v0.7.1 — Smoothing the Friction

First off, absolutely stoked to announce that we took first place in Improve My Game Jam 44 for Overall, Fun, and User Interface. Massive thanks to everyone who played and rated.

As for the build itself, we’ve been sanding down the rough edges to make sure nothing kills your momentum. This update is about fixing technical stutters and refining movement feel.

Movement & Feel

Several physics and logic issues resolved to keep the flow consistent:

• Wallrun Intent: Implemented intent gating to prevent accidental latching. Also fixed the state flicker at the corner where floor meets wall.
• Slide Polish: Players now transition into a crouch-walk upon losing slide speed rather than hitting a dead stop. Slide SFX now terminates correctly.
• Slope Logic: Resolved the issue where moving up certain inclines would cause the player to hitch or stop.
• Elevator Lip: Removed the small geometry gap between the elevator and the floor that was causing players to trip.

Floor Manager & Performance

The transition between floors has been overhauled to eliminate lag spikes:

• Prebuild System: The next floor is now assembled at a deep offset while the player is still on the current level.
• Background Navmesh: Navigation baking has been moved to a background thread, eliminating the “1 FPS” stall during transitions.
• Staggered Spawning: Enemy initialization is now spread across multiple frames to smooth out performance.
• Camera Snap Fix: Resolved the orientation pop during floor swaps. The level now aligns to the elevator’s real-time basis rather than a world origin reset.

UI & Settings

• Persistent Settings: Game settings now properly save and persist between sessions.
• Route Line Toggle: The OptiRoute and Kill Route leader lines and labels are now independently toggleable in HUD settings. ROUTE_LINES controls the lines themselves; ROUTE_LABELS controls the text callouts (“ROUTE OPTION: WALLRUN”, “KILL ROUTE”). Both persist between sessions.

What’s next: Beginning work on the Airslam mechanic and the foundation of the Perks system.