, similarly to the opening, in time with the new music made for it.
• An absolutely ridiculous glitch that could cause some enemies to transform into the PENULTIMATE BOSS when defeated with a magic spell at very specific moments has been fixed.
• An issue with the soldier beetle's movement code that prevented it from jumping down to the bottom row in vertically scrolling levels has been fixed.
• A minor oversight that caused some sprite frames of the soldier beetle's spear during its jumping animation to go unused has been fixed.
• The hint for Olivia's nonogram challenge on floor 40 has been rewritten to be more helpful to newcomers.
• In addition, the time limit for the extras menu version of Olivia's nonogram puzzles has been removed.
• An additional line of text has been added to the final screen of the game.
• VSync is now enabled by default when no prior save data is detected.
• An unused color palette for Sue has been removed from the options menu.